LI  B  RAFLY 

OF   THE 

U  N  I  VERSITY 

or    1  LLl  NOIS 

q9Z0.0773 
M85b 


IlllNOIS  HISTORICAL  SDRVTY 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY 


PORTRAIT  GALLERY 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN 


UNITED  STATES 


ILLINOIS   VOLUME 

EDITED    BY 

HON.   JOHN  MOSES 


CHICAGO 

THE   LEWIS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1896 


v\?>^\^ 


PREFACE. 


S  previously  announced  by  the  publishers,  the  primary  object  of  this  work, 
comprising;,  as  it  does,  one  of  a  series  of  biographical  dictionaries  for  each 
State,  "is  to  make  honorable  mention  and  preserve  the  record  in  imperish- 
able letters,  for  reference  and  guidance,  of  representative  citizens  who  have  been  influential 
in  public  or  private  life  in  shaping  the  institutions  and  destiny  of  their  State  and 
Nation." 

The  controlling  facts  in  the  history  of  any  State,  relating  to  its  growth  and  develop- 
ment, are  largely  found  in  the  biographies  of  its  leading  citizens.  This  volume,  for 
Illinois,  includes  the  names  of  those  who  have  become  illustrious,  either  as  pioneers  in 
the  formative  period, .  or  as  worthy  successors  to  an  inestimable  heritage,  who,  taking  up 
the  work  of  their  fathers,  so  well  begun,  have  added  to  their  renown,  and  advanced  still 
higher  those  material,  commercial  and  intellectual  elements  of  progress  which  make  a 
nation  great  and  prosperous. 

As  the  present  volume  has  already  exceeded  its  limits  without  exhausting  the  material 
on  hand,    a  second   for   Illinois  will  be    issued  soon. 

John  Moses. 


^21059 


INDEX. 


Abend.    Edward .  . 

Addains,  J.  H 

Aiuswortli,    H.   A.  . 

Aldiicli,  C.   H 

Altgeld,  J.  P 

Amlei-sou.    Jobu... 
Armour,    P.    D.  . .  . 

Arnold,   J.    W 

Atkins,    S.    D 

Atkinson,    Charles. 

Atkinson,  J.  T 

Atkinson,  J.   W..  . . 


437 

53(i 

21.-) 

38 

7(i 

257 

42 

97 

21 

o2.j 

32;i 

338 


Bancroft.  E.  A.  .  . 
Kanning.  Epbraiui . 
Barnard,  H.  A.  . . 
Barnes,  Win.  A.  . . 

Barrett,   E.  E 

BaiTott,  Ricliard.  . 
Bateman.  Newton. 
Benjamin,  R.  M..  . 

Bennett,   R.   J 

Becker,  •  Cliailes. . . 

Bond,  L.  L 

Borden,    Gail 

Bradley,  E.  A 

Bradley,  L.  M 

Br.idy.   I.,   D 

BraTid.    Michael.  .  . . 

Brownell,  R.  E 

Brownins,   .T.   T.  . . 

Bryan.    T.   B 

Bnck,    .J.    P 

Bnddo,  F.  II 

Burchard.  II.  C.  .. 
Burroughs,  B.  1!..  . 
Burton,  Joseph.  . .  . 


Cahle,  H.  r».  .. 
Cady,  M.  Y.  .. 
Caldwell,  C.  E. 
Caldwell,  Wm. 
Camp,  Apollos. 
Cannon.  .T.   O.  . 


,  449 

,  540 
535 

.  34 
419 
482 
2(>7 
205 

.  70 
211 

.  40 
329 
445 
477 
240 
530 
529 
249 
2.33 
384 
545 
408 
450 
510 

4  OS 
220 
477 
128 
424 
107 


Carter,   J.   N 

Casey,  N.  R 

Catliu,  George  .  . . . 

Catliu,  T.  D 

Caton,  John  D 

Chamberlin,  M.   I). 

Clark,  James 

Colili.    Emory 

Coc.   A.    L 

Colby.  F.  T 

Conger,  A.   L 

Connelly.   II.  C 

Connolly,  J.  A 

Cooper.  F.  11 

Corwitb.    Ileniy.  . . 

Corwith,   J.   E 

Craig,  A.  M 

Cullom,   S.   JI 

Cumins,    Tlieron.  . . 
Cunningham,  J.  o. 


45 
475 
400 
180 
122 
5(Xt 
357 


73 

484 


337 
481 
(!0 
24 
310 
'2'}l  I 


Davis.    David is 

Deere,   C.   II r,-, 

Deere,  John 51 

De   Wolf,    Calvin 273 

Dillon.    Moses 200 

Dimock,  D.  C 312 

Doolittle,  J.  R 401 

Dyer.  R.   F ^',4 


Eberhart,  J.  F 295 

Edcns.  W.  t! 50 1 

Eells,   Samuel  C ;{o 

Elliott.  Jr..  W.  S .r,i([ 

Ellwtx)d.  I.  L i^s 

English.  J.  G 2I0 

Enos.   P.   P 5;52 

Knos.   Rnger 3.J , 

Enos.  Z.  A 3.)2 

Entrikin,   W.   J 336 

Etheridge.   J.   II 523 

Evaus,  D.  D gs 

Evans,  II.  II ic^ 


F  pai;k 

Fiiirflckl,   W.   W U"-) 

Kai-RO,    Cluu-lfs I'.il 

Felt,    r.oiij.    )•' ">i'« 

Forsyth,  .Tiicul) -171 

Fivstor.   'I'liouKis l-l 

I'laiik.    Louis !>ii^> 

I'uess,    Joseph o^'J 

Fuller,  M.  W M 

iMuik,  I>.  JI -I'J.S 

I'unk.  r,.   W 1-tt) 

Funk,    Isaar Hi! 

G 

Case,  J.   N -T(l 

(;aj;e,  Lyman  .1 riii 

Gait,  Thomas  A liT^ 

Gardt,    Heury ."no 

George,  Alouzo 159 

George,    Bcnjaniin 3o0 

George,  Wm ITl 

Gore,  G.  W 50J 

Gillett,  W.   K 495 

Glitlden,   J.   F o»r, 

Gorton,   E.   F -iTS 

Gould,  J.  M 212 

Graham,   N.  U 301 

Gray,  Elisha Hi! 

Greene,    M.    T , 412 

Grlswold,    E.    V 4.-,l) 

Gross,   S.   E 4'i 

Gros veuor,   L.   O I'J 

Groto,    William •'■•'i' 

Guuther,   C.   F lo'.J 

H 

Maish,    Jat-ob 2(;t 

Ilamiltou,  J.  H --'' 

llanua,  William -'."«s 

Harding,   A.   C 278 

Uarlcv,    Allivd ^2;! 

Ilarliv,    William 4l.>l 

Uarlev,  William.  .Jr 4l'3 

Harrison,    II.    W I'x; 

Hai-vey,  W.  S 121! 

Hatch,  O.  M 110 

HaAvley,  II.  W 442 

Hayes,  P.  C 379 

Heeuan,   Daniel 253 

Hesing,  A.  (.' 57 


PAGE. 

Hill,   Lysaudor 87 

Hoes,  James 234 

Hogau,   Daniel 41S 

Holmau,  E.  E ■. 391 

Hopkins,   A.   J 271 

Hopkins,  J.  P 3.50 

Howard,  W.  I! 49C. 

Howell,   (I.   1) 34S 

llurd,  H.   r. 114 

T 

Islehart.   N.    G 294 

lies,    Elijali 435 

J 

Jackson,   William Ill 

Jacobs,   B.  F 79 

Jansseu,   John 4C0 

Jones,  A.  51 173 

Judson,  Edwin 100 

K 

Kendrick,  A.  A 519 

Kern,  F.  J 432 

Kerns,    William 304 

Kimball,  W.  W 150 

King,   Charles  P 400 

Kingman,    Martin 77 

Kirk,   John   B 135 

KC'Orner,    Gustavus 147 

Kranz,   John 277 

Kraus.   Adoir 2S0 

L 

Lake,  Cliaumey  .\ 405 

Lane,  K.  P 393 

Leonard,  J.  F 493 

Lewis,    Obed .' 192 

Llbby,  C.   P 370 

Lincoln,    Abraliam 9 

Loose,  Jacob  L 302 

Low,  J.   E 313 

Lowdeu.    F.   0 514 

M 

Marsh,  C.  W 112 

Marsh,  William 318 

Mathews,  M.  W 200 

Maver,    Lew 470 


PAGE. 

McCarty,    Sanuiol 507 

McBrooni.    James 127 

McCoruiick,  C.   II lsr> 

AliCk'lIau,  U.  II.  .  .  ! 4(12 

McGrath,  J.  J 3r>0 

McIIvaiii,  G.  H . 85 

Meaus,  Arcliiliald 4-l:i 

Medill,   JosL'pli i;; 

Milk,  Lciuuel 427 

Millikiu,  Jaiuos 175 

Mitchell,  P.  Jj .^ 4(11 

Moore,   C.  H 4"J0 

Moore,   Gilpiu 252 

Moore,  W.  R 315 

Morgan,  J.  D .' 311 

Morrisou,  I.  li 28 

Mt)Sos,    Adolpli 457 

Muuroe,  G.   H 479 

N 

Nasli,  Joliu  V 307 

Nasou,   C.   () 43(! 

Neff,  James   1 132 

Newcomb,  G.  W 247 

Noble.  IT.  T 193 

O 

( )Kl('sb.v,  R.  J 537 

p 

rackaril,  S.  W 387 

raddock,  I).  II 103 

>  I'addook,  .T.   W 1.53 

Palmer,  W.  B 4(>2 

Pease,   James 239 

I'cck,   George  R 522 

Pinkertou,  W.  A 321 

Plumb,    Ralph 230 

Porter,  Washington 177 

Powers,    Orlando 110 

Price,  V.  C 2(13 

Prickett,  John  A .340 

Prickott,   Wni.   R 378 

a 

Randall,  T.  P 224 

Reeves,   Oweu   T 44(; 

Reeves,   Walter ' 347 

Reynolds,  P..  P 415 

Ki.kcr.   II.   V.  J IS'J 


P.VGE. 

Ridgely,     Charles 19.-, 

Ridgely.  N.   II 2S7 

Robinson.   I>.   I! 47s 

Robinson.  T.  .1 237 

Rogers,   G.   M 130 

Rogers,  J.   G oy 

Roseufield,   M 41 1 

Rothschild,   A.    M sor, 

Ro«ell.  W.   I) 52C, 

Rybmii.    .1.    S .f-,04 

S 

Scaulau,  Kicklinni 33-, 

Schneider,    George 30 

Schoeniuger,   A -,21 

IScott,  James  W is2 

►Scott,  John  M i(i7 

Seaman,  John  A ].-,(; 

Sehring.  Frederick 512 

Semmelroth.  George 420 

Shaw,  W.  W ia5 

Shoean,  David 129 

Sherwood,  F.  A yj 

Sherfy.  C.  M 297 

Sho waiter,  J.  W oo 

Siegel,  Henry 3jf) 

Simonds,  E.  F 34(; 

Skinner,  Mark 401 

Smith,  Abuer 33;j 

Smith,  George  W 118 

Snyder,  AV.  H 407 

Stafford.  John  F 283 

Stahl,  Frederick 9.-^ 

Stavei-,  II.  C 3G1 

Steele,  D.  A.  K 270 

Stevenson,  A.  E 453 

Stoddard.  J.  A 125 

Stolp,  J.  G 298 

Stoskopf,  Louis 390 

Swan,  R.  K 198 

Swift,    E.    C 489 

Swift,   M.   H 489 

Tanner,  Joliu  R 203 

Taylor,  W.  F .533 

Tliomau,  Ij.  D (12 

Thornton,   C.   S 451 


PAtiE.  PA(1E. 

Tincher,  J.  L 245  Wateruiau,   I>evi 375 

Tipton,  T.  F 220  Wheaton,  J.  C 430 

TniiiKir,  .1.  (• 54(1  Wheatou,   W.    L 433 

Tripp.  Kiibiiisdii 281  White,    P.   0 4Sr. 

TiiiiuT.  .rolin    n 3(;  Wildermau,   A.    S 505 

TunuM-.  V.  C 134  Willoughby,  J.  A 4.58 


Wilmartla,  H.  M 499 

Wilson,  Hiram 343 

Wilson,  J.   11 360 

V  Winlielmaun,   Wni 382 

Witliers,   Allen 201 

Woodruff,    Gilbert 255 

Wrenn,  George  L 371 

Wright,  A.   S 310 


U 

Ulcn,  B.  L 351 


Velio,  S.  11 81 

Voliiil ino,  D 289 


W 


Y 


W;iili-.  (icorsf  E 518 

\\Mni(M-,    X'espa.sian 385 

Wariiock,   Hugh 288      Yerkes,  T.  P 5;!1 


BIOGRAPHICAL    DICTIONARY 


AND 


PORTRAIT    GALLERY. 


ILLINOIS. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 


SPRINGFIELD. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  the  sixteenth  presi- 
dent of  the  LTnited  States,  stands  out  con- 
spicuously in  the  category  of  illustrious  Amer- 
ican heroes  and  statesmen,  next  to  Washington. 
The  one  earned  the  distinguished  appellation  of 
"Father  of  his  country,"  the  other  that  of  its 
"Savior,"  from  the  perils  of  a  fratricidal  war.  By 
reason  of  his  commanding  position,  of  his  un- 
equaled  services,  and  especially  from  the  fact  that 
he  was  the  most  eminent  son  of  the  great  com- 
monwealth of  Illinois,  his  name  and  fame  de- 
mands more  than  a  mere  cursory  sketch  in  this 
volume.  It  was  in  Illinois  that  he  began  his 
career.  Here  he  grew  to  manhood  and  her  in- 
stitutions and  laws  bear  the  impress  of  his  genius ; 
and  so  long  as  the  flowers  grow  on  her  beautiful 
prairies  will  his  name  be  cherished  and  honored. 
On  the  I2th  of  February,  1809,  in  Larue  (then 
Hardin)  county,  Kentucky,  in  a  cabin  on  Nolan 
creek,  three  miles  west  of  Hodgensville,  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  born.  His  parents  were  Thomas 
and  Nancy  (Hanks)  Lincoln.  Of  his  ancestry  in 
early  years  the  little  that  is  known  may  best  be 
given  in  his  own  language:  "My  parents  were 
both  born  in  Virginia,  of  undistinguished  families, 
— second  families,  perhaps  I  should  say.  My 
mother,  who  died  in  my  tenth  year,  was  of  a 
family  by  the  name  of  Hanks,  some  of  whom 
now  remain  in  Adams,  and  others  in  Macon 
county,  Illinois.  My  paternal  grandfather,  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  emigrated  from  Rockbridge  county, 
Virginia,  to  Kentucky,  in  1781  or  1782,  where, 
a  year  or  two  later,  he  was  killed  by  Indians, — 
not  in  battle,  but  by  stealth  when  he  was  laboring 


to  open  a  farm  in  the  forest.  His  ancestors,  who 
were  Quakers,  went  to  Virginia  from  Berks 
county,  Pennsylvania.  An  effort  to  identify  them 
with  the  New  England  family  of  the  same  name 
ended  in  nothing  more  definite  than  a  similarity 
in  Christian  names  in  both  families,  such  as 
Enoch,  Levi,  Mordecai,  Solomon,  Abraham  and 
the  like.  My  father,  at  the  death  of  his  father, 
was  but  six  years  of  age,  and  he  grew  up,  literally, 
without  education.  He  removed  from  Kentucky 
to  what  is  now  Spencer  county,  Indiana,  in  my 
eighth  year.  We  reached  our  new  home  about 
the  time  the  State  came  into  the  Union.  It  was 
a  wild  region,  with  bears  and  other  wild  animals 
still  in  the  woods.  There  I  grew  to  manhood. 
"There  were  some  schools,  so  called,  but  no 
qualification  was  ever  required  of  the  teacher  be- 
yond 'readin',  writin'  and  cipherin'  to  the  rule  of 
three.'  If  a  straggler,  supposed  to  understand 
Latin,  happened  to  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood, 
he  was  looked  upon  as  a  wizard.  There  was 
nothing  to  excite  ambition  for  education.  Of 
course  when  I  came  of  age  I  did  not  know  much. 
Still,  somehow,  I  could  read,  write  and  cipher 
to  the  rule  of  three,  and  that  was  all.  I  have  not 
been  to  school  since.  The  little  advance  I  now 
have  upon  this  store  of  education  I  have  picked 
up  from  time  to  time  under  the  pressure  of  neces- 
sity. I  was  raised  to  farm  work,  which  I  con- 
tinued until  I  was  twenty-two.  At  twenty-one  I 
came  to  Illinois  and  passed  the  first  year  in  Macon 
county.  Then  I  got  to  New  Salem,  at  that  time 
in  Sangamon,  now  in  Menard,  county,  where  I 
remained  a  year  as  a  sort  of  clerk  in  a  store. 


10 


nroOIlAPIIICdL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


"  Tlicii  caiiK'  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  I  was 
elected  a  captain  of  volunteers, — a  success  which 
gave  me  more  pleasure  than  any  I  have  had  since. 
I  went  into  the  campaign:  was  elected;  ran  for 
the  legislature  the  same  year  (1832)  and  was 
beaten,  the  only  time  I  have  ever  been  beaten  by 
the  people.  The  next  and  three  succeeding  bien- 
nial elections  I  was  elected  to  the  legislature  and 
was  never  a  candidate  afterward. 

"During  this  legislative  period  I  had  studied 
law  and  removed  to  Springfield  to  practice  it.  In 
1846  I  was  elected  to  the  lower  house  of  Con- 
gress ;  was  not  a  candidate  for  re-election.  From 
1849  until  1854,  inclusive,  I  practiced  the  law 
more  assiduously  than  ever  before.  Always  a 
Whig  in  politics  and  generally  on  the  Whig  elec- 
toral tickets,  making  active  canvasses,  I  was  los- 
ing interest  in  politics  when  the  repeal  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  roused  me  again.  What  I 
have  done  since  is  pretty  well  known." 

The  early  residence  of  Lincoln  in  Indiana  was 
sixteen  miles  north  of  the  Ohio  river,  on  Little 
Pigeon  creek,  one  and  a  half  miles  east  of  Gentrv- 
ville,  within  the  present  township  of  Carter.  Here 
his  mother  died  October  5,  1818,  and  the  next 
year  his  father  married  Mrs.  Sallie  (Bush)  John- 
ston, of  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky.  She  was  an 
affectionate  foster-parent,  to  whom  Abraham  was 
indebted  for  his  first  encouragement  to  study. 
He  became  an  eager  reader,  and  the  few  books 
owned  in  the  vicinity  were  many  times  perused. 
He  worked  frequently  for  the  neighbors  as  a  farm 
laborer;  w-as  for  some  time  clerk  in  a  store  at 
Gentryville,  and  became  famous  throughout  that 
region  for  his  athletic  powers,  his  fondness  for 
argument,  his  inexhaustible  fund  of  humorous 
anecdote,  as  well  as  for  mock  oratory  and  the 
composition  of  rude  satirical  verses.  In  1828  he 
made  a  trading  voyage  to  New  Orleans  as  "bow 
hand"  on  a  flatboat;  removed  to  Illinois  in  1830; 
helped  his  father  build  a  log  house  and  clear  a 
farm  on  the  north  fork  of  Sangamon  river,  ten 
miles  west  of  Decatur,  and  was  for  some  time  em- 
ployed in  splitting  rails  for  the  fences — a  fact 
which  was  prominently  brought  forward  for  a 
political  purpose  thirty  years  later. 

In  the  spring  of  1831  he,  with  two  of  his  rela- 
tives, was  hired  to  build  a  flatboat  on  the  San- 
gamon river  and  navigate  it    to  New  Orleans. 


The  boat  stuck  on  a  milldam  and  was  gotten  ofT 
with  great  labor  through  an  ingenious  mechan- 
ical device  which  some  years  later  led  to  Lincoln's 
taking  out  a  patent  for  "an  improved  method  of 
lifting  vessels  over  shoals."  This  voyage  was 
nienic  Table  for  another  reason, — the  sightof  slaves 
chained,  maltreated  and  flogged  at  New  Orleans, 
which  was  doubtless  the  origin  of  his  deep  con- 
victions upon  the  slavery  question. 

Returning  from  his  voyage,  he  became  a  resi- 
dent for  several  years  of  New  Salem,  a  recently 
settled  village  on  the  Sangamon,  where  he  was 
successively  a  clerk,  grocer,  surveyor  and  post- 
master, and  acted  as  pilot  to  the  first  steamboat 
that  ascended  the  Sangamon.  Here  he  studied 
law,  interested  himself  in  local  politics  after  his 
return  from  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  became 
known  as  an  effective  "stump  speaker."  The  sub- 
ject of  his  first  political  speech  was  the  improve- 
ment of  the  channel  of  the  Sangamon,  and  the 
chief  ground  on  which  he  announced  himself 
(1832)  a  candidate  for  the  legislature  was  his  ad- 
vocacy of  this  popular  measure,  on  which  sub- 
ject his  practical  experience  made  him  the  highest 
authority. 

Elected  to  the  legislature  in  1834  as  a  "Henry 
Clay  Whig,"  he  rapidly  acquired  that  command 
of  language  and  that  homely  but  forcible  rhetoric, 
which,  added  to  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
people  from  whom  he  sprang,  made  him  more 
than  a  match  in  debate  for  his  well-educated  op- 
ponents. He  was  re-elected  to  the  General  As- 
sembly in  1836,  1838  and  1840,  serving  four  con- 
secutive terms.  Admitted  to  the  bar  in  1837,  he 
soon  established  himself  at  Springfield,  where  the 
State  capital  was  located  in  1839,  largely  through 
his  influence;  became  a  successful  pleader  in  the 
State,  circuit  and  district  courts;  n\arried  in  1842 
Mary  Todd,  a  lady  belonging  to  a  prominent 
family  of  Lexington,  Kentucky;  took  an  active 
part  in  the  presidential  campaigns  of  1840  and 
1844,  as  candidate  for  elector  on  the  Harrison 
and  Clay  tickets,  and  in  1846  was  elected  to  the 
LTnited  States  house  of  representatives  over  the 
celebrated  Peter  Cart^vright  During  his  single 
term  in  Congress  he  frequently  appeared  in  the 
debates  and  for  a  new  member  made  a  favorable 
impression  as  a  rising  statesman.  He  voted  for 
the    reception  of    anti-slavery  petitions,  for    the 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


abolition  of  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  ami  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso;  but  was 
chiefly  remembered  for  the  stand  he  took  against 
the  Mexican  war.  For  several  years  thereafter 
he  took  comparatively  little  interest  in  politics, 
but  gained  a  leading  position  at  the  Springfield 
bar.  Two  or  three  non-political  lectures  and  a 
eulogy  on  Henry  Clay  (1852)  added  nothing  to 
his  notoriety  as  a  politician. 

In  1854  the  repeal  of  the  JMissouri  Compromise 
by  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act  aroused  Lincoln 
from  his  indilTerence,  and  in  attacking  that  meas- 
ure he  had  the  immense  advantage  of  knowing 
perfectly  well  the  motives  and  record  of  its  author, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  then  popularly 
designated  as  the  "Little  Giant."  The  latter 
came  to  Springfield  in  October,  1854,  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  State  fair,  to  vindicate  his  policy 
in  the  senate,  and  the  "Anti-Nebraska''  Whigs, 
remembering  that  Lincoln  had  often  measured 
his  strength  with  Douglas  in  the  Illinois  legis- 
lature and  before  the  Springfield  courts,  engaged 
him  to  make  a  reply.  This  speech,  in  the  opinion 
of  those  who  heard  it,  was  one  of  the  greatest 
efforts  of  Lincoln's  life, — certainly  one  of  the  most 
effective  in  his  whole  career.  It  took  the  audience 
by  storm,  and  from  that  moment  it  was  felt  that 
Douglas  had  met  his  match.  Joint  discussions 
were  held  by  the  distinguished  disputants  at  Peo- 
ria and  other  points,  the  effect  of  which,  with 
the  fierce  campaign  against  the  repeal  of  the  INIis- 
souri  Compromise,  resulted  in  the  election  of  an 
anti-Nebraska  legislature,  and  Lincoln  was  se- 
lected as  the  anti-Nebraska  candidate  for  the 
United  States  senate  to  succeed  General  James 
Shields,  whose  term  expired  March  4,  1855, 
and  led  several  ballots;  but  Lyman  Trum- 
bull was  ultimately  chosen.  The  second  conflict 
on  the  soil  of  Kansas,  which  Lincoln  had  pre- 
dicted, soon  began.  The  result  was  the  disrup- 
tion of  the  Whig  and  the  formation  of  the  Repub- 
lican party.  At  the  Bloomington  State  Convention 
in  1856,  where  the  new  party  first  assumed  form 
in  Illinois,  Lincoln  made  the  greatest  speech  of 
his  life,  in  which  for  the  first  time  he  took  dis- 
tinctive grounds  against  slavery  in  itself.  Thence- 
forth he  became  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the 
State. 

At    the    national     Republican    convention    in 


Philadelphia,  June  17,  after  the  nomination  of 
Fremont,  Lincoln  was  put  forward  by  the  Illinois 
delegation  for  the  vice-presidency,  and  received 
on  the  first  ballot  one  hundred  and  ten  votes 
against  two  hundred  and  fifty-nine  for  William  L. 
Dayton.  He  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  can- 
vass of  that  year  in  this  and  other  States.  In 
1859  Lincoln  was  unanimously  nominated  by  the 
Republican  State  convention  as  its  candidate  for 
the  United  States  senate  in  place  of  Douglas, 
and  in  his  speech  of  acceptance  used  the  cele- 
brated illustration  of  a  "  house  divided  again.st 
itself  on  the  slavery  question,  which,  while  in  the 
resulting  argument  it  was  made  to  conduce  to 
his  defeat,  was  so  handled  as  to  make  impos- 
sible the  nomination  of  his  opponent  as  the  Demo- 
cratic candidate  for  president,  which  was  his  ob- 
jective point.  The  seven  great  debates  carried  on 
at  the  principal  towns  of  Illinois  between  Lincoln 
and  Douglas  as  rival  senatorial  candidates,  re- 
sulted at  the  time  in  the  election  of  the  latter;  but 
being  widely  circulated  as  a  campaign  document, 
it  fixed  the  attention  of  the  country  upon  the 
former,  as  the  clearest  and  most  convincing  ex- 
ponent of  Republican  doctrine. 

Early  in  1859  he  began  to  be  named  in  Illinois 
as  a  suitable  Republican  candidate  for  the  presi- 
dential campaign  of  the  ensuing  year,  and  a  polit- 
ical address  delivered  at  the  Cooper  Institute, 
New  York,  February  27,  i860,  followed  by  simi- 
lar speeches  at  New  Haven,  Hartford  and  else- 
where in  New  England,  first  made  him  known  to 
the  Eastern  States  in  the  light  in  which  he  had 
long  been  regarded  at  home.  By  the  Republican 
State  convention,  which  met  at  Decatur,  Illinois, 
on  the  9th  and  loth  of  May,  Lincoln  was  unani- 
mously endorsed  for  the  presidency.  It  was  on 
this  occasion  that  two  rails,  said  to  have  been 
split  by  his  hands  thirty  years  before,  were 
brought  into  the  convention,  and  the  incident  con- 
tributed much  to  his  popularity.  The  national 
Republican  convention  at  Chicago,  after  spirited 
efforts  made  in  favor  of  Seward,  Chase  and  Bates, 
nominated  Lincoln  for  the  presidency,  with  Han- 
nibal Hamlin  for  vice-president,  at  the  same  time 
adopting  a  vigorous  anti-slavery  platform. 

The  Democratic  party  having  been  disorgan- 
ized and  presenting  two  candidates,  Douglas  and 
Breckenridge,  and  tlie  remnant  of  the  "American" 


12 


BIOORAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


party  having  put  forward  John  Bell  of  Tennessee, 
the  RepubHcan  victor}'  was  an  easy  one,  Lincoln 
being  elected  November  6  by  a  large  plurality, 
comprehending  nearly  all  the  Northern  States, 
but  none  of  the  Southern.  The  secession  of 
South  Carolina  and  the  Gulf  States  was  the 
immediate  result,  followed  a  few  months  later  by 
that  of  the  border  slave  States  and  by  the  out- 
break of  the  great  Civil  war. 

The  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  became  thence- 
forth merged  in  the  history  of  his  countr}'. 
None  of  the  details  of  the  vast  conflict  which  filled 
the  remainder  of  Lincoln's  life  can  here  be  given. 
Narrowly  escaping  assassination  by  avoiding 
Baltimore  on  his  way  to  the  capital,  he  reached 
Washington  February  23,  ar.d  was  inaugurated 
president  of  the  United  States'March  4,  1861. 

In  his  inaugural  address  he  said:  "I  hold  that 
in  contemplation  of  universal  law  and  the  consti- 
tution the  union  of  these  States  is  perpetual.  Per- 
petuity is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  all  national  governments.  It  is 
safe  to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had 
a  provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termina- 
tion. I  therefore  consider  that  in  view  of  the 
constitution  and  the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken, 
and  to  the  extent  of  my  ability  I  shall  take  care, 
as  the  constitution  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  be  extended  in  all  the  States. 
In  doing  this  there  need  be  no  bloodshed  or  vio- 
lence, and  there  shall  be  none  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  national  authority.  The  power  con- 
ferred to  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy  and 
possess  the  property  and  places  belonging  to  the 
government  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  imports; 
but  beyond  what  may  be  necessary  for  these 
objects  there  will  be  no  invasion,  no  using  of 
force  against  or  among  the  people  anywhere.  In 
your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow  countrymen,  is 
the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  govern- 
ment will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no  con- 
flict without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  de- 
stroy the  government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most 
solemn  one  to  preserve,  protect  and  defend  it." 

He  called  to  his  cabinet  his  principal  rivals  for 
the  presidential  nomination, — Seward,  Chase, 
Cameron  and  Bates;  secured  the  co-operation  of 
the  Union  Democrats,  headed  by  Douglas;  called 


out  seventy-five  thousand  militia  from  the  several 
States  upon  the  first  tidings  of  the  bombardment 
of  Fort  Sumter,  April  15;  proclaimed  a  blockade 
of  the  Southern  ports,  April  19;  called  an  extra 
session  of  Congress  for  ]\.\\y  4,  from  which  he 
asked  and  obtained  four  hundred  thousand  men 
and  $400,000,000  for  the  war;  placed  McClellan 
at  the  head  of  the  Federal  army  on  General 
Scott's  resignation,  October  31;  appointed  Ed- 
win M.  Stanton  secretary  of  war,  January  14, 
1862,  and  September  22,  1862,  issued  a  proclama- 
tion declaring  the  freedom  of  all  slaves  in  the 
States  and  parts  of  States  then  in  rebellion  from 
and  after  January  i,  1863.  This  was  the  crown- 
ing act  of  Lincoln's  career — the  act  by  which  he 
will  be  chiefly  known  through  all  future  time — 
and  it  decided  the  war. 

On  the  i6th  of  October,  1863,  President  Lin- 
coln called  for  three  hundred  thousand  volunteers 
to  replace  those  whose  term  of  enlistment  had 
expired;  made  a  celebrated  and  touching,  though 
brief,  address  at  the  dedication  of  the  Gettysburg 
Military  Cemetery,  November  19,  1863;  commis- 
sioned Ulysses  S.  Grant  lieutenant-general  and 
commander-in-chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States,  March  9,  1864;  was  re-elected  president  in 
November  of  the  same  year,  by  a  large  majority 
over  General  McClellan,  with  Andrew  Johnson 
of  Tennessee  as  vice-president;  delivered  a  very 
remarkable  address  at  his  second  inauguration, 
March  4,  1865 ;  visited  the  army  before  Richmond 
the  same  month;  entered  the  capital  of  the  Con- 
federacy the  day  after  its  fall,  and  upon  the  sur- 
render of  General  Robert  E.  Lee's  army  April  9 
was  actively  engaged  in  devising  generous  plans 
for  the  reconstruction  of  the  Union,  when  on  the 
evening  of  Good  Friday,  April  14,  he  was  shot 
in  his  box  at  Ford's  theater,  Washington,  by 
John  Wilkes  Booth,  a  fanatical  actor,  and  ex- 
pired early  on  the  following  morning,  April  15. 
Almost  simultaneously  a  murderous  attack  was 
made  upon  William  H.  Seward,  secretary  of 
State.  At  noon  on  the  isth  of  April  Andrew 
Johnson  assumed  the  presidency,  and  active 
measures  were  taken  which  resulted  in  the  death 
of  Booth  and  the  execution  of  his  principal  ac- 
complices. 

The  funeral  of  President  Lincoln  was  con- 
ducted with  unexampled  solemnity  and  magnifi- 


y    - 


liEPUESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


13 


cence.  Impressive  sen'ices  were  held  in  Wash- 
ington, after  which  the  sad  procession  proceeded 
over  the  same  route  he  had  traveled  four  years 
before  from  Springfield  to  Washington.  In 
Philadelphia  his  body  lay  in  state  in  Independ- 
ence Hall,  in  which  he  had  declared  before  his 
first  inauguration  that  "I  would  sooner  be  as- 
sassinated than  to  give  up  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence."  He  was  buried 
at  Oak  Ridge  Cemetery,  near  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, on  the  4th  of  Alay,  where  a  monument  em- 
blematic of  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  and 
the  restoration  of  the  Union  marks  his  resting 
place. 

The  leaders  and  citizens  of  the  expiring  Con- 
federacy expressed  genuine  indignation  at  the 
murder  of  a  generous  political  adversary.  For- 
eign nations  took  part  in  mourning  the  death  of 
a.  statesman  who  had  proved  himself  a  true  rep- 
resentative of  American  nationality.  The  freed- 
men  of  the  South  almost  worshiped  the  memory 
of  their  deliverer;  and  the  general  sentiment  of 
the  great  nation  he  had  saved  awarded  him  a 
place  in  its  affections  second  only  to  that  held 
by  Washington. 


The  characteristics  of  Abraham  Lincoln  have 
been  familiarly  known  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  His  tall,  gaunt,  though  not  imgainly 
figure,  homely  countenance  and  his  shrewd 
mother  wit,  shown  in  his  celebrated  conversations 
overflowing  in  humorous  and  pointed  anecdote, 
combined  with  an  accurate,  intuitive  appreciation 
of  the  questions  of  the  time,  are  recognized  as 
forming  the  best  type  of  a  period  of  American  his- 
tory in  which  the  strength  of  the  Union  was  tested 
and  the  ability  of  the  people  to  maintain  a  free 
government  in  this  country  was  fully  established. 
As  the  years  roll  by  from  that  stormy  period  of 
doubt  and  battle,  the  name  of  Lincoln  looms  up 
with  increasing  luster.  His  was  the  brain  that 
shaped  the  policy  of  Congress  and  cabinet,  his  the 
unconquerable  spirit  which  fed  the  flames  of  pa- 
triotism and  kept  them  in  a  continuous  glow  of 
fervent  heat.  With  unbending  will  and  a  pre- 
science which  could  pierce  the  future,  the  path  of 
war  was  made  the  way  to  victor\', — the  Union  re- 
stored, a  nation  saved.  His  heart  was  as  warm 
as  his  hand  was  strong,  and  when  the  great  tri- 
umph came  his  was  the  voice  first  to  proclaim 
amnesty  and  peace. 


JOSEPH   MEDILL, 


MR.  MEDILL  is  a  son  of  Scotch-Irish  par- 
ents, and  was  bom  April  6,  1823,  in  the 
city  of  St.  John,  New  Brunswick.  His  parents 
were  William  and  Margaret  Medill,  and 
there  the  family  remained  tmtil  1832,  when 
they  emigrated  to  IMassillon,  Stark  county, 
Ohio,  ^^■hile  residing  on  a  farm  near  there, 
Joseph  acquired  a  good  foundation  of  a  prac- 
tical education,  thorough  grounding  in  the 
elementary  branches  of  knowledge,  especially 
in  the  use  of  his  mother  tongue.  It  is  said 
that  he  showed  his  thirst  for  knowledge  at  the  age 
of  16  by  walking  nine  miles  everj'  Saturday  after- 
noon in  a  winter  and  spring  to  get  instruction  in 
English  grammar,  Latin,  logic  and  natural  philos- 
ophy from  Rev.  Hawkins,  a  clergyman  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Canton,  Ohio.  He 
studied  five  or  six  months  under  that  gentleman 


and  later  completed  his  education  in  the  village 
academy  of  Massillon,  graduating  in  1843.  The 
next  year  he  marked  the  attainment  of  his  major- 
ity by  voting  for  Henry  Clay,  and,  this  important 
duty  done,  he  began  the  study  of  law  with  the 
Hon.  Hiram  Griswold.  Admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1846,  he  was  for  some  time  the  partner  of  George 
W.  Mcllvaine,  since  chief  justice  of  the  supreme 
court  of  Ohio.  After  being  engaged  in  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession  for  three  years  he  dissolved 
his  partnership  with  Mr.  Mcllvaine  and  discon- 
tinued his  work  at  the  bar.  His  natural  vehicle  of 
expression  was  the  pen  and  the  versatility  of  his 
faculties  sought  a  more  natural  outlet  in  journal- 
ism. 

The  great  questions  which  were  already  forc- 
ing themselves  upon  public  attention  and  de- 
manding solution,— resistance  to  slavery  aggres- 


14 


nTOGUAPITTCAL  DlCTroyART  AJSTD  PnUTUAir  nALLERY  OF  THE 


sion,  the  questions  of  national  sovereignty  over 
sectional  pretension, — a  doctrine  to  whicih  he  had 
become  converted  by  reading  a  speech  of  Daniel 
Webster,  delivered  in  1833, — the  question  of  rec- 
onciling the  letter  of  the  constitution  to  the  spirit 
of  American  liberty,  the  question  of  substituting 
a  protective  tariff  in  place  of  the  Democratic  free- 
trade  experiments,  which  the  Southern  cotton  ex- 
porters were  trying  at  the  expense  of  the  young 
industries  of  the  country,  and  to  the  profit  only 
of  cotton-growing  in  the  South  and  cotton-manu- 
facturing in  England, — all  these  appealed  more 
acutely  to  Mr.  Medill's  imagination  than  forming 
canons  of  common-law  precedence  and  the  in- 
creasing and  conflicting  statutes  enacted  in  the 
young  nation. 

His  success  in  journalism  was  identified  at  the 
beginning  with  these  questions.  Another  condi- 
tion that  induced  Mr.  Medill  at  least  to  tempora- 
rily adopt  journalism  as  a  profession,  was  the  fact 
that  he  had  three  younger  brothers  for  whom  he 
desired  to  find  comgenial  employment.  The  boys 
were  aged  respectively  nineteen,  fifteen  and  ten 
years.  They  became  compositors  and  job  printers 
and  assisted  most  materially  in  the  mechanical 
construction  of  the  journal.  In  1849  he  became 
the  proprietor  of  the  Coshocton  (Ohio)  Whig, 
and  changed  its  name  to  Coshocton  Republican, 
stating  in  it  that  Republican  and  not  Whig 
was  the  proper  name  for  the  party  or  its 
organs;  and  when  chance  came  his  way  to  reach 
a  larger  mass  of  his  countrymen,  he  sold  that 
print  and  in  1852  started  the  Daily  Forest  City  at 
Cleveland,  giving  General  Scott  a  strong  support 
in  the  presidential  campaign  of  that  year.  The 
overwhelming  defeat  of  the  Whig  candidates,  run- 
ning on  the  platform  which  Mr.  Medill,  who  was 
a  radical,  considered  cowardl)',  convinced  him 
that  it  was  time  to  organize  a  new  party  to  occupy 
more  advanced  grounds,  in  which  the  doctrines 
of  free  soil  and  anti-slavery  would  be  the  promi- 
nent features.  From  this  same  conception  in  the 
minds  of  others  grew  the  national  Republican 
party,  which  boldly  took  its  stand  on  the  platform 
of  equal  rights,  anti-slavery,  the  sovereignty  of 
the  nation  and  protection  to  American  industries. 
In  1853  Mr.  Medill  formed  a  business  partner- 
ship with  John  C.  Vaughn,  an  emancipationist 
from   South   Carolina,   who  was  publishing  the 


True  Democrat,  a  free-soil  organ  in  Cleveland, 
and  Edwin  Cowles,  a  job  printer.  The  two  pa- 
pers were  combined  in  1853  under  the  name  he 
proposed,  of  the  Cleveland  Leader,  and  the  con- 
solidated venture  was  highly  successful. 

The  movement  for  a  new  national  party,  which 
Mr.  ]\Iedill  and  others  originated  in  Ohio,  began 
in  1853.  In  the  spring  and  summer  of  that  year 
he  wrote  and  published  in  his  Cleveland  "Forest 
City"  a  series  of  editorials  advocating  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  name  "Republican"  for  that  of 
"Whig,"  as  the  latter  belonged  to  one  of  the  Eng- 
lish parties.  He  argued  that  "Republican"  meant 
a  strong  national,  masterful  government,  while 
Democracy  had  for  its  model  the  weak,  waning 
confederation  of  Grecian  State  sovereignty.  As 
the  Whig  party  had  to  be  reoomstructed  in  its  plat- 
form so  as  to  attract  liberal-minded  people,  he 
held  that  it  should  adopt  a  more  descriptive  name. 
He  corresponded  with  Horace  Greeley  and  othei" 
Whig  leaders  about  changing  the  party  name. 
Greeley  replied:  "Go  ahead  and  get  it  adopted  in 
Ohio:  it  is  too  soon  for  us  in  New  York  to  ad- 
vocate the  change  of  name.  Wc  must  first  suffer 
another  bad  defeat." 

The  same  year  (1853)  the  anti-slavery  wing  of 
the  Whig  party  in  Ohio,  which  had  become  ripe 
for  a  change,  cast  nearly  60,000  votes  for  Samuel 
Lewis  for  governer,  which  caused  the  overwhelm- 
ing defeat  of  the  conservative  Whig  candidate. 
Nelson  Barrere,  and  that  ended  the  "Whig"  party 
in  the  Buckeye  State.  Mr.  Medill's  paper  made 
a  vigorous  campaign  for  Lewis,  the  liberal  candi- 
date. In  April,  1854,  a  number  of  prominent 
anti-slavery  Whigs,  Democrats  and  Free-soilcrs 
met  with  Mr.  Medill  in  the  "Leader's"  editorial 
rooms  in  Cleveland,  and  then,  after  discussion, 
organized  a  new  party,  which  they  cliristened 
"the  National  Republican  party,"  with  opposition 
to  the  aggressions  of  slavery  as  its  corner-stone. 
The  name  and  principles  of  the  new  party 
were  speedily  adopted  in  Michigan,  Wisconsin, 
Iowa,  Illinois  and  other  States.  The  sequel  is 
known. 

Important  events  in  the  country's  history 
crowded  this  closely  and  the  growth  of  the  party 
was  powerfully  assisted  by  the  perfidious  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  passage  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  bill  and  the  disgraceful  Dred 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


15 


Scott  decision,  wliich  tended  to  disrupt  the  old 
parties. 

Chicago  about  this  time  was  beginning  to  at- 
tract attention  as  a  commercial  and  political  cen- 
ter, and  in  January,  1855,  Mr.  Medill  disposed  of 
his  paper  in  Cleveland  to  Edwin  Cowles,  and  in 
company  with  his  old  partner,  Mr.  Vaughn,  who 
remained  in  the  firm  only  one  year,  and  Dr.  Ray 
of  Galena,  Illinois,  (who  continued  in  the  firm 
till  1863),  bought  the  Chicago  Tribune,  a  paper 
which  up  to  that  time  had  been  a  losing  enterprise. 
The  individuality  of  Mr.  Medill  quickly  permeated 
the  Tribune.  He  at  once  assumed  the  business 
and  editorial  management  and  made  the  venture 
a  successful  one  from  the  very  start,  and  a  few- 
years  later  succeeded  Dr.  Ray  as  editor-in-chief. 

When  Mr.  Medill  became  the  managerial  head 
of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  more  than  forty-one  years 
ago,  the  telegraphic  service  was  then  in  its  in- 
fancy. The  mail  and  railway  equipment  were 
crude  and  inadequate  to  the  unforeseen  develop- 
ment of  the  Northwest.  The  phenomenal 
vigor  and  raipidity  with  which  Chicago  itself 
became  the  great  city  of  the  interior  as- 
tounded even  the  most  sanguine  jirophets  of 
prosperity,  and  the  field  of  journalism,  local  in 
color  but  national  in  tone,  Western  in  sympathy 
but  American  in  scope  of  political  vision,  was  one 
in  which  an  editor  was  without  predecessors. 
Mr.  Medill  in  those  days  watched  every  depart- 
ment of  his  paper  with  a  scrutiny  that  never  re- 
laxed, and,  while  always  more  occupied  with  great 
principles  than  small  episodes,  always  more  ab- 
sorbed in  political  conceptions  of  universal  truth 
and  national  importance  than  with  the  evolution 
of  the  newspaper,  made  every  column  of  the 
Tribune  feel  his  personal  touch.  He  had  to  invent 
methods  of  making  the  Tribune  an  adequate  ex- 
ponent of  this  astounding  growth.  He  had  to 
create  the  machinery  to  make  these  methods  prac- 
ticable. It  was  he,  more  than  any  hundreds  of 
men  of  the  Northwest,  who  brought  Abraham 
Lincoln  to  the  forefront  of  destiny.  It  was  he 
who,  long  before  the  name  of  the  Emancipator 
had  been  heard  in  the  homes  of  New  England  or 
debated  in  the  halls  of  New  York,  discerned  those 
spiritual  traits  in  the  rugged  exterior  of  the  rail- 
splitter,  which,  with  his  genius  for  making  the 
truths  of  Christianity   sound  politics  for  a  free 


people,  pointed  him  out  to  the  few  who  knew  him 
well  in  his  obscurity  as  the  man  appointed  by  fate 
to  override  the  shifty  partisanship  of  the  time 
and  become  the  expounder  before  the  world  of 
the  eternal  maxims  of  human  liberty  and  the  con- 
servator of  the  Republic,  bound  to  perpetuate 
equal  political  freedom  or  perish  itself. 

Lincoln  in  those  days  was  a  tall,  gawky,  joke- 
telling,  modest,  ill  dressed,  astute  country  law- 
yer, who  had  some  business  in  the  courts  of  Chi- 
cago. He  used  to  give  a  few  hours  now  and  then 
to  Leonard  Volk,  the  sculptor,  whose  studio  was 
the  star  region  of  a  dingy  block  on  Randolph 
street;  but  he  oftener  climbed  the  stairs  of  the 
Tribune  and  with  his  log-rolling  feet  on  the  edge 
of  Mr.  Medill's  desk  would  plainly  state  his  grave 
convictions  upon  the  paramount  questions  of  the 
time.  The  ideas  of  the  future  president  and  the 
editor  were  substantially  alike  with  the  exception 
that  Lincoln  was  more  of  an  evolutionist  than 
Medill,  and  believed  that  the  great  slavery  ques- 
tion would  in  time  evolve  itself.  Lincoln  also 
at  that  time  believed  that  slavery  might  be  abol- 
ished by  purchase.  Mr.  Medill  has  recently  pub- 
lished portions  of  his  reminiscences  of  Lincoln, 
and  much  of  that  mist  which  for  years  overhung 
his  passage  as  a  man  from  the  margin  of  back- 
woods politics  into  the  clear  sunlight  of  national 
leadership  has  thereby  been  lifted. 

Meanwhile  the  terrible  civil  war  was  on; 
Lincoln  was  where  Mr.  Medill  had  foretold  he 
would  be,  in  Washington,  at  the  national  helm, 
and  the  part  the  Tribune  had  to  perform  was  one 
of  new  and  great  responsibility.  It  was  not 
enough  that  soldiers  should  go  to  the  front;  it  was 
not  enough  that  their  physical  wants  should  be 
carefully  supplied ;  it  was  not  enough  that  the  com- 
merce and  industry  should  be  sustained  while 
they  were  in  the  field;  it  was  necessary  that 
party  timidity  and  the  connivance  of  treason 
should  not  defeat  at  the  polls  the  pur- 
pose Unionists  were  achieving  in  battle. 
It  was  Joseph  Medill  who  first  suggested  that 
the  soldiers  should  not  forfeit  their  right  to 
cast  a  ballot  while  carrying  a  musket  in  the  field; 
and  the  invaluable  assistance  the  soldier  vote  gave 
to  loyalty  at  home  in  those  days  of  darkness  and 
intrigue,  history  has  not  fully  measured,  so  en- 
gaged has  she  been  with  the  more  fascinating 


16 


BIOGRArmCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  TIIR 


chronicle  of  military  heroism  and  the  story  of 
the  clash  of  armies.  It  was  at  Mr.  Medill's  sug- 
gestion that  the  soldiers  in  the  field  were  given 
an  opportunity  to  vote,  and  it  was  the  result  of 
the  election  in  1864  which  sustained  Mr.  Lincoln 
in  his  conduct  of  the  war  and  made  success  pos- 
sible. While  on  his  vacation  at  White  Bear  Lake 
in  Alinnesota  in  the  summer  of  1862,  Mr.  Medill 
saw  at  St.  Paul  thousands  of  young  men  leaving 
their  homes  as  members  of  regiments  bound  for 
the  front.  Fear  was  expressed  by  many  of  the 
older  Union  men  who  remained  behind  that  by 
sending  the  "true  blue"'  boys  to  war  the  peace-at- 
any-price  Democrats  would  gain  the  ascendancy 
and  through  the  ballot  obtain  control  of  Congress, 
the  president  and  cabinet,  and  thus  defeat  the 
cause  of  liberty  by  a  minority  vote  of  the  Union 
States.  After  reflection  Mr.  Medill  conceived 
the  idea  of  permitting  the  soldiers  to  vote 
while  in  the  army.  He  immediately  inspected  the 
constitutions  of  various  States  and  discovered  tliat 
in  the  majority  thereof  provision  could  be  made 
by  act  of  legislature  to  permit  a  ballot  to  be  taken 
in  the  field.  The  first  action  was  in  Minnesota. 
Mr.  Medill  explained  his  views  to  Governor  Ram- 
sey, who  after  consulting  the  attorney  general 
immediately  called  the  legislature  together  and 
recommended  that  an  act  be  passed  to  enable  the 
governor  to  appoint  commissioners  to  go  to  the 
front  and  to  take  the  ballots  which  were  to  be  de- 
posited and  sealed,  to  be  opened  and  counted  in 
the  district  in  which  the  voter  resided. 

The  plan  of  voting,  which  was  an  original 
one,  was  not  only  conceived  by  Mr.  Medill,  but 
its  adoption  by  many  State  authorities  was  also 
due  to  the  energetic  manner  in  which  he  an- 
nounced and  championed  it  in  the  Tribune. 

He  also  early  and  often  insisted  upon  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  by  the  president,  and 
advocated  arming  the  freedmen  to  fight  for  their 
liberty,  believing,  in  the  language  of  private  Miles 
O'Reily,  "That  a  black  man  could  stop  bullets 
as  well  as  a  white  man." 

The  war  over  and  the  Union  saved,  still  another 
era  set  in.  The  important  work  of  reconstruc- 
tion was  next  in  order.  The  editor  employed 
all  the  force  that  his  brain  and  paper  gave  him 
to  assist  in  making  such  a  reconstruction  of  the 
secession  States  as  would  seciu^e  to  the  freedmen 


their  Lincoln  decree  of  emancipation,  and  pre- 
vent their  re-enslavement  in  part  or  whole. 
Hence  he  fought  for  the  constitutional  amend- 
ments and  the  enfranchisement  of  the  ex-slaves. 

After  this  great  work  of  the  Republican  party 
had  been  accomplished,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  industrial  problems  as  he  had  been  in  the  right 
settlement  of  the  war.  As  a  student  of  economic 
data,  he  is  microscopic,  and  to  this  minuteness  of 
study  he  conjoins  a  memory  of  unusual  reach 
and  of  phenomenal  tenaciousness.  He  has  a 
voracious  appetite  for  statistics.  Thirty-five 
years  ago  statistical  publications  were  not  the  well 
arranged  annuals  any  one  can  buy  now  on  book 
shelves.  Mr.  Medill  made  his  own  almanacs 
and  carried  most  of  their  matter  in  his  head. 
There  is  not  a  phase  of  economics  on  which 
he  is  not  ready,  clear  and  accurate.  His 
soundness  in  political  ethics  and  his  already  well 
demonstrated  capacity  as  a  practical  politician, 
willing  to  take  no  office  but  equipped  better  than 
any  other  man  in  the  sight  of  the  people  for  for- 
mulating sound  modes  of  government,  he  was 
elected  to  the  constitutional  convention  which 
gave  Illinois  the  organic  instrument  that  corrected 
many  errors  of  the  earlier  advisers  of  the  com- 
monwealth, and  formulated  many  of  the  pro- 
visions which  have  proved  particularly  eftectual 
for  the  protection  of  the  taxpayers,  and  that  for 
the  protection  of  the  rights  of  minorities  was 
written  by  his  hand  or  inserted  in  the  constitu- 
tion by  the  cogency  of  his  arguments. 

Thus  Mr.  Medill's  entrance  into  official  life  in 
Illinois  was  in  1869,  when  he  was  unanimously 
elected  a  member  of  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion. He  was  the  only  member  of  the  conven- 
tion who  was  unanimously  chosen,  and  he  re- 
ceived a  larger  vote  than  was  given  any  other 
member  of  that  body  and  represented  the  largest 
constituency.  He  framed  the  provisions  which 
secured  representations  to  minorities  in  the  leg- 
islature and  in  corporations,  and  was  a  leader  in 
the  general  work  of  revision.  In  1871  he  was 
appointed  by  President  Grant  a  member  of  the 
first  civil-service  commission,  and  in  November 
of  the  same  year  he  was  elected  mayor  of  Chi- 
cago by  a  three-fourths  majority.  When  he  as- 
sumed charge  of  the  office  the  city  was  in  ruins 
from  the  g^eat  fire  and  disorder  and  destitution 


REPUESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


17 


prevailed.  It  was  Mr.  IMedill's  special  work  dur- 
ing the  ensuing  two  years  to  restore  order  and 
put  municipal  affairs  in  proper  condition,  a 
task  which  he  performed  in  a  highly  satisfactory 
and  acceptable  manner.  The  intense  application 
to  duty  required  of  him  in  this  laudable  work  un- 
dermined Mr.  ]\Iedill's  health  and  resigning  his 
office  in  September,  1873,  he  went  to  Europe  for 
a  year's  recreation.  The  time  passed  abroad  was 
almost  entirely  spent  in  the  study  of  social  and 
civic  conditions  and  in  writing  a  series  of  letters 
thereon  for  the  Tribune,  which  has  made  him  an 
authority  on  public  affairs  in  the  Old  World,  and 
especially  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Upon 
his  return  to  Chicago  in  November,  1874,  Mr. 
Medill  bought  a  controlling  influence  in  the  Trib- 
une, and  took  active  charge  of  the  editorial  de- 
partment. Under  his  influence  the  paper  rapidly 
regained  the  high  position  it  had  lost  during  the 
three  years  of  his  absence  from  its  helm,  and  since 
then  has  become  the  recognized  journalistic  rep- 
resentative of  the  Republican  party  in  the  West. 

To  Mr.  Medill's  efforts  may  the  present  high- 
license  law  of  Illinois  be  credited.  For  years  he 
advocated  an  increase  in  liquor  licenses  from  $50 
to  $500,  claiming  that  the  increase  would  close 
many  of  the  vile  dens  in  which  liquor  was  sold 
and  would  do  much  to  regulate  the  traffic.  The 
present  law,  which  places  the  minimum  license 
at  $500  and  gives  to  the  municipalities  the  power 
to  increase  the  amount,  has  had  the  effect  which 
he  prophesied,  and  the  city  of  Chicago  has  already 
derived  over  $20,000,000  in  additional  revenue 
since  the  passage  of  the  law. 

It  makes  little  difference  whether,  as  used  to  be 
the  case,  his  own  hand  wrote  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  daily  well  filled  page,  as  he  now 
dictates  the  aaiicles  to  his  staff  writers.  At  no 
time  in  the  history  of  the  Tribune  of  New 
York  did  that  journal  express  the  exclusive  indi- 
viduality of  Horace  Greeley  with  more  absolute 
unity  than  the  Tribune  of  Chicago  expresses  the 
individuality  of  Mr.  Medill.  It  is  true  that  he  em- 
ploys a  half  dozen  persons  upon  editorial  ^\'ork; 
but  they  all  subordinate  their  powers  to  him  with- 
out a  vestige  of  personal  mannerism,  either  m 
thought  or  expression.  This  is  why  the  writing 
of  the  editorial  page  of  the  paper  presents  daily 
the  ultimate  of  intellectual  economy  in  literary 


form.  The  style  is  direct,  ner\'ous,  simple,  forci- 
ble. There  is  rarely  a  line  of  mere  literary  adorn- 
ment. There  is  never  a  line  bearing  the  impress 
of  an  effort  for  embellishment.  The  aim  is  ap- 
parent in  the  longest  leader — which  is  never  a 
long  article — ^to  tlie  shortest  paragraph,  to  say 
something  tliat  is  to  be  said  without  any 
consciousness  as  to  tlie  man^ner  of  saying  it 
beyond  clearness,  force  and  completeness. 
There  is  rarely  a  redundant  word.  There  is 
never  a  superfluous  sentence.  Each  article  is 
devised  to  cover  a  specific  idea:  when  that  is 
done  tlie  article  is  at  an  end.  In  these  quali- 
ties of  simplicity  without  vulgarity,  force  with- 
out excitement,  of  precision  without  rigidity, 
the  Tribune  editorial  page  is  a  model.  Every  man 
who  can  read  can  understand  it;  and  as  Mr.  Me- 
dill's aim  is  always  to  persuade  by  convincing, 
his  diction  is  that  of  a  plain,  frank,  well  trained 
and  powerful  writer  who  knows  how  to  reach  the 
reason  of  readers  by  the  shortest  road. 

His  persQiial  habits  inevitably  create  this  per- 
sonal stamp  upon  his  paper.  He  has  no  life 
which  he  considers  higher  than  that  of  the  editor; 
there  are  no  recreations  that  absorb  his  facilities 
as  happily  as  his  duties;  no  pleasures  tempt  him 
from  work  with  allurements  equal  to  those  it  pos- 
sesses. His  success  enables  him  to  indulge  a 
loving  and  generous  disposition  toward  his  own 
household.  In  his  elegant  home  on  the  north 
side,  in  what  is  called  the  "aristocratic"  portion  of 
Chicago,  he  has  every  comfort  that  intelligence, 
wealth  and  taste  can  supply.  There,  immediately 
after  breakfast,  his  day's  duties  are  assumed.  Be- 
ing for  several  years  somewhat  deaf,  he  has  more 
time  for  reading  and  reflects  with  less  distraction. 
He  reads  everything,  the  newest  books,  the  best 
magazines,  the  foreign  periodicals.  He  keeps 
abreast  with  the  thought  of  the  day  in  every  ad- 
vance. By  the  time  he  sets  out  for  the  office  he 
has  selected  the  editorial  topics  for  the  staff  and 
digested  clearly  what  he  proposes  to  say  about 
them.  With  the  instinct  of  the  tnie  journalist 
he  seizes  daily  upon  those  themes  which  are  up- 
permost in  the  mind  of  the  day,  and  to  each  gives 
that  relative  allotment  of  space  to  which  it  is  in- 
trinsically entitled.  Thus  there  are  never  ab- 
stract disquisitions  upon  the  editorial  page,  no 
mere  space-filling  with  literary  g>'mnastics,    no 


18 


DIOaRAPIIICAL  DICTIOSART  AXD  POHTItAlT  dALLERY  OF  THE 


message,  no  scattering  of  intellectual  power. 
Even,'  topic  is  of  the  instant  and  of  large  public 
interest.  Each  fresh  aspect  of  a  permanent  inter- 
est is  discussed  within  logical  bounds.  He  bal- 
ances his  daily  quota  of  editorial  with  regard  to 
the  various  phases  of  general  concern.  While 
pre-eminently  a  man  of  serious  disposition  and 
profoundly  convinced  that  the  world  is  most 
deeply  involved  in  politics,  commerce,  manu- 
factures and  the  common,  every-day  materialism 
of  existence,  he  always  looks  on  the  horizon  for 
the  new  in  human  interest,  and  he  gives  to  the 
arts,  to  literature  and  science  to  which  he  is  a  de- 
votee, and  to  social  questions,  ample  recognition. 
When  he  has  allotted  his  topics  and  outlines 
the  treatment  of  them,  he  reads  again;  and  his 
own  scissors  are  quick  to  clip  the  pungent  allu- 


sion, the  pithy  paragraph  or  the  suggestive  story. 
He  is  visited  by  scores  of  people  ever\'  day  and  is 
accessible  and  afifable  to  everybody.  He  listens, 
gives  every  man  his  attention  and  those  he  likes 
his  tongue.  But  he  forms  his  own  conclusions 
upon  every  newspaper  topic.  When  the  day's 
editorial  "copy"  is  handed  in,  he  carefully  goes 
over  every  line.  Few  lines,  scarcely  a  para- 
graph, escape  his  discriminating  and  improv- 
ing pen.  Sometimes  he  completely  alters  the 
aspect  of  an  article,  the  treatment  of  which 
he  had  not  sufficiently  sketched  to  the  writer.  It 
is  not  uncommon  for  stafT  writers  to  say  that  they 
scarcely  recognize  in  print  the  articles  which 
they  had  written :  so,  in  every  fair  and  reasonable 
sense,  all  the  editorial  articles  are  his,  represent- 
ing his  views  on  the  important  events  of  the  day. 


DAVID  DAVIS, 


BLOOM  INGTON. 


BORN  of  good  Welsh-American  stock,  on 
March  9,  1815,  in  Cecil  county,  Maryland, 
Judge  Davis  was  naturally  endowed  with  a  hardy 
earnestness  and  a  large-souled  common  sense 
which  made  him  through  life  popular  among  all 
classes  yet  incapable  of  becoming  arrogant  to- 
ward those  below  him,  as  he  rose  to  his  great 
height  of  fame.  By  the  death  of  his  father,  at 
an  early  age,  he  was  enabled  to  follow  the  educa- 
tional bent  of  his  mind  without  having  his  ener- 
gies divided  between  his  studies  and  the  problem 
how  to  secure  the  means  of  a  livelihood.  But 
although  a  considerable  estate  was  left  to  him,  so 
that  he  received  a  primary'  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  State,  he  attended  Kenyon 
(Ohio)  College,  read  law  in  the  office  of  Judge 
Henry  W.  Bishop,  of  Lenox,  Massachusetts,  and 
afterward  took  a  legal  course  in  the  New  Haven 
law  school.  Although  he  was  thus  able  to  thor- 
oughly ground  himself,  intellectually  and  profes- 
sionally, he  found,  when  he  was  ready  to  go  out 
into  the  world,  that  his  property  had  disappeared, 
and  he  was  called  upon  to  shift  for  himself  with 
no  capital  but  his  character  and  his  actiuirements. 
Fortunately,  these  proved  all  sufficient. 

Wise  young  man  that  he  was,  he  had  early 


taken  his  own  measure,  realizing  that  he  was 
not  to  make  a  name  as  an  advocate  at  the  bar  or 
a  silver-tongued  orator.  From  the  date  of  his 
admission  to  the  bar  in  1835,  and  his  emi- 
gration to  Illinois  during  the  same  year,  up 
to  the  time  of  his  elevation  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  in  1862,  Judge  Davis  con- 
tinually impressed  upon  the  public,  both  as  a  law- 
yer and  minor  judge,  the  fact  that  his  mind  was 
f.f  the  rugged,  large,  philosophical  type. 

As  stated,  he  came  to  Illinois  during  the  year 
of  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  1835,  first  settling 
at  Pekin,  but  removing  during  the  succeeding 
year  to  Bloomington,  which  place  he  called  his 
residence  for  the  following  half  a  century.  Two 
years  later  (in  1838)  he  married  a  lady  whom  he 
had  met  while  studying  his  profession  in  Lenox, 
Massachusetts,  Miss  Sarah  W.  Walker,  daughter 
of  Judge  Wm.  I'.  Walker  of  that  town. 

Judge  Davis  had  not  been  long  settled  in  his 
new  home  before  his  fellows  discovered  his  popu- 
lar as  well  as  his  substantial  qualities,  and,  al- 
though his  party  was  decidedly  in  the  minority, 
in  1840  he  was  put  forward  by  the  Whigs  as  their 
candidate  for  State  senator  in  the  Bloomington 
district.     He  made  an  energetic  canvass  and  a 


fm^- 


f4.  i<.^'"VV-  '"„  ^  ''''Vis'  'f.   ^, 


^^ 


''7  '  >^' 


/d~~^z^  y~yQ^^^-^iy 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS    VOLUME. 


ly 


good  run,  but,  as  was  generally  anticipated,  was 
beaten  by  Governor  John  Moore,  an  experienced 
and  most  popular  Democratic  leader.  Four 
years  later  (1844)  he  was  elected  to  the  lower 
house,  declining  a  renomination.  Here,  as  a 
legislator,  Judge  Davis  added  to  the  reputation 
which  he  had  already  earned  as  a  lawyer,  a  repu- 
tation for  the  thorough  examination  and  clear 
analysis  of  any  matter  entrusted  to  his  charge, 
and  for  a  judicial  and  impressive  manner  of  pres- 
entation. 

His  work  in  the  legislature  was  so  satisfactorj' 
to  his  constituents,  and,  although  a  young  man 
of  but  thirty-two,  his  judgment  was  already  ac- 
counted so  mature,  that  he  was  elected  to  the  con- 
vention which  formed  the  State  constitution  of 
1848.  Although  he  expected  no  reward,  his 
labors  there  in  behalf  of  the  establishment  of  a 
more  uniform  State  judiciary  were  so  valued  by 
both  the  profession  and  the  laity  that  he  was 
chosen  one  of  the  circuit  judges  without  opposi- 
tion, at  the  lirst  election  held  under  the  provisions 
of  the  new  constitution.  In  those  days  the  posi- 
tion was  far  from  a  sinecure,  if  it  ever  approached 
it.  Judge  Davis'  circuit  consisted  of  fourteen 
counties,  and,  without  the  aid  of  a  railroad,  he 
was  obliged  to  hold  two  sessions  annually  in  each 
county.  But  the  incumbent  was  at  length  in  his 
element,  and  was  fully  equal  to  the  emergency ; 
in  order,  however,  to  fulfill  his  duties  to  his  own 
satisfaction  he  was  obliged  to  bring  into  play 
ever)-  fiber  of  the  bodily  strength  and  intellectual 
acumen  for  wuich  he  was  noted.  In  this  capacity 
he  continually  met  his  old  associates  of  the  bar. 
Air.  Lincoln,  Judge  Douglas,  Colonel  Baker, 
Judge  Trumbull,  Colonel  Hardin,  Judge  Logan 
and  others;  and  it  is  the  highest  tribute  to  Judge 
Davis'  sterling  worth  that  none  of  his  decisions 
ever  aroused  a  feeling  of  personal  antagonism, 
even  among  those  with  whom  he  was  so  long  a 
fellow  practitioner  and  several  of  whom  were  his 
acknowletlged  superiors  in  brilliancy  and  versa- 
tility. But  his  honesty,  his  solid  judicial  quali- 
ties, and  his  remarkable  industry  and  executive 
force  were  received  by  all  as  full  compensation  for 
the  eloquence  and  magnetism  which  are  indis- 
pensable to  the  successful  advocate.  At  rare  in- 
tervals in  the  world's  history  the  judicial,  the 
eloquent  and  the  magnetic  are  combined,  as  in 


the  personality  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  Judge 
Davis  was  accepted  at  the  standard  which  he  had 
himself  fixed  and  to  which  he  adhered  through 
life.  During  the  fourteen  years  of  his  faithful 
service  as  circuit  judge  few  appeals  were  taken 
from  his  decisions.  Literally,  he  ci>nsidered  him- 
self the  serv'ant  of  the  people,  and  had  it  not  been 
for  his  admiration  and  love  for  Mr.  Lincoln  it 
is  doubtful  whether  he  would  have  entered  so 
actively  as  he  did  into  the  campaign  of  1858, 
which  witnessed  the  Douglas-Lincoln  debates 
and  finally  elevated  his  warm  and  great  friend 
to  the  presidential  chair.  It  was  at  Mr.  Lincoln's 
personal  request  that  Judge  Davis  attended  the 
convention  of  Republicans  which  met  at  Chicago 
on  May  16,  i860,  being  a  delegate  at  large  and 
the  chosen  leader  of  the  Lincoln  forces.  After  he 
had  assisted  his  friend  to  take  the  first  step  in  his 
open  ambition,  he  left  the  management  of  the 
campaign  to  others,  and  returned  unassumingly 
to  his  judicial  duties. 

In  1861,  with  Gen.  Holt  and  Mr.  Campbell, 
of  St.  Louis,  Judge  Davis  was  appointed  by 
President  Lincoln  to  adjudicate  the  conflicting 
and  multitudinous  claims  against  the  quarter- 
master of  tlie  Department  of  the  Missouri.  The 
work  involved  an  enormous  amount  of  investiga- 
tion, legal  acumen  and  business  talent,  but  the 
nnunigs  of  tne  coinnnssiun  were  ennnently  satis- 
factory and  have  stood  the  test  in  the  highest 
courts  of  the  land. 

In  November,  1862,  a  vacancy  having  occurred 
on  the  bench  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  in  the  circuit  including  his  native  State, 
Judge  Davis  was  called  by  the  president  to  as- 
sume the  duties  of  that  high  office.  It  is  needless 
to  inform  even  the  careless  student  of  history  that 
these  were  trying  times — that  to  assume  an  of- 
fice, in  the  midst  of  war,  the  discharge  of  whose 
duties  involved  the  interests  of  millions  of  people, 
was  a  responsibility  which  was  almost  terrible 
in  its  import.  But  for  the  succeeding  fifteen 
years  Judge  Davis  brought  the  most  power  of 
his  mind  to  bear  upon  questions  of  personal  lib- 
erty, the  belligerent  rights  of  enemies,  tlie  powers 
of  military  conxmissions  and  the  financial  policv 
of  the  Government.  It  was  especially  his  stand 
after  the  war,  in  defense  of  the  legal  tender  acts 
of    1862-3,   that  brought   him    into   prominence 


20 


BIOORAPUICAL  DICTIONAUT  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


before  the  people  of  the  whole  country.  A  ma- 
jority of  the  Supreme  Court,  iii  the  case  of  Hep- 
burn vs.  Griswold,  held  that  credit  currency  was 
not  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debt.  Judge 
Davis  was  of  the  dissenting-  minority,  and  a  short 
time  afterward  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  with 
the  majority  which  reversed  the  former  decision, 
and  held  that  "the  acts  of  Congress  known  as 
the  leg'al  tender  acts  are  constitutional  when 
applied  to  contracts  made  before  their  passage, 
and  are  also  applicable  to  contracts  made  since." 
Undoubtedly  tlie  position  so  firmly  taken  by 
Judge  Davis,  with  the  conviction,  which  for 
nearly  forty  years  had  been  strengthening  and 
expanding,  that  his  was  one  of  the  stanchest, 
most  svTnpathetic  and  popular  personalities  in 
the  country — these  considerations  induced  the 
so-called  Labor-Refomi  party  to  nominate  him 
for  the  presidency  in  January,  1872.  The  finan- 
cial question  .and  the  general  wave  of  reform 
which  swept  the  country  during  that  year  caused 
a  portentous  division  in  the  Republican  party  and 
the  secession  of  such  leaders  as  Sumner  and 
Greeley.  This  minority,  with  a  large  element  of 
the  Democracy,  united  in  the  so-called  Liberal 
movement.  At  its  convention,  held  in  May, 
1872,  Judge  Davis  was  submitted  as  a  presiden- 
tial candidate,  but  as  Senator  Trumbull  also  had 
a  strong  following  in  the  Illinois  delegation  he 
went  before  that  body  with  only  a  divided  sup- 
port from  his  own  State.  Although  Horace 
Greeley  was  nominated  by  the  Liberals  for  the 
presidency,  the  independent  elements  in  Illinois 
kept  him  in  mind,  and  in  Ivlarch,  1876,  to  break 
the  deadlock  in  the  legislature  over  the  selection 
of  a  United  States  senator,  they  united  upon 
Judge  Davis  and  elected  him  over  John  A. 
Logan.  The  contest  had  continued  for  two 
months,  and  the  final  choice  was  spontaneous, 
the  term  of  service  being  for  six  years  from 
March  4,  1877. 

Judge  Davis  entered  upon  his  career  in  the 
United  States  senate  when  within  a  few  days 
of  his  sixty-second  birthday.  Although  he  had 
passed  twenty-nine  years  in  judicial  labors,  his 
experience  as  a  public  legislator  had  been  con- 
fined to  one  tenn  in  the  lower  house  of  the  Illi- 
nois legislature  before  he  had  reached  his  thir- 
tieth year.     In  taking  leave  of  his    a'lifinrs  on 


the  supreme  bench,  therefore,  it  was  no  unmean- 
ing assertion  when  he  said:  "Having  passed 
all  the  years  of  my  active  life  at  the  bar  or  on  the 
bench,  it  is  not  without  serious  misgivings  that 
I  enter  upon  a  new  sphere  of  public  service." 
Nor  was  it  a  mere  act  of  customary  politeness 
whicli  prompted  the  court  to  reply  to  his  letter 
of  resignation  and  his  farewell  address  in  the 
following  strain:  "We  have  received  with  sincere 
regret  your  letter  announcing  that  your  official 
connection  with  us  is  closed.  During  the  fifteen 
years  in  which  3'ou  have  been  a  member  of  this 
court,  questions  of  the  gravest  character  have 
come  before  it  for  adjudication,  and  you  have 
borne  your  full  share  of  the  labor  and  responsi- 
bility which  their  decision  involved.  We  shall 
miss  yon  in  the  conference  room,  your  wise 
judgment  and  your  just  appreciation  of  facts; 
in  the  reception  room,  your  kind  and  courteous 
greetings.  With  the  hope  that  your  life  in  the 
future  may  be  as  useful  as  it  has  been  in  the 
past,  and  that  the  ties  of  personal  friendship 
which  now  bind  us  to  you  may  never  be  broken, 
we  subscribe  ourselves  very  sincerely  your 
friends."  ' 

But  notwithstanding  his  natural  misgivings 
Judge  Davis  not  only  served  upon  the  judiciary 
committee  witli  such  tacticians  and  statesmen 
as  Conklin,  Edmunds,  Carpenter  and  Thurman, 
the  equal  of  any,  but  was  acting  Vice-President 
for  nearly  two  years;  and  although  he  had  en- 
joyed little  experience  as  a  parliamentarian,  not 
one  of  his  decisions  was  ever  reversed  by  the  sen- 
ate. At  the  expiration  of  his  term  he  devoted 
himself  to  his  extensive  business  interests,  but 
was  not  fated  to  enjoy  the  well-earned  ease  of 
old  age,  as  his  death  occurred  on  the  26th 
of  June,  1886,  after  an  illness  of  several 
months. 

Judge  Davis  was  twice  married,  his  first  wife 
dying  at  her  home  in  Massachusetts,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1879.  In  March,  1883,  upon  the  expiration 
of  his  senatorial  term,  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Adeline  Burr,  of  Fayetteville,  N.  C.  His  sur- 
viving children  were  George  Perrin  Davis  and 
Mrs.  Sarah  D.  Swayne.  But  although  a  kind 
husband  and  father  had  been  lost,  the  country 
and  the  country's  history  had  gained  a  great 
and  an  honest  fame. 


REPBEtSENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUB  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


21 


SMITH  D.  ATKINS, 


FREEPORT. 


THE  ancestors  of  General  Atkins  were  of  Eng- 
lish extraction,  who,  on  coming  to  America, 
settled  in  the  New  Haven  Colony,  Connecticut. 
Their  descendants  emigrated  thence  to  Orange 
county,  New  York,  and  later  to  Chemung  county, 
same  State.  The  father  of  General  Atkins  was  a 
soldier  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  his  grandfather  in 
the  Revolutionary  war. 

General  Smith  D.  Atkins  was  born  on  the  9th 
of  June,  1836,  near  Elmira,  in  Chemung  county, 
New  York,  and  came  with  his  fatlier's  family  to 
Illinois  in  1846,  where  he  lived  on  a  farm  until 
1850.  He  was  educated  at  Rock  River  Seminary, 
Mount  Moms,  Illinois.  He  became  a  printer's 
apprentice  in  the  office  of  the  ''Prairie  Democrat" 
in  1850,  continuing  his  studies  during  his  spare 
hours,  and  in  1852  was  made  foreman  of  the 
Mount  Morris  Gazette,  while  he  was  yet  a  student 
in  the  seminary.  In  1853  he  became  associated 
with  C.  C.  Allen,  who,  during  the  war  of  the  Re- 
bellion, was  a  major  on  the  staff  of  Major-Gen- 
eral  Schofield.  They  bought  the  "Mount  Morris 
Gazette,"  and  with  the  plant  established  the  Reg- 
ister at  Savanna,  Carroll  county.  In  the  mean- 
time General  Atkins  had  determined  upon  the 
law  as  a  profession,  and  in  1854  he  entered  the 
office  of  Hiram  Bright,  in  Freeport,  as  a  student, 
and  was  admitted  to  practice  June  27,  1855. 
After  his  admission  to  the  bar,  however,  he  con- 
tinued his  law  studies  for  some  time  in  the  office 
of  Goodrich  &  Scoville  at  Chicago,  and  then 
entered  upon  practice  in  Freeport,  September  i, 
1856. 

He  early  manifested  a  great  interest  in  political 
matters,  and  in  i860  made  a  spirited  canvass  as 
a  candidate  for  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  Four- 
teenth Judicial  Circuit,  and  one  address  which 
he  delivered  in  that  campaign,  and  which  was  a 
careful  and  thorough  review  of  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  was  published  and  went  through  sev- 
eral editions. 

In  November,  i860,  General  Atkins  was  elected 
State's  attorney  for  the  Fourteenth  Judicial  Cir- 
cuit of  Illinois,  and  on  the  17th  of  April,  1861, 
while  trying  a  criminal  case  in  the  Stephenson 


county  circuit  court,  a  telegram  was  received 
stating  that  President  Lincoln  had  issued  his  first 
call  for  troops  to  suppress  the  Rebellion.  Gen- 
eral Atkins  immediately,  in  the  court-room,  drew 
up  an  enlistment  roll  which  he  headed  with  his 
own  name,  being  the  first  man  to  enlist  as  a  pri- 
vate soldier  in  his  county.  Hastening  out  of  the 
court-room,  he  went  into  the  streets  of  Freeport, 
urging  his  fellow  citizens  to  rally  in  defense  of 
the  Union  cause.  Before  dusk  100  men  had 
signed  the  roll,  and  in  the  evening  a  company 
organization  was  formed,  with  him  as  captain. 
He  and  his  companions  in  arms  went  to  Spring- 
field, where  they  were  mustered  in  as  Company 
A  of  the  Eleventh  Illinois  Infantry.  Before  the 
expiration  of  his  three-months  service,  he  re-en- 
listed for  three  years  as  a  private,  but  was  again 
nuistered  in,  as  captain  of  the  company  just  men- 
tioned, at  Bird's  Point.  At  the  battle  of  Fort 
Donelson  he  commanded  his  company,  with  an 
unexpired  leave  of  absence,  on  account  of  sick- 
ness, in  his  pocket;  he  took  sixty-one  men  into 
that  desperate  engagement  and  came  out  with 
but  twenty-eight,  having  lost  more  than  fifty  per 
cent!  For  gallant  service  in  this  battle  he  was 
promoted  to  the  position  of  major  of  that  regi- 
ment, and  by  special  assigmnent  of  General  Grant 
went  on  the  stafif  of  General  Hurlbut,  as  acting 
assistant  adjutant  general.  Fourth  Division,  Army 
of  the  Tennessee,  and  in  that  capacity  was  en- 
gaged in  the  battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing.  His 
service  in  that  battle  secured  special  mention  in 
the  general  orders  after  that  fight.  Ill  health  com- 
pelled his  resignation  after  the  battle  of  Pitts- 
burg Landing,  and  he  spent  the  two  subsequent 
months  on  the'  sea-coast. 

It  was  his  intention  to  return  to  his  command, 
but  at  the  solicitation  of  Governor  Yates  he  took 
the  stump  to  try  to  recruit  eight  companies  in 
the  eight  counties,  composing  what  was  then 
Washburn's  Congressional  district.  He  covered 
the  territory,  speaking  often  three  times  a  day, 
morning,  afternoon  and  evening,  and  put  into 
camp  at  Rockford  forty-four  full  companies,  in- 
stead of  the  eight  which  had  been  the  limit  of 


lUOURAPlIICAL  DlCTlOXAltY  AM)  PURTUAIT  GALLEIiY  OF  TlIK 


Governor  Yates'  hopes.  He  was  chosen  colonel 
of  the  Ninety-second  Illinois  Volunteers,  Septem- 
ber 4,  1862.  He  remained  in  command  of  that 
regiment  imtil  January  17,  1863,  when  he  was 
placed  in  command  of  a  demi-brigade. 

While  the  Ninety-second  was  at  Mount  Ster- 
ling, Kentucky,  Colonel  Atkins,  commanding 
the  post,  a  grave  issue  arose.  It  was  the  first 
Yankee  regiment  that  had  visited  that  section, 
and  hundreds  of  slaves  flocked  to  the  camp  beg- 
ging for  protection  and  offering  their  services 
to  fight  for  freedom.  They  refused  to  return  to 
their  masters,  and  when  their  owners  demanded 
them  as  chattels  Colonel  Atkins  declined  to  en- 
tertain the  request,  not  feeling  that  his  force 
should  be  used  to  drive  them  back.  The  owners 
appealed  to  the  commander  of  the  brigade,  a 
Kentuckian,  who  ordered  General  Atkins  to  re- 
turn the  slaves,  but  the  latter  persistently  declined 
to  do  this,  and  never  did,  his  reasons  being  that 
he  was  not  responsible  for  the  escape  of  the 
slaves,  and  that  his  men  had  not  enlisted  to  act 
in  the  capacity  of  blood-hounds  to  hunt  them 
down  and  drive  them  back.  The  order  issued 
is  worthy  of  preservation,  and  is  as  follows: 

He.'\dquarters  Camp  Dick  Yates,  ) 
Mt.  Sterling,  Ky.,  Nov.  2,  1862.  j 
General  Order  No.    1. 

In  compliance  with  general  order  Xo.  i  issued 
from  the  headquarters  of  the  brigade,  I  hereby 
assume  command  of  the  post  of  Mt.  Sterling  and 
the  vicinity. 

Loyal  citizens  will  l)c  protected  as  such,  and 
the  civil  authorities  assisted  in  the  enforcement 
of  the  laws. 

All  loyal  citizens  and  soldiers  of  Mt.  Sterling 
and  the  vicinity  are  commanded  to  give  infor- 
mation of  the  whereabouts  of  any  one  who  is  now 
or  has  been  in  anv  capacity  in  the  Confederate 
service,  and  to  arrest  all  such  parties  found  in 
Mt.  Sterling  or  the  vicinity,  and  report  them  in 
custody  to  the  commander  of  the  post  for  further 
proceedings. 

All  loyal  citizens  are  commanded  to  give  in- 
formation to  the  commander  of  the  post  of  the 
whereabouts  of  any  citizen  who  has  at  any  time 
during  hostilities  given  any  aid  or  comfort  to  the 
common  enemy. 

Farmers  are  invited  to  bring  their  products 
to  the  town  and  camp  for  sale,  and  will  be  gfranted 
protection  in  so  doing. 

Dealers  in  intoxicating  liquors  are  commanded 


not  to  sell  or  in  any  way  dispose  of  any  intoxi- 
cating liquors  to  any  soldier.  Any  one  so  doing 
will  for  the  first  oi?ense  have  his  stock  in  trade 
destroyed,  and  for  the  second  ofTense  be  severely 
punished  and  confined. 

Loyal  citizens  who  are  the  owners  of  slaves 
are  respectfully  notified  to  keep  them  at  home, 
as  no  part  of  my  command  will  in  any  way  be 
used  for  the  purpose  of  returning  fugitive  slaves. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  Illinois  soldiers  to  become 
slave  hounds  to  demonstrate  their  loyalty.  Their 
loyalty  has  been  proven  upon  too  many  bloody 
battle-fields  to  require  new  proof. 

By  command  of 

Smith  D.   Atkins, 
Col.  g2iid  III.   Vol.  Com.  Post. 

I.  C.  Lawyer,  Adjt. 

With  reference  to  the  order  the  general  edi- 
torially says: 

"  The  last  paragraph  of  that  order  gave  us  no 
end  of  trouble.  The  colored  people  would  flock 
into  camp;  at  night  all  who  were  not  employed 
in  the  ofificers'  service  would  be  turned  out  of 
camp;  some  of  them  would  'streak  it'  for  the 
North  Star,  while  others  would  return  to  their 
masters.  Our  own  servant  was  a  colored  man, 
born  at  Elkhorn,  Wisconsin.  But  we  were  held 
responsible  for  every  one  of  our  fellow  citizens  of 
African  descent  who  disappeared  from  the  plant- 
ations about  Wi.  Sterling.  After  the  regiment 
was  ordered  away  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court 
convened  a  special  grand  jury,  and  we  were  duly 
indicted  for  stealing  'niggers.'  We  were  not  ar- 
rested, because  the  sherifif  found  it  inconvenient 
to  place  us  in  custody,  there  being  too  many  blue- 
coated  soldiers  around.  Champ  Furgusson,  a 
reljel  guerrilla,  went  to  Mt.  Sterling,  and  some  of 
the  citizens  of  Mt.  Sterling  being  loyal  people 
and  belonging  to  the  Episcopal  church,  Fur- 
gusson set  fire  to  the  Episcopal  church,  from 
which  the  courthouse  caught  fire  and  burned  up, 
including  the  indictments.  We  have  never  heard 
anything  of  them  since  then.  In  the  end  the  war 
freed  all  the  colored  people  of  Kentucky  and  of 
all  the  States  where  slavery  existed.  The  South, 
when  there  was  no  danger  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  took  up  the  sword  to  save  slavery  and 
thereby  lost  slavery.  Those  who  took  up  the 
sword  perished  by  the  sword." 

Colonel  Atkins  on  June  17,  1863,  was  placed 
in  command  of  the  Second  Brigade,  Third  Di- 


UEFHESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  IlJjyolS    VOLUME. 


33 


vision,  Anny  of  Kentucky,  which  he  commanded 
while  in  the  Department  of  the  Ohio.  When  the 
Ninety-second  regiment  was  removed  to  the  De- 
partment of  the  Cumberland  he  was  placed  in 
command  of  the  First  Brigade,  First  Division 
of  Gordon  Granger's  corps,  and  when  the  regi- 
ment was  mounted  and  transferred  to  Wilder's 
brigade  of  mounted  infantry,  he  accompanied  it 
and  commanded  it  until  transferred  to  Kilpat- 
rick's  cavalry  division.  When  General  Kilpat- 
rick  reformed  his  division,  preparatory  to  the 
great  march  with  Sherman,  he  assigned  the  com- 
mand of  the  Second  Brigade  to  Colonel  Atkins. 
When  Sherman  advanced  southward  he  aimed  to 
throw  his  army  between  the  rebel  forces  and  Sa- 
vannah. The  task  of  deceiving  the  enemy  and 
holding  them  while  the  movement  was  being  ef- 
fected was  given  to  Colonel  Atkins  by  Kilpat- 
rick,  and  he  skillfully  accomplished  it.  At  Clin- 
ton he  charged  the  enemy  and  drove  them  four- 
teen miles  to  Macon.  He  assaulted  their  lines 
about  the  city,  forced  them  into  the  works  and 
held  them  there  until  Sherman  swept  to  the  east, 
leaving  him  with  the  enemy  in  his  rear  and  notli- 
ing  before  him  to  impede  his  rapid  progress. 

In  all  the  engagements  in  which  he  partici- 
pated with  his  brigade.  Colonel  Atkins  distin- 
guished himself,  especially  so  at  \\'aynesl)oro, 
where  Wheeler  and  his  cavalry  were  ovenvhelmed 
and  defeated.  \N'hile  leading  the  charge  of  his 
troops  against  the  rebel  columns  his  color-bearer, 
Gede  Scott,  was  shot  down  by  his  side,  and  his 
brigade  flag  attracted  the  attention  of  the  enemy, 
who  poured  upon  it  their  concentrated  fire.  In 
that  storm  of  leaden  hail  he  escaped  injury,  lead- 
ing prominently  in  the  van  and  cheering  on  his 
troops  to  victory.  At  Savannah  he  was  brevet- 
ted  brigadier-general  for  gallantry,  and  was  as- 
signed to  duty  under  his  commission  as  briga- 
dier-general by  brevet  by  the  special  order  of 
President  Lincoln,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war 
he  was  brevetted  major-general. 

In  all  his  stations  as  commanding  ofificer  he  was 


popular  w  ith  both  rank  and  file.  He  was  a  perfect 
disciplinarian, but  was  kind  and  considerate  to  the 
men  under  him.  His  courage  and  judgment  as 
a  strategist  won  their  confidence,  and  they  read- 
ily and  heartily  supported  him  wherever  he  went. 
The  military  career  of  General  Atkins  was  highly 
creditable  and  one  of  which  his  descendants  may 
feel  proud. 

After  his  military  service  was  ended.  General 
Atkins  returned  to  Freeport.  where  he  has  since 
resided.  For  many  years  he  has  been,  and  is  now, 
the  editor  of  tlie  Freeport  Journal,  a  daily  and 
weekly  newspaper,  and  for  nearly  twenty-four 
years  he  held  the  office  of  postmaster  of  the  city 
of  Freeport.  General  Atkins  is  a  thirty-second- 
degree  Mason,  and  during  the  war  the  Smith  D. 
Atkins  Lodge,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  under  a  dispensa- 
tion from  the  Grand  Master  of  Illinois,  was  or- 
ganized in  the  Ninety-second  Illinois  regiment, 
of  which  he  was  colonel.  He  was  very  active  in 
organizing  the  Stephenson  County  Soldiers'  Mon- 
ument Association,  and  made  speeches  in  every 
township  in  the  county;  and  he  drew  the  plans 
for  the  county  soldiers'  monument,  of  cut  stone, 
nearly  eighty  feet  high,  now  on  the  courthouse 
square  in  Freeport.  He  earnestly  advocated  the 
establishment  of  the  free  public  library  in  Free- 
port,  and  when  it  was  established  he  was  elected 
the  first  president  of  the  board  of  directors,  has 
been  annually  re-elected,  and  is  now  serving  in 
that  capacity.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Free- 
port  Board  of  Education,  and  is  one  of  the  Illi- 
nois commissioners  of  the  Chickamauga  and 
Chattanooga  National  Military  Park.  His  life 
has  been  one  of  great  activity,  and  whatever  part 
he  plaved  in  public  affairs  has  been  with  great 
energy  and  fidelity. 

General  Atkins  stands  to-day  one  of  the  re- 
spected and  highly  esteemed  citizens  of  the  city  of 
his  adoption.  His  friends  are  legion,  as  his 
genial  courtesy  and  kindly  bearing  are  calculated 
to  win  confidence,  which  his  sterling  integrity 
and  unquestioned  candor  serve  to  maintain. 


24 


BIOORAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


SHELBY  M.  CULLOM, 


SPRINGFIELD. 


THE  parents  of  Shelby  M.  Cullom,  Richard 
Northcraft  and  EHzabeth  (Coffey)  Cullom, 
were  both  of  Southern  origin,  the  former  having 
been  bornin  iNIarjdand  and  the  latterin  North  Car- 
olina. The  parents  of  both  removed  from  their 
respective  States  to  Kentucky,  where  in  the  course 
of  time  was  consummated  the  marriage  of  our 
subject's  parents.  The  Cullom  family  had  its 
origin  in  Scotland,  and  its  predominating  char- 
acteristics, transmitted  through  one  generation 
after  another,  were  strong  and  rugged  in  physical 
constitution,  sturdy  rectitude  of  character  and  a 
willingness  and  capacity  for  labor.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  father 
and  his  five  brothers  were  each  over  six  feet  in 
height, — men  who  possessed  sound  minds  and 
sound  bodies.  His  grandfather  Cullom  died  at 
the  age  of  sixty-one  or  sixty-two,  but  his  grand- 
mother lived  to  record  in  her  days  the  lapse  of 
nearly  an  entire  century.  The  maternal  ancestry 
was  also  one  notable  for  longevity.  Hon.  Alvin 
Cullom  and  Hon.  William  Cullom,  brothers  of 
Richard  N.,  were  both  prominent  lawyers  in  Ten- 
nessee, the  former  having  been  for  many  years 
a  judge  on  the  bench,  and  for  a  time  a  member 
of  the  lower  house  of  Congress;  while  the  latter 
became  attorney  general  of  the  State,  and  sub- 
sequently a  member  of  Congress  and  clerk  of 
the  house  of  representatives;  he  is  still  living, 
having  attained  the  venerable  age  of  eighty-four 
years  and  standing  as  the  only  surviving  repre- 
sentative of  the  original  family.  The  name  of 
Cullom,  in  both  its  lineal  and  collateral  ramifi- 
cations, has  ever  been  synonymous  with  strength, 
energy,  courage  and  ability,  and  representatives 
of  the  family  have  in  turn  emerged  from  obscurity 
to  occupy  positions  of  high  public  honor.  Thus  it 
would  seem  that  our  subject  has  gained  prestige 
by  heredity  as  well  as  having  won  it  through  his 
personal  endeavors.  He  is  one  of  not  a  few  of 
the  men  of  the  Cullom  stock  who  have  attained  to 
distinguished  position  in  public  life. 

Shelby  M.  Cullom  was  born  in  Wayne  county, 
Kentucky,  November  22,  1829,  and  within  the 
following  year  his  parents  removed  to   Illinois, 


settling  in  Tazewell  county,  where  they  passed 
the  residue  of  their  days  and  where  they  now  sleep 
the  sleep  of  the  just.  The  father,  Richard  North- 
craft  Cullom,  was  for  many  years  a  leading  citi- 
zen of  Illinois,  and  was  well  known  by  all  the 
prominent  men  of  his  time  throughout  the  State. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature  several 
times  and  was  a  close  friend  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, Stephen  T.  Logan,  John  T.  Stuart,  Benja- 
min S.  Edwards  and  other  representative  Whig 
politicians  and  lawyers,  his  identfication  with  the 
old  Whig  party  being  a  very  active  and  intimate 
one  from  the  time  of  its  inception. 
.  The  son  of  a  farmer,  our  subject  became  early 
accustomed  to  the  hardy  but  plain  fare  and  the 
laborious  duties  attaching  to  farm  life,  the  dis- 
cipline being  a  valuable  one  during  the  form- 
ative period  of  his  life,  for  those  who  live 
in  so  close  sympathy  with  nature  can  scarce 
fail  to  absorb  from  her  a  spirit  of  honesty; 
can  scarce  fail  to  come  to  a  realization  of  the  fact 
that  in  all  fields  of  endeavor,  seed-time  and  har- 
vest maintain  their  regular  alternation,  and  that 
the  harvest,  with  its  valued  aftermath,  comes  alone 
to  those  who  have  labored  for  its  securing.  Young 
Shelby  did  his  share  of  all  kinds  of  farm  work, 
making  a  full  hand  in  the  har\'est  and  hay  fields, 
at  feeding  cattle,  clearing  land,  splitting  rails,  etc. 
In  those  days  educational  facilities  in  the  newer 
Western  States  were  very  limited  in  scope.  Young 
Cullom  had  early  in  life  decided  to  adopt  the 
law  as  his  chosen  profession,  and  so  realized  the 
necessity  of  a  broader  and  more  liberal  educa- 
tion than  the  country  schools  afforded.  His  am- 
bition and  determination  soon  led  him  to  the 
practical  consultation  of  wa)'s  and  means;  he 
prevailed  upon  his  father  to  lend  him  a  team  of 
oxen  and  a  plow,  and  with  this  primitive  equip- 
ment he  began  the  battle  of  life  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility, engaging  for  several  months  in 
breaking  prairie  at  two  dollars  per  acre.  He  then 
taught  a  country  school  for  six  months,  at  a  sal- 
ary of  eighteen  dollars  per  month  for  the  first 
three  months,  and  at  twenty  dollars  for  the  re- 
maining three.    The  money  thus  earned  enabled 


cl/6i 


rk/ty 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


25 


him  to  attend  school  at  the  Rock  River  Seminary, 
Illinois,  for  two  years.  He  was  a  hard  and  as- 
siduous student,  and  the  magnificent  physical 
strength  which  he  had  attained  by  following  the 
plow  and  swinging  the  ax  came  into  great  use 
as  the  mental  portion  of  his  system  was  called 
upon  for  its  more  vigorous  work.  After  return- 
ing from  school  he  went  to  that  city  which  was 
to  figure  as  his  future  home,  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, and  there  began  the  study  of  law,  entering 
the  office  of  Messrs.  Stuart  and  Edwards,  who 
constituted  one  of  the  strongest  and  best  known 
law  firms  of  that  place  and  period,  each  of  the 
members  being  a  personal  friend  of  the  young 
student's  father.  In  1855,  two  years  after  he  be- 
gan his  legal  studies,  Mr.  Cullom  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  immediately  thereafter  came  to 
him  his  first  official  preferment,  that  of  city  at- 
torney of  Springfield.  It  was  a  year  of  excite- 
ment on  the  temperance  question;  the  city  had 
passed  ordinances  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquor, 
and  young  Cullom  did  all  in  his  power  to  en- 
force the  laws,  proving  quite  successful  in  his 
prosecutions.  He  soon,  however,  entered  upon 
a  broader  field  of  practice,  finding  in  the  circuit 
court  a  higher  plane  for  the  exercise  of  his  tal- 
ents, and  meeting  here,  as  antagonists,  some  of 
the  foremost  practitioners  of  the  day.  As  a  law- 
yer his  presentation  of  a  case  was  always  logical 
and  concise.  His  object  was  to  explain,  and  not 
to  clothe  with  doubt;  to  convince  rather  than  to 
overwhelm  with  flights  of  orator}'.  In  judgment 
he  showed  himself  to  be  keen  and  accurate,  with 
that  judicial  ability  which  implied  intuitive  wis- 
dom. He  is  a  man  of  inflexible  principles  and 
has  never  been  known  to  sacrifice  what  he  con- 
siders right  to  any  rule  of  expediency.  He  soon 
gained  a  lucrative  practice,  and  had  he  seen  fit 
to  remain  in  private  life  he  might  to-day  have 
been  counted  among  the  men  of  wealth,  instead  of 
as  one  who  has  in  a  measure  sacrificed  personal 
ambition  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  service  to 
the  public. 

In  1856  he  was  nominated  and  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  house  of  representatives  in  the  State 
legislature,  was  re-elected  in  i860,  and  was 
chosen  speaker.  Cullom  was  strongly  arrayed 
in  the  support  of  the  Republican  party,  but  his 
election  came,  notwithstanding  the  dii¥erences  in 


])olitical  creed  between  himself  and  the  majority 
of  his  constituents  in  Sangamon  county,  thus 
showing  that  as  a  man  he  was  held  in  highest  esti- 
mation. At  tlieelection  in  i860  the  county  gave  the 
Douglas  Democratic  electors  a  small  majority,  but 
such  was  Cullom's  personal  popularity  that  he  was 
elected  to  the  house  by  a  majority  of  sixty- two 
voles.  The  Republicans  being  now,  for  the  first 
time,  in  the  majority  in  the  Legislature,  and  his 
pronounced  eligibility  being  admitted,  he  was 
chosen  speaker,  and  upon  him  fell  the  honor  of 
being  the  youngest  man  upon  whom  this  respon- 
sible position  had  been  conferred  in  the  State. 
In  1862  President  Lincoln,  who  was, a  warm  per- 
sonal friend  of  our  subject,  appointed  him,  in 
connection  with  Governor  Boutwell,'  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Charles  A.  Dana,  of  New  York,  a 
commissioner  ito'pass  upon  the  accoimts  of  quar- 
termasters and  commissary  officers, — a  trust  of 
more  importance  than  is  indicated  by  a  super- 
ficial glance,  and  one  which  demanded  the^  ex- 
ercise of  discriminating  care  and  sound  judgment. 
The  able  report,  which  was'in  due  time  presented, 
shows  the  care  and  fidelity  with  which  the  inci- 
dental duties  were  performed.  In  the  same  year, 
Mr.  Cullom  was  prevailed  upon  to  become  a  can- 
didate for  the  State  senate,  but  the  feeling  in  his 
county  was  so  intense  at  this  crucial  period  and 
so  opposed  to  the  war,  and  to  freeing  the  slaves 
that  naturally,  as  the  representative  of  a  party 
pledged  to  the  Union  and  to  freedom,  he 
was  defeated.  In  1864  he  was  nominated  and 
elected  by  the  Republicans  of  the  old  Eighth 
district  for  representative  in  the  popular  branch 
of  Congress,  his  opponent  being  one  of  his  former 
preceptors,  Hon.  John  T..  Stuart.  Two;  years 
later  he  was  re-elected  to  the  same  office,  and 
again  in  1868,  on  which  occasion  he  found  as 
his  antagonist  Hon.  Benjamin  S.  Edwards,  his 
other  preceptor,  who  likewise  met  defeat  at  the 
hands  of  his  former  protege.  Mr.  Cullom  entered 
into  the  national  Congress  during  that  interest- 
ing period  of  reconstruction  when  the  best 
thoughts  of  the  ablest  men  of  the  country  were 
brought  into  constant  requisition  in  the  effort  to 
effect  a  solution  of  the  many  perplexing  ques- 
tions that  presented  themselves.  The  official  rec- 
ords attest  the  fact  that  he  was  an  active  and  ag- 
gressive member,  even  assuming  his  full  share 


26 


BIOGUAPUfCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUritAIT  OALLKUY  OF  THE 


in  the  debates,  the  while  maintaining  a  conserva- 
tive attitude,  with  decisive  opinions  adequately 
fortified.  \\'ithin  his  last  term  in  the  house,  he 
was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  on  Ter- 
ritories and  prepared  a  l)ill  for  the  suppression  of 
polygamv  in  Utah  Territory,  which  passed  the 
house  but  failed  in  the  senate.  This  bill,  which 
provided  stringent  measures  for  the  suppression 
of  that  practice  which  constituted  a  foul  blot  on 
our  national  escutcheon,  became  the  practical 
basis  of  subsequent  legislation,  the  enforcement 
of  which  has  effaced  the  dark  spot  and  destroyed 
the  institution  of  polygamy. 

After  returning  from  Congress  Mr.  Cullom  was 
urged  by  his  neighbors  and  friends  in  Sangamon 
county  to  consent  once  more  to  enter  the  State 
legislature,  and  thus  to  aid  in  insuring  what  was 
deemed  a  very  imperative  measure, — the  revision 
of  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  also  to  lend  his  ef- 
fective co-operation  in  retaining  the  capital  at 
Springfield,  a  spirited  contest  for  its  removal 
having  been  in  progress  for  several  years.  He 
consented  to  become  a  candidate  and  was  again 
elected  to  the  lower  house  in  1872.  and  was  once 
more  chosen  speaker  by  his  party  colleagues, 
who  were  in  the  majority.  Nothing  further  was 
heard  of  the  project  for  the  removal  of  the  capi- 
tal, and  the  legislature  undertook  and  com- 
pleted the  most  eft'ective  revision  of  the  laws  that 
has  perhaps  ever  been  made  in  the  State.  In 
1874  our  subject  was  for  the  fourth  time  elected 
representative  of  his  county  in  the  assembly, 
and  became  the  choice  of  his  party  for  speaker, 
but  was  defeated,  owing  to  a  successful  combina- 
tion between  the  Democratic  and  independent 
members  of  the  house.  This  assembly  became 
notorious  as  the  "Haines  Legislature,"  which  has 
passed  into  history  as  the  worst  the  State  ever  had. 
It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  friends  of  Mr. 
Cullom  began  to  put  forward  his  name  in  con- 
nection with  the  candidacy  for  governor  of  the 
State, — a  position  for  which  he  was  admirably 
fitted  by  reason  of  his  distinctive  ability  and  his 
wide  experience  in  public  affairs.  In  1876  he 
accordingly  received  the  nomination  at  the  Re- 
publican State  convention,  and  was  elected  as 
governor  over  the  combined  forces  of  the  Dem- 
ocrats and  independents,  the  same  coalition  which 
had  the  year  before  defeated  him  for  the  speaker- 


ship. His  administration  as  chief  executive  of 
the  great  commonwealth  of  Illinois  was  highly 
satisfactory  to  the  people  of  the  State,  whose  af- 
fairs were  never  in  better  condition  than  when  he 
retired  from  office.  At  the  end  of  his  term  not  a 
word  could  be  urged  against  his  executive  pol- 
icy, even  by  his  political  adversaries,  and  he  was 
elected  to  serve  a  second  consecutive  term, — the 
first  instance  of  the  sort  in  the  history  of  the  State. 
Within  the  period  of  his  administration  the  last 
of  the  State  debt,  which  had  hung  over  the  State 
from  its  early  history,  was  paid,  as  an  example 
of  the  economic  and  judicious  policies  which 
the  executive  had  insisted  upon. 

In  March,  1883,  by  the  expiration  of  the  term 
of  United  States  Senator  David  Davis,  there 
came  up  the  matter  of  electing  his  successor;  and 
though  Governor  Cullom  was  at  this  time  but  half 
way  through  his  second  term,  the  Republican 
caucus  of  the  Thirt\'-third  General  Assembly 
nominated  him  to  represent  the  State  in  the  na- 
tional senate,  and  he  was  duly  elected, — a  fitting 
recognition  of  the  meritorious  ser\^ices  rendered 
the  State  in  various  capacities.  Mr.  Cullom  re- 
signed his  office  as  governor  in  February,  1883, 
and  his  career  as  senator  began  March  4th  of 
the  same  year.  At  the  expiration  of  his  first  term, 
in  18S9,  he  was  elected  as  his  own  successor;  and 
was  again  elected  in  January,  1895,  for  a  third 
term,  which  began  March  4th,  1895.  No  pub- 
lic officer  has  been  more  faithful  to  public 
duty.  In  whatever  position  he  has  been  placed 
he  has  been  a  man  of  work,  one  who  has  had  no 
idle  moments. 

As  senator  it  is  said  that,  before  he  took  his 
seat,  he  determined  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  ac- 
complish three  things:  first,  to  prevail  on  the 
government  to  construct  the  waterway  known  as 
the  Hennepin  canal,  commencing  at  or  near  Rock 
Island,  on  the  Mississippi  river,  and  terminating 
at  Hennepin,  on  the  Illinois  river,  thereby  con- 
necting the  upper  Mississippi  river  with  the  Great 
Lakes,  at  Chicago;  second,  to  bend  every  effort 
to  carry  forward  to  successful  issue  that  endeavor 
which  had  enlisted  his  attention  while  a  member 
of  the  lower  house,- — the  abolition  of  polygamy 
in  Utah;  and  third,  to  vitalize  the  commercial 
clause  of  the  constitution  by  an  act  of  Congress, 
"regulating  commerce  among  the  several  States," 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


etc.,  etc.  What  better  criticism  of  his  efforts  can 
be  offered  than  this:  polygamy  has  been  oblit- 
erated and  Utah  has  been  admitted  into  the  Union 
as  a  State;  the  Hennepin  canal  is  being  con- 
structed; and  an  act  of  Congress  was  passed 
in  1887,  known  as  the  Cullom  act,  "regulating 
commerce  among  the  several  States." 

It  is  in  connection  with  the  last  and  most  im- 
portant measure  of  this  notable  list  that  Senator 
Cullom  has  become  most  distinguished  as  a  legis- 
lator. He  was  at  the  head  of  a  committee  which 
made  an  exhaustive  investigation  of  the  condition 
of  inter-State  commerce  as  conducted  by  the  com- 
mon carriers  of  the  country,  and  which  finally 
brought  about  the  passage  of  the  act  already  men- 
tioned. This,  the  Cullom  act,  which  was  ap- 
proved in  1887,  is  regarded  by  very  many  of  the 
ablest  men  of  the  country  as  the  most  important 
measure  which  has  been  enacted  since  the  close 
of  the  war. 

While  governor  of  Illinois,  Mr.  Cullom  did 
all  in  his  power  to  regulate  commerce  in  the 
State  over  which  he  presided,  and  he  then  dis- 
covered that  State  regi-ilations  without  Congres- 
sional legislation  would  prove  ineffectual  and 
abortive  so  far  as  remedying  existing  evils  was 
concerned.  Therefore,  when  he  was  elected  to 
the  senate  he  determined  that  one  of  the  first  ef- 
forts he  would  make  as  a  representative  of  his 
State  in  the  great  conservative  body  of  the  na- 
tional legislature,  would  be  to  secure  the  regu- 
lation of  commerce  among  the  several  States  by 
an  act  of  Congress.  He  at  once  took  hold  of 
the  question  and  pursued  it  with  a  degree  of  en- 
ergy and  power  that  effectually  overcame  all  re- 
sistance, and  which  eventuated  in  the  speedy 
passage  of  the  act  which  now  stands  as  one  of 
the  most  valued  chapters  of  Congressional  leg- 
islation. The  provisions  of  this  law  were  urged 
upon  the  attention  of  the  common  carriers  of  the 
country  almost  before  they  were  made  aware  that 
justice  had  laid  a  summary  hand  upon  their  in- 
discrinnnate  operations.  While  this  act  has  been 
much  criticised  and  abused  and  its  author  op- 
posed by  men  who  were  in  certain  lines  of  com- 
merce and  transportation,  yet  the  public  have 
always  believed  that  its  provisions  were  right 
and  just;  and  the  longer  it  has  remained  upon 
the  statute  books  and  the  more  it  has  been  tested 


by  practical  experience,  the  stronger  has  it  be- 
come in  the  judgment  of  fair-minded  people. 

Incidental  to  his  services  in  Congress,  Sena- 
ator  Cullom  has  twice  been  designated  as  one 
of  the  visitors  to  the  Militar}-  Academy  at  West 
Point,  and  has  for  several  years  been  a  member 
of  the  board  of  regents  of  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution at  Washington. 

Senator  Cullom  is  a  conservative  man  and  nuist 
be  regarded  as  a  statesman,  always  striving  to 
build  up  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  and  to  insure 
a  continuous  national  progress,  believing  that 
nations,  like  men,  cannot  stamd  still ;  they  must 
go  forward  or  backward ;  they  cannot  go  back- 
ward without  decay,  therefore  it  is  imperative 
that  they  go  forward.  He  has  become  some- 
what conspicuous  as  a  public  officer  who  is  al- 
ways at  his  post  of  duty  and  always  at  work.  No 
man  has  ever  represented  Illinois,  either  as  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Legislature,  as  a  representative 
in  the  lower  house  of  Congress,  as  Governor  of 
the  State,  or  as  a  United  States  senator,  who  has 
been  more  faithful  to  the  trust  reposed  in  him 
by  the  people.  His  mental  characteristics  are 
of  the  solid  and  practical  rather  than  of  the  os- 
tentatious and  brilliant  order.  He  is  essentially 
strong  in  intellect  and  capable  of  reaching  safe, 
reasonable  and  prudent  conclusions.  In  person 
the  Senator  is  tall  and  thin;  his  hair  is  black, 
tinged  with  gray;  his  forehead  is  high  and  mas- 
sive, indicating  his  intellectuality,  and  his  features 
mobile  and  clearly  cut.  He  has  an  ease  of  car- 
riage and  a  grace  and  courtesy  of  address  which 
have  in  no  slight  degree  contributed  to  his  pop- 
ularity. "A  strong  man,"  mentally  and  physically, 
best  describes  the  individual  of  our  subject. 

In  conclusion  we  turn  briefly  to  the  domestic  life 
of  Senator  Cullom.  In  December.  1855,  at  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  was  consummated  his  marriage  to 
Miss  Hanna  M.  Fisher,  who  entered  into  eter- 
nal rest  in  1861,  leaving  two  little  daughters,  Ella 
and  Catherine.  Both  grew  to  womanhood,  re- 
ceiving the  best  of  educational  advantages  and 
enjoying  all  the  privileges  of  a  cultured  and  re- 
fined home.  Miss  Ella  became  the  wife  of  Mr. 
William  Barrett  Ridgely,  a  young  successful  busi- 
ness man  of  thorough  education  and  practical  at- 
tainments, resident  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  where 
she  presides  over  an  elegant  home.     She  is  de- 


28 


BIOORAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


servedly  prominent  in  social  and  churcli  matters 
in  the  city  of  her  birtli.  Miss  Catherine  married 
Mr.  Robert  Gordon  Hardie,  an  artist  of  distinc- 
tion in  New  Yorl'C.  Her  untimely  demise  occurred 
May  17,  1894,  bringing  great  sorrow  to  her  de- 
voted husband,  her  honored  father,  and  ail  who 
had  known  and  appreciated  the  beauty  of  her 
character.  Of  great  personal  attractions,  accom- 
plished, and  imbued  with  the  abiding  graces  of 
true  Christian  character,  she  was  a  woman  whose 
death  leaves  a  void  in  many  loving  hearts. 

Some  years  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  Mr. 
Cullom  married  her  younger  sister.  Miss  Julia 
Fisher.  Two  children  were  born  of  this  union, 
but  both  died  in  infancy.  Concerning  Mrs.  Cul- 
lom we  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  from  a 
published  article  touching  her  individuality.  She 
is  spoken  of  as  "one  of  the  most  modest  and  re- 
tiring women  at  the  capital,  but  a  woman  of 
marked  intelligence  and  sterling  character  in  every 
sense  of  the  word,  as  unbending  as  her  Presbyte- 
rian faith.  She  is  a  most  conscientious  member 
of  that  church  and  is  rarely  absent  from  her  place 
in  the  Church  of  the  Covenant.     In  discharging 


the  duties  of  her  high  position  she  is  most  affable 
and  cordial  to  all.  No  one  has  ever  heard  her 
speak  of  another  but  to  praise;  if  she  has  criti- 
cisms to  make  no  one  outside  of  the  sacred  circle 
of  their  happy  home  ever  hears  them.  She  was 
educated  at  the  Young  Ladies'  Institute  at  Spring- 
field, Illinois.  *  *  *  Senator  Cullom  has  oc- 
cupied most  distinguished  positions  ever  since 
their  marriage  and  Mrs.  Cullom  has  consequently 
known  no  reverses,  and  has  been  continuously 
most  conspicuous,  always  filling  her  position 
with  great  credit  to  herself  and  fidelity  to  her  hus- 
band's interests.  *  '^  *  Her  perfect  equipoise 
of  temperament  is  most  attractive,  and  has  made 
its  reflex  on  her  beautiful  face,  which  is  that  of  a 
much  younger  woman  than  we  find  her  to  be 
after  consulting  the  calendar.  Her  influence  has 
been  for  the  betterment  of  mankind  and  the  ele- 
vation of  her  sex.  *  *  *  Jn  Springfield  and 
Washington  she  has  ever  been  most  active  in 
works  of  charity.  At  the  capital  she  is  a  member 
of  the  board  of  managers  of  the  Foundlings' 
Home,  and  of  other  organizations  of  a  benevo- 
lent character." 


ISAAC  LA  FAYETTE  MORRISON, 


JACKSONVILLE. 


ISAAC  L.  MORRISON,  for  more  than  forty 
years  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  bar  of  Illinois, 
was  born  in  Barren  county,  Kentucky,  January 
20,  1826.  His  father,  John  O.  Morrison,  was  a 
native  of  Virginia,  whither  his  father,  Andrew- 
Morrison,  had  immigrated  from  the  north  of  Ire- 
land. Andrew  Morrison  enlisted  in  the  Conti- 
nental army  during  the  Revolutionary  war  and 
was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Brandy  wine.  Mater- 
nally Mr.  Morrison  is  a  descendant  of  the  Wel- 
born  family  of  North  Carolina.  His  maternal 
grandfather,  Samuel  Welborn,  Avas  also  a  Rev- 
olutionary soldier  and  served  under  General  Na- 
thaniel Greene  in  his  campaign  in  the  Carolinas. 
Afterward  he  moved  to  what  is  now  Monroe 
county,  Kentucky,  in  which  State  John  O.  Mor- 
rison, who  had  immigrated  thither  in  1793,  and 
Elizabeth  Welborn  were  united  in  marriage. 
John  O.  Morrison  was  a  farmer.     He  died 


when  Isaac  L.  was  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  there- 
fore a  great  amount  of  responsibility  rested  upon 
the  youthful  shoulders  of  the  latter.  He  attended 
the  common  schools  during  the  winter  months, 
and  after  his  father's  death  a  large  share  of  the 
management  of  the  farm  devolved  upon  him, 
and  for  several  years  thereafter  he  was  able  to  de- 
vote but  little  time  to  study.  When  the  oppor- 
tunity offered  itself  he  entered  the  Masonic  Sem- 
inary located  in  La  Grange,  Kentucky,  and  later 
studied  law  in  the  office  of  Addison  M.  Gazelay, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1849.  He  began 
to  practice  his  profession  in  La  Grange,  but  clients 
being  few  and  being  an  opponent  of  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery  and  its  advocates,  he  determined 
to  locate  in  a  different  section,  where  the  oppor- 
tunities to  advance  were  better  and  where  slavery 
did  not  exist. 

In  185 1  he  settled  in  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  and 


REPRESEXTATTVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


20 


although  he  liad  no  friends  or  acquaintances  in 
the  state  he  quickly  gained  an  enviable  reputa- 
tion as  a  lawyer  of  ability  and  as  a  man  of  un- 
doubted integrity.  By  constant  application  and 
honesty  of  action  and  purpose  he  soon  earned 
for  himself  a  prominent  position  in  the  front 
ranks  of  his  profession,  and  his  career  at  the 
bar  of  the  State  has  been  one  long  continued 
series  of  triumphs.  His  intellect  is  vigorous 
and  acute,  his  judgment  quick  and  compre- 
hensive, and  his  argument  is  close  and  rigid 
in  logic,  skillful  in  method,  agreeable  and 
forcible  in  manner.  In  legal  learning,  in  what 
may  be  called  the  erudition  of  his  profes- 
sion, he  has  no  superior  at  the  bar,  and  those 
qualities  have  given  to  him  the  eminent  standing 
so  readily  accorded  him.  As  a  pleader  at  the  bar 
he  endeavors  to  make  his  argument  so  as  to  place 
the  facts  before  the  court  without  embellishment; 
but  should  occasion  seem  to  reciuire  force  he  can 
bring  a  flood  of  eloquence  to  bear  upon  the  facts, 
and  in  some  cases  uses  refined  sarcasm  with  effect. 

He  has  not  always  practiced  his  profession 
alone  but  at  various  times  has  had  partners. 
At  the  time  of  the  Rebellion  Herbert  G.  Whit- 
lock,  then  a  student,  left  his  office  to  enter 
the  army.  After  his  return  from  the  war  he 
was  admitted  by  Mr.  Morrison  into  a  partnership, 
which  continued  for  twenty-two  years.  For  seven 
years,  between  1861  and  1869,  ^Ir.  Morrison  was 
associated  with  Cyrus  Epler,  now  circuit  judge. 
At  present  his  son-in-law,  Thomas  Worthington, 
is  his  business  partner. 

Mr.  Morrison  has  never  been  a  politician  in 
the  sense  of  office-seeking.  His  love  of  freedom 
and  opposition  to  slavery  naturally  placed  him 
in  the  ranks  of  the  Whigs,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
active  organizers  of  the  Republican  party.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  the  first  Republican  State  con- 
vention in  1856,  and  also  in  i860.  In  1864  he 
was  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  national  con- 
vention at  Baltimore,  which  renominated  Lincoln 
for  the  presidency.  He  represented  his  district 
in  the  Illinois  legislature  for  three  terms  and  ren- 
dered valuable  service  to  the  people.  In  the  ses- 
sion of  1883  the  Republicans  had  but  one  ma- 
jority', and  having  organized  the  house  were  held 
responsible  for  the  legislation.  One  of  their  num- 
ber was  taken  sick,  and,  being  thus  without  the 


means  for  controlling  the  house,  the  services  of 
a  competent  leader  were  badly  needed,  and  Mr. 
Morrison  naturally  took  command. 

His  ability  as  a  legislator  was  unquestioned, 
and  his  knowledge  of  the  law  and  parliamentary 
usages  made  him  a  power  in  the  deliberations 
and  acts  of  the  body.  As  chaimian  of  the  ju- 
diciary committee  he  assisted  in  molding  all  the 
important  measures  of  the  session.  The  so-called 
Harper  high-license  bill,  which  v^'as  introduced 
by  Mr.  Harper  and  given  his  name,  was  con- 
ceived and  drafted  by  Air.  Morrison  and  Major 
James  A.  Connolly,  then  United  States  attorney 
for  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois.  The  law 
has  been  beneficial  in  many  ways  and  has  been 
the  pattern  after  w-hich  the  various  high-license 
laws  of  the  several  States  which  have  adopted  high 
license  have  been  drawn.  Mr.  Morrison  led  the 
champions  of  high  license  in  the  house  and  carried 
it  successfully.  The  opposition  to  the  measure  was 
great,  and  the  vote  was  not  entirely  upon  party 
lines.  The  final  victory  was  largely  due  to  the 
management  of  Mr.  Morrison,  and  the  ability 
that  he  displayed  therein  commanded  the  respect 
of  most  of  his  fellow  members  whether  of  his 
own  party  or  of  the  opposition.  An  examina- 
tion of  the  full  history  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
legislature  during  the  three  months  which  were 
occupied  by  its  deliberation  of  the  bill  would  dis- 
close Mr.  Morrison's  name  mentioned  with  honor 
on  each  page. 

In  1880  Mr.  Morrison  was  nominated  for  Con- 
gress, and  made  a  spirited  canvass  of  his  district, 
which  consisted  of  Christian,  Sangamon,  Me- 
nard, Cass,  Morgan  and  Scott  counties.  The  dis- 
trict was  overwhelmingly  Democratic  and  he  did 
not  expect  to  be  elected,  but  he  succeeded  in 
materially  reducing  the  usual  Democratic  major- 
ity. For  the  past  ten  years  Mr.  Morrison  has 
not  been  active  in  political  matters,  but  has  aided 
his  party  during  its  campaigns  by  public  speak- 
ing in  advocating  the  principles  of  the  Repub- 
lican party.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  State  con- 
vention in  1892  and  as  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee on  resolutions  drafted  a  resolution  indorsing 
President  Harrison  for  the  presidential  nomina- 
tion. However,  he  has  devoted  himself  almost 
exclusively  to  the  practice  of  his  profession. 

He  was  general   counsel   for  the  Jacksonville 


30 


BIOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Southeastern  Railroad  Line  before  it  was 
placed  in  charge  of  a  receiver,  and  is  still  counsel 
for  some  of  the  stockholders ;  was  also  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Chicago,  Peoria  &  St.  Louis  road. 

Mr.  Morrison  was  mamed  in  1853  to  Mrs. 
Anna  R.  Rapelje,  mr  Tucker,  a  native  of  New 
York  city.  They  have  two  children:  Miriam  A., 
the  daughter,  is  the  wife  of  Thomas  Worthington, 
who  is  a  partner  of  Mr.  Morrison  in  the  law  finn 
of  Morrison  &  Worthington.  The  son,  Alfred 
Tucker  Morrison,  resides  at  home. 


Mr.  Morrison  owes  his  success  entirely  to  his 
own  'efforts.  He  has  not  feared  that  laborious 
application  that  his  profession  requires  of  all  its 
successful  members,  and,  combined  with  indus- 
trious habits,  he  possesses  a  mind  which  constant 
application  has  stored  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
law  and  its  adaptation.  His  career  should  serve 
as  an  inspiration  to  the  young  law  student,  and 
should  induce  him  to  exert  himself  to  his  fullest 
capacity  and  endeavor  to  emulate  the  example 
furnished. 


GEORGE  SCHNEIDER, 


FEW  persons  unacquainted  with  his  career 
would  dream  that  the  gray-haired  president 
of  the  National  Bank  of  Illinois,  with  his  quiet 
manners,  approaching  almost  to  diffidence,  and 
kindly  benevolent  features,  has  been  an  active 
revolutionist  in  two  continents.  Yet  facts  are 
stubborn  things,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  George 
Schneider,  journalist,  revolutionist,  government 
official,  banker  and  financier,  will  ever  attempt  to 
deny  the  impeachment.  Nay,  he  is  even  proud 
of  the  record  he  established  in  the  past  and  of 
the  principles  for  which  he  made  such  a  gallant 
fight,  both  in  the  old  world  and  the  new,  as  are 
also  those  of  his  friends  who  have  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  his  honorable  career. 

A  native  of  Rhenish  Bavaria,  George  Schneider 
was  born  in  Pirmasens,  December  13,  1823.  A 
liberal  education,  received  in  the  Latin  school  of 
his  birthplace,  amply  equipped  him  for  newspaper 
work,  which  chosen  field  he  entered  as  soon  as 
he  attained  his  majority.  It  was  while  he  was 
engaged  in  journalistic  pursuits  that  he  first  be- 
came a  revolutionist,  taking  an  active  part  in  the 
revolt  of  Rhenish  Bavaria  against  the  Bavarian 
government.  As  is  well  known,  in  1848-9  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  unite  Germany,  and  a  revo- 
lution broke  out  which  had  for  its  object  the  de- 
fense of  the  constitution  promulgated  at  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main  and  the  unification  of  Germany. 
South  Germany,  and  particularly  Rhenish  Ba- 
varia and  Baden,  was  almost  a  unit  in  favor  of 
a  German  parliament  and  against  the  numerous 


princes  of  Germany.  An  army  was  raised  which 
took  the  field,  but  after  a  prolonged  contest  the 
patriots  were  defeated  and  the  insurgents,  who, 
as  later  events  proved,  were  only  a  few  years  in 
advance  of  the  times,  were  forced  to  flee  the 
country.  In  this  revolt  the  young  editor,  George 
Schneider,  was  a  prominent  leader,  and  his  ef- 
ficient service  for  the  cause  he  had  at  heart,  and 
which  he  has  lived  to  see  successfully  realized, 
made  him  a  marked  man. 

Escaping  to  France,  Mr.  Schneider  remained 
there,  vainly  hoping  for  a  renewal  of  the  contest 
under  better  auspices;  but  finally,  seeing  the  fu- 
tility of  his  desires,  he  sailed  for  the  United  States, 
arriving  in  New  York  in  July,  1849.  To  a  light 
purse  was  supplemented  a  dauntless  courage,  a 
good  education,  and  a  determination  to  succeed, — 
not  a  bad  capital  for  any  young  man.  From  New 
York  he  drifted  to  Cleveland,  thence  to  St.  Louis, 
where,  with  his  brother,  he  established  the  Neue 
Zeit,  a  German  daily  of  liberal,  anti-slavery  tend- 
encies. 

At  about  the  same  time  that  George  Schnei- 
der reached  the  new  world  came  hundreds  of  his 
fellow  sympathizers,  the  flower  of  the  youth  and 
intellect  of  Germany.  Highly  educated,  full  of 
ideal  views  and  bursting  with  eloquence,  it  was 
natural  that  many  of  these  should  take  kindly  to 
the  pen,  and  as  a  consequence  in  a  short  time, 
from  New  York  to  the  far  West  and  southward 
to  New  Orleans,  the  German  press  invaded  the 
country  and  was  presently  established  on  a  firm 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS    VOLUME. 


31 


foundation.  It  was  at  this  interesting  period 
that  the  "Missouri  Compromise"  measures  were 
being  agitated,  the  spirit  of  which  the  German 
population  by  no  means  understood.  Their  news- 
papers had  instilled  into  their  receptive  hearts 
a  wholesome  horror  of  slavery,  and  any  compro- 
mise was  intensely  repugnant  to  their  sentiments. 
They  were  naturally  averse  to  the  movement  after 
reading  the  bitter  attacks  on  slavery  in  the  Ger- 
man newspapers,  the  editors  of  some  of  which 
were  more  violently  outspoken  than  such  noted 
abolitionists  as  Garrison,  Lovejoy  or  Eastman, 
of  the  Chicago  Western  Citizen. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  state  of  the 
country,  prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  in  the  senate  by  Douglas,  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  Territories,  was  decidedly  inimical 
to  slavery,  but  after  the  election  of  Pierce,  in  1852, 
the  violent  opposition  of  the  Democratic  party 
to  slavery  dwindled  down  to  its  acceptance  of 
the  "Compromise  ^Measures."  The  commerce  of 
the  countr}-,  even,  was  committed  to  slavery,  and 
any  attempt  to  impair  existing  conditions  was 
considered  revolutionary.  This  was  the  situa- 
tion when  George  Schneider  was  publishing  his 
Xeue  Zeit,  at  St.  Louis.  That  his  Democratic 
free-soil  paper  helped  to  instill  into  the  hearts  of 
his  German  readers  an  honest  hatred  for  slavery 
is  unquestioned,  and,  having  become  violently 
opposed  to  its  institution  in  spite  of  the  predic- 
tion in  its  favor  evinced  by  the  native  population 
of  Missouri,  the  Germans  were  ready  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war  to  fight  for  the  Union  and  the 
principles  it  represented.  Grant,  in  his  Memoirs, 
says  that  the  Germans,  through  the  capture  of 
Camp  Jackson  and  by  their  united  opposition  to 
slavery,  undoubtedly  kept  that  State  in  the  Union. 
After  the  plant  of  the  Xeue  Zeit  was  destroyed  by 
fire,  in  1850.  its  homeless  editor  accepted  a  pro- 
fessorship of  foreign  languages  and  literature 
in  a  college  not  far  from  St.  Louis,  but  the  news- 
paper fever  was  in  his  veins  and  in  a  short  time 
he  resigned  his  chair  and  removed  to  Chicago, 
where,  in  1851,  he  began  the  publication  of  the 
daily  Illinois  Staats  Zeitung,  which  had  previously 
been  established  as  a  weekly  newspaper.  At  this 
time  the  feeling  of  the  North  was  rather  for  up- 
holding the  relations  with  the  South,  and  the 
compromise    measure   passed   Congress,    includ 


ing  the  Inigitive  Slave  Law,  to  which,  of  course, 
some  lingering  opposition  was  kept  up  in  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  countr)-.  The  Staats  Zeit- 
ung prospered  under  the  eiificient  m.anagement 
of  Mr.  Schneider,  and  grew  in  favor,  but  although 
its  politics  were  Democratic,  its  editor  was  op- 
posed to  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  took 
such  a  decided  stand  against  the  measure  in  the 
columns  of  his  paper  that  it  aroused  the  wrath 
of  some  of  his  constituents,  who  were  not  among 
the  faithful,  and,  in  1856,  an  unsuccessful  attempt 
was  made  to  wreck  the  office. 

iJut  prior  to  this  the  agitation  over  the  obnox- 
ious measure  resulted  in  a  meeting  where  was 
originated  the  anti-Xcbraska  bill,  which  notable 
event  took  place  January  29,  1854,  at  Warner's 
Hall,  on  Randolph  street,  near  Clark.  Editor 
Schneider  was  one  of  the  small  but  courageous 
body  of  men  that  assembled  for  this  purpose, 
and  after  the  bill  was  framed  a  telegram  was  sent 
to  John  Wentworth,  then  Democratic  represent- 
ative in  Congress,  notifying  him  of  the  result 
and  urging  him  to  vote  against  the  Xebraska  bill. 
He  promptly  responded  that  he  would  accede 
to  the  wishes  of  his  constituents,  especially  as  they 
coincided  with  his  own  views,  and  this  conver- 
sion is  all  the  more  significant  because  of  its  be- 
ing the  first  Democratic  vote  pledged  against  the 
hated  bill. 

This  meeting,  held  at  Warner's  Hall,  January 
29,  1854,  really  marked  the  birth  of  the  Repub- 
lican party.  Thousands  of  Americans  and  Ger- 
mans, indignant  and  horrified  at  the  violation  of 
the  compact,  hastened  to  join  the  new  movement, 
and  of  course  in  the  Xorthern  States  this  whole- 
sale secession  influenced  the  Democratic  party 
to  such  an  extent  that  in  large  cities  like  Chicago 
it  became  almost  free-soil  in  its  tendencies,  and 
as  a  result  a  large  part  of  the  best  Democrats 
joined  the  Republican  party.  It  was  at  this  crit- 
ical juncture  that  Douglas  and  a  few  other  Dem- 
ocratic leaders  came  to  Chicago  to  try  to  check 
the  disaffection  in  the  party.  By  special  appoint- 
ment Editor  Schneider  met  the  "Little  Giant"  at 
the  Tremont  House,  and,  in  comi)any  with  Gen- 
eral Cameron  and  a  few  other  friends,  the  situa- 
tion was  discussed.  Mr.  Douglas  used  all  his 
persuasive  eloquence  in  the  effort  to  convince  the 
editor  that  he  was  in  the  wrong.    He  told  the  fear- 


32 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


less  advocate  that  he  was  only  leading  his  friends 
into  the  woods,  from  which  there  was  no  pos- 
sible egress,  and  urged  him  to  retreat  before  he 
was  hopelessly  entangled.  But  the  German- 
American  said  the  woods  had  no  terrors  for  him, 
he  was  unalterably  opposed  to  slavery  and  had 
cast  his  lot  with  the  new  party  for  better  or  worse. 

About  this  date  a  movement  sprang  up  in  the 
East,  unfortunate  in  itself,  which  for  some  time 
threatened  the  disruption  of  the  new  party.  This 
was  the  famous  "Know  Nothing"  movement, 
which,  in  the  New  England  States  and  at  Chicago, 
attracted  so  many  young  Americans  that  it  took 
the  utmost  moral  courage  of  the  free-soil  Demo- 
cratic Germans  to  maintain  their  ground  inside 
the  new  organization.  Mr.  Schneider  and  his 
friends  found  themselves  in  a  difficult  and  trying 
position.  Behind  were  the  burned  bridges  that 
formerly  connected  them  with  the  Democratic 
party  under  Douglas;  ahead  and  right  in  their 
new  camp  was  an  element  inimical  to  their  inter- 
ests and  to  that  of  their  countrymen.  They  had 
to  determine  to  fight  slavery  and  at  the  same  time 
were  forced  to  defend  themselves  against  their 
allies. 

Of  the  greatest  value  in  the  new  party  to  the 
German  Republicans  were  such  men  as  Lincoln, 
Lyman  Trumbull,  John  M.  Palmer  and  Governor 
Koerner,  all  of  whom  were  ready  to  act  with  them 
inside  the  party  against  the  spirit  of  the  native- 
American  organization.  At  the  convention  held 
at  Decatur,  in  1855,  to  which  Mr.  Schneider  was 
a  delegate,  the  sturdy  editor  introduced  a  resolu- 
tion so  as  to  fortify  his  position,  pledging  the 
party  against  the  impairing  or  changing  of  the 
then  existing  naturalization  laws.  This  provis- 
ion in  the  new  platform  created  consternation 
among  the  men  who  came  from  districts  infected 
with  the  spirit  of  Know-Nothingism,  but  the 
greatest  help  at  this  trjing  time  came  from  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  who  was  at  that  period  a  leader  in 
the  Whig  party  and  was  trusted  absolutely  for  his 
wisdom  and  discretion.  The  resolution,  after  a 
very  stormy  session,  was  referred  to  him,  and  he 
decided  in  favor  of  its  adoption.  It  was  then 
carried  to  the  State  convention  of  1856,  at  Bloom- 
ington,  where  it  had  a  similarly  exciting  experi- 
ence, but  was  finally  passed. 

At  the  Bloomington  convention  delegates  were 
elected  to  the   national   convention   of   1856,   at 


Philadelphia,  and  among  them  were  John  M. 
Palmer,  Norman  B.  Judd  and  George  Schneider 
— the  last  named  as  delegate  at  large.  Contem- 
porary with  the  convention  of  1856  was  called 
the  convention  of  the  North  American  party,  by 
which  name  the  Know-Nothing  organization 
was  styled.  At  the  Bloomington  convention 
General  Bissell  was  nominated  for  governor  and 
Francis  Hofifman  for  lieutenant  governor,  while 
among  the  electors  was  the  gallant  Frederick 
Hecker,  who  afterward  was  one  of  the  famous 
captains  of  the  Union  army.  At  Philadelphia 
the  North  American  party  began  to  negotiate 
with  the  Republican  convention  and  everything 
was  done  to  prevent  a  coalition  between  the 
parties,  for  had  it  been  known  that  the  young 
Republican  party  had  united  with  the  North 
American  party  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
carry  States  like  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Indiana, 
and  Missouri;  even  Ohio  would  have  been  in 
doubt.  Such  a  union,  in  fact,  meant  certain  death 
to  the  new  party,  which  must  have  been  strangled 
in  its  cradle.  Think  of  the  result!  There  never 
could  have  been  a  war  for  the  Union  because  all 
the  concessions  possible  would  have  been  made 
to  slavery. 

The  delegates  from  Illinois,  especially  John  M. 
Palmer,  Norman  B.  Judd,  George  Schneider  and 
a  few  others  of  like  spirit,  made  a  determined 
fight  and  forced  the  convention  to  adopt  the  res- 
olution to  maintain  unimpaired  the  naturaliza- 
tion laws,  which  in  itself  would  kill  the  attempted 
fusion  between  the  two  conventions.  To  accom- 
plish this  end  a  compromise  was  effected  with  the 
Indiana  delegation  under  the  lead  of  Governor 
Henry  Lane,  to  whom  was  offered  the  chairman- 
ship of  the  Republican  convention  provided  he 
would  agree  to  appoint  on  the  committee  on  res- 
olutions such  men  as  would  insure  the  adoption 
of  their  resolution.  He  expressed  his  willingness 
to  do  all  that  was  fair  and  honorable  and  carried 
out  his  compact  to  the  letter.  When  the  resolu- 
tion was  reported  by  the  committee  it  created  a  tre- 
mendous sensation,  raised  the  greatest  excitement 
and  evoked  the  stormiest  scenes  ever  witnessed 
in  the  history  of  any  public  meeting. 

Thad.  A.  Stevens,  who  was  known  to  be  iden- 
tified with  the  North  American  party,  rose  in  the 
convention  and  denounced  the  resolution  as  an 
insult  to  the  American    party  of    Pennsylvania 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


m 


and  moved  to  lay  it  on  the  table.  Delegates  from 
Illinois  immediately  rose  to  their  feet  and  threat- 
ened to  secede  from  the  convention  if  this  motion 
carried.  Knowing  that  such  a  bolt  would  disrupt 
all  the  arrangements  of  the  party  and  eternally 
damn  the  ticket  previously  nominated  at  Bloom- 
ington, — because  Governor  Hoffman  and  Fred- 
erick Hecker  would  have  resigned  at  once, — 
amid  indescribable  confusion  a  vote  was  called, 
which  Governor  Lane  declared  carried.  The 
new  party  was  made  on  a  Republican-Demo- 
cratic basis,  and  Fremont  was  nominated.  En- 
thusiastic meetings  were  held  all  over  the  country, 
but  the  part>-  was  defeated,  although  it  carried 
the  great  Western  States.  New  history  was  made  ; 
Lincoln  arose  on  the  scene;  the  war  followed, 
and  slavery  received  its  death  blow. 

In  this  spirit  a  writer  not  long  ago  remarked 
that  Carl  Schurz  and  George  Schneider  had  done 
more  to  kill  slavery  than  any  other  two  men  in 
the  countn,-.  If  so,  it  was  through  the  spirit  devel- 
oped and  described  above.  How  the  conven- 
tion, reviewed  years  after,  would  appear  is  best 
shown  in  a  letter  written  by  Governor  (now  Sen- 
ator) John  AI.  Palmer,  who  was  then  closing  his 
term  as  Republican  governor  of  Illinois.  Dated 
at  the  executive  chamber,  Springfield,  January 
13,  1872,  and  addressed  to  George  Schneider, 
it  read  as  follows: 

IMy  Dear  Sir: — I  am  just  leaving  the  executive 
rooms  to  make  way  for  my  successor,  and  avail 
myself  of  the  last  moment  to  thank  you  for  your 
kind  and  friendly  note.  Among  the  most  interest- 
ing of  my  memories  are  those  that  are  connected 
with  the  events  to  which  you  refer  (the  conven- 
tion of  1856),  and  I  shall  hereafter  make  no  friends 
to  whom  my  affections  cling  so  fondly  as  to  those 
who  encountered  the  storms  of  obloquy  and  the 
bitterness  of  party  to  initiate  the  great  movement 
for  the  overthrow  of  slaven,-  and  the  preservation 
of  republican  institutions  upon  this  continent. 

You  are  entitled  to  a  full  share  of  the  honors  of 
this  great  revolution,  for  you  aided  to  commit 
that  great  people,  the  Gennan  Americans,  to  the 
movement,  and  their  tongues  and  pens  and  swords 
have  done  noble  service  at  all  points,  and  in  all 
fields  where  their  contest  was  maintained.  May 
God  bless  you  and  them  for  the  noble  service  you 
and  they  have  rendered! 

Respectfully, 

John  M.  Pal.mer. 


This  is  a  noble  tribute  to  the  man  who  worked 
so  faithfully  and  ardently  in  support  of  princi- 
ples he  believed  to  be  right;  and  who  will  say  it 
is  undeserved?  In  the  Republican  convention 
of  i860,  to  which  Mr.  Schneider  was  a  delegate, 
although  a  personal  friend  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
he  favored  the  nomination  of  William  H.  Seward 
for  the  presidency,  believing  him  to  be  the  most 
available  candidate;  but  in  the  famous  "wigwam," 
when  he  found  himself  in  the  minority,  he  yielded 
gracefully,  and  prompdy  and  heartily  supported 
Abraham  Lincoln,  who  later  showed  his  esteem 
for  Mr.  Schneider  by  appointing  him  consul  to 
Denmark,  with  the  special  mission  of  negotiating 
the  placing  of  United  States  bonds  abroad.  He 
accomplished  his  mission  satisfactorily,  but,  re- 
signing the  consulship  in  1862,  he  returned  to 
Chicago,  where,  having  sold  his  interest  in  the 
Staats  Zeitung  to  Brentano,  he  was  appointed  col- 
lector of  internal  revenue  by  Lincoln. 

The  duties  of  this  oflice  naturally  brought  him 
in  close  contact  with  financial  interests,  and  at 
the  close  of  his  term  Mr.  Schneider  engaged  in 
the  banking  business.  In  1871  he  was  elected 
president  of  the  National  Bank  of  Illinois,  of 
which  institution  he  was  the  founder  and  whose 
interests  he  has  watched  so  closely  and  success- 
fully that  to-day  the  bank  ranks  with  the  fore- 
most financial  institutions  of  Chicago.  As  a  busi- 
ness man  he  is  discerning,  conscientious  and  con- 
servative, doing  many  charitable  acts  of  kindness 
in  a  quiet,  unostentatious  manner  that  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  man.  His  domestic  life  has  been  a 
poem  of  happiness,  and  seven  accomplished 
daughters  have  been  the  result  of  his  marriage, 
which  took  place  in  June,  1853.  He  lives  in  a 
large,  roomy  mansion,  which  he  built,  on  the  cor- 
ner of  Michigan  avenue  and  Twentieth  street, 
over  a  score  of  years  ago.  Passionately  fond  of 
flowers,  his  tables  are  seldom  without  a  few  rare 
orchids  or  roses,  which  he  raises  himself  in  his 
hothouse  on  the  premises.  All  his  daughters  are 
happily  mamed  and  live  on  the  North  Side,  where 
his  friends  think  he  will  some  day  follow  them; 
but  Mr.  Schneider  is  fondly  attached  to  his  com- 
fortable home  on  the  avenue  and  denies  that  he 
entertains  any  notions  of  moving. 

When  President  Harrison  was  forming  his  cab- 
inet, there  was  considerable  talk  of  the  treasury 


34 


nrOGHAPIIWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


portfolio  being  offered  Mr.  Schneider,  but  the 
presidency  of  his  bank  was  probably  a  more  at- 
tractive position  than  a  cabinet  portfolio.  A 
prominent  member  of  the  World's  Fair  Board  of 
Directors,  he  was  on  three  of  the  most  impor- 
tant committees,  viz.,  ways  and  means,  press  and 
printing,  and  agriculture,  and  was  a  valued  and 


active  worker  in  all.  A  member  of  the  Union 
League,  Germania  and  Press  Clubs,  of  which 
latter  organization  he  has  long  been  the  honored 
treasurer,  Mr.  Schneider  has  endeared  himself  to 
all  his  associates  by  his  courtly  demeanor,  demo- 
cratic ways  and  kindliness  of  heart. 


WILLIAM  A.  BARNES,  M.  D., 


Go  into  any  village,  town  or  city  in  this  great 
Northwest  of  ours;  seek  out  the  men  who 
are  the  leaders  in  spirit,  thought  and  action ;  learn 
the  history  of  their  lives,  and  you  will  find  that 
there  is  usually  a  striking  similarity  which  leads 
to  the  inevitable  conclusion  that  like  conditions 
produce  like  results.  The  story  usually  begins, 
"Born  in  New  England,  parents  poor,  somewhat 
numerous  family,  self-made,  etc."  Now  this  fact, 
for  fact  it  is,  illustrates  most  aptly  one  of  the 
salient  features  of  our  American  civilization. 
There  is  an  opportunity  offered  here  under  our 
emblem  of  liberty  for  every  human  being  to  work 
out  and  develop  the  best  there  is  in  him. 

The  record  of  a  self-made  man,  however,  is  al- 
ways of  interest  and  profit,  and  the  lessons  learned 
therefrom  are  valuable  ones.  To  this  honored 
class  belongs  Dr.  Barnes,  who  was  born  in  Clare- 
mont,  New  Hampshire,  on  the  15th  of  March, 
1824,  and  who  numbers  among  his  ancestors 
some  of  the  best  families  among  the  early  colo- 
nists. On  the  paternal  side  his  ancestors  were 
residents  of  Connecticut,  locating  there  long  be- 
fore the  Revolution.  The  grandfather,  "Bill 
Barnes,"  was  born  in  Farmington,  Connecticut, 
and  when  a  young  man  emigrated  to  New  Hamp- 
shire, becoming  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Clare- 
mont.  He  married  Miss  Esther  Spaulding,  lived 
on  a  farm  adjoining  the  village,  reared  there  a 
family  and  became  one  of  the  substantial  and 
respected  citizens  of  the  community.  His  second 
son  was  Ira  N.  Barnes,  who  married  Harriet 
Eastman,  and  had  a  family  of  five  children, 
namely:  William  A.,  whose  name  heads  this  rec- 
ord; Joseph  D.,  a  prominent  farmer  and  stock- 
raiser  of  Valparaiso,  Indiana;  George  E.,  who 


was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Chapultepec,  in  the  Mex- 
ican war;  Dr.  Ira  N.,  who  has  been  one  of  the 
leading  physicians  of  Decatur  for  more  than  thirty 
years;  and  a  daughter  who  died  in  infancy. 

William  A.  Barnes  was  only  six  years  of  age 
when  his  father  died,  and  from  that  time  on  was 
practically  reared  by  his  grandparents.  He  pur- 
sued a  course  of  study  in  the  Claremont  Academy, 
and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  removed  to  Dayton, 
Ohio,  making  his  home  with  a  cousin.  General 
Phelps,  while  he  continued  his  studies  at  the  Day- 
ton Academy.  When  it  became  time  to  choose 
a  work  or  profession  which  he  wished  to  follow 
through  life  his  tastes  and  inclinations  led  him  to 
take  up  the  study  of  medicine,  and  for  three  years 
he  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  that  direction 
under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  \"an  Harlengen,  of 
Centerville,  Ohio.  Subsequently  he  attended  lec- 
tures and  w^as  graduated  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  the  class  of  1850. 

Upon  the  completion  of  that  course  Dr.  Barnes 
at  once  returned  to  Centerville,  and  continued  in 
practice  there  until  autumn,  when  he  removed  to 
\'alparaiso,  Indiana,  doing  a  successful  business 
there  in  the  line  of  his  chosen  work  through  the 
three  succeeding  years.  In  the  fall  of  1853  he 
came  to  Decatur,  Illinois,  then  but  a  small  vil- 
lage, and  from  that  time  to  the  present  has  been 
one  of  its  most  respected  citizens.  He  had  saved 
some  money  and  having  confidence  in  the  future 
of  this  new  country  he  invested  his  capital  in 
farming  lands  near  the  village.  Other  business 
enterprises  also  claimed  his  attention,  and  in  the 
fall  of  1855  he  embarked  in  the  drug  trade,  which 
he  continued  for  three  or  four  years. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  of    his  residence 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


35 


here,  Dr.  Barnes  has  been  a  prominent  factor  in 
pnbHc  affairs.  In  1861  he  was  appointed  master  in 
chancery  of  the  circuit  court  for  the  county  of 
Macon,  which  office  he  held  for  several  years. 
Ever  active  and  a  true  representative  of  American 
enterprise  and  versatility,  he  saw  an  opening  for 
a  manufacturing  venture,  and,  in  company  with 
William  Lintner,  he  established  a  plant  for  the 
manufacture  of  hay  presses,  pumps,  agricultural 
implements,  etc.  Success  attended  the  new  un- 
dertaking and  he  continued  his  connection  with 
it  until  some  years  later,  when  he  disposed  of  his 
interest  in  the  same  to  Messrs.  Peddecord  &  Bur- 
rows, and  the  large  works  of  the  Decatur  Furni- 
ture Company  are  the  outgrowth  of  the  plant  of 
this  establishment.  The  Doctor  has  always  con- 
sidered investment  in  land  as  safe  and  profitable, 
and  in  ]\Iacon  and  adjoining  counties  owns  many 
fertile  and  productive  farms  which  yield  to  him 
a  good  income  and  thus  prove  the  wisdom  of 
his  views. 

Since  his  retirement  from  active  commercial 
business  he  has  not  devoted  his  entire  attention  to 
pastoral  pursuits.  Always  an  earnest  advocate 
of  the  education  of  the  masses,  he  was  for  many 
years  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  of  De- 
catur, and  for  most  of  the  time  its  president.  He 
was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Free  Public  Li- 
brary of  the  city,  and  has  been  for  nearly  twenty 
years  president  of  the  board.  He  has  been  twice 
a  member  of  the  board  of  supervisors  and  was 
the  first  mayor  of  Decatur  under  the  present  char- 
ter of  the  city.  He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of 
the  Republican  party  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and 
has  always  been  an  adherent  of  the  principles  of 
that  party,  though  he  has  never  sought  official 
favor.  Socially,  he  is  connected  with  iMacon 
Lodge  No.  65,  F.  &  A.  M. 

'  Dr.  Barnes  was  married  on  the  30th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1849,  to  Eleanor  Sawyer,  a  daughter  of  John 
Sawyer,  of  Dauphin  county,  Pennsylvania,  and 


they  became  the  parents  of  five  children,  but  one 
son  died  in  infancy.  The  others  are:  Albert,  now  a 
leading  business  man  of  Decatur;  Charles  M., 
who  was  a  distinguished  attorney  of  Boston, 
Massachusetts,  and  died  March  9,  1893;  Mary, 
wife  of  George  R.  Stanton,  of  the  city  of  Mex- 
ico; and  William,  a  prominent  surgeon  of  De- 
catur. The  mother  of  this  family  died  April  22, 
1886. 

The  man  who  attempts  to  write  of  men  as  they 
are  meets  two  difficulties  on  the  very  threshold 
of  his  undertaking.  He  is  liable  to  say  too  much 
— he  is  liable  to  say  not  enough.  This  much  may 
be  truly  said  of  Dr.  Barnes,  however:  he  presents 
a  splendid  type  of  our  best  American  manhood. 
Although  past  the  age  of  seventy  years,  he  is  stal- 
wart, vigorous,  well  preserved  physically,  men- 
tally and  morally.  He  has  so  deported  himself 
that  he  not  only  has  the  good  will  but  the  re- 
spect and  love  of  the  entire  community  in  which 
he  dwells.  He  is  an  honorable  man  whose  repu- 
tation is  above  reproach,  and  his  word  is  as  good 
as  his  bond.  He  is  a  progressive  man  who  has 
always  sought  to  enlighten  and  elevate  the  peo- 
ple among  whom  he  has  lived ;  he  is  a  liberal  and 
generous  man,  to  which  fact  the  community  at 
large  will  testify;  he  is  a  philosophic  man,  for 
he  has  succeeded  in  getting  the  best  out  of  life 
that  there  was  in  it.  Since  his  retirement  from 
active  business  pursuits  he  has  traveled  exten- 
sively in  both  the  old  world  and  new.  His  con- 
tact with  his  fellow  men  has  broadened  his  na- 
ture and  his  views,  if  such  were  possible;  and 
hale,  hearty,  erect  and  vigorous  at  three  score 
years  and  ten,  his  faculties  undimnied,  his 
physique  but  little  impaired  by  age,  many  years 
of  undiminished  usefulness  yet  seem  before  him. 
Such  men  are  rare,  and  the  world  is  not  slow  to 
appreciate  them.  It  is  safe  to  say  no  man  in  De- 
catur has  more  or  warmer  friends  than  Dr. 
William  A.  Barnes. 


36 


BIOGUAPIIICAL  nrr'TIOXARr  AXI>  POIlTIiATT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


JOHN  BICE  TURNER, 

CHICAGO. 


TIIF.  man  that  has  bridged  over  space  and 
practically  annihilated  time  by  the  work  of 
his  inventive  and  enterprising  spirit,  deserves  to 
be  numbered  among  the  benefactors  of  the  race. 
'Tis  an  age  of  progress,  when  vast  commercial 
transactions  involving  millions  of  dollars  depend 
upon  rapid  transportation.  The  revolution  in 
business  that  the  past  half  a  century,  or  even 
less,  has  witnessed,  has  been  brought  about  by 
the  means  of  the  railroads;  and  the  man  in  whose 
brain  originated  the  scheme  of  establishing  the 
highway  of  travel  throughout  the  Northwest  was 
John  Bice  Turner.  Through  this  means  he 
opened  up  to  civilization  a  vast  region  with  un- 
limited resources,  providing  for  every  means  of 
labor,  giving  homes  to  the  miner,  the  farmer, 
the  commercial  man.  The  advent  of  railroads 
has  marked  the  advancing  civilization  in  all  coun- 
tries, and  has  been  the  means  of  uniting  the  dififer- 
ent  portions  of  America,  making  it  one  and  an 
inseparable  union.  Mr.  Turner  was  a  great  rail- 
road organizer,  an  important  factor  in  uniting, 
expanding  and  consolidating  the  intersecting 
and  co-operative  lines  of  railway,  which  extend 
from  coast  to  coast  and  from  the  Gulf  to  the  cold 
border  of  British  America. 

Mr.  Turner  began  life  almost  with  the  century 
and  spent  the  first  half  of  his  career  in  close  touch 
with  the  interests  of  the  East.  He  was  then 
closely  identified  with  Chicago  until  shortly  before 
the  great  fire,  when,  on  the  26th  of  February,  187 1, 
at  the  ripe  age  of  seventy-two  years,  he  passed 
away.  Born  in  1799,  in  Colchester,  Delaware 
county.  New  York,  he  lost  his  father  when  but 
two  years  old,  and  at  the  age  of  fourteen  became 
an  orphan  by  the  death  of  his  mother.  He  was 
adopted  by  a  j\Ir.  Powers,  with  whom  he  re- 
mained until  his  twentieth  year,  assisting  in  the 
work  of  the  farm  and  of  the  tan-yard,  while  in 
the  winter  season  he  attended  school.  He  was 
always  industrious  and  self-reliant  and  used 
every  opportunity  for  attaining  the  high  stand- 
ard which  his  ambition  placed  before  him. 

In  1819  I\Ir.  Turner  married  Miss  Alartha  Vol- 
untine,  of  Malta,  Saratoga  county.   New  York, 


who  died  in  March,  1855.  He  aftenvard  wedded 
Miss  Adeline  Williams,  of  Columbus,  Georgia. 
Among  his  six  children,  three  of  whom  are  sons, 
the  eldest,  \^oluntine  C.  Turner,  a  well-known 
citizen  and  a  man  of  scholarly  attainments,  is 
living  a  retired  life  in  Chicago,  but  was  long  at 
the  head  of  the  North  Chicago  Street  Railway. 

Soon  after  his  first  marriage  Mr.  Turner  se- 
cured an  interest  in  a  farm,  but  in  1824  sold  it 
and  opened  a  store,  mill  and  distillery  at  Malta- 
ville.  Six  years  later  reverses  came  and  he  lost 
much  of  his  property.  What  then  seemed  a  great 
misfortune  proved  otherwise,  for  it  was  the  means 
of  his  turning  his  attention  to  railroading.  Dur- 
ing the  next  five  years  of  struggle  to  regain 
his  lost  wealth  he  was  becoming  more  and  more 
interested  in  the  future  possibilities  of  railroads 
as  means  of  transportation,  and  in  April,  1836, 
he  contracted  to  build  seven  miles  of  the  Troy 
&  Saratoga  Railroad, — a  work  done  with  such 
completeness  and  success  that  he  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  road.  The  company  purchased 
thirty  horses,  and  barns  were  erected  every  ten 
miles,  for  most  of  the  trains  were  drawn  by  horses. 
There  was  but  one  five-ton  locomotive  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  second  one,  the  Cham- 
plain,  was  placed  on  this  road  by  Mr.  Turner. 
His  scrupulous  honesty,  which  avoided  even  the 
appearance  of  speculation  that  might  suggest 
personal  profit,  won  him  a  reputation  as  great 
as  did  his  services  as  a  railway  organizer.  In 
November  of  the  same  year  he  joined  a  partner 
in  constructing  the  Delaware  division  of  the  New 
York  &  Erie  Railroad.  When  the  panic  of  1837 
came  on  the  road  suiTered  to  some  extent,  be- 
ing affected  by  the  general  stagnation  of  busi- 
ness, but  was  soon  again  in  a  thriving  and  pros- 
perous condition.  In  connection  with  his  broth- 
er-in-law, John  Vernam,  he  constructed  the  Gen- 
esee Valley  canal,  which  for  a  time  promised  to 
be  a  financial  failure,  but  afterward  yielded  a 
rich  return  to  its  promoters.  This  and  a  section 
of  the  Troy  &  Schenectady  Railroad  were  both 
finished  by  the  spring  of  1843. 

These  enterprises  placed  ]\[r.  Turner's  affairs 


"^A^^  Ji3, 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


:}7 


once  more  on  a  firm  financial  basis,  and  it  was 
then  that  he  determined  to  examine  the  great 
Mississippi  valley.  He  was  so  impressed  with 
its  possibilities  that  he  came  to  Chicago,  then  an 
insignificant  town  by  the  lake,  and'  here  he  was 
far-sighted  enough  to  realize  the  favorable  op- 
portunities of  location  and  to  see  promises  of 
future  development.  A  man  who  had  foreseen 
the  advantages  of  uniting  the  lakes  with  the  sea- 
board naturally  thought  to  unite  the  lakes,  the 
great  water-way,  with  the  interior.  On  the  15th 
of  October,  1843,  he  established  his  family  in  the 
old  Tremont  House  of  Chicago.  The  following 
spring  he  purchased  one  thousand  acres  of  land 
south  of  Blue  Island  and  put  upon  it  a  great 
flock  of  Ohio  sheep,  that  he  might  have  some 
other  business  interests  than  railroad  projection 
and  construction, — then  a  somewhat  uncertain 
venture. 

While  Mr.  Turner  was  engaged  in  his  earlier 
railroad  work  in  the  East,  the  Galena,  Chicago 
&  Union  Railroad  had  been  surveyed  (in  1837) 
and  a  small  section  constructed,  but  work  was 
then  suspended  for  ten  years.  On  the  5th  of 
April,  1847,  ^Ii".  Turner  joined  William  B.  Og- 
den  in  reviving  the  work  and  the  latter  became 
president  of  the  company,  while  the  former  was 
made  director  of  operations.  A  survey  was  made 
by  Richard  P.  Morgan,  and  the  officials  began 
collecting  subscriptions  for  the  new  concern.  By 
December,  1850,  the  line  had  been  extended  be- 
yond Elgin,  and  the  year  1852  saw  it  at  Free- 
port,  connecting  there  with  the  Illinois  Central. 
Air.  Turner  became  president  of  this  company 
in  1850,  and,  in  connection  with  the  work  before 
mentioned,  completed,  within  the  next  few  years, 
the  Dixon  Air  Line  and  partly  the  trunk  line 
across  Iowa.  In  1853  he  organized  the  Beloit 
&  Madison  Railroad  Company,  and  though  he 
resigned  the  active  presidency  in  1858  he  was 
equally  influential  with  Mr.  Ogden  in  the  direc- 
tion of  its  affairs.  In  June,  1864,  when  the  Ga- 
lena road  was  united  with  the  Chicago  &  North- 
western in  one  system,  he  was  made  the  chair- 
man of  the  managing  committee.  His  mana- 
gerial and  executive  ability  were  of  a  high  order, 
his  energy  and  enterprise  seemingly  inexhausti- 
ble, and  his  resolute  purpose  carried  forward  to 


successful  completion  whatever  he  imdertook. 
As  the  city  grew  and  there  was  a  demand  for  local 
transportation,  he  became  a  director  in  the  North 
Chicago  Street  Railroad. 

It  was  during  the  time  of  the  war  that  an  in- 
citlent  occurred  which  showed  the  lofty  regard 
in  which  he  was  held  by  the  leaders  of  the  country. 
There  was  a  growing  suspicion  that  the  railways 
were  defrauding  the  Government  in  the  West  and 
.Southwest.  John  B.  Turner  was  the  man  whom 
the  investigating  committee  chose  to  examine 
the  situation  and  present  to  the  Government  fig- 
ures concerning  the  accounts,  and  his  figures 
were  accepted  as  final  without  alteration. 

All  who  knew  Air.  Turner  or  who  knew  of  him 
had  the  utmost  confidence  in  him,  and  his  pub- 
lic and  private  life  were  alike  above  reproach. 
He  retained  connection  with  the  great  railway 
system  which  he  had  created  until  his  death,  and 
made  it  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  country. 
Its  lines  were  extended,  its  traffic  increased  and 
the  enterprise  became  one  of  the  paying  indus- 
tries of  the  great  Northwest,  and  success  paved 
the  way  for  other  similar  successes  and  demon- 
strated by  what  means  the  tidings  of  enlighten- 
ment and  civilization  were  to  come  to  the  utter- 
most ends  of  the  earth.  His  loss  to  railway  cir- 
cles was  irreparable;  for,  in  the  words  of  Gen- 
eral Manager  Dunlap,  he  was  a  "judicious  and 
faithful  counselor,  genial  companion  and  Chris- 
tian gentleman.  His  devotion  to  the  national 
interests  of  the  country  was  excelled  only  by  the 
patriotism  which  never  lost  sight  of  the  highest 
duties  of  citizenship.  His  good  works  live  after 
him  and  will  keep  his  memory  forever  green. 
He  was  one  of  those  far-sighted  forefathers  who 
laid  deep  and  broad  the  foundations  upon  which 
the  men  of  later  days  are  building;  and  when  the 
marvelous  history  of  railroad  development  m 
America  and  of  the  world  shall  be  written  the 
name  of  John  Bice  Turner  will  occupy  an  hon- 
ored place  as  that  of  a  great  originator,  con- 
structor, organizer  and  operator  who  dared  when 
others  dared  not,  and  was  modest  in  his  claim  to 
public  notice  when  his  small  imitators  were  clam- 
oring for  the  credit  of  his  work.  He  lived  and 
labored  and  died  like  the  truly  great  man  that 


BIOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 

CHARLES  H.  ALDRICH, 


AUGUST  26,  1850,  in  La  Grange  county, 
Indiana,  is  the  date  and  place  of  Mr.  Aid- 
rich's  birth.  He  lived  upon  a  farm  until  he  was 
sixteen  years  of  age,  when  his  father  removed  to 
Orland,  Steuben  county,  Indiana,  for  the  purpose 
of  sending  his  children  to  an  excellent  school  then 
in  existence  in  that  village. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  a  delicate,  fragile- 
looking  boy,  fond  of  reading  and  of  studious 
habits,  and  when  taken  from  the  outdoor  life  of 
the  farm  to  the  more  confined  life  of  the  school, 
his  health  became  so  uncertain  that  his  father  con- 
cluded that  he  could  not  survive  the  education 
which  had  been  promised  him,  and  that  he  would 
be  unable  to  follow  the  profession  of  law  to  which 
he  looked  forward.  The  father  therefore  re- 
fused to  send  him  to  the  university,  whereupon  the 
son  left  home  and  worked  for  his  board  until  he 
finished  his  preparation  for  college  and  part  of 
his  college  course.  A  kind  friend  became  inter- 
ested in  the  ambitious  and  gifted  youth,  and  in- 
sisted upon  advancing  as  a  loan  the  money  re- 
quired to  pay  the  expenses  during  the  last  half  of 
the  college  course,  and  later  made  further  ad- 
vances that  the  young  man  might  go  at  once  into 
the  study  and  practice  of  his  profession  and  not 
1(  se  time  in  teaching.  The  record  made  by  a 
youth  pursuing  his  studies  under  such  circum- 
stances was,  of  course,  a  highly  creditable  one. 
He  was  graduated  at  Michigan  University,  in  the 
classical  course,  in  1875,  and  the  university  has 
since  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts. 

He  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  at 
Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  and  remained  af  that  place 
until  April,  1886,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  in  these  early  years  no  man 
in  the  legal  profession  in  Indiana  of  his  age  had 
a  higher  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  gentleman,  or 
was  more  esteemed  by  the  older  lawyers  and  by 
the  bench.  He  enjoyed  the  confidence  and  friend- 
ship of  such  men  as  Thomas  A.  Hendricks, 
Colonel  Abram  Hendricks,  Benjamin  Harrison, 
W.  H.  H.  Miller,  Joseph  E.  McDonald,  John  M. 
Butler,  Oscar  B.  Hord,  Noble  E.  Butler,  W.  P. 
Fishback,  R.  S.  Taylor,  Allen  Zollars,  etc.,  many 


of  whom  had  then  or  have  since  acquired  a 
national  reputation. 

In  Chicago,  Mr.  Aldrich  soon  took  high  rank 
as  an  able  and  successful  lawyer.  He  is  modest 
and  retiring,  adhering  to  the  old  views  of  profes- 
sional ethics,  which  discountenance  all  manner  of 
advertising  and  self-adulation.  He  is  a  public- 
spirited  citizen,  always  ready  to  support  real  re- 
forms of  existing  abuses  in  the  law  or  its  admin- 
istration and  to  encourage  and  support  institutions 
calculated  to  aid  his  fellow  men.  He  prefers  to 
d)  this  modestly  and  no  noise  is  ever  made  about 
his  action.  Tliere  is  no  effort  on  his  part  to  be- 
come a  leader.  His  tastes  lead  him  to  choose 
a  quiet  life  of  work  in  his  profession,  study  and 
reflection.  His  home,  his  profession  and  the 
questions  of  the  day,  covering  a  wide  range  of 
study,  absorb  him,  and  in  these  he  finds  his  great- 
est enjoyment.  Few  men  have  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  country  or  its 
public  men,  or  have  devoted  more  time  to  the 
study  of  the  social  and  economic  questions  of  the 
times. 

Mr.  Aldrich  was  appointed  special  counsel  for 
the  Unted  States  in  its  Pacific  railroad  litigations 
growing  out  of  the  so-called  Anderson  act  in 
1890.  He  was  successful  in  both  cases,  which  he 
argued  in  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United  States 
for  Nebraska  and  California,  and  these  successes, 
opposed  as  he  was  by  some  of  the  leading  counsel 
of  the  United  States,  led  to  his  selection  as  Solici- 
tor General  of  the  United  States,  to  succeed  Wil- 
liam H.  Taft,  who  was  in  1891  appointed  a  judge 
of  the  United  States  Court  of  Appeals.  He  held 
the  office  of  Solicitor  General  until  June,  1893. 
There  was  but  one  opinion,  irrespective  of  party, 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  he  discharged  his  duties, 
and  that  was  that  the  office  was  never  more  ably 
filled.  In  a  brief  time  he  impressed  himself  tipon 
the  country  as  an  able  lawyer  and  a  fearless  and 
conservative  administrative  officer.  The  Chinese 
Exclusion,  Hat  Trimmings,  the  Cherokee  and 
other  cases  gave  evidence  of  his  power  as  a  lawyer; 
and  while  defeat  came  in  one  of  these,  a  justice  of 
the  supreme  court  has  said  that  the  argument  was 
one  of  the  most  masterly  he  had  ever  heard  and 


iTie  Cenlury ruiiishing  ijingriviitg  Co.  CMoajo. 


^^i 


^■>s......_J^ ^k^'i-t^^i^^^''^^ 


/ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TEE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


39 


unfortunate  precedents  alone  was  responsible  for 
the  result. 

The  opinion  prepared  by  Mr.  Aldrich  upon  the 
power  of  the  national  Government  in  matters  of 
public  health  and  quarantine  regulation,  also  upon 
the  scope  and  effect  of  the  election  law,  showed 
a  broad  grasp  and  met  the  cordial  approval  of  the 
legal  profession  conversant  with  the  questions, 
while  his  opinion  that  the  administration  might 
issue  bonds  to  maintain  resumption  and  keep  the 
money  of  the  United  States  at  a  parity  was  prac- 
tically adopted  and  has  been  acted  upon  by  ^Ir. 
Cleveland's  second  administration. 

Mr.  Aldrich  is  an  earnest  Republican,  a  mem- 
ber and  trustee  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Evanston,  a  member  and  first  vice-president 
of  the  Union  League  Club  of  Chicago,  and  also 
a  member  of  the  University  Club  of  Chicago,  the 
Literary  Club  of  Chicago,  the  Evanston  Club  and 
the  Country  Club  of  Evanston.  He  also  belongs 
to  the  American  Bar  Association,  the  Illinois 
State  Bar  Association,  of  which  he  is  first  vice- 
president,  and  to  the  Chicago  Bar  Association 


and  the  Lawyers'  Club  of  New  York  city.  He 
is  also  a  member  of  the  Central  Council  of  the 
Civic  Federation  of  Chicago,  and  was  chairman 
of  the  conuuittee  which  prepared  a  new  charter 
for  the  city,  which  has  met  with  the  highest  praise 
by  those  who  have  given  much  attention  to  the 
principles  of  municipal  government,  but  which 
has  not  yet  received  the  approval  of  the  legisla- 
ture of  this  State. 

When  asked  what  public  act  of  his  he  regarded 
with  the  most  satisfaction,  he  answered:  "My 
attempt  to  put  an  end  to  what  I  regard  as  the 
oppressive  and  fraudulent  telephone  monopoly, 
and  which  I  have  faith  will  yet  prove  suc- 
cessful." 

He  was  married  October  13,  1875,  ^o  Miss 
Helen  Roberts,  and  three  children  bless  their 
union.  In  vigorous  health,  enjoying  a  large  and 
lucrative  practice,  esteemed  by  all  who  know  him, 
blessed  with  a  happy  home  and  those  temporal 
aids  with  which  a  home  can  be  made  beautiful, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  may  well  be  called  a 
successful  man. 


SAMUEL  C.  EELLS, 


SAMUEL  COOK  EELLS  wasbom  in  Walton, 
Delaware  county.  New  York,  Mardi  19, 1822. 
The  Eells  family  is  of  New  England  origin,  de- 
scending from  one  of  the  early  Colonial  families 
that  emigrated  from  the  old  world.  The  paternal 
grandfather  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who 
also  was  named  Samuel,  was  an  independent 
farmer,  and  in  1800  became  a  pioneer  of  Delaware 
county.  It  was  during  the  latter  year  that 
Nathaniel  G.  Eells,  the  father  of  our  subject,  was 
bom.  He  was  brought  up  to  the  hardy  occupa- 
tion of  a  farmer,  and  also  engaged  in  the  lumber 
business.  He  married  Betty  St.  John,  a  native 
of  Connecticut,  whose  grandfather  and  six  of  his 
sons  serv^ed  in  the  Revolutionary  war.  Nathaniel 
Eells  died  when  a  young  man,  and  his  wife  was  left 
in  straitened  circumstances,  with  four  children  to 
care  for. 

Samuel,  who  was  the  second  child  and  eldest 
son,  was  reared  on  a  farm,  assisting,  as  soon  as 
he  became  able,  in  its  cultivation.     His  primarj- 


education  was  such  as  he  could  obtain  at  the  local 
school,  supplemented  by  a  course  at  an 
academy.  Here  he  made  rapid  progress,  and 
when  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age  was  amply  qual- 
ified to  teach,  a  profession  that  he  at  once  entered 
upon.  When  nineteen  years  old  he  became  a 
clerk  in  a  general  store  in  his  native  village  and 
continued  in  that  capacity  until  1854.  In  that 
year  he  came  to  Dixon,  at  the  solicitation  of  Mr. 
John  S.  Coleman,  of  the  firm  of  Robertson  & 
Coleman,  of  Rockford,  who  was  interested  in  a 
bank  at  Dixon.  Mr.  Eells  entered  the  employ  of 
Robertson,  Eastman  &  Company  as  bookkeeper; 
and  a  year  later,  when  Mr.  Eastman  withdrew 
from  the  firm,  he  became  his  successor,  the  new 
title  being  Robertson,  Eells  &  Company.  In  1859 
another  change  occurred,  and  the  firm  of  Eells  & 
Coleman  conducted  the  business  until  1865,  when 
it  became  the  Lee  County  National  Bank,  with 
Mr.  Eells  as  cashier.  This  position  he  filled  ably 
and  creditably  until  the  expiration  of  the  bank's 


40 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


charter  in  1885,  at  which  time  the  City  National 
Bank  was  organized,  with  nearly  the  same  stock- 
holders as  the  Lee  County  National.  Mr.  Eells 
continued  as  cashier  until  the  death  of  President 
Joseph  Crawford  in  1891,  and  then  became  presi- 
dent. The  capital  stock  of  the  bank  is  $100,000, 
with  a  surplus  fund  of  $20,000  and  an  average 
deposit  account  of  $250,000.  Its  career  has  been 
a  most  successful  one  and  may  be  ascribed  to  the 
careful,  conservative  management  of  Mr.  Eells 
and  to  his  close  attention  to  all  the  minute  details 
of  its  affairs. 

In  politics  Mr.  Eells  is  a  strong  Republican  and 


was  formerly  a  Whig.  Before  he  came  West  he 
served  as  superintendent  of  schools  in  Delaware 
county  for  three  or  four  years,  but  he  has  since 
then  had  no  ambition  for  public  office.  The 
peaceful,  quiet  walks  of  business  life,  undisturbed 
by  outside  causes,  ai^e  far  more  to  his  liking,  and 
here  has  been  the  true  sphere  of  his  usefulness 
and  here  he  has  ever  been  successful. 

In  1854  he  was  united  in  marriage  to  Aliss 
Anna  More,  of  Delhi,  Delaware  countv,  New 
York,  and  they  have  three  children:  Caroline  W., 
Anna,  now  Mrs.  Charles  C.  Upham,  and  Bessie 
Pauline. 


LESTER  L.  BOND, 


WHATEVER  else  may  be  said  of  the  legal 
fraternity,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  mem- 
bers of  the  bar  have  been  more  prominent  actors 
in  public  affairs  than  any  other  class  of  the  Amer- 
ican people.  This  is  but  the  natural  result  of 
causes  which  are  manifest  and  require  no  expla- 
nation. The  ability  and  training  which  qualify 
one  to  practice  law  also  qualify  him  in  many  re- 
spects for  duties  which  lie  outside  the  sphere 
of  his  profession  and  which  touch  the  general 
interests  of  society.  The  subject  of  this  record  is 
a  man  who  has  brought  his  keen  discrimination 
and  thorough  wisdom  to  bear  not  alone  in  pro- 
fessional patlis  but  also  for  the  benefit  of  the 
city  which  has  so  long  been  his  home  and  with 
whose  interests  he  has  been  thoroughly  identified. 
He  holds  and  merits  a  place  among  the  repre- 
sentative legal  practitioners  and  citizens  of  Chi- 
cago, and  the  story  of  his  life,  while  not  uramatic 
in  action,  is  such  an  one  as  offers  a  typical  ex- 
ample of  that  alert  American  spirit  which  has 
enabled  many  an  individual  to  rise  from  obscurity 
to  a  position  of  influence  and  renown  solely 
through  native  talent,  indomitable  perseverance 
and  singleness  of  purpose.  In  making  the  record 
of  such  a  life  contemporar}'  biography  exercises 
its  most  consistent  and  important  function. 

Lester  L.  Bond,  son  of  Jonas  and  Elizabeth 
(Story)  Bond,  was  bom  at  Ravenna,  Ohio,  on 
the  27th  day  of  October,  1829.  On  the  pater- 
nal side  Mr.  Bond  is  descended  from  John  Bond, 


the  original  ancestor  of  the  family  in  America, 
who  settled  in  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  about 
the  time  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  from 
whom,  in  direct  and  collateral  lines,  are  supposed 
to  have  descended  the  several  branches  of  the 
Bond  family  now  represented  in  divers  sections 
of  the  Union.  The  family  name  is  well  known 
in  this  country,  and  many  who  bear  the  name 
aie  to-day  holding  high  positions  in  business  and 
professional  circles  of  the  L^nited  States.  The 
old  Bond  homestead,  which  still  stands,  at  Ips- 
wich, Massachusetts,  is  one  of  the  historic  land- 
marks of  New  England,  its  erection  having  taken 
place  scarce  more  than  a  decade  subsequent  to 
the  arrival  in  America  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 
A  volume  might  consistently  be  written  on  the 
New  World  history  of  this  family, — indeed,  there 
is  one  such,  either  published  or  in  course  of  pub- 
lication, in  which  those  represented  claim  John 
Bond  as  their  common  ancestor.  On  his  moth- 
er's side  jMr.  Bond  is  connected  with  another 
family  well  known  in  American  history,  that  is, 
the  Story  family,  for  his  mother  was  the  daughter 
of  a  cousin  of  the  renowned  Judge  Joseph  Story, 
of  Massachusetts. 

The  subject  of  this  review  acquired  his  early 
education  in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  town 
and  later  pursued  an  academic  course.  As  he 
grew  older  and  was  able  to  make  himself  of  value 
in  the  line  of  manual  labor,  he  attended  school 
during  the  winter  only  and  in  the  summer  was 


REPRESENTATIVE  3IEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


4] 


employed  at  various  times  in  a  box  factor)',  a 
steam  sawmill  and  in  a  machine  shop,  and 
it  was  this  same  experience  whicli  quickened  his 
ambition  and  led  him  to  determine  upon  the 
study  of  law  as  a  profession.  He  was  of  de- 
termined character  and  was  soon  able  to  so 
shi-.pe.  his  affairs  as  to  begin  the  study  of  law 
in  the  office  of  F.  W.  Tappan,  completing 
his  studies  vmder  the  preceptorage  of  Messrs. 
Bierce  &  Jeffries,  the  latter  of  whom  sub- 
sequently became  comptroller  of  the  currency 
under  President  Johnson.  Mr.  Bond  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  on  the  15th  of  October,  1853.  He 
came  to  Chicago  on  the  28th  day  of  May,  1854, 
and  here  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion, continuing  a  common  practice  for  a  period 
of  five  years,  and  a  mixed  practice  for  about  ten 
years,  since  which  time  he  has  devoted  his  at- 
tention exclusively  to  patent  law.  In  this  branch 
of  the  legal  profession  Mr.  Bond  is  a  recognized 
authority  and  his  record  is  one  of  the  highest  or- 
der. His  interest  in  mechanical  and  other  inven- 
tions was  early  awakened  in  the  shops  and  mills, 
and  from  thoughts  of  invention  it  was  but  in  nat- 
ural sequence  that  professionally  he  should  turn 
his  attention  to  the  protection  of  inventors  and 
their  work. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion 
Mr.  Bond  tendered  his  services  to  tlie  Govern- 
ment, but  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  had  but  re- 
cently passed  through  a  severe  illness,  which 
left  him  somewhat  impaired  in  constitutional 
vigor,  the  recruiting  officers  declined  to  receive 
his  enlistment,  and  consequently  he  was  not  per- 
mitted to  lend  his  aid  to  the  Union  cause  on  the 
field  of  battle,  though  his  efforts  in  behalf  of  the 
same  were  not  without  result  as  exercised  in  a 
civic  capacitj'.  Reared  an  abolitionist,  he  has 
been  a  Republican  since  his  first  ballot  was  cast, 
and  in  his  earlier  manhood  he  frequently  served 
his  party  in  official  capacities.  Thus  he  served 
two  terms  in  the  common  council  of  Chicago, 
from  1862  to  1866,  and  did  good  service  for  his 
constituents,  being  for  two  years  chairman  of  the 
finance  committee.  In  1868  he  was  one  of  the  presi- 
dential electors  from  Illinois,  and  in  1871  he  was 
again  elected  to  the  city  council,  serving  for  two 
years,  during  a  portion  of  which  time  he  was 
acting  mayor  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Bond  was  also  a 
member  of  the  State  legislature  for  two  terms, 


and  it  was  within  his  second  term  that  he  brought 
to  successful  issue  that  measure  which  has  since 
so  greatly  redounded  to  his  credit  and  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  that  portion  of  Chicago  lying  west 
of  the  river.  The  issue  during  the  campaign  had 
been  on  the  establishment  of  the  South  Side 
parks,  and  the  West  Side  1  delegation,  con- 
sisting of  Mr.  Bond  and  two  other  gentlemen, 
was  elected  on  the  anti-park  ticket,  and  went  to 
Springfield  with  the  intention  of  fighting  to  the 
bitter  end  the  proposed  legislation  to  establish 
the  South  Side  park  system.  Early  in  the  con- 
test Mr.  Bond  discerned  the  fact  that  they  were 
entering  upon  a  useless  struggle,  and  being  de- 
termined to  at  least  secure  as  much  considera- 
tion for  the  West  Side  as  he  could,  he  called  his 
two  coadjutors  into  his  private  room  and  laid 
before  them  his  views  on  the  matter.  They  con- 
curred with  him,  and  after  a  conference  with 
their  late  opponents  they  pushed  through  the 
South  Side  park  bill,  thus  incidentally  giving  the 
West  Side  the  magnificent  parks  with  which  it 
is  now  graced.  INIr.  Bond  believed  that  this  ac- 
tion would  for  a  time  place  him  under  a  cloud 
with  his  constituents,  but  he  was  willing  to  make 
the  sacrifice,  knowing  that  the  wisdom  of  his 
course  would  not  fail  to  be  justified  later.  Sub- 
sequent events  have  proven  the  correctness  of 
his  views,  and  to  him  west  Chicago  largely  owes 
the  establishment  of  her  magnificent  park  system. 

After  serving  his  second  term  in  the  legisla- 
ture Mr.  Bond  saw  that  his  political  service  was 
interfering  too  much  with  the  business  of  his 
office,  and  so  concluded  to  give  up  politics  and 
devote  his  entire  attention  to  his  legal  business. 
This  decision  he  has  never  had  cause  to  regret, 
for  his  business  has  shown  a  most  gratifying  in- 
crease from  year  to  year,  and  to-day  the  firm  of 
which  he  is  the  head  is  one  of  the  best  known 
patent-law  firms  in  the  Union. 

On  the  i2th  day  of  October,  1856,  Mr.  Bond 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Amy  S.  Aspinwall, 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  N.  W.  Aspinwall,  of 
Peacham,  Vermont,  and  a  lineal  descendant  of 
Peregrine  White,  celebrated  as  the  first  child  of 
English  parentage  in  New  England.  They  have 
one  daughter,  Laura,  who  is  now  the  wife  of  Mr. 
John  L.  Jackson,  a  member  of  the  firm  of  law- 
yers of  which  Mr.  Bond  is  the  senior  member. 

Mr.  Bond  has  been  for  years  identified  with  the 


42 


BWORAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  has  ever  been 
a  Hberal  contributor  to  all  objects  tending  to  ad- 
vance the  welfare  of  the  church,  and  in  his  daily 
walk  has  shown  himself  to  be  consistent  with  the 
beliefs  which  he  professes,  being  generous  and 
charitable  in  answering  the  appeals  of  the  dis- 
tressed. He  has  been  a  member  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity  for  many  years,  having  advanced  to 
the  tliirty-seoond  degree  of  the  Scottish  rite,  and  is 
past  commander  of  Chicago  commandery  of 
Knights  Templar,  No.  19. 

He  has  visited  nearly  every  point  of  interest  in  the 
United  States,  having  traveled  over  every  State  in 
the  Union,  excepting  Oregon,  and  made  tsvo  voy- 
ages to  Europe,  where  he  visited  the  principal  cities. 

In  his  social  relations  he  is  identified  with  the 
Union  League  and  the  Illinois  Clubs,  and  is 
popular  alike  with  the  members  of  each.  In 
personal  appearance  Mr.    Bond  is  a  magnificent 


specimen  of  physical  manhood,  being  slightly 
over  six  feet  in  height  and  weighing  about  270 
pounds.  In  manner  he  is  genial  and  courteous 
and  his  friends  are  in  number  as  his  acquaintances. 
He  is  deservedly  popular  with  all  classes,  and  only 
his  decision,  made  many  years  ago  and  so  strictly 
adhered  to,  has  kept  him  out  of  public  office. 

During  the  short  time  that  he  served  the  pub- 
lic in  an  official  capacity  he  made  an  admirable 
record,  giving  equal  satisfaction  as  alderman, 
member  of  the  board  of  education — which  latter 
office  beheld  for  four  years — and  as  a  legislator. 
As  a  lawyer  he  stands  high  with  the  profession, 
while  in  his  special  branch  he  has  no  superior. 
He  has  sustained  the  honorable  record  made  by 
the  family,  and  the  roster  from  the  time  of  John 
Bond  to  the  present  day  shows  no  truer  man  or 
better  citizen  than  Lester  L.  Bond,  the  pioneer 
patent  lawyer  of  the  Northwest. 


PHILIP  D.  ARMOUR, 


MR.  ARMOUR  is  distinctively  American: 
so  were  his  ancestors,  both  lineal  and  col- 
lateral, for  generations.  In  the  early  history  of  the 
paternal  wingof  the  family,  special  mention  ismade 
of  the  ancestors  as  having  "bright  ideas,  and  noted 
for  their  clever  acts."  The  maternal  branch  of  the 
family  is  of  old  Puritan  stock,  and  said  to  possess 
an  unusual  amount  of  good  connnon  sense.  Such 
was  the  ancestry  of  Danforth  Armour  and  Julianna 
Brooks,  the  father  and  mother. 

They  left  Union,  Connecticut,  September,  1825, 
and  settled  at  Stockbridge,  Madison  county, 
New  York,  where  Philip  D.  Armour  was 
born,  INIay  16,  1832.  There  were  six  broth- 
ers and  two  sisters.  Farming  was  their  oc- 
cupation. Habitual  frugality  and  industry 
were  the  fundamental  principles  and  charac- 
teristic features  of  the  parents.  These  fam- 
ily tenets  were  laid  down  in  their  simplest 
forms  and  instilled  with  human  sunshine  into  the 
life  of  each  child.  Their  school  days  were  the 
best  the  local  red  school-house  could  aflord. 
Some  of  the  children  were  fortunate  enough  to 
attend  the  neighboring  village  seminary.  This 
was  the  case  with  Philip,  and  many  are  the  anec- 
dotes that  are  related  of  him.    He  was  genial  to 


a  degree,  healthy,  resolute  and  strong;  he  held  his 
own  wherever  events  found  him, — not  a  follower, 
but  a  leader,  of  his  schoolmates,  as  later  events 
\\  ere  bound  to  make  him  among  his  fellow-men. 
During  the  winter  of  1851-2,  the  excitement 
attending  the  gold  discovery  in  California  hav- 
ing spread  over  the  country,  a  party  was  organ- 
ized to  make  the  overland  trip.  Mr.  Armour  was 
invited  to  join  them,  and  was  influenced  by  a 
growing  desire  to  get  out  into  the  world.  A 
country  life  on  Stockbridge  hills  was  too  obscure 
for  one  so  tempered.  He  was  entering  his  man- 
hood, and  to  go  was  only  to  satisfy  his  ambition. 
The  party  left  Oneida,  New  York,  in  the  spring  of 
1852,  and  reached  California  six  months  later.  In 
making  this  trip  they  were  not  exempt  from  the 
trials  and  dangers  attending  similar  journeys. 
A  miner's  life,  as  every  one  knows,  has  its  pri- 
vations and  uncomfortable  surroundings.  These 
were  not  to  be  endured  in  vain.  The  pitfalls  and 
vices  so  common  in  a  country  that  was  turned 
over  to  so  many  adventurers  could  not  find 
lodgment  with  one  of  so  resolute  a  character  and 
fixed  a  purpose.  The  vicissitudes  of  his  early  ex- 
perience rather  tended  to  broaden  his  views  and 
knit  togetlier  his  dominant  characteristics. 


^^^^C(M^   of  T^v^.,^-^..^.^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


43 


In  1856  he  returned  to  the  East  and  visited  his 
parents,  whom  he  always  held  in  reverential 
affection.  He  minutely  laid  before  them  all  he 
had  accomplished  during  his  absence.  To  a  few 
of  the  most  intimate  friends  of  the  family  the 
father  whispered  the  fact  of  the  young  man  hav- 
ing brought  back  some  money  with  him. 

After  remaining  with  them  for  a  few  weeks,  he 
once  more  turned  westward  and  finally  located  in 
Milwaukee,  where  he  formed  a  co-partnership  and 
entered  the  commission  business  with  Frederick 
B.  Miles.  After  a  successful  run  they  dissolved, 
in  1863.  The  dogmatic  and  persistent  way  in 
which  he  pursued  his  business,  his  characteristic 
manner  in  grasping  out  for  new  ideas,  brought 
him  prominently  before  his  fellow  townspeople. 
Tliough  yet  young,  he  was  looked  upon  by  many 
with  almost  envy  at  the  prestige  he  had  attained. 

In  the  spring  of  1863,  there  occurred  what  later 
years  proved  the  forerunner  of  a  very  successful 
business  engagement  in  the  partnership  arrange- 
ment between  John  Plankinton  and  Philip  Ar- 
mour. Mr.  Plankinton  had  been  for  some  years 
previously  engaged  in  the  pork-packing  industry 
with  Frederick  Layton.  This  firm  had  dissolved, 
as  that  also  of  Miles  &  Armour  before  men- 
tioned. Mr.  Plankinton  was  Mr.  Armour's 
senior,  and  had  been  a  resident  of  Milwaukee  for 
a  much  longer  period.  He  had  established  a  most 
thriving  business,  which  had  been  conducted  with 
unerring  judgment.  He  stood  high  as  a  mer- 
chant and  commanded  the  respect  of  all  as  a 
public-spirited  citizen.  This  was  Mr.  Armour's 
opportunity.  How  well  he  handled  himself  and 
the  business  that  fell  to  him,  the  historj'  of  the 
commercial  world  is  alone  our  witness.  To  the 
pork-packing  business  of  Mr.  Plankinton  he 
brought  that  unremitting  labor  and  concentration 
of  thought  that  were  so  peculiarly  his  own.  The 
fluctuations  in  the  price  of  provisions  at  the 
closing  scenes  of  the  war  left  the  firm  with  a 
fortune.  This  with  the  developments  of  the 
country  gave  them  an  opportunity  of  extending 
their  growing  business. 

At  Chicago,  in  1862,  Mr.  Armour's  brother, 
Herman  O.  Armour,  had  established  himself  in 
the  grain  commission  business,  but  was  induced 
to  surrender  this  to  a  younger  brother,  Joseph  F. 
Armour,  in  1865,  and  take  charge  of  a  new  firm 


in  New  York,  then  organized  under  the  name  of 
Armour,  Plankinton  &  Company.  The  organiza- 
tion of  the  New  York  house  was  most  natural. 
The  financial  condition  of  the  West  at  that  period 
did  not  permit  of  large  lines  of  credit  necessary 
for  the  conducting  of  a  business  assuming  such 
magnitude,  and  it  was,  therefore,  as  events  proved, 
most  fortunate  that  the  duties  devolving  on  the 
head  of  this  house  should  fall  to  one  so  well 
qualified  to  handle  them.  He  was  not  only  equal  to 
the  emergency, but  soon  became  favorably  known 
as  a  man  possessing"  great  financial  ability,  and 
was,  in  fact,  the  Eastern  financial  agent  of  all  the 
Western  houses. 

The  firm  name  of  H.  O.  Armour  &  Company 
was  continued  at  Chicago  until  1870.  They  con- 
tinued to  handle  grain,  and  commenced  packing 
hogs  in  1868.  This  part  of  the  business,  how- 
ever, was  conducted  under  the  firm  name  of 
Armour  &  Company,  and  in  1870  they  assumed 
all  the  business  transacted  at  Chicago.  The 
business  of  all  these  houses,  under  their  efficient 
management,  grew  to  dimensions  that  were  the 
marvel  of  the  trade.  Their  brands  became  as 
well  known  in  all  the  markets  of  the  world  as 
at  home. 

ft  became  evident  in  187 1  that  the  stock-pro- 
ducing power  of  the  country  was  migrating  west- 
ward, and  in  order  to  keep  abreast  of  the  times 
they  established  at  Kansas  City  the  firm  known 
as  Plankinton  &  Armours.  This  enterprise  was 
under  the  immediate  supervision  of  Mr.  Simeon 
B.  Armour,  an  elder  brother.  The  failing  health 
of  Joseph,  at  Chicago,  necessitated  assistance, 
and  Milwaukee,  as  we  have  already  seen,  had 
brains  to  spare:  consequently  Philip  moved  to 
Chicago  in  1875,  where  he  has  since  resided. 

The  fraternal  feelings  manifested  on  every  occa- 
sion for  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  his  own 
family  were  noticeable  in  the  organization  of  the 
Armour  Brothers  Banking  Company,  at  Kansas 
City,  AIo.,  in  1879.  ^^  that  time  there  remained  at 
the  old  homestead  at  Stockbridge,  the  last  of  the 
Armours,  Andrew  Watson.  This  new  institution 
was  created  for  this  brother,  and  he  assumed  the 
presidency  of  its  management,  conducting  its 
afifairs  with  signal  ability.  As  an  illustration  of  the 
acuteness  and  quick  perception  which  is  the  fam- 
ily trait,  we  must  be  allowed  to  digress  and  relate 


44 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


an  incident  of  this  man.  Soon  after  first  having 
been  installed  in  office,  a  member  of  a  ^Montreal 
firm,  who  had  enjoyed  extensive  transactions  with 
the  Chicago  house,  and  stood  high  in  commercial 
circles,  while  at  Kansas  City,  on  his  way  to  a 
depot  from  his  hotel,  it  occurred  to  him  he  had 
not  sufficient  money  to  procure  the  necessary 
transportation  to  a  point  in  Texas  to  which  he 
was  bound.  Looking  around  he  noticed  the  bank- 
ing sign  and  thought  of  his  relations  with  the 
Chicago  house.  It  occurred  to  him  that  the 
bank  might  be  induced  to  cash  a  draft  on  his 
Montreal  house  for  twenty-five  dollars,  notwith- 
standing he  was  a  total  stranger.  He  applied  to 
the  teller  and  related  his  story,  who  promptly 
refused,  but  told  him  he  had  better  see  the  cash- 
ier. He  also  declined,  but  told  him  to  lay  the 
matter  before  j\Ir.  Armour.  So,  for  the  third 
time,  he  repeated  his  story  to  ]\Ir.  Armour,  who 
asked  him  if  twenty-five  dollars  was  not  a  pretty 
small  amount,  and  if  he  would  not  be  better 
pleased  with  fifty  dollars.  He  replied  in  the  nega- 
tive, and  said  twenty-five  dollars  was  sufficient. 
As  quick  as  a  flash  the  former  president  told  him 
he  could  have  the  money.  If  he  had  been  a  ras- 
cal he  would  have  taken  the  fifty  dollars.  It  is 
needless  to  say  the  draft  was  paid. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  manage- 
ment of  the  many  millions  that  were  invested  at 
the  other  points  mentioned  should  take  their  cue 
and  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  wise  and  in- 
trepid California  pioneer  at  Chicago.  This  was 
done  invariably  with  alacrity,  and  so  harmoni- 
ously that  it  has  made  them  all  renowned.  It  is 
impossible  to  convey  to  one  not  familiar  with  the 
scope  of  the  business  its  magnitude.  The  dis- 
tributive sales  of  the  Chicago  house  alone  are 
in  excess  of  the  gross  receipts  of  any  railroad  cor- 
poration of  the  world.  Even  in  a  business  of 
these  dimensions  there  was  nothing  too  great 
for  Mr.  Armour  to  handle,  nothing  so  small  that 
he  could  overlook. 

Mr.  Armour's  capacity  for  work  is  something 
wonderful.  He  is  at  his  desk  l)y  7  .\.  m.,  and  fre- 
quently before.  Fatigue  is  an  unknown  term. 
He  has  traveled  extensively,  but  wherever  time 
has  found  him  it  has  been  among  those  who  con- 
sumed his  products,  and  where,  necessarily,  his 
agencies  had  been  established:  his  mind  would 


turn  intuitively  to  his  industries,  and  thus  his 
recreation  became  a  source  by  which  he  quali- 
fied himself  as  to  the  merits  of  his  representatives 
as  well  as  the  requirements  of  the  people  and  their 
condition.  He  is  a  close  observer  and  can  give 
as  clear  and  accurate  a  forecast  of  the  coming 
financial  condition  of  the  country  as  it  is  possible 
to  do. 

At  the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  late  Alex. 
Mitchell,  he  became  one  of  the  director)'  of  the 
St.  Paul  railway.  This  is  the  only  office  he  has 
ever  held.  Political  preferment  is  not  the  bent 
of  his  mind  or  his  ambition.  He  was  never  known 
to  occupy  a  public  office. 

Mr.  Armour  was  married  to  Belle  Ogden,  at 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  October,  1862.  She  was  the 
only  daughter  of  Jonathan  Ogden.  Their  home 
life  has  been  singularly  happy.  Domestic  econ- 
omy was  no  more  truly  one  of  the  hearthstones 
of  Mr.  Armour's  inheritance  than  it  was  of  Mrs. 
Armour's.  These  family  precepts  were  laid  down 
and  fostered  in  every  way.  They  have  two  sons, 
Jonathan  Ogden  and  Philip  D.,  both  under  thirty 
years  of  age  and  active  partners  with  their  father. 
He  has  made  them  millionaires.  It  can  safely  be 
said  they  will  carry  their  honors  gracefully  and 
with  becoming  modesty.  They  are  quiet  in  man- 
ner; nothing  can  agitate  them,  and  it  is  pretty 
sure  guessing  that  the  name  of  Armour  will  never 
be  tarnished  by  their  acts.  Their  father,  the  most 
afTable  of  men,  approachable,  notwithstanding 
his  great  cares  and  responsibilities,  leaves  all  of 
this  at  his  office  and  enters  his  family  circle  to 
find  that  joy  and  contentment  which  alone  springs 
from  an  administration  of  home  life  that  is  so 
simple,  gracious,  and  of  such  an  unostentatious 
character. 

In  January,  1881,  Joseph  F.  Armour  died,  and 
bequeathed  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for 
the  founding  of  a  charitable  institution.  He 
wisely  directed  that  the  carrying  out  of  his  benev- 
olent design  should  be  chiefly  entrusted  to  his 
brother,  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  In  accept- 
ing the  trust  so  imposed,  he  has  given  to  it  the 
same  energetic  and  critical  attention  that  he  has 
given  to  his  private  afifairs,  and  has  added  a  large 
amount  to  his  brother's  bequest;  and  it  may  also 
be  said  of  Mr.  Armour,  that  while  he  is  disposed 
to  be  liberal  in  his  religious  views,  his  time  on 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


45 


the  Sabbath  day  is  mainly  given  to  the  churches 
of  his  choosing.  In  the  afternoon  of  every  Sun- 
day during  the  year  this  wonderful  protege, 
founded  by  his  brother  and  cherished  by  liimself, 
receives  his  individual  care  and  attention,  and  it 
is  the  individuality  of  the  patron  that  gives  so 
much  life  to  the  institution. 

It  is  this  combination  of  industrj-,  untiring 
energy  and  philanthropy  that  has  made  the  name 
of  Philip  D.  Armour  not  only  so  potent  in  the 
West  but  also  a  recognized  leader  among  the 
merchants  of  the  world. 

Such  is  a  brief  histor\-  of  a  man  who,  by  his 
own  energy,  perseverance  and  indomitable 
strength  of  character,  has  achieved  a  reputation 
that  entitles  him  to  rank  among  the  leading  mer- 


chants of  the  world,  due  alone  to  his  keen  fore- 
sight and  honesty  of  purpose,  and  a  bright  ex- 
ample to  the  rising  generation  of  what  can  be 
accomplished  by  untiring  energy  and  attention 
to  business.  His  success  has  been  trulv  wonder- 
ful, and  due  alone  to  his  individual  efforts.  One 
of  the  most  active  of  men,  never  idle,  and  keep- 
ing his  wealth  in  motion  for  the  interests  of  the 
city  he  lives  in,  his  name  in  commercial  circles 
is  a  tower  of  strength,  and  with  him  there 
is  no  such  word  as  "fail"  in  anything  he 
undertakes.  Of  medium  height,  with  a  keen 
and  expressive  eye,  he  is  to-day  the  embodi- 
ment of  health,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  he  may 
"live  long"  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  industrious 
life. 


JOSEPH  N.  CARTER, 


QUIN'CV. 


JOSEPH  NEWTON  CARTER,  associate  jus- 
tice of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  was  born 
in  Hardin  county,  Kentucky,  March  12,  1843, 
being  the  fourth  of  the  nine  children  of  William 
P.  and  Martha  (Mays)  Carter,  the  former  a  son 
of  James  Carter,  a  Virginian  of  English  ancestry 
and  a  farmer  by  occupation. 

The  early  days  of  our  subject's  career  were 
spent  upon  his  father's  farm  and  at  the  village 
school,  where  he  obtained  a  good  education  even 
under  disadvantages.  In  the  latter  part  of  1856 
his  parents  removed  to  Charleston,  Coles  county, 
Illinois,  arriving  there  on  the  first  day  of  Janu- 
ary, 1857,  and  the  following  year  removed  to 
what  is  now  Douglas  county,  where  Mr.  Carter, 
senior,  had  purchased  several  hundred  acres  of 
wild  prairie  land,  which  during  the  years  1858-g 
he  improved  and  cultivated. 

Young  Joseph  continued  to  assist  his  father 
during  the  summers  and  continued  his  school- 
ing during  the  winter  months.  For  four  years 
he  was  a  student  at  Tuscola  and  was  then  em- 
ployed for  three  terms  as  teacher  of  a  country 
school.  In  1863  he  entered  Illinois  College,  at 
Jacksonville,  at  which  he  graduated  in  1866. 
Having  long  since  determined  to  adopt  the  law 
as  his  profession  he  entered  the  law  department 


of  the  University  of  ]\lichigan,  at  Ann  Arbor, 
graduating  in  1868,  and  returning  to  Illinois, 
began  looking  about  for  a  location.  He 
went  to  Ouincy,  in  July,  1869,  and,  be- 
ing pleased  with  the  city  and  its  people, 
resolved  to  make  it  his  future  home.  He  was 
admitted  to  practice  at  the  Illinois  bar  the  third 
day  of  the  following  November.  In  1870  a  part- 
nership with  William  H.  Covert  was  established, 
which  continued  successfully  for  nine  years,  at 
which  time  Judge  Joseph  Sibley,  who  had  just 
retired  from  twenty-four  years'  service  on  the 
circuit  and  appellate  court  benches,  became  a 
member  of  the  firm  and  continued  as  such  until 
1884.  In  1888  Theodore  B.  Pape  was  admitted 
to  the  partnership,  the  firm  name  becoming  Car- 
ter, Govert  &  Pape,  and  ranking  as  one  of  the 
leading  law  firms,  if  not  the  leading,  of  the  city 
of  Ouincy.  Certainly,  hardly  an  important  case 
came  before  the  courts  of  that  section  in  which 
the  firm  were  not  engaged. 

In  1878  Mr.  Carter  was  chosen  a  member  of 
the  Thirty-first  General  Assembly,  and  in  1880 
was  re-elected  to  the  Thirty-second,  and  also 
served  in  the  called  session  of  1882,  which  was 
convened  to  redistrict  the  State  into  Congres- 
sional and  senatorial  districts.     In   1882  he  was 


46 


BIOORAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


the  Republican  candidate  for  State  senator,  and 
was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  only  500  in  a  dis- 
trict which  ordinarily  gave  a  Democratic  ma- 
jority of  1,500.  In  1892  he  was  a  candidate  for 
lieutenant  governor,  and  in  May,  1894,  was 
nominated  for  justice  of  the  supreme  court  to 
succeed  Hon.  Simeon  P.  Shope.  The  election 
was  held  the  fourth  of  the  following  month  and 
resulted  in  a  victor)^  of  Mr.  Carter,  he  defeating 
his  Democratic  adversary,  Hon.  Oscar  P.  Bon- 
ney,  by  4,207  votes.  On  the  i6th  of  the  same 
month  he  was  sworn  in  ^nd  took  his  seat  as 
aissociate  justice,  being  the  youngest  member 
of  the  tribunal. 

The  Chicago  Legal  News,  in  its  issue  of  De- 
cember 22,  1894,  says:  "An  extended  general 
practice  throughout  the  central  portion  of  the 
State  for  many  years,  together  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  men  and  things,  acquired  by  mixing  with 
the  people,  has  peculiarly  fitted  Judge  Carter  for 
the  judicial  position  he  now  occupies.  He  is 
pleasing  in  manner,  writes  a  clear  and  concise 
opinion,   and   in  arriving  at   conclusions   shows 


that  he  is  possessed  of  a  great  amount  of  com- 
mon sense.  Although  the  youngest  in  commis- 
sion, he  is  considered  by  his  brother  judges  as 
an  able  member  of  the  court." 

While  he  has  ever  been  devoted  to  his  pro- 
fession. Judge  Carter  has  taken  a  warm  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  the  city  of  his  home,  and  is  con- 
sidered one  of  her  ablest  citizens.  Every  enter- 
prise calculated  to  promote  her  interests  finds 
cordial  support  at  his  hands,  and  he  has  been  an 
invaluable  factor  in  her  prosperit)'. 

Though  his  application  to  his  practice  has  been 
close  and  assiduous,  he  has  nevertheless  found 
time  to  travel  extensively,  and  has  visited  almost 
every  State  in  the  Union. 

Judge  Carter  was  married  on  the  3d  of  Decem- 
ber, 1879,  to  Miss  Ellen  Barrell,  daughter  of  the 
late  Captain  George  Barrell,  of  Springfield.  Of 
this  union  have  been  born  three  children, — Henry 
Barrell,  William  Douglas  and  Josephine.  The 
Carter  residence  in  Quincy,  erected  in  1892,  is 
delightfully  located,  and  is  one  of  the  elegant 
mansions  in  that  city  of  handsome  homes. 


SAMUEL  EBERLY  GROSS, 

CHICAGO. 


SAMUEL  E.  GROSS  was  born  on  the  nth 
of  November,  1843,  O'''  the  banks  of  the  Sus- 
quehanna river,  near  the  town  of  Dauphin,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  is  a  son  of  John  C.  and  Elizabeth 
(Eberly)  Gross.  He  is  a  descendant  of  Captain 
John  Gross,  of  Huguenot  ancestry,  who  won 
his  title  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  receiving 
his  commission  November  25,  1776.  When  the 
independence  of  America  was  achieved  he  located 
in  Dauphin  county,  Pennsylvania,  where  he 
owned  a  large  farm  and  some  milling  property. 

The  first  ancestor  of  whom  we  have  record  is 
Seigneur  Jean  de  Gros,  of  Dijon,  France  (died 
1456),  married  Peronette  Le  Roye;  their  eldest 
son,  Jean,  of  Dijon,  secretary  of  the  Due  de  Bour- 
gogne,  married  Philliberte  de  Sourlan;  their  son. 
Ferry,  of  Dijon  in  1521,  married  Phillipolte  Wie- 
landt;  their  son,  Jean,  of  Dijon  (died  1548),  mar- 
ried Catherine  Laur}-m;  their  son,  Jean,  of  Dijon 
in  1599,    married    Jacqueline    de    Berneincourt; 


their  son,  Jean,  of  Dijon  in  1620,  married  Leo- 
nore  de  Briard;  their  son  Jacob  married  Marie 
De  Bar  and  removed  from  France  at  the  time  of 
the  persecution  of  the  Huguenots  to  the  Pala- 
tinate, Germany,  and  later  removed  to  Mannheim 
on  the  Rhine;  their  son,  Johann,  of  Mannheim 
in  1665,  married  a  daughter  of  Neihart;  their  son, 
Johann  Christopher,  of  Mannheim  in  1703,  mar- 
ried Elizabeth  JMetger;  and  their  son  Joseph  in 
1 719  accompanied  ]\Iennonites  from  the  Pala- 
tinate to  America.  He  married  and  owned  prop- 
erty in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Trappe, 
Montgomery  county,  Pennsylvania,  previous  to 
1726,  and  land  in  Philadelphia  county,  in 
1728,  and  died  in  1753;  their  son,  John,  mar- 
ried and  lived  in  IMontgomery  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  died  in  1788;  their  son,  John,  born 
in  1749,  was  a  captain  in  the  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. In  1778  he  married  Rachel  Sahler,  and 
died  in  1823;  their  son.  Christian,  born  in  1788, 


^'C.^y-yT<L^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


47 


of  Dauphin,  Pennsylvania,  married  Ann  Custer, 
of  Montgomery  county,  and  died  in  1843;  tlieir 
son,  John  C,  born  in  1819,  married  in  1843  EHz- 
abeth  Eberly,  of  Cumberland  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  died  in  1895;  and  their  eldest  son,  Sam- 
uel E.,  is  the  subject  of  this  review.  His  mother 
descended  from  the  German  and  Swiss  families  of 
Eberly,  Erb  and  Hershey,  who  were  among  the 
first  early  settlers  of  Lancaster  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, about  the  year  171 8,  and  who  have  been 
prominent  in  the  religious,  educational  and  com- 
mercial history  of  that  State. 

Through  his  great-grandmother,  Rachel  Sah- 
ler,  wife  of  Captain  John  Gross,  of  Revolutionary 
fame,  Samuel  E.  Gross  directly  descends  from 
Cornelius  Barentsen  Sleght,  of  Holland  Dutch 
stock,  and  prominent  in  the  early  Colonial  wars; 
and  from  Matthew  Blanshan,  Louis  Du  Bois 
and  Christian  Deyo,  Huguenots,  who,  like  Jacob 
De  Gros,  at  the  time  of  the  persecution,  removed 
to  the  Palatinate  in  Germany,  and  thence  emi- 
grated to  America  in  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Matthew  Blanshan  and  his  fam- 
ily were  the  first  of  the  refugees  to  try  their  fate 
in  the  New  World,  sailing  from  the  Palatinate 
April  27,  1660.  Louis  Du  Bois  and  Christian 
Deyo  soon  followed,  and  were  two  of  the  twelve 
patentees  who  in  1677  obtained  title  to  all  the 
lands  in  Eastern  New  York  State  lying  between 
the  Shawangunk  mountains  and  the  Hudson 
river,  and  were  instrumental  in  founding  New 
Paltz  and  Kingston,  in  Ulster  county.  Many  of 
their  children,  and  the  wife  of  Louis  Du  Bois,  were 
carried  into  captivity  by  the  Indians  during  the 
early  Esopus  wars,  and  were  recovered  by  a  res- 
cuing expedition  led  by  Louis  Du  Bois. 

Rachel  Sahler  was  the  daughter  of  Abraham 
Sahler  and  Elizabeth  Du  Bois.  Her  mother, 
Elizabeth  Du  Bois,  was  the  daughter  of  cousins, 
Isaac  Du  Bois  and  Rachel  Du  Bois.  Isaac  Du 
Bois,  her  father,  was  the  son  of  Lieutenant  Solo- 
mon Du  Bois;  and  her  mother,  Rachel  Du  Bois, 
was  the  daughter  of  Lieutenant  Solomon  Du 
Bois'  eldest  brother,  Abraham  Du  Bois.  The 
mother  of  Rachel  Du  Bois  was  Margaret  Deyo, 
daughter  of  Christian  Deyo,  the  patentee.  Abra- 
ham Du  Bois,  Rachel's  father,  and  Lieutenant 
Solomon  Du  Bois,  her  husband's  father,  were 
both  sons  of  Louis  Du  Bois  (the  patentee  and 


founder  of  New  Paltz)  and  his  wife,  Catherine 
Blanshan,  daughter  of  Matthew  Blanshan,  the 
first  of  these  Huguenot  arrivals.  Thus  from  hon- 
ored Colonial  ancestry  jMr.  Gross  of  this  review 
has  descended. 

In  1845  li's  parents  removed  from  Dauphin 
county,  Pennsylvania,  to  Bureau  county,  Illinois, 
and  later  to  Carroll  county,  in  which  places  he 
received  his  early  education,  common-school  and 
academic. 

Prompted  by  a  spirit  of  patriotism  he  enlisted, 
in  1861,  in  the  Forty-first  Illinois  Infantr)-,  but 
being  only  seventeen  years  of  age  was  soon  mus- 
tered out.  He  then  entered  Whitehall  Academy, 
of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  pursuing  his 
studies  when  the  Confederates  entered  the  State. 
He  could  not  contentedly  remain  at  his  books, 
and  again  enlisted,  joining  Company  D  of  the 
Twentieth  Pennsylvania  Cavalry,  of  which  he 
was  conmiissioned  First  Lieutenant  on  June  29, 
1863,  being  one  of  the  youngest  to  hold  that 
rank  in  the  Union  service.  He  served  in  the  pur- 
suit of  Lee  after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  and  in 
special  detached  service,  cavalry  scouting  and 
guerrilla  fighting  through  the  remainder  of  1863. 
On  the  17th  of  February,  1864,  he  was  made  Cap- 
tain of  Company  K  of  the  same  regiment,  and 
served  with  his  command  through  Virginia  in 
1864  and  1865,  taking  active  part  in  the  battles 
of  Piedmont,  Lynchburg,  Ashby's  Gap,  Winches- 
ter and  many  others,  and  after  the  close  of  the 
war  was  mustered  out,  on  July  13,  1865. 

At  this  time  the  West  was  in  a  state  of  rapid 
development,  and  Chicago  was  becoming  the 
metropolis  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  The  enter- 
prising and  progressive  spirit  of  Captain  Gross 
was  attracted  by  this  improvement,  and  in  1865 
he  located  in  that  city,  entering  the  Union  Col- 
lege of  Law,  where  he  was  graduated  and  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1866.  He  began  practice  as 
a  member  of  the  legal  fraternity,  but  in  the  mean- 
time had  made  some  investments  in  real  estate 
and  began  to  give  more  and  more  time  to  his 
interests  in  that  line.  In  1868  and  1869  he  took 
an  active  part  in  the  establishment  of  the  immense 
park  and  boulevard  systems  of  Chicago,  which 
are  unequalcd  in  any  other  city  of  this  country. 
At  the  time  of  the  great  Chicago  fire  his  office 
was  located  at  the  corner  of  Clark   and   South 


48 


BIOnnAPIIICAL  DICTI0KAR7  AND  POIiTIiATT  OALLEUY  OF  rilP: 


Water  streets.  During  tlie  terrible  night  of  the 
9th  of  October,  1871,  he  held  his  office  so  long 
as  it  was  tenable,  then,  gathering  up  his  legal 
and  business  papers,  abstracts  of  titles,  etc., 
crossed  the  river  in  a  row-boat  and  deposited 
them  on  board  a  tug  which  evaded  the  flames 
and  returned  the  precious  documents  safely  three 
days  later.  Even  before  he  had  recovered  his 
papers  he  had  recommenced  his  real-estate  busi- 
ness, displaying  the  courage,  enterprise  and  ac- 
tivity which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  man. 

In  1873  a  financial  panic  came  on,  aisd  there 
was  a  dullness  in  real-estate  operations  which  con- 
tinued for  six  years,  but  Islr.  Gross  was  not  idle 
during  this  period.  He  practiced  law,  studied  sci- 
ence, art,  literature  and  political  economy,  ana 
wrote  articles  which  were  an  important  contribu- 
tion to  the  literature  of  those  subjects.  He  also 
gave  some  attention  to  mechanics  and  took  out 
several  patents  for  mathematical  instruments  and 
improvements  in  street  paving;  but  real  estate 
was  his  favorite  field  of  labor,  and,  even  when 
there  was  little  doing  in  that  line  of  enterprise, 
he  purchased  land,  which  had  hitherto  been  used 
for  farming  purposes,  and  converted  it  into  city 
lots;  for  he  had  an  unshaken  faith  in  the  future 
of  the  city;  and  time  has  justified  his  sagacity 
and  foresight.  He  has  established  many  of  Chi- 
cago's most  beautiful  suburbs,  including  New 
City,  to  the  southwest;  Gross  Park,  to  the  north; 
Brookdale,  Calumet  Heights  and  Dauphin  Park, 
to  the  south;  Under  the  Linden,  to  the  north- 
west; and  East  Grossdale,  Grossdale  and  West 
Grossdale,  to  the  west.  He  not  only  laid  out  the 
towns,  but  has  erected  upon  them  thousands  of 
homes  of  various  styles  of  architecture,  from  cot- 
tage to  mansion.  He  has  enabled  many  to  secure 
homes  by  his  methods  of  sale.  He  has  disposed  of 
large  amounts  of  property  on  the  partial-payment 
plan,  and  may  be  numbered  among  the  benefactors 
of  the  cit)' and  country  on  account  of  his  generous 
and  helpful  methods.  The  most  gigantic  work 
that  he  undertook  was  in  1889,  when,  west  of 
the  city  limits,  he  founded  the  town  of  Grossdale, 
and  transformed  over  five  hundred  acres  of  land 
from  farm  to  city  property.  We  judge  of  a  man's 
character  by  the  work  that  he  has  done ;  and  his 
work  will  live  after  him  in  the  sixteen  suburban 
towns  that  he  has  established,  the  seven  thousand 


houses  he  has  built  and  the  forty  thousand  lots 
that  he  has  sold. 

In  1874  Mr.  Cross  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Emily  Brown,  of  English  parentage,  a  lady 
of  culture  and  refinement,  who  to-day  occupies 
a  prominent  position  in  social  circles.  Their  home 
is  a  beautiful  residence  at  the  corner  of  Lake 
Shore  Drive  and  Division  street,  in  which 
vicintiy  stand  some  of  the  finest  residences  of 
Chicago. 

Mr.  Gross  is  a  valued  and  prominent  member  of 
various  social  and  fraternal  organizations,  being  a 
member  of  the  Chicago,  Union,  Iroquois,  Athletic, 
Marquette,  Union  League,  Washington  Park 
and  Twentieth  Century  Clubs,  the  Union  Veteran 
Club, U.S. Grant  Post,  No.  28,  G.  A.  R.,  the  West- 
ern Society  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  Sons  of 
the  American  Revolution,  and  the  Society  of 
Colonial  Wars.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Hu- 
mane Society  and  other  benevolent  organizations, 
and  is  a  patron  of  the  Art  Institute.  He  was 
elected  the  first  captain  of  the  Chicago  Continental 
Guard,  composed  of  the  .Sons  of  the  American 
Revolution. 

While  an  intensely  practical  man  and  giving 
utility  its  proper  place  in  the  history  of  Chicago, 
he  is  a  strong  believer  in  the  refining  and  edu- 
cating influences  of  art.  He  finds  in  travel  a 
chief  source  of  recreation  and  pleasure,  and  has 
visited  many  of  the  noted  and  historic  places  of 
Europe  and  the  land  of  Montezuma  as  well  as 
the  beautiful  scenes  of  his  own  country.  The  po- 
sition which  he  occupies  in  the  regard  of  the 
public  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1889  he  was 
nominated  by  the  united  workingmen's  societies 
as  their  candidate  for  mayor;  but  declined  the 
honor  on  account  of  his  pressing  business  duties. 
It  is  difficult  to  analyze  the  life  of  such  a  man  as 
Mr.  Gross,  whose  character  seems  so  completely 
rounded  out.  As  a  citizen  he  meets  every  re- 
quirement and  manifests  a  commendable  interest 
in  everything  that  is  calculated  to  promote  the 
city's  welfare  in  any  line.  In  private  life  he  is 
sympathetic  and  generous,  extending  a  helping 
hand  to  the  poor  and  needy  and  always  ready  to 
aid  those  less  fortunate  than  himself.  In  man- 
ner he  is  pleasant,  genial  and  approachable,  and 
all  who  know  him  esteem  him  highly  for  his  gen- 
uine worth. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


49 


LEMUEL  CONANT  GROSVENOR, 


IN  a  comparison  of  the  relative  value  to  man- 
kind of  the  various  professions  and  pursuits 
to  which  men  devote  their  time  and  energies,  it 
is  widely  recognized  that  none  is  more  important 
than  the  medical  profession.  From  the  cradle 
to  the  grave  human  destiny  is  largely  in  the  hands 
of  the  physician,  not  alone  on  account  of  the 
effect  he  may  have  on  tlie  physical  system  but 
also  upon  man's  mental  and  moral  nature.  In 
a  review  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Grosvenor  one  of  the 
most  noticeable  features  is  his  use  of  this  power. 
A  strong  mind  dwells  in  a  strong  body,  and  it 
is  no  less  true  that  a  mind  filled  with  bright, 
cheery,  pure  thoughts  reacts  upon  the  physical 
.system.  Realizing  deeply  this  truth,  the  Doctor 
has  labored  earnestly  and  successfully  for  the 
benefit  of  the  young, — that  the  "temple  of  the 
soul"  may  be  a  holy  shrine, — and  his  deep  and 
abiding  interest  in  young  men  and  women  has 
been  manifest  in  a  helpfulness  that  has  borne 
rich  fruit.  Not  the  hope  of  pecuniary  reward 
but  the  noble  purpose  of  making  the  world  bet- 
ter has  permeated  his  entire  professional  career. 

From  sterling  ancestors  has  the  Doctor  de- 
scended,— from  earnest,  upright,  sturdy  men, 
and  women  of  piety  and  grace  of  character.  His 
fatlier.  Deacon  Silas  S.  Grosvenor,  was  a  lead- 
ing business  man  of  Paxton,  Massachusetts,  and 
came  of  a  family  that  has  furnished  to  this  country- 
men prominent  in  its  histors'.  The  Conants,  his 
maternal  ancestry,  were  no  less  important  factors 
in  American  annals  on  account  of  their  promi- 
nence in  the  ministry  and  in  work  in  anti-slavery 
fields.  iMrs.  Man,'  A.  Grosvenor,  mother  of  our 
subject,  was  a  daughter  of  Rev.  Gains  Conant, 
who  for  twent_\-five  years  was  pastor  of  the  Pax- 
ton  Congregational  Church.  She  trained  her 
children  to  habits  of  morality  and  virtue,  and  it 
was  her  special  desire  that  her  eldest  son,  Lem- 
uel, should  follow  in  the  steps  of  his  eminent 
grandfather,  between  whom  and  the  boy  there 
existed  the  most  intimate  and  close  relations  and  a 
strong  attachment  that  was  mutually  shared; 
but  the  boy's  tastes  led  him  to  other  fields  of 
labor,  and  from  an  early  age  it  was  his  earnest 

4 


and  cherished  desire  to  enter  the  medical  profes- 
sion. Partly  from  his  ancestors,  and  partly  as  the 
result  of  wise  training  in  his  youth,  he  received 
physical  development  that  brought  him  a  rugged 
constitution  which  has  carried  him  through  the 
arduous  duties  of  his  later  life,  and  a  strength  of 
character  was  obtained  from  home  training  and 
from  his  own  honorable  instincts  that  has  brought 
him  into  positions  of  influence  and  trust. 

In  his  early  boyhood  the  Doctor  attended  Wil- 
liston  Seminary'  at  East  Hampton,  j\Iassachusetts, 
and  in  1846,  at  the  age  of  thirteen  years,  he  ac- 
companied his  parents  on  their  removal  to  Wor- 
cester, where  he  attended  the  high  school  for 
four  years.  There  he  took  an  active  part  in  the 
work  of  the  literary  society  and  entered  upon  his 
career  as  a  public  speaker.  From  that  time  his 
words  have  been  gladly  received  in  parlor  or 
lecture  room  in  discussion  of  various  questions 
of  interest,  and  the  oratorical  power  of  the  school- 
boy has  grown  with  the  man  until  to-day  he  is 
considered  one  of  the  ablest  speakers  of  Chicago. 
It  was  while  still  in  high  school  that  he  also  gave 
considerable  attention  to  the  study  of  music,  and 
since  that  time  "the  divine  harmony  of  sound" 
has  been  one  of  his  chief  delights  and  means  of 
rest  and  recreation.  When  the  Doctor  was  sev- 
enteen years  of  age  he  entered  upon  a  new  epoch 
in  his  life's  history,  and  great  was  the  change 
which  occurred.  From  the  center  of  learning  in 
America — ^lassachusetts — he  was  transferred  to 
the  Western  frontier,  his  parents  removing  to 
Sauk  county,  \\'isconsin,  and  there  he  imbibed 
the  spirit  of  liberty,  of  commendable  independ- 
ence and  self-reliance,  which  rounded  out  his 
character.  The  winter  after  his  arrival  he  taught 
the  first  winter  school  ever  held  in  West  Point, 
Columbia  county,  Wisconsin,  "boarding  round" 
among  his  scholars  and  receiving  at  the  end  of 
the  season  sixty  dollars  in  gold.  Not  content 
with  his  own  education  he  obtained  his  father's 
consent,  and  with  his  pack  upon  his  back  started 
on  foot  for  Milwaukee,  a  distance  of  one  hun- 
dred miles,  whence  he  made  his  way  to  his  old 
home  in  Worcester,   Alassachusetts.     There  he 


50 


nwnRAPUWAT,  DTCTTONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


again  entered  the  higli  scliool,  to  perfect  himself 
in  higlier  mathematics  and  surveying,  support- 
ing himself  by  manual  labor  for  a  time  and  after- 
ward by  teaching  evening  classes.  In  the  winter 
of  1849  he  resumed  teaching,  which  he  followed 
with  marked  success  for  ten  years,  being  first 
employed  in  a  district  school  at  Scituate  and 
afterward  in  a  select  school  at  Rutland  and  the 
Union  high  school  at  Scituate  Harbor.  He  was 
then  offered  the  principalship  of  the  South  Hing- 
l;am  grammar  school  and  two  years  later  was  ap- 
pointed head  master  of  the  old  Mather  school, 
in  Dorchester,  now  the  Sixteenth  ward  in  Bos- 
ton, which  was  established  in  1639, — the  oldest 
free  school  in  the  United  States.  For  seven  years 
he  served  in  that  capacity,  and  it  was  a  time  of 
development  to  the  young  man.  There  he  often 
heard  the  famous  orators  of  the  day,  Charles 
Sunmcr,  Edward  Everett  and  Wendell  Phillips. 
and  had  many  rare  opportunities  for  culture  and 
iinprovement.  His  ability  as  an  educator  was 
widely  recognized,  but  nevertheless,  while  in  Bos- 
ton, his  resolution  to  enter  the  medical  profession 
became  firmly  fixed. 

jVIr.  Grosvenor  was  a  member  of  the  Amer- 
ican Institute  of  Instruction,  and  for  three  years 
secretary  of  the  Massachusets  Teachers'  Associa- 
ion.  He  returned  to  the  West  to  take  up  medical 
study,  declining  a  chair  in  the  Brooklyn  Poly- 
technic School,  and  in  the  spring  of  1864  was 
graduated  at  the  Cleveland  Medical  College.  At 
the  age  of  thirty-one  he  entered  upon  private  prac- 
tice, and  for  three  years  was  located  in  Peoria, 
Illinois.  This  State  has  been  the  field  of  his  la- 
bors since,  and  rapidly  did  he  make  his  way  to 
the  front  rank  of  the  fraternity  within  its  borders. 
His  next  home  was  in  Galesburg,  where  he  built 
up  a  fine  practice,  but  the  metropolis  of  the  West 
attracted  him,  and  in  1870  he  established  an  of- 
fice in   Chicago. 

As  soon  as  he  was  fairly  embarked  on  the 
professional  sea  Dr.  Grosvenor  returned  to  the 
East  and  was  united  in  marriage  with  IMiss  Ellen 
iM.  Prouty,  of  Dorchester,  daughter  of  Lorenzo 
Proutv,  and  granddaughter  of  David  A.  Prout\-. 
the  inventor  of  the  first  iron  plow.  Her  maternal 
grandfather  was  John  JMears,  Sr.,  the  inventor 
of  the  center-draft  plow,  which  was  awarded  the 
first  premium  at  the  World's  Fair  in  London, 


England.  All  her  immediate  ancestors  were 
noted  inventors  and  members  of  the  old  Boston 
firm  of  Prouty  &  Mears.  !Mrs.  Grosvenor  died 
in  1874,  leaving  three  children:  Lorenzo  N.,  Wal- 
lace F.  and  Ellen  Efleda.  The  elder  son  was 
born  in  Galesburg  in  1868,  and  acquired  his  lit- 
erary education  in  the  public  and  high  school 
of  Chicago  and  in  Oberlin  College,  Ohio.  He 
then  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  the  Chicago 
Homeopathic  Medical  College,  and  was  gradu- 
ated in  1889,  taking  a  post-graduate  course  in 
1892.  He  is  now  engaged  in  practice  in  Edge- 
water,  one  of  Chicago's  beautiful  suburbs,  and 
bids  fair  to  gain  an  equal  prominence  with  his 
father  in  his  chosen  work.  The  younger  son  was 
born  in  Galesburg,  January  4,  1870,  graduated  at 
Oberlin  College  in  1892,  and  he,  too,  has  en- 
tered the  medical  field. 

In  1877  the  Doctor  wedded  Miss  Xaomi  Jo- 
sephine Bassett,  of  Taunton,  ^Massachusetts,  a 
highly  educated  young  lady  with  unusual  literary 
tastes  and  talents  and  charming  accomplishments. 
She  had  taught  school  for  several  years,  and  this, 
combined  with  her  natural  fondness  for  children, 
well  fitted  her  for  the  care  of  the  two  mother- 
less little  boys,  who  render  to  her  the  loyal  love 
that  they  would  have  given  to  their  own  mother, 
so  faithfully  has  she  performed  her  task.  Four 
children  have  been  born  of  the  second  marriage, 
but  Inez  died  at  the  age  of  two  years  and  Ger- 
trude at  the  age  of  three.  David  Bassett  and 
Lucy  Ella  are  still  with  their  parents  and  give 
light  and  life  to  the  pleasant  home  which  is  the 
center  of  culture,  refinement  and  Christian  grace. 

The  Doctor,  since  locating  in  Chicago,  has 
enjoyed  a  large  and  remunerative  general  prac- 
tice, and  as  an  obstetrician  he  has  no  superior. 
He  has  given  this  line  his  special  attention,  and 
his  services  in  alleviating  the  discomforts  of  in- 
fant life  and  reducing  the  drudger}-  of  motliej- 
hood  should  class  him  among  the  benefactors  of 
the  race  and  bring  him  lasting  renown.  He  and 
his  estimable  wife  devised  a  beautiful  and  hy- 
gienic dress  known  as  the  Gertrude  Baby  Suit, 
named  after  their  little  daughter,  for  whom  it 
was  first  made. 

When  the  new  building  for  the  Chicago  Home- 
opathic Medical  College  was  completed,  a  special 
chair  of   sanitarv  science   was    created    for    Dr. 


0-^i^l_     ^2^^>^'^M^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS    VOLCME. 


Grosvcnor,  it  being  the  first  full  professorship  in 
that  department  created  by  any  college.  For 
several  years  he  has  been  on  the  executive  board 
of  the  college  and  for  twenty-five  years  a  member 
of  tlic  Chicago  Academy  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons, having  served  for  three  terms  as  its  presi- 
dent. He  was  for  two  years  presidentof  the  Ameri- 
can Pasdological  Society  and  for  many  years  has 
been  an  honored  meml)er  of  the- American  Insti- 
tute of  Homeopathy,  in  which  he  is  now  a 
"senior." 

During  tlie  great  Ciiicago  tire  of  1871  Dr. 
Grosvenor  performed  a  work  for  the  city  that 
should  never  be  forgotten.  He  was  the  only  physi- 
cian on  the  whole  North  Side  whose  house  was  not 
destroyed  in  the  flames.  With  a  labor  that  knew 
no  tiring  and  a  patience  that  knew  no  faltering, 
lie  worked  for  the  destitute  and  homeless,  finding 
his  patients  in  improvised  shelters,  in  tents,  school- 
houses,  churches,  police  stations  or  wherever 
cover  from  the  elements  could  lie  found.  The 
streets,  blocked  with  debris,  were  impassable 
save  to  foot  passengers,  so  he  walked  all  over 
the  neighborhood,  administering  with  medicine 
a  dose  of  clieerfulness  in  tlie  form  of  encourag- 


ing, hopeful  words,  and  it  is  difficult  to  sav  which 
proved  the  more  beneficial  tonic. 

We  have  before  made  slight  reference  to  the 
Doctor's  work  among  young  people.  He  enjoys 
nothing  more  than  his  class  lectures,  for  therebv 
he  reaches  young  men.  Among  his  noted  lec- 
tures are  those  on  Character,  Our  Boys,  X'alue  of 
a  Purpose,  Stimulants  and  Narcotics,  Brains,  Our 
(lirls.  How  to  be  Beautiful,  Roses  without  Cos- 
metics, and  The  Talent  of  Putting  Things.  He 
liokls  a  membership  in  the  Lincoln  Park  Congre- 
gational Church  and  was  for  several  years  presi- 
dent of  its  board  of  trustees.  He  is  also  a  char- 
ter member  of  the  Chicago  Congregational  Club. 

In  political  sentiment  he  is  a  Republican.  In 
tlie  rush  and  hurry  of  business  life  the  holier  du- 
ties are  often  neglected,  but  with  Dr.  Grosvenor 
this  has  never  been  so.  Kindliness  and  benevo- 
lence beam  from  his  eye  and  sympathy  and  char- 
ily are  shown  forth  in  his  bearing.  Honored  alike 
by  young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  humble  and 
great,  he  is  a  man  well  worthy  to  be  represented 
in  the  Biographical  Dictionary  and  Portrait  Gal- 
lery of  Representative  Men  of  the  United  States. 


JOHN  DEERE, 


HONORABLE  JOHN  DEERE,  one  of  the 
pioneer  settlers  of  Moline,  Illinois,  ex-king 
plow  manufacturer  of  the  world,  and  third  son  of 
William  Rinold  and  Sarah  (Yates)  Deere,  was 
born  at  Rutland,  V^erniont,  February  7,  1804. 
His  father  was  a  native  of  England  and  his 
mother  of  Connecticut.  His  grandfather  Yates 
came  to  this  country  as  a  captain  in  the  British 
army  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  served 
his  king  right  royally  until  the  independence  of 
the  colonies  was  no  longer  a  question,  when  he 
foresw(jre  allegiance  to  all  foreign  powers,  par- 
ticularly to  that  of  King  George,  and  lived  there- 
after in  strict  loyalty  to  the  stars  and  stripes. 

In  1805  the  father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
removed  to  Middlebur\-,  \'ermont,  and  there  car- 
ried on  merchant  tailoring  for  about  seven  years. 

He  tlied  in  1812,  at  the  age  of  fifty-five  years. 


while  in  England  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing 
goods.  His  widow  conducted  the  business  left 
by  her  husband  until  her  death,  which  occurred 
in  1826,  at  the  age  of  about  forty-six  years. 

John  Deere  attended  the  common  schools  of 
\'ermont  while  a  boy,  and  acquired  a  good  or- 
dinary education.  Without  the  knowledge  of  his 
mother  he  worked  for  a  tanner  at  grinding  bark, 
and  earned  a  pair  of  shoes  and  a  suit  of  clothes 
before  he  was  si.xteen  years  of  age.  When  sev- 
enteen years  of  age  he  apprenticed  himself  to 
Captain  lienjamin  Lawrence,  of  Middlebury,  to 
learn  the  blacksmith's  trade,  which  he  fully  mas- 
tered in  four  years,  receiving  in  the  meantime  for 
iiis  services,  each  year  respectively,  the  sum  of 
thirty,  thirty-five,  forty  and  forty-five  dollars. 
.•\ftcr  a  year  or  two  at  "jour."  work  he  removed 
to    r.urlington,   \'ermont,   where   he    hammered 


BTOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLKRY  OF  THE 


out  by  hand  the  iron  work  for  a  saw  and  oil  mill, 
erected  at  the  ncigfhboring  town  of  Colchester, 
and  acquired  thereby  quite  a  local  reputation  as 
a  mechanic  and  iron-worker.  After  carrying  on 
his  trade  for  several  years  at  various  places  in 
his  native  State,  his  shops  and  other  property 
were  twice  burned  in  quick  succession.  He  was 
a  married  man,  with  a  small  family  to  support, 
and  profits  were  small,  so  he  accumulated 
slowly;  but  by  perseverance  and  economy  the 
year  1837  found  him  ready  and  determined 
to  try  his  fortune  in  the  great  West.  V,\ 
canal  and  the  lakes  lie  landed  at  the  sickly 
little  village  of  Chicago,  a  place  opulent 
in  chills  and  fever  but  frugal  indeed  in  essential 
resource — at  least  so  it  appeared  to  Mr.  Deere, 
and  he  at  once  transferred  all  his  efTects  to 
wagons,  nor  lingered  he  until  he  planted  him- 
self at  the  village  of  Grand  Detour,  Ogle  county, 
Illinois.  An  inventory  of  his  material  wealth  at 
that  time  showed  him  the  possessor  of  seventy- 
three  dollars  and  seventy-three  cents  in  cash,  a 
good  set  of  blacksmith's  tools  and  a  limited  com- 
plement of  household  goods;  but  he  had  the  mus- 
cles of  a  giant,  brains  enough  to  successfully  com- 
mand an  army,  and  a  heart  that  never  shrank 
within  him. 

A  good  mechanic  is  alwa3S  an  important  ac- 
cession to  a  new  countrx',  and  his  arrival  was  par- 
ticularly opportune  for  this  settlement,  and  his 
mechanical  ability  was  immediately  brought  into 
requisition  to  put  into  repair  a  sawmill  which 
was  standing  idle  from  the  breaking  of  a  pitman 
shaft.  There  was  no  forge  in  readiness,  but  he 
at  once  set  to  work,  and  with  stone  from  a  neigh- 
boring hill  constructed  a  rude  forge  and  chimney, 
by  digging  a  hole  in  clay  soil  and  making  the 
mortar  of  the  clay;  and  within  two  days  after  his 
arrival  the  mill  was  running,  thus  saving  the 
owners  and  customers  many  days  that  otherwise 
would  have  been  occupied  in  procuring  the  work 
from  far  distant  shops. 

Mr.  Deere  was  an  excellent  mechanic,  and  the 
few  people  residing  in  his  vicinity  soon  found  it 
out.  They  piled  upon  the  floor  of  his  shop  their 
broken  trace  chains  and  clevises,  their  worn-out 
"bull  tongues"  and  worse  worn  shares;  and  while 
the  young  blacksmith  hammered  out  lap  rings 
for  their  chains,  welded  their  clevises,  "drew  out" 


their  "bull  tongues"  and  laid  their  "shares,"  his 
mind  dwelt  upon  the  improvement  of  the  plow, 
the  implement  of  greatest  importance  to  the  pio- 
neer. J\Ir.  Deere  soon  added  the  building  of  plows 
to  his  general  work.  He  began  to  see,  however, 
that  the  iron  plow  with  w-ooden  moldboard  could 
not  be  made  to  do  good  service  in  the  prairie 
soil.  It  entered  the  ground  with  difficulty,  clogged 
up  and  failed  to  scour.  Then  began  the  series 
of  experiments  and  improveme^its,  which,  not 
successful  at  first,  to  be  sure,  yet  finally  resulted 
in  the  present  perfect  steel  plow;  and  John  Deere 
lived  to  know  that  his  name  was  familiarly  spoken 
in  every  civilized  tongue  on  the  globe. 

With  characteristic  energy  and  will  the  battle 
was  pushed  until  success  came.  There  was  a  de- 
mand for  a  good  plow,  and  the  good  plow  must 
be  made.  The  first  one  that  did  satisfactory  work 
was  made  in  this  way:  W'rought-iron  landside 
and  standard,  steel  share  and  moldboard  cut  from 
a  sawmill  saw,  and  bent  over  a  log  shaped  for 
the  purpose,  and  beam  and  handles  of  white-oak 
rails.  In  1838  two  of  these  plows  were  made, 
with  which  the  farmers  were  well  pleased,  doing 
unusually  good  work  for  those  days;  and  after 
these  first  plows  he  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
experimenting,  in  getting  a  plow  to  scour  satis- 
factorily in  ground  that  had  been  plowed  four 
or  five  times,  especially  on  the  bottom,  black, 
sticky  soil.  He  went  to  different  farms  to  try  his 
plows,  in  Ogle,  Lee,  Whiteside  and  other  coun- 
ties, where  farmers  had  never  been  able  to  make 
plows  scour. 

During  this  year  Air.  Deere  built  a  dwelling- 
house  eighteen  by  twenty-four  feet,  and  brought 
his  wife  and  five  children  from  the  East.  It  was  not 
then  a  few  hours'  ride  in  a  moving  parlor,  as  now, 
but  a  weary  journey  of  six  weeks  by  stage  coach 
and  lumber  wagon. 

Settled  in  his  little  home,  often  shaking  with 
the  ague,  the  work  was  pushed,  and  in  1839  ten 
plows  were  built,  and  the  entire  iron  works  of  a 
new  saw  and  flouring  mill  made,  with  no  help 
except  that  of  an  inexperienced  man  as  blower 
and  striker.  In  1840  a  second  anvil  was  placed 
in  the  shop,  a  workman  employed  and  forty  plows 
made. 

His  fame  as  a  plowmaker  was  now  rapidly  ex- 
tending, and  in   1841  he  built  seventy-five  steel- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


53 


moldboard  plows,  and  a  brick  shop  thirty  by 
forty-five  was  erected,  and  the  year  following 
one  hundred  new  plows  were  added.  The  tide 
which  was  then  set  clearly  in  his  favor  afterward 
bore  him  steadily  on  to  fortune.  In  1843  '^^  too^^ 
Major  Andrus  into  partnership,  and,  enlarging 
his  buildings  by  erecting  a  brick  shop  two  stories 
high,  added  horse  power  for  the  grindstone,  es- 
tablished a  small  foundry,  and  turned  out  four 
hundred  improved  plows. 

In  1846  the  annual  product  had  increased  to 
one  thousand,  and  as  time  advanced  improve- 
ments were  made,  but  the  difficulty  of  obtaining 
steel  of  proper  dimensions  and  quality  was  found 
to  be  a  great  obstacle  to  the  complete  success  of 
the  business.  Mr.  Deere  accordingly  wrote  to 
Nailor  &  Company,  importers,  of  New  York, 
explaining  the  demand  of  the  growing  agricul- 
tural States  of  the  West  for  a  good  steel  plow, 
and  stated  the  size,  thickness  and  quality  of  the 
steel  plates  he  wanted.  The  reply  was  that  no 
such  steel  could  be  had  in  America,  but  they 
would  send  to  England  and  have  rollers  made 
for  the  purpose  of  producing  the  special  sizes  of 
steel.  An  order  was  sent  and  the  steel  made  and 
shipped  to  Illinois. 

Within  this  same  year,  with  the  view  of  devel- 
oping a  market  nearer  home  where  he  could  ob- 
tain material  for  his  plows,  Mr.  Deere  opened 
negotiations  in  Pittsburg  for  the  manufacture  of 
plow  steel,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  extract 
from  Mr.  James  Swank's  book,  "Iron  in  All 
Ages,"  in  which  volume,  page  297,  occurs  the 
following:  "The  first  slab  of  cast  plow  steel  ever 
rolled  in  the  United  States  was  rolled  by  William 
Woods,  at  the  steel  works  of  Jones  &  Quiggs, 
in  1846,  and  shipped  to  John  Deere,  Moline,  Illi- 
nois, under  whose  direction  it  was  made." 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  proper  to  say  that 
it  was  in  the  shaping  of  the  moldboard  that  Mr. 
Deere's  ingenuity  more  particularly  manifested 
itself.  He  was  undoubtedly  the  first  man  to  con- 
ceive and  put  in  operation  the  idea  that  the  suc- 
cessful self-scouring  of  a  steel  moldboard  de- 
pended pre-eminently  upon  its  shape.  The  idea 
was  his  and  he  worked  upon  it  until  the  correct- 
ness of  it  was  fr.iiy  demonstrated. 

Mr.  Deere's  practical  foresight  enabled  him  to 
see  that  his  location  was  not  advantageous  for 


growing  business.  Coal,  iron  and  steel  must  be 
hauled  from  La  Salle,  a  distance  of  forty  miles, 
and  his  plows  taken  a  long  distance  to  market 
in  the  same  slow  and  expensive  manner.  He 
therefore  sold  his  interest  in  the  business  at  Grand 
Detour  to  his  partner,  Mr.  Andrus,  and  removed 
to  Moline,  Illinois,  in  1847.  Here  was  good  water 
power,  coal  near  in  abundance,  and  cheap  river 
transportation.  A  partnership  was  formed  be- 
tween Mr.  Deere,  R.  N.  Tate  and  John  M.  Gould, 
shops  built  and  work  commenced,  resulting  the 
first  year  in  the  production  of  seven  hundred 
plows. 

About  this  time  the  Englisii  steel  arrived  and 
fifty  plows  were  made  from  it  and  sent  to  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  country  where  the  soil  was  known 
to  be  most  difficult  for  plowing.  The  test  proved 
the  success  of  the  implement  and  the  manufacture 
sprang  at  once  to  the  enormous  number  of  one 
thousand  six  hundred  plows  a  year,  which  num- 
ber were  made  in  1850. 

In  1852  Messrs.  Tate  and  Gould  retired  from  the 
firm,  Mr.  Deere  buying  their  interests.  In  1853 
the  shops  were  enlarged,  new  machinery  added 
and  the  sales  continued  to  increase.  Mr.  Deere 
continued  alone  until  1857,  which  year  he  made 
ten  thousand  plows.  In  1858  he  took  his  son, 
Charles  H.,  and  Stephen  H.  Velie,  one  of  his 
sons-in-law,  into  the  business  as  partners,  and 
the  business  continued  under  the  name  of  Deere 
&  Company  until  1868,  when  it  had  assumed 
such  proportions  that  a  company  was  incorpo- 
rated under  the  general  laws  of  the  State,  with 
John  Deere  as  president,  a  position  which  he 
held  until  his  death,  Charles  H.  Deere  being  vice- 
president  and  manager,  and  Stephen  H.  Velie 
secretary.  During  all  the  subsequent  years  the 
business  has  had  a  steady  and  man-elous  growth, 
requiring  the  annual  addition  of  shop  room,  men 
and  machinery. 

We  can  truthfully  say  that  John  Deere  was 
the  archiect  of  his  own  fortune.  His  great  wealth 
was  acquired  by  his  individual  effort  and  industry. 
From  the  time  when  Moline  was  a  struggling 
and  unimportant  little  village,  Mr.  Deere  has 
been  identified  with  its  interests.  The  silent  and 
unwritten  history  of  her  streets,  her  railroads 
and  her  public  institutions  is  replete  with  his  spirit 
and  untiring  energy. 


54 


nioauM'iiicM.  Dicr/dy.inv  .wn  I'oitrHAir  (iallehy  of  the 


It  is  conceded  that  John  Deere,  of  tliis  sketch, 
is  the  Oiic'inati'r  of  tne  ^Icel  plow.  Wlieii  he 
manufactured  his  first  steel  plows,  there  was  not 
only  no  steel  plows  in  America,  but  no  steel  man- 
ufactured of  which  to  make  them.  The  influence 
of  this  improvement  in  the  manufacture  of  plows 
cannot  be  estimated.  The  name  of  John  Deere 
is  a  familiar  one  throughout  the  West,  and  his 
plows  are  sent  to  Mexico,  South  America,  the 
West  Indies,  New  Zealand,  the  Sandwich  Isl- 
ands, China,  Japan.  South  Africa,  France,  Ger- 
many, Holland,  Belgium,  Russia,  and  the  British 
possessions  in  America.  They  have  been  awarded 
medals  at  almost  numberless  covmty.  State  and 
national  exhibitions  in  this  country,  and  they  re- 
ceived the  highest  award  at  the  Paris  exposition 
in  1878  in  a  field  trial  in  which  over  fifty  plows 
from  all  nations  competed. 

Mr.  Deere  was  twice  married:  In  1827,  at  Gran- 
ville. Vermont,  to  Miss  Damaris  Lamb,  who  died 
at  Moline,  February  17,  1865.  Of  the  eight  chil- 
dren she  bore  five  now  survive  (1895):  Charles 
H.,  Mrs.  Jennette  D.  Chapman,  Mrs.  Ellen  S. 
Webber,  Mrs.  Emma  C.  \'elie  and  Mrs.  Alice 
M.  Cady.  His  second  marriage  occurred  in  1867, 
also  at  Granville,  and  to  a  younger  sister  of  his 
first  wife. 

Mr.  Deere  was  elected  mayor  of  the  city  of 
Moline  and  served  two  years.  He  was  also  pres- 
ident of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Moline,  and 
a  director  to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  was  also 
a  large  contributor  toward  the  founding  of  the 
public  library,  and  a  director  of  the  same  for  many 
years. 

In  personal  appearance,  Mr.  Deere  was  large 
and  well  proportioned,  and  had  strength  capa- 
ble of  almost  unlimited  endurance.  In  his  better 
days  he  would  stand  at  his  anvil  from  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning  until  nine  o'clock  at  night,  build- 
ing plows,  shoeing  horses  and  constructing  ma- 
cl;ini.r\   for  sawmills.     His  strong  features  indi- 


cated great  power  and  decision  of  character. 
His  frank  and  open  face  and  his  address  generally 
bespoke  him  what  he  was — a  man  of  tender  so- 
cial nature  and  noble  character.  His  feelings 
lay  near  the  surface,  and  he  was  singularly  sen- 
sitive to  pathos,  whether  of  sorrow  or  of  joy.  His 
sympathy  and  help  quickly  responded  to  the  call 
of  trouble  or  of  misfortune,  and  he  rejoiced  in  the 
prosperity  of  all  about  him.  Absorbed  in  busi- 
ness, he  had  neither  the  desire  nor  time  for  the 
public  offices  which  sought  his  services.  He 
was,  however,  always  in  sympathy  with  public 
interests,  and  gave  liberally  of  his  means  to  ad- 
vance them.  He  was  a  Republican  in  politics 
from  the  organization  of  that  party,  an  active 
member  of  the  Congregational  Church  and  a 
generous  contributor  to  local  and  foreign  ob- 
jects of  benevolence.  The  religious,  moral  and 
educational  interests  of  society  had  in  him  a  friend 
and  patron.  A  generous  hospitality  was  always 
shown  at  his  comfortable  home,  and  few  men 
were  more  entertaining  in  the  social  circle,  or 
had  a  more  happy  faculty  of  making  every  one 
feel  at  home. 

Mr.  Deere  was  active  and  strong  until  his  last 
illness,  which  was  of  short  duration,  and  which 
consisted  more  especially  in  a  general  giving 
out  of  the  entire  system  than  in  any  local  malady. 

He  passed  away  at  his  home  in  Moline,  Illinois, 
on  May  17.  1886,  in  the  eighty-third  year  of  his 
age,  being  gathered  to  his  rest  full  of  years  and  of 
good  deeds.  Suitable  resolutions  were  passed 
by  the  various  associations,  business  and  other- 
wise, with  which  he  was  connected,  show-ing  the 
high  appreciation  m  which  he  was  held  by  all 
who  knew  him  and  were  associated  with  him. 

His  portrait,  which  is  given  in  this  connection, 
was  taken  from  a  photograph  made  in  1885,  and 
is  a  remarkably  faithful  likeness.  It  shows  at 
once  the  strength  of  his  character,  and  indicates 
the  kindhness  of  his  disposition. 


REPRESESTATIVI-:  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  tiTATES-  ILUNolS    VOLUME. 


CHARLES  H.  DEERE, 

MOI.INE. 


CHARLES  H.  DEERE  bears  a  name  that  is 
known  throughout  the  countn'  and  is  now 
at  the  head  of  an  industry  that  has  been  a  bless- 
ing to  the  agricultural  class  of  this  country,  as 
well  as  a  source  of  financial  benefit  to  himself 
and  family. 

He  was  born  March  28,  1837,  in  Hancock, 
Addison  county,  Vermont,  and  is  the  only  living 
son  of  the  late  Hon.  John  Deere. 

In  the  common  schools  of  Grand  Detour  and 
Moline  Charles  Deere  began  his  education,  later 
attended  Kno.x  and  Iowa  Academics,  and  \\as 
afterward  graduated  at  the  Bell  Commercial  Col- 
lege, of  Chicago,  in  1854.  He  was  now  fitted 
for  a  business  career  and  naturally  became  inter- 
ested in  the  extensive  plow  works  of  which  his 
father  was  the  originator  and  the  controlling 
spirit.  He  was  first  assistant  and  then  head 
bookkeeper,  then  traveler  and  purchaser  for  the 
firm.  When  the  business  was  incorporated  in 
1868  he  became  vice-president  and  general  man- 
ager, thus  serving  until  his  father's  death,  when 
he  succeeded  to  the  presidency,  and  has  since 
been  not  only  the  nominal  head  but  has  been 
the  power  that  has  made  this  immense  organiza- 
tion a  financial  success.  He  has  the  active  part 
in  building  up  and  extending  this,  one  of  the 
chief  and  largest  industries  in  its  line  developed 
in  this  country.  He  is  also  the  founder  of  the 
Deere  &  Mansur  Company  corn  planter  works, 
president  of  the  Moline  Water  Power  Company, 
director  in  various  other  works  in  Moline,  as  well 
as  in  the  large  branch  houses  of  Deere  &  Com- 
pany in  Kansas  City,  Minneapolis,  Des  Moines, 
Council  Bluffs  and  San  Francisco,  and  in  various 
other  business  enterprises. 

VoT  several  years  Mr.  Deere  was  the  chairman 
of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for  the  State 
of  Illinois,  appointed  by  the  governor,  but  re- 
cently he  has  resigned.  He  was  the  second  man 
appointed  as  State  Commissioner  of  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition,  and  was  a  commis- 
sioner to  the  exposition  in  Vienna,  in  1873,  ^^^ 


the  State  of  Illinois.  He  is,  politically,  an  active 
Republican  and  was  chosen  an  elector  at  large 
in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1888.  He  has 
freciuently  been  urged  to  accept  nominations  for 
important  political  offices,  but  has  persistently 
refused  to  allow  his  name  to  be  used,  though 
never  failing  in  a  generous  expenditure  of  time, 
money  and  energy  for  the  success  of  the  party. 
-Mr.  Deere  is  a  man  of  liberal  ideas,  having  ex- 
tensively traveled  in  this  country  and  abroad. 
Socially  he  is  a  pleasant  companion,  and  many 
a  "friend  in  need"  has  found  him  "a  friend  indeed." 
In  1862  ilr.  Deere  married  Miss  Mary  Little 
Dickinson,  of  Chicago,  where  she  was  well  known 
and  much  admired  for  her  fine  qualities  of  mind 
as  well  as  for  her  unusual  personal  beauty.  Go- 
ing to  her  new  home  a  bride,  Mrs.  Deere  identi- 
fied herself  with  the  interests  of  the  communitv 
in  a  thoroughly  characteristic  manner,  where  she 
is  beloved  for  Jier  generous,  unostentatious  char- 
ity, her  ready  sympathy  with  every  movement 
for  the  benefit  of  any  worthy  object,  and  her  un- 
swerving adherence  to  principle  and  duty. 
Added  to  a  charming  person  mi ^  Mrs.  Deere 
possesses  distinct  social  talents  which  render  her 
a  most  gracious  hostess,  and  at  their  beautiful 
home,  "Overlook,"  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Deere  have 
drawn  about  themfriendsand  distinguished  guests 
from  every  point  of  the  compass,  and  all  from 
far  and  near  have  been  royally  welcomed  and  en- 
tertained. The  Misses  Deere  were  educated  in 
New  York  city,  have  traveled  extensively,  and 
are  attractive,  cultured  young  ladies,  well  known 
in  society  in  New  York,  Chicago  and  Washing- 
ton. The  elder  daughter  was  married  some  time 
since  to  William  Dwight  Wiman,  of  New  York 
city,  and  the  second  is  now  Mrs.  William  Butter- 
worth.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Deere  are  especially  fortu- 
nate in  their  daughters,  whose  many  fine  quali- 
ties— social  and  personal  graces — reflect  the 
influences  of  the  charming  atmosphere  of  cul- 
ture by  which  they  have  always  been  sur- 
rounded. 


56 


BIOORAPEICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


LYMAN  J.  GAGE, 


DURING  a  residence  of  four  decades  in  Chi- 
cago the  subject  of  this  biography  has 
gained  distinctive  recognition  as  one  of  the  lead- 
ing financiers,  not  only  of  this  city  but  also  of 
the  nation,  having  shown  a  marked  capacity  for 
the  successful  conduct  of  affairs  of  great  breadth. 
It  is  not  alone  compatible  but  practically  imper 
ative  that  there  be  incorporated  in  this  Colum- 
bian memorial  volume  a  review  of  his  life,  since 
few  have  been  more  conspicuous  or  have  con- 
tributed a  greater  quota  in  insuring  the  magnifi- 
cent success  of  what  has  become  recognized  as 
the  Chicago  World's  Fair. 

Lvman  J.  Gage  is  a  native  of  Madison  county. 
New  York,  having  been  bom  in  1836,  the  son 
of  Eli  A.  Gage,  who  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of 
that  county  and  a  hatter  by  ficcupation.  At  the 
age  of  seventeen  years  our  subject  completed  his 
studies  in  school  and  entered  upon  those  studies 
which  profit  one  by  experience  rather  than  by 
mere  abstract  reflection.  Accepting  a  position  in 
the  Oneida  Central  Bank  at  Rome,  New  York, 
he  began  that  business  career  which  has  eventu- 
ated in  most  laudable  success,  and  in  which  he 
has  attained  a  name  honored  among  men.  In 
1855  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  for  some  three 
years  was  in  the  employ  of  a  firm  which  con- 
ducted a  lumber  and  planing-mill  business  at 
the  corner  of  Canal  and  Adams  streets.  He  had 
a  natural  liking  and  adaptability  for  the  banking 
business,  and,  realizing  that  along  this  line  laid 
the  greatest  measure  of  success  for  him,  he  made 
a  change  of  occupation  as  soon  as  opportunity 
presented  itself,  and  in  1858  he  became  a  book- 
keeper for  the  Merchants'  Loan  and  Trust  Com- 
pany, of  Chicago,  at  a  salary  of  $500  per  annum, 
retaining  this  position  until  1863,  when  he  be- 
came assistant  cashier  of  the  institution.  During 
this  time  Mr.  Gage  made  a  careful  study  of  the 
banking  business,  familiarizing  himself  with  the 
most  approved  methods  and  with  the  minutest 
details.  He  thus  soon  gained  '  recognition 
in  local  financial  and  commercial  circles  as 
a  man  of  progressive  yet  conservative  ideas  and 


of  unusual  executive  ability.  A  practical  con- 
cession of  this  ability  and  fitness  was  that  which 
came  a  few  months  later,  when  he  was  made 
cashier  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Chicago, 
which  had  been  organized  May  i,  1863,  with  a 
capital  of  $100,000.  The  capital  stock  was  in- 
creased within  a  short  time  to  $1,000,000,  the  ex- 
ecutive corps  of  the  institution  being  as  follows: 
President,  Mr.  E.  Aiken;  vice-president,  Mr. 
Samuel  W.  Allerton;  cashier,  Mr.  E.  E.  Braisten; 
the  directorate  comprising  Messrs.  E.  Aiken,  S. 
W.  Allerton,  S.  G.  D.  Howard,  B.  P.  Hutchin- 
son, Samuel  M.  Nickerson,  Tracy  J.  Brown,  John 
B.  Sherman,  Byron  Rice  and  E.  G.  Hale.  Upon 
the  death  of  Mr.  Aiken,  in  1867,  Mr.  Samuel  M. 
Nickerson  was  elected  president,  and  in  August 
of  the  following  year  Mr.  Gage  was  made  cashier. 
At  that  time  the  bank  was  located  at  the  south- 
west corner  of  Lake  and  Clark  streets,  but  was 
afterward  removed  to  the  southwest  corner  of 
State  and  Washington  streets.  During  the  ever 
memorable  fire  of  October  9,  1871,  the  safes  and 
vaults  of  the  bank  escaped  almost  intact  from  the 
fiery  ordeal,  not  one  security  or  valuable  being 
lost.  After  occupying  temporary  quarters  for  a 
time,  January  i,  1872,  the  bank  was  again  es- 
tablished for  business  in  its  rebuilt  structure  on 
the  same  site.  The  capital  remained  $1,000,000 
until  the  expiration  of  the  charter  in  1882,  when 
the  reserve  or  surplus  fund  over  and  above  divi- 
dends was  found  to  be  over  $1,800,000.  In  May 
of  that  year  a  new  organization  was  efifected  un- 
der the  same  corporate  title  and  with  a  cash  cap- 
ital of  $3,000,000,  the  officers  being  as  follows: 
President,  Samuel  M.  Nickerson;  vice-president, 
Lyman  J.  Gage;  cashier,  H.  R.  Symonds;  assist- 
ant cashier,  H.  M.  Kingman.  At  this  time  the 
business  was  removed  to  its  present  magnificent 
building  at  the  northwest  corner  of  Dearborn  and 
Monroe  streets.  During  the  time  since  the  re- 
organization I\Ir.  Gage  has  been  the  general  man- 
ager and  chief  executive  officer  of  the  institution, 
and  has  come  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
discriminating  financiers  and  one  of  the  most  dis- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


57 


ceming',  broad-minded  and  substantial  bankers  of 
the  time.  He  is  now  president  of  the  institution, 
with  which  he  has  so  long  been  identified. 

At  the  annual  convention  of  the  American 
Bankers'  Association,  held  at  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky, in  1883,  Air.  Gage  was  elected  president  of 
the  organization,  and  was  honored  with  a  re-elec- 
tion the  following  year  at  the  meeting  held  in 
Saratoga,  New  York.  He  was  one  of  the  prime 
movers  in  the  economical  conference  of  1888-9, 
looking  to  the  welfare  and  interest  of  wage- 
workers. 

From  the  time  that  the  project  was  incepted  for 
securing  the  World's  Columbian  E.xposition  to 
Chicago  Mr.  Gage  was  indefatigable  in  his  efforts 


toward  insuring  the  success  of  the  gigantic  enter- 
prise, being  foremost  among  its  promoters.  From 
his  commanding  position  and  by  reason  of  his 
peculiar  fitness,  he  was  consistently  chosen  as  pres- 
ident of  the  local  board  of  directors,  bringing  to 
the  ofifice,  as  he  did,  the  maxinumi  discernment 
resulting  from  a  rich  and  varied  experience  in 
financial  and  business  affairs.  Though  he  re- 
signed the  presidency  after  having  seen  the  under- 
taking established  upon  a  secure  foundation,  he 
did  not  abate  his  interest  in  the  same,  but  continued 
as  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  board 
of  directors  until  the  magnificent  spectacle  of  the 
"White  City''  had  reached  its  culminating  glory 
and  passed  into  the  realm  of  past  achievements. 


ANTON  C.  HESING, 


THE  name  of  Anton  C.  Hesing  is  familiar 
throughout  America.  His  life  and  char- 
acter are  known  to  the  American  people  through 
his  connection  with  journalism  and  as  editor  of 
the  Staats-Zeitung,  and  he  was  one  of  the  ac- 
knowledged leaders  of  the  German  citizens  of  this 
countr}'.  Probably  no  man  of  his  nationalit}-  did 
more  to  mold  public  opinion  among  his  coun- 
trymen, and  all  honor  is  due  him,  for  his  influ- 
ence was  ever  on  the  side  of  right  and  order,  ad- 
vancing the  true  principles  of  American  liberty 
and  justice.  When  the  final  summons  came  his 
life  labors  were  ended,  but  his  memory  will  be  a 
power  long  and  strongly  felt. 

Mr.  Hesing  was  born  in  the  village  of  Vechta, 
in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Oldenburg,  the  richest 
agricultural  section  of  Germany,  January  6,  1823. 
His  father  was  a  brewer  and  distiller,  and  to  the 
son  were  given  the  common-school  privileges 
of  the  region.  His  motlier  died  when  he  was  nine 
years  of  age,  and  when  a  youth  of  fifteen  he  was 
left  an  orphan  by  the  death  of  his  father  and  thus 
thrown  upon  his  own  resources.  He  was  obliged 
to  lay  aside  his  schoolbooks  and  earn  a  living, 
for  his  guardians  seemed  determined  to  get  the 
most  possible  out  of  the  boy  at  the  least  expense. 
He  was  apprenticed  to  a  baker  and  brewer,  but 
the  work  was  very  unpleasant,  his  employer  ar- 


rogant and  abusive,  and  he  felt  that  he  could  no 
longer  endure  such  treatment.  This  made  him 
resolve  that  he  would  seek  a  home  in  the  New 
World.  His  term  of  apprenticeship  was  expected 
to  cover  some  years,  but  he  at  length  obtained 
the  consent  of  his  guardians  to  carr>-  out  his 
plans, — a  consent  which  was  made  to  benefit  them 
as  well  as  him.  Thus  penniless  he  began  his  ca- 
reer in  the  world. 

In  1839,  then  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  found 
himself  in  Baltimore,  Maryland,  with  a  cash  cap- 
ital of  five  dollars.  Cincinnati  was  then  considered 
the  promising  metropolis  of  the  West,  and  he 
made  his  way  to  that  city.  His  mrney  was  then  not 
onlyexhausted  but  he  was  also  five  dollars  in  debt. 
Yet  he  possessed  what  is  better  than  capital — a 
resolute  spirit,  an  honest  purpose  and  a  laudable 
ambition.  He  secured  a  clerkship  in  a  retail 
grocery  store,  and  within  two  years  had  saved 
money  enough  to  engage  again  in  business  for 
himself.  He  opened  a  small  grocery  on  Court 
street,  which  he  carried  on  until  1848,  when  he 
changed  his  occupation.  The  year  previous  he 
had  returned  on  a  visit  to  his  native  land,  where 
he  became  acquainted  with  j\Iiss  Louisa  Lam- 
ping, and,  winning  the  hand  and  the  heart  of  the 
young  lady,  brought  her  as  a  bride  to  his  new 
home.    He  then  sold  his  store  and  erected  a  hotel 


58 


ninallM'IIICM.  DIcrKiyM'iY  AM)  I'iiIITHMT  iiM.I.HUY  "/•'   77/A' 


at  the  corner  of  Race  and  Court  streets,  which  he 
managed  until  1854,  when  his  partner  committed 
suicide,  and  he  then  sold  out. 

In  the  meantime  a  city  had  sprung  up  at  the 
southwest  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan,  a  city 
rapidly  growing  in  population  and  importance, 
and  Mr.  Hesing,  foreseeing  its  future  greatness, 
resolved  to  make  it  his  home.  Believing  that  its 
advancement  and  growth  would  he  rapid  and 
that  there  would  be  a  large  demand  for  building 
materials  in  consequence,  he  purchased  a  patent 
brick  dry-clay  machine  and  opened  a  brickyard 
at  Jefiferson,  only  a  few  miles  from  the  center  of 
the  city.  This  proved  an  unprofitable  experiment, 
for  the  clay  was  not  of  good  quality  and  he  had 
only  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  as  the  result 
of  the  season's  labor!  He  felt,  however,  that  the 
industrj'  would  be  profitable  if  suitable  material 
could  be  secured,  and,  forming  a  partnership 
with  Charles  S.  Dole,  began  business  at  High- 
land Park,  afterward  called  Port  Clinton,  near 
the  lake  shore,  where  good  clay  could  be  ob- 
tained. This  time  the  venture  proved  more  suc- 
cessful, and  the  old  Adams  House,  the  Milwau- 
kee railroad  roundhouse,  and  many  private  resi- 
dences, as  well  as  miles  of  sewer,  were  made  from 
the  Hesing-Dole  brick;  but  again  disaster  over- 
took Mr.  Hesing.  The  financial  panic  of  1837 
came  on,  houses  all  over  the  country  were  forced 
into  bankruptcy,  building  in  the  West  was  almost 
etirely  suspended:  and  as  there  was  little  demand 
for  their  products  the  firm  was  forced  to  suspend 
business,  and  Mr.  Hesing,  paying  ofif  all  debts, 
was  reduced  to  penury. 

No  prophetic  bells  rang  out  for  him,  "Turn, 
turn  again,  Whitington."  Disheartening  failure 
had  come  to  him,  such  as  would  have  over- 
thrown a  less  resolute  or  determined  man,  but 
"hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast,"  and 
again  he  embarked  in  business,  which  w'as  this 
time  crowned  with  a  well-merited  success.  The 
beginning  was  small.  He  rented  a  little  store  on 
Kinzie  street,  w'here  he  engaged  in  the  commis- 
sion business,  but  gave  that  up  in  less  than  a 
year  to  accept  the  office  of  collector  of  water  toll, 
with  a  salary  of  forty-five  dollars  per  montli.  He 
was  afterward  appointed  deputy  sherif?  of  Cook 
county  under  John  Gray,  and  was  elected  sherifif 
in  i860  upon  the  same  ticket  with  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


He  was  the  first  German  to  hold  an  important 
elective  office  in  the  State  and  during  his  term  of 
service  he  did  much  for  his  adopted  countrj-  in 
recruiting  soldiers  for  the  Union.  Among  the 
direct  results  of  his  labor  was  the  organization  of 
the  Twenty-fourth  and  Eighty-second  Infantry 
regiments  and  Shambeck's  dragoons.  He  had 
before  taken  an  active  part  in  public  aiifairs,  aside 
from  business  interests,  for  while  living  in  Ohio 
he  joined  the  Whig  party  during  the  Harrison 
campaign  and  was  an  earnest  and  indefatigable 
supporter  of  its  principles  and  candidates,  al- 
though not  then  a  voter.  In  recognition  of  his 
services  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Hamilton 
county  committee  of  the  Whig  party.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  trying  and  troublous  times  of  the 
Civil  war  he  was  again  before  the  people  as  a 
leader  and  an  advocate  of  reform.  He  studied 
closely  the  questions  of  the  day,  the  attitude  of 
the  parties,  the  views  of  political  leaders,  and 
wise  judgment  and  careful  deliberation  made  his 
opinions  of  great  weight.  He  warmly  advo- 
cated the  president's  policy  and  put  great  confi- 
dence in  ]\Ir.  Lincoln  as  a  pilot  that  could  guide 
the  ship  of  State  to  safe  anchor  and  quiet  harbor. 
When  the  work  of  reconstruction  commenced 
he  was  found  on  the  radical  side  of  the  question, 
and  in  1866,  during  the  Congressional  campaign, 
labored  earnestly  in  the  interests  of  his  party,  his 
work  being  an  important  factor  in  bringing  about 
the  victorious  result.  He  would  never  hold  office 
himself,  however,  after  he  entered  the  field  of 
journalism. 

At  the  time  of  the  breaking  out  of  the  Rebellion 
the  Staats-Zeitung  was  becoming  a  paper  of 
much  importance  among  the  German-speaking 
people.  In  1862  }ilr.  Hesing  purchased  an  in- 
terest in  the  paper  and  from  that  time  on  devoted 
liimself  with  tireless  energy  to  journalism.  In 
1867  he  became  sole  proprietor  and  made  tliis  the 
leading  German  paper  in  the  countn,-.  He  spared 
neither  time,  labor  nor  expense  in  improving  the 
paper.  Having  a  clear  and  powerful  and  patri- 
otic purpose,  and  being  careful  withal  to  reflect 
as  well  as  guide  the  public  sentiment  of  his  coun- 
trymen, all  who  knew  him  came  to  respect  his 
opinions  and  heed  his  suggestions. 

One  of  his  most  important  acts  in  connection 
with  political  measures  was  during  the  local  up- 
rising in  the  fall  of  1873,  when  an  issuance  of  an 


ItErilESEyTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS    VOLCME. 


59 


order  by  the  mayor  elected  on  the  "fire-proof 
ticket,''  which  looked  toward  the  enforcement  of 
the  Sunday  Hquor  ordinance,  had  injured  the 
fcehngs  of  the  Germans  especially.  A  meeting- 
at  Thiclman's  theater,  May  14,  1873,  was  addressed 
bv  a  number  of  prominent  men,  who  advised  or- 
ganization regardless  of  politics  to  uphold  the 
constitutional  rights  of  the  citizens.  Mr.  Hesing 
was  present  and  responding  to  repeated  calls, 
made  a  stirring  address  and  paved  the  way  for  a 
people's  party.  Meetings  were  continued  into 
October,  Mr.  Hesing  largely  formulating  the 
resolutions  and  platform,  and  when  H.  D.  Colvin 
was  named  for  mayor  and  a  full  city  ticket  put 
in  the  field  it  swept  eversthing  before  it,  with  a 
majority  of  about  10,000.  Having  at  length  dis- 
posed of  a  portion  of  his  stock  in  the  Staats- 
Zeitung,  he  afterward  turned  the  management 
of  the  paper  over  to  his  son  Washington, 
his  only  child  and  the  present  postmaster  of 
Chicago. 

On  the  6tli  of  January,  1893,  he  celebrated  his 
seventieth  birthday,  and  hundreds  of  friends  hon- 
ored him  on  that  day,  expressing  their  high  re- 
gard by  word  and  floral  offerings.  The  force 
of  the  Staats-Zeitung  sent  to  him  most  beautiful 
floral  decorations,  and  the  Schiller  theater  di- 
rectors and  employes  presented  him  with  a  souve- 
nir volume  containing  views  of  the  many  build- 
ings which  were  erected  largely  through  his  aid: 
but  the  feature  of  the  occasion  which  pleased  Mr. 
Hesing  more  than  all  others  was  the  delegation 
from  the  Home  for  the  Aged  at  Altenheim.  of 
which  institution  he  was  the  principal  promoter, 
although  he  always  preferred  to  give  the  credit 
to  the  ladies  of  the  city.  After  the  death  of  his 
wife  in  i886  he  cared  little  for  public  life  and  de- 
voted  more  time   tf)   charitable   and   benevolent 


work,  prunioting  many  worthy  institutions;  vet 
he  never  gave  ostentatiously,  and  many  more  were 
the  gifts  of  which  only  the  recipients  knew  than 
those  of  which  the  world  knew. 

His  last  days  were  not  attended  with  weakening 
illness.  Although  he  reached  the  age  of  seventy- 
two  years  his  mental  vigor  was  vmimpaired  and 
he  seemed  to  possess  the  physical  vigor  of  a  man 
some  years  his  junior.  On  the  morning  of  Sat- 
urday, March  30,  1895,  he  read  with  indignation 
of  the  act  of  the  council  in  passing  another  boodle 
franchise  ordinance  and  determined  to  write  an 
appeal  for  publication  in  the  Staats-Zeitimg  over 
his  own  signature.  This  he  did,  and  it  was  his 
last  act.  The  manuscript  which  he  completed 
late  in  the  evening  embodies  the  views  which 
were  his  through  life,  and  breathes  a  spirit  of  de- 
votion to  American  institutions  and  the  divine 
right  of  liberty  that  is  seldom  equaled.  In  the 
ranks  of  Chicago's  eminent  journalists  a  place 
was  left  vacant  that  cannot  be  easily  filled.  One 
of  the  contemporary  papers,  speaking  of  the  last 
article  which  came  from  his  pen,  said:  "Like  the 
glory  that  spreads  upon  cloud  and  sky  after  the 
sun  has  dropped  behind  the  western  line,  so 
comes  the  words  of  Anton  C.  Hesing,  penned  a 
few  hours  before  his  life  drifted  into  the  shadow. 
.Strong  in  his  own  integrity,  he  appeals  to  his 
friends  and  countrymen  to  rise  to  the  measure  of 
true  citizenship  and  refuse  to  subvert  the  sacred 
right  of  the  ballot  to  improper  ends.  Writing  at  his 
desk  late  in  the  night,  this  indomitable  man  of 
seventy-two  finishes  what  he  has  to  say,  signs 
his  name  and  retires  to  the  couch  from  which  he 
never  rises  again.  His  words  will  fall  deep  into 
many  hearts,  not  alone  of  his  own  nationality, 
but  also  of  his  countrymen,  for  we  are  all  his 
countrvmcn." 


60 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


JOHN  W.  SHOWALTER, 


JOHN  W.  SHOWALTER  was  born  in  Mason 
county,  Kentucky,  February  8,  1844,  the  son 
of  B.  Showaltcr,  for  many  years  a  resident  of 
Scott  county,  Kentuclcy.  As  a  schoolboy  his 
early  instructor  was  I\'I.  Durant,  now  of  Centralia, 
Illinois,  then  a  well-known  educator  in  Kentucky. 
He  was  afterward  sent  to  the  school  of  Messrs. 
Rand  and  Richeson,  at  Maysville,  Kentucky. 
Later  he  attended  the  Ohio  University  at  Athens, 
that  State,  for  one  year.  Still  later  he  went  to 
Yale,  where  he  graduated  in  the  class  of  1867. 
In  July,  i86g,  Mr.  Showalter  came  to  Chicago 
and  became  a  law  student  in  the  office  of  Moore 
&  Caulfield,  a  well-known  Chicago  law  firm.  In 
1870  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  upon 
the  certificate  of  Charles  H.  Reid,  at  that  time 
State's  attorney  of  Cook  county.    IMr.  Showalter 


was  permitted  to  continue  in  the  office  of  Moore 
&  Caulfield  till  the  great  fire  of  1871,  when  he 
returned  to  Kentucky.  In  1872,  on  the  inyita- 
tion  of  Judge  Moore,  he  returned  to  Chicago  and 
became  and  remained  an  employe  of  the  firm  till 
it  was  dissolved  some  years  later  by  the  election 
of  Judge  Moore  to  the  State  bench. 

About  1879  ^^''-  Showalter  became  a  member 
of  the  law  firm  of  Abbott,  Oliver  &  Showalter, 
and  so  continued  in  the  practice  of  the  law  till 
the  death  of  Mr.  Abbott  in  1891,  when  the  firm 
became  Oliver  &  Showalter.  This  latter  partner- 
ship was  eventually  dissolved  in  March,  1895, 
when  President  Cleveland  appointed  Mr.  Sho- 
walter circuit  judge  of  the  L^nited  States  for  the 
Seventh  Judicial  Circuit,  which  office  he  holds  at 
the  time  of  this  notice. 


ALFRED  M.  CRAIG, 


GALESBURG. 


HON.  ALFRED  jM.  CRAIG,  of  the  supreme 
court  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  was  bom  Jan- 
uary 15,  1832,  in  Edgar  count)-,  this  State,  and 
is  a  son  of  David  and  Mintie  (Ramey)  Craig,  who 
came  from  Philadelphia,  \vhere  the  American 
branch  of  the  family  originated  with  the  grand- 
father of  our  subject,  who  came  hither  from  Ire- 
land. The  father  was  a  millwright  in  only  mod- 
erate circumstances,  but  he  gave  his  son  good 
educational  privileges.  He  attended  the  common 
schools  and  afterward  entered  Knox  College, 
at  which  he  was  graduated  in  June,  1853. 

Immediately  thereafter  Mr.  Craig  began  the 
study  of  law  in  Lewistown,  Illinois,  under  the 
guidance  of  Hezekiah  H.  Weed  and  William  C. 
Goudy,  the  late  general  counsel  of  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  Railroad.  In  1855  he  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  and  at  once  began  practice  in  Knox- 
ville,  then  the  county  seat  of  Knox  county.  Suc- 
cess attended  him  from  the  start  and  clients  be- 
came numerous.  His  cautious,  deliberate  meth- 
ods gained  for  him  the  reputation  of  a  safe  coun- 
selor, and  he  came  to  be  regarded  with  a  confi- 


dence rarely  extended  to  a  man  so  young, — a  con- 
fidence which  has  steadily  grown  as  the  years 
have  passed.  On  going  to  Knoxville  he  became 
a  member  of  the  law  firm  of  ^Manning,  Douglas 
&  Craig,  which  at  once  acquired  the  greater  part 
of  the  legal  business  of  that  place  and 
the  adjoining  counties,  and  the  partnership 
continued  until  Mr.  Manning  removed  to  Peoria, 
when  the  firm  name  of  Douglas  &  Craig 
was  assumed.  In  1864  r\Ir.  Craig  was  elected 
til  the  office  of  county  judge,  but  contin- 
ued his  general  practice  in  the  firm  until  1868, 
when  the  connection  was  dissolved.  Later  our 
subject  formed  a  partnership  with  C.  K.  Harvey, 
a  brother  of  his  wife,  under  the  name  of  Craig  & 
Harvey,  and  the\'  worked  together  until  the  for- 
mer was  elected  to  the  supreme  court  in  1873. 

He  was  regarded  as  the  ablest  jurj'  lawyer  and 
most  successful  advocate  in  the  State,  and  his 
wonderful  strength  in  that  line  was  largely  due 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  personally  acquainted  with 
every  family  in  Knox  county.  He  was  of  that 
class  of  lawyers  who  always  meet  their  clients 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


61 


and  witnesses  on  terms  of  exact  equality,  and 
thereby  become  familiar  with  the  class  of  people 
from  which  jurors  are  usually  drawn.  He  knew 
their  feelings  and  could  correctly  estimate  how 
any  proposition  would  strike  them.  When  a  young 
man  before  inferior  courts,  whose  knowledge  of 
law  is  usually  not  very  extensive,  he  could  over- 
rule all  objections  and  prove  anything  he  wished, 
and  therefore  his  clients  were  pretty  sure  of  their 
case  if  it  was  pleaded  by  Mr.  Craig.  In  1869  he  was 
retained  in  behalf  of  Knoxville  in  the  great  county- 
seat  fight,  and  though  he  did  not  win  his  case 
he  made  a  magnificent  contest,  which  is  still 
spoken  of  throughout  Knox  county.  He  was 
always  employed  as  counsel  on  every  important 
criminal  case  that  came  , before  the  courts  of 
Knox  county;  was  employed  to  prosecute  in  the 
noted  Osborn  case,  and  it  was  largely  through 
his  able  arguments  that  the  culprit  was  con- 
victed and  hung, — the  only  man  ever  hung  in 
tiie  county. 

In  1873  the  late  Justice  Charles  B.  Lawrence 
was  a  candidate  for  re-election  on  the  Repub- 
lican ticket  for  justice  of  the  supreme  court.  The 
district  was  Republican  by  eight  thousand  nia- 
JL.rity.  Mr.  Craig,  nominally  a  Democrat,  at 
the  request  of  the  people  decided  to  be- 
come an  independent  candidate  for  that 
office,  made  a  most  brilliant  canvass  and 
was  elected  by  a  large  majority,  by  what  was 
known  as  the  "Granger"  element.  Subsequently 
the  laws  enacted  by  the  "Granger"  legislature 
of  Illinois  came  up  to  be  passed  upon  by  the  su- 
preme court.  Justice  Craig  threw  his  influence 
in  behalf  of  the  people  and  the  court  sustained 
what  was  known  as  the  "Granger"  laws.  These 
cases  were  taken  before  the  supreme  court  of  the 
United  States  and  the  views  of  Justice  Craig  and 
his  associates  were  sustained.  In  1882  he  was 
again  a  candidate  for  the  ofifice,  which  he  yet 
fills,  and  defeated  the  regular  Republican  nomi- 
nee, John  Davis  McCulloch.  In  1891  he  defeated 
Menry  W.  Wells,  of  the  Republican  ticket,  for 
the  third  term  of  nine  years,  in  a  discricf  where 
a  Republican  nomination  was  considered  equal 
to  an  election,  provided  the  opposing  candidate 
is  not  the  Democratic  member  of  the  supreme 
iicnch,  Justice  Alfred  M.  Craig.  What  higher 
testimonial  can  be  given  of  his  superior  ability 


and  the  confidence  which  is  reposed  in  him?  He 
is  now  the  oldest  in  years  of  continuous  service 
in  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  is  the  chief 
justice. 

.A.t  the  time  Mr.  Craig  became  a  member  of 
that  court  many  questions  of  importance  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  State  and  the  people  were  being 
adjudicated.  These  were  in  a  large  part  attrib- 
utable to  the  remarkable  development  of  the  rail- 
road interests  in  the  Northwest.  Chicago,  also, 
with  its  complicated  and  diversified  interests,  its 
extraordinary  and  sudden  growth  and  its  many 
speculative  schemes,  made  the  supreme  court  of 
Illinois  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  high 
tribunals  of  the  United  States,  and  no  other  State 
in  the  Union  presented  a  field  more  fruitful  in  legal 
contention  than  the  State  of  Illinois.  During  the 
twenty-two  years  he  has  held  this  ofifice  the  legis- 
lation has  been  greater,  more  complicated  and 
more  important  than  in  the  fifty-five  years  which 
intervened  from  the  admission  of  the  State  to  the 
year  1873.  The  legal  controversies  have  changed 
from  the  simple  questions  of  law  that  were  the 
subjects  of  judicial  discussion  and  determination 
in  the  early  part  of  the  history  of  the  State  to 
questions  more  abstruse  and  difficult,  depend- 
ing upon  more  enlarged,  involved  and  complex 
conditions  of  fact.  A  supreme  court  of  a  State 
is  much  more  diversified  in  its  jurisdiction  than 
the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  the  court  of  final  jurisdiction 
for  almost  every  wrong  which  can  be  committed 
and  for  every  right  which  can  be  protected.  Sub- 
ject to  the  limited  jurisdictien  of  the  supreme 
court  of  the  United  States,  it  is  the  court  of  final 
resort  which  settles,  by  authority  of  law,  the 
many  contentions  and  disputes  incident  to  men  as 
they  form  society.  His  services  in  the  supreme 
court  cover  a  period  which  may  be  called  forma- 
tive, as  many  new  questions  arose  from  which 
important  litigation  originated,  as  the  park  sys- 
tems of  Chicago,  the  railroad  and  warehouse 
commission,  the  modified  special-assessment 
methods  and  the  many  questions  of  corporation 
law  growing  out  of  and  dependent  upon  the  adop- 
tion of  a  new  constitution.  The  decisions  of  Mr. 
Craig  take  high  rank  and  are  regarded  as  mod- 
els of  brevity,  conciseness  and  simplicity.  He 
is  regarded  as  the  ablest  judge  on  the  bench  on 


62 


luoanAPincAi,  DfrrroxAiiv  Axn  poitTHAir  gallhry  of  the 


real-estate  law,  and  on  business  questions  he  is 
the  superior  of  any  of  his  associates  in  this  branch 
of  jurisprudence,  owing  to  the  fact  that  during 
all  of  his  life  he  has  closely  identified  himself  with 
his  business  interests. 

Frequent  attempts  have  been  made  to  induce 
the  judge  to  become  a  candidate  for  honors  of 
a  political  nature,  but  he  has  steadily  and  per- 
sistently refused  to  do  so.  He  has,  however, 
been  brought  prominently  before  the  people  as 
one  entitled  to  the  highest  political  honors  that 
his  party  could  bestow.  In  1892  he  refused  to 
permit  his  name  to  be  used  in  connection  with 
the  governorship  of  Illinois,  and  in  the  National 
Democratic  convention  of  that  year  his  name  re- 
ceived consideration  in  connection  with  the  pres- 
idency. His  name  was  presented  to  and  seri- 
ously considered  by  President  Cleveland  as  the 
successor  of  Chief  Justice  Waite  of  the  United 
States  supreme  court. 

As  a  business  man  Justice  Craig  is  considered 
one  of  the  most  successful  in  the  State  of.Illinois. 
He  possesses  large  landed  interests  both  in  city 
property  and  country.     He  is  president  of  the 


Bank  of  Galesburg,  president  of  the  Bank  of 
Altona,  and'  a  director  of  the  First  National 
r»ank  of  Knoxville. 

Conspicuous  among  the  many  good  traits  of 
Justice  Craig's  character  is  his  fearless  devotion 
to  whatever  he  thinks  comes  within  the  pale  of 
public  or  private  duty.  He  has  the  moral  courage 
that  fits  him  for  any  emergency,  and  although 
he  has  always  been  a  Democrat  he  is  without 
partisan  prejudice,  and  in  his  candidacy  has  had 
the  enthusiastic  support  of  many  of  the  leaders 
of  the  opposition.  His  judicial  term,  extending 
over  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  almost 
uninterrupted  service,  is  an  honor  to  the  State, 
and  his  character  as  a  man  is  well  worthy  of  the 
admiration  of  the  whole  people. 

He  was  married  August  4,  1857,  to  Miss  Eliz- 
abeth Harvey,  daughter  of  one  of  Kno.xville's 
oldest  and  most  esteemed  lawyers,  Curtis  K. 
Harvey.  They  are  the  parents  of  three  children. 
Dr.  A.  J.,  Charles  C,  an  attorney,  and  George 
H.,  who  is  engaged  in  the  banking  business  in 
Cialesburg. 


LEROY  DELANO  THOMAN, 


IN  the  history  of  American  government  the 
name  of  Leroy  Delano  Thoman  stands  prom- 
inently forward  on  the  question  of  civil  service 
reform. 

The  Buckeye  State,  which  has  produced  so 
many  eminent  men,  was  the  birthplace  of  Mr. 
Thoman.  He  was  born  July  31,  1851,  in  Salem, 
Columbiana  county,  and  is  of  German  lineage. 
His  paternal  ancestors  located  in  Pennsylvania  in 
1680,  and  ten  years  later  his  maternal  ancestry 
became  residents  of  Virginia.  His  father,  Jacob 
S.  Thoman,  was  born  in  Ohio,  descending  from 
a  family  noted  for  both  physical  and  mental 
power  and  devoted  to  Christianity  and  all  meas- 
ures calculated  to  benefit  the  race.  He  was  a 
man  of  good  education,  a  thorough  student,  and 
his  deep  researches  in  various  lines  of  study  made 
him  extremely  well  informed.  He  wedded  Mary 
.^nn  Soncdccker.  a  native  of  Ohio  and  a  dausfhtcr 


of  the  Rev.  Henry  Sonedecker,  a  pioneer  preacher 
of  the  German  Reformed  Church,  who  organized 
the  first  society  of  that  denomination  in  Wayne 
county,  Ohio.  His  fine  mind,  superior  talents 
and  Christian  character  were  inherited  by  bis 
daughter,  and  thus,  amid  the  surroundings  of  a 
refined  and  Christian  home,  Mr.  Thoman  spent 
his  boyhood.  His  elementary  education,  ac- 
quired in  the  common  schools,  was  supplemented 
by  an  academic  course,  but  his  inherited  love  of 
knowledge  and  the  guidance  of  his  parents  in 
matters  of  reading  probably  did  as  much  for  him 
as  school  training.  His  father  died  in  1878,  and 
from  that  time  until  her  death,  in  June,  1892,  his 
ihother,  who  was  born  in  W'ooster,  Ohio,  in  1824, 
made  her  home  with  her  son,  Leroy. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  profession  of  teaching,  which  he  successfully 
followed  until  his  admission  to  the  bar.     He  was 


n<^-py 


/V  CentUrtfPuMi&hirt^  ££naran/u/  t 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  Vy'TTED  STATES:  II.USOIS    VOLVME 


68 


principal  of  the  public  schools  of  Piper  City,  Illi- 
nois, for  three  years,  and  during  that  time  devoted 
his  leisure  hours  to  the  study  of  law.  which,  with 
one  year's  study  with  Hon.  Joseph  W.  Adair,  of 
Columbia  Cit\,  Indiana,  prepared  him  for  ad- 
mission to  the  bar,  AugT.ist  13.  1872.  Immedi- 
ately thereafter  he  was  appointed  deputy  prose- 
cuting attorney  for  the  Xinth  Judicial  District  of 
Indiana.  In  January,  1873.  'le  resigned,  return- 
ing to  his  native  State.  During  the  two  succeed- 
ing years  he  engaged  in  the  general  practice  of 
law  in  Youngstown,  and  in  1875  was  elected  judge 
of  the  probate  court  of  Mahoning  county,  and 
was  re-elected  in  1878,  sen-ing  in  all  for  six  years. 
On  his  retirement  in  Februar>-,  1882,  he  resumed 
private  law  practice  and  was  the  attorney  of  the 
Pittsburg  &  Lake  Erie  Railroad  Company  for 
the  State  of  Ohio. 

It  was  during  the  years  that  had  just  passed 
that  the  Judge  rose  to  prominence  in  political 
circles.  He  was  active  in  tlie  affairs  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  in  Ohio,  serving  as  a  member  of  the 
State  executive  committee  for  several  years.  In 
1880  he  was  chairman  of  the  Ohio  State  Demo- 
cratic convention,  and  the  same  year  was  nomi- 
nated by  his  party  for  Congress,  but  was 
defeated  by  Hon.  William  McKinley.  The  suc- 
ceeding year  he  received  a  strong  support  for 
the  office  of  governor  before  the  Democratic  State 
convention,  but  declined  to  become  a  candidate. 

In  the  meantime  he  began  his  labors  as  the 
champion  of  the  civil  ser\-ice  reform.  In  1880 
lie  purchased  an  interest  in  the  \'indicator,  the 
leading  Democratic  paper  in  northeastern  Ohio, 
and  through  its  columns  were  set  forth  the  bene- 
fits that  miglit  be  derived  from  the  adoption  of  the 
measures  which  he  championed.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  on  resolutions  in  the  State 
convention  in  1882,  and  it  was  through  his  efiforts 
that  a  civil-serv'ice-reform  plank  was  placed  in 
the  party  platform.  Throughout  the  country 
students  of  the  political  situation  were  realizing 
the  injurious  effects  resulting  from  what  is  popu- 
larly known  as  the  "spoils  system."  From  the 
time  of  the  Civil  war  measures  were  advanced  as 
a  cure  for  this  evil,  whereby  merit  alone  should 
be  the  test  and  qualification  of  an  office-seeker, 
and  not  what  he  had  done  to  secure  the  success 
of  his  party.  P.ut  little,  however,  had  resulted 
from  these  proposed  measures,  and  he  who  held 


the  power  of  appointment,  however  honest  his 
intentions  might  be,  could  not  withstand  the  im- 
portunities of  political  managers  on  behalf  of 
their  favorite  candidates.  At  last  Senator  Pendle- 
ton, of  Ohio,  introduced  a  bill  providing  for  stated 
examination  of  applicants  for  positions  in  the 
civil  sen-ice,  which  in  January,  1883,  became 
a  law.  According  to  a  provision  contained  there- 
in, a  commission  of  three  was  appointed  from 
representatives  of  both  parties  whose  duty  it  was 
to  prepare  rules  for  the  regulation  of  the  civil 
service,  provide  for  the  examination  of  applicants 
for  positions  and  prescribe  a  system  of  procedure 
in  conducting  such  examinations.  President 
.Arthur  appointed  Judge  Thonian  as  the  Demo- 
cratic member  of  the  first  United  States  civil  ser- 
vice commission  under  the  Pendleton  law,  and  to 
the  efiforts  of  the  Judge  as  much  as  to  any  other 
one  man  is  due  the  credit  for  putting  into  success- 
ful operation  the  new  system  and  securing  the 
benefits  therefrom.  "To  the  victors  belong  the 
spoils"  was  an  old  maxim  fitted  perhaps  to  the 
time  when  it  originated,  but  not  in  keeping  with 
this  progressive  age.  A  multitude  will  gather 
around  a  leader.  In  this  case  Judge  Thoman  was 
one  of  the  leaders.  A  high  compliment  was  paid  to 
Judge  Thoman  l)y  a  leading  citizen  of  Chicago, 
saying:  "I  was  in  Congress  when  President 
Arthur  appointed  Judge  Thoman  as  the  Demo- 
cratic member  of  the  first  United  States  civil 
service  conmiission,  and  I  know  that  to  his  good 
practical  sense  and  judgment  the  successful  in- 
auguration of  that  new  feature  of  our  govern- 
mental system  was  made  possible.  He  had  the 
confidence  of  President  Arthur  and  the  members 
of  his  cabinet,  and  enjoyed  the  respect  of  the  pub- 
lic officials.  He  is  a  broad-gauged  man,  of  posi- 
tive character."  He  ser\'ed  on  the  commission 
for  about  three  vears,  resigning  in  Xovember, 
1885. 

Since  1888  Judge  Thoman  has  been  a  resident 
of  Chicago  and  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law. 
Both  as  an  advocate  and  counselor  he  is  among 
the  ablest  representatives  of  the  bar  of  the  West. 
He  is  a  fine  speaker,  forcible  in  argument  and 
winning  as  a  rhetorician. 

\\  hen  it  was  decided  to  hold  in  this  countrv  a 
centennial  celebration  of  the  discover)-  of  Amer- 
ica, Judge  Thoman  was  an  active  factor  to  secure 
for  Chicago  the  site  of  the  World's  Columbixm 


64 


BIOORAPnWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Exposition.  lie  was  a  mcnil^cr  of  the  executive 
committee,  and  it  was  largely  through  his  in- 
fluence that  the  Ohio  Congressional  vote  was 
secured  for  this  city.  He  was  elected  president 
of  the  "States  Columbian  Association,''  and  in 
this  important  office  exerted  an  influence  in  be- 
half of  the  World's  Fair  site  that  was  valuable  in 
securing  the  desired  result. 

Judge  Thonian  has  always  taken  a  great  inter- 
est in  educational  affairs  and  has  acted  as  one  of 
the  judges  of  the  literary  and  oratorical  contests 
at  Washington  and  Jefiferson  College.  He  de- 
livered the  annual  address  to  the  graduates  at 
Oberlin  in  1888.  He  has  been  a  lecturer  on 
medical  jurisprudence  at  Bennett  College  and  on 
private  international  law  at  the  Northwestern 
Univer&ity.  He  has  spoken  on  many  public  oc- 
casions and  his  speeches  and  writings  always 
show  an  earnestness  and  care  in  preparation  that 
denote  sincerity. 

Judge  Thoman  is  an  esteemed  member  of  vari- 
ous social  organizations.     He  was  president  of 


the  Ohio  Society  of  Chicago  for  four  years,  is  a 
member  of  the  Union  League,  the  Athletic,  the 
Kvanston  and  the  Country'  Clubs,  and  is  a  Mason 
of  high  degree,  being  a  Knight  Templar  and  Scot- 
tish-rite Alason  of  the  thirty-second  degree,  and 
also  a  Noble  of  the  Alystic  Shrine. 

In  early  manhood,  Judge  Thoman  wedded  Miss 
Mary  E.  Cartwright,  of  Youngstow-n,  Ohio,  but 
after  a  happy  married  life  of  less  than  a  year  she 
passed  away.  His  home  was  then  shared  by  his 
mother  and  sister  until  February,  1892,  when  he 
added  to  the  household  by  his  marriage  to  Miss 
I'lorence  B.,  the  accomplished  daughter  of  Hon. 
James  M.  Smith,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  circuit 
court  of  the  First  District  of  Ohio.  This  union 
has  been  blessed  with  a  daughter.  The  Judge 
and  his  wife  are  adherents  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  They  have  a  beautiful  home  in  Evans- 
tion  which  indicates  the  refined  and  cultured 
taste  of  the  inmates,  and  its  hospitable  doors 
are  ever  open  for  the  reception  of  their  many 
friends. 


MELVILLE  W.  FULLER, 


WASHINGTON,   D.  C. 


/^■"HIEF  JUSTICE  FULLER  was  born  in  the 
V_.'  city  of  Augusta,  Maine,  on  the  nth  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1833.  O"  l^oth  sides  he  comes  of  the  best 
New  England  stock,  his  American  ancestors  hav- 
ing been  among  the  pilgrims  who  came  over  on 
the  Mayflower.  For  nearly  three  centuries  some 
member  of  his  family  in  each  generation  rose  to 
eminence  as  a  lawyer,  statesman  or  divine.  A 
succession  of  distinguished  preachers  were  his 
ancestors  on  the  paternal  side.  Thomas  Weld,  a 
Fellow  of  Cambridge  University,  came  to  this 
country  in  1632,  and  was  the  first  minister  of  the 
first  church  in  Roxbury,  now  a  part  of  Boston, 
Massachusetts.  He  was  a  contemporary  of  Eliot, 
the  Indian  apostle.  A  great-grandson  of  his, 
Habijah  Weld,  was  settled  for  half  a  century  at 
Attleborough,  J\Iassachusetts,  and  was  much  be- 
loved by  Cotton  Mather.  He  is  described  in 
Dwight's  Travels  in  New  England  as  an  orator 
of  great  virtue  and  power,  a  very  Boanerges  in 


the  pulpit.  His  daughter,  Hannah,  became  the 
wife  of  Rev.  Caleb  Fuller,  son  of  Young  Fuller, 
who  was  born  at  Barnstable  in  1708.  Another 
daughter,  Elizabeth,  married  John  Shaw,  of  Barn- 
stable, from  w-hom  the  late  Chief  Justice  Shaw, 
of  the  supreme  court  of  Massachusetts,  descended; 
so  that  Chief  Justice  Fuller  and  the  late  Chief 
Justice  of  Massachusetts  are  both  descendants  of 
the  celebrated  Puritan  preacher. 

The  Rev.  Caleb  Fuller  graduated  at  Yale  in 
1758,  and  settled  as  minister  for  some  time  in 
Hanover,  New  Hampshire,  where  he  died,  in 
1815,  at  a  good  old  age.  His  son,  Henry  Weld 
Fuller,  grandfather  of  the  Chief  Justice,  was  born 
in  1784  and  was  a  classmate  and  intimate  friend 
of  Daniel  Webster  at  Dartmouth  College.  He 
was  a  sound  lawyer,  and  for  many  years  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death  was  judge  of  probate  in 
Kennebec  county,  Maine.  He  resided  at  Au- 
gusta, and  was  noted  for  his  public  spirit  and  his 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


()0 


keen  interest  in  the  progress  and  prosperity  of 
his  adopted  State.  He  married  Estlier  Gould,  a 
sister  of  tlie  poetess,  Hannali  Flagg  Gould,  and 
died  on  the  29th  of  January,  1841.  The  father 
of  the  Chief  Justice's  paternal  grandmother,  Ben- 
jamin Gould,  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary 
war,  was  woimded  at  Lexington  and  struck  twice 
at  Bunker  Hill.  Her  brother,  Benjamin  A.  Gould, 
was  master  of  the  Boston  Latin  school,  and  an- 
other sister  was  the  mother  of  the  late  Judge 
Rapallo,  of  the  New  York  court  of  appeals.  Fred- 
erick Augustus  Fuller,  son  of  Henry  Weld  Ful- 
ler and  Esther  Gould,  and  father  of  the  chief 
justice,  was  born  in  Augusta,  on  the  5th  of  Oc- 
tober, 1806,  studied  law  at  Harvard  law  school 
and  with  his  father,  and  was  for  a  long  time 
chairman  of  the  board  of  commissioners  of 
Penobscot  county.  Lie  married  Catherine  M. 
Weston,  daughter  of  Hon.  Nathan  Weston,  who 
was  chief  justice  of  the  common  pleas  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and,  after  Maine  was  admitted  as  a 
State,  was  a  member  of  the  supreme  court  of 
that  State,  being  associate  justice  from  1820  to 
1834,  and  chief  justice  from  1834  to  1841.  Chief 
Justice  Weston's  mother  was  Elizabeth  Bancroft, 
an  aunt  of  the  historian,  George  Bancroft,  who 
had  been  previously  married  to  Nathaniel  Chee- 
ver,  and  two  of  whose  grandchildren  were  the  well 
known  abolitionist  divines.  Rev.  Dr.  George  B. 
Cheever  and  Rev.  Henry  T.  Cheever.  The  mater- 
nal grandmother  of  the  Chief  Justice  was  Paulina 
Bass  Cony,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  Cony, 
of  Augusta.  She  was  a  relative  of  Bishop  Bass  of 
Massachusetts  and  a  descendant  of  John  Bass, 
who  married  the  daughter  of  Priscilla  and  John 
Alden.  Her  maternal  grandfather  was  Rev.  Philip 
Curtis,  of  Jamaica  Plain.  Judge  Cony  was  a 
Revolutionary  soldier,  was  present  at  the  sur- 
render of  Burgoyne,  and  was  a  leading  man  in  the 
Kennebec  valley  during  a  long  life.  He  had  four 
daughters, — I\Irs.  Rucl  Williams,  Mrs.  Nathan 
Weston,  Mrs.  Samuel  Cony  and  Mrs.  John  H. 
Ingraham, — familiar  names  to  the  people  of 
Maine.  The  Chief  Justice  is  connected  througli 
the  Welds  with  Chief  Justice  Shaw,  through  the 
Curtises  with  Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  and  through 
the  Conys  with  Rufus  Choate.  His  father  and  his 
father's  two  brothers,  and  his  mother's  four  broth- 
ers, were  all   members  of   the  bar.     His  father, 


grandfather  and  great-grandfather  had  all  been 
distinguished  citizens  of  the  town  in  which  he  was 
born.  The  opinions  of  Chief  Justice  Weston,  es- 
pecially upon  commercial  questions,  are  quoted 
even  now  as  leading  cases  upon  the  topics  dis- 
cussed. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  Mr.  Fuller  entered  Bow- 
doin  College,  where  he  mastered  the  regular 
course,  graduating  in  the  class  of  1853.  On 
leaving  college  he  began  the  study  of  law  in  the 
office  of  his  uncle,  George  Melville  Weston,  at 
Bangor,  toward  the  close  of  his  preparatory  course 
attending  lectures  at  the  Harvard  law  school. 
Having  been  called  to  the  bar  of  his  native  State, 
he  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  at 
Augusta  in  1856,  in  partnership  with  his  uncle, 
Hon.  Benjamin  G.  Fuller,  with  whom  he  also  at 
the  same  time  edited  The  Age,  then  one  of  the 
leading  Democratic  newspapers  in  the  State. 
While  acting  in  this  capacity  he  reported  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  State  legislature  for  the  same 
paper,  and  thus  made  the  acquaintance  of  James 
G.  Blaine,  who  was  then  on  the  editorial  staff  of 
the  Republican  newspaper  in  Augusta.  While 
yet  on  the  threshold  of  his  career,  Mr.  Fuller  so 
favorably  impressed  his  fellow  citizens  by  his 
ability  that  in  1856  they  elected  him  a  member  of 
the  common  council  of  Augusta,  of  which  he 
became  the  president,  performing  also  the  duties 
of  city  solicitor.  Although  only  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  he  had  already  developed  remark- 
able qualities  as  a  lawyer,  and  an  enviable  position 
at  the  bar  of  his  native  State  was  assured  him. 

The  wonderful  reports  of  the  prosperity  of  the 
new  West,  however,  and  especially  of  the  growth 
of  Chicago,  had  attracted  his  attention,  and  he 
made  up  his  mind  to  follow  the  track — by  this 
time  pretty  well  trodden — of  Chicago's  early 
pioneers.  He  resigned  his  offices  in  Augusta, 
and  before  the  year  1856  had  closed  he  had  settled 
in  Chicago.  Here  his  abilities  were  speedily 
recognized.  He  soon  won  for  himself  an  honor- 
al)le  position  at  the  bar  and  built  up  a  lucrative 
practice  which  continued  to  grow  until  he  stood 
in  the  foremost  ranks  of  the  profession.  Within 
two  years  after  his  arrival  in  Chicago  we  find  him 
arguing  a  case  before  the  supreme  court  of  this 
State, — Beach  vs.  Derby, — reported  in  the  19th 
volume  of  the  Illinois  Reports.     From  that  time 


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niOGRAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


on  until  his  elevation  to  the  highest  judicial  office 
in  this  country  he  was  engaged  as  counsel  in 
nearly  all  the  most  important  litigations  that 
stand  out  as  landmarks  of  the  history  of  jurispru- 
dence in  this  State.  His  cases  appear  in  more 
than  one  hundred  volumes  of  the  Illinois  Reports. 
Several  of  them  were  of  a  character  which  at- 
tracted attention  not  only  in  this  but  also  in  other 
countries. 

The  most  celebrated  of  them,  perhaps,  was  the 
famous  Cheney  case,  which  resulted  in  the  organi- 
zation of  a  new  episcopal  church  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  with  a  branch  in  England. 
The  Rev.  Charles  Edward  Cheney,  rectorof  Christ 
Church  in  Chicago,  was  charged  before  the  bishop 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  diocese  of  Illinois, 
Dr.  Whitehouse,  with  omitting  the  word  "regen- 
erate" from  the  baptismal  service  in  violation  of 
the  rubric;  and  the  bishop  appointed  an  ecclesias- 
tical court  to  hear  evidence  and  report  their  find- 
ings to  him.  This  court,  which  consisted  entirely 
of  clergymen,  met  in  the  lecture  room  of  the 
cathedral  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  and  was  presided 
over  by  Rev.  Dr.  Chase  principal  of  an  Episcopal 
training  college  in  central  Illinois.  The  prosecu- 
tion was  conducted  by  Mr.  S.  Corning  Judd, 
chancellor  of  the  diocese,  and  the  accused  clergy- 
man was  defended  by  Mr.  Fuller,  who  also  is  a 
member  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  communion. 
Mr.  Cheney  did  not  deny  that  the  doctrine  of 
absolute  baptismal  regeneration  was  repugnant 
to  him,  nor  that  he  was  accustomed  to  omit  the 
word  expressing  it  when  reading  the  baptismal 
service.  In  common  with  a  number  of  other 
clergymen  who  afterward  seceded  with  him  from 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  he  claimed  a 
larger  spiritual  liberty  than  was  conceded  to  him 
by  the  strict  ritualists  who  instigated  the  prosecu- 
tion, and  maintained  that  he  could  still  remain  a 
loyal  minister  of  the  church,  though  eliminating 
from  the  service  book  what  he  held  to  be  error. 
The  writings  of  the  church  fathers  were  appealed 
to  in  support  of  this  position,  while  the  canon 
law  was  cited  to  uphold  the  theory  that  a  clergy- 
man can  do  nothing  but  follow  the  rubric,  ex- 
cept with  the  permission  of  his  bishop,  to  whom 
he  ovv'es  absolute  canonical  obedience. 

Mr.  Fuller  met  the  case  presented  point  by 
point,  and  astonished  the  doctors  of  divinity  by 


his  knowledge  both  of  canon  law  and  patristic 
literature.  When  it  became  evident  that  the  decis- 
ion of  the  court  would  be  against  his  client  he 
sued  out  a  writ  of  injunction,  which  was  served 
upon  the  members  of  the  court  in  open  session 
by  the  sheriff  of  Cook  county  in  person.  But 
]\lr.  Fuller  was  defeated  in  the  supreme  court, 
when  that  court  decided  that  the  court  of  equity 
could  not  enjoin  the  ecclesiastical  proceedings. 
Mr.  Cheney  was  subsequently  deposed  for  canon- 
ical disobedience,  and  formed  a  new  church,  with 
the  aid  of  Rev.  Dr.  Cummins,  assistant  bishop  of 
Kentucky,  who  conferred  upon  Mr.  Cheney  epis- 
copal orders,  as  I\Ir.  Cheney,  though  discarding 
absolute  baptismal  regeneration,  still  clung  to  the 
dogma  of  apostolical  succession.  The  new 
church  became  known  as  the  Reformed  Episco- 
pal Church,  and  ministers  from  the  Alethodist 
Presbyterian  and  other  denominations  joined  its 
ranks.  The  vestry  and  congregation  of  Christ 
Church  followed  Mr.  Cheney  in  his  secession, 
and  another  suit  arose  between  them  and 
the  bishop  with  regard  to  the  title  to  the 
church  property.  The  cases  were  in  liti- 
gation for  a  long  time,  and  at  all  stages 
Mr.  Fuller  vigorously  contested  them,  evincing  a 
profound  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  law  rarely 
possessed  by  any  lawyer  except  among  those  En- 
glish lawyers  who  are  specially  devoted  to  that 
line  of  practice.  His  argument  in  the  first  case 
before  the  Illinois  supreme  court  was  acknowl- 
edged to  be  a  masterpiece  of  forensic  skill  and 
eloquence.  The  result  of  the  second  case  was 
favorable  to  his  clients,  who  still  occupy  Christ 
church  under  the  ministrations  of  Bishop  Cheney. 
This  now  historical  case  added  greatly  to  Mr. 
Fuller's  fame  as  an  advocate;  but  he  had  long 
before  been  recognized  as  a  thorough  and  pains- 
taking lawyer,  and  noted  for  his  unswerving 
loyalty  to  the  interests  of  his  clients. 

His  practice  continued  to  grow  until  it  was 
limited  only  by  his  ability  and  willingness  to  un- 
dertake new  cases.  A  marked  characteristic  of 
all  his  appearances  in  court  was  the  thorough- 
ness with  which  his  cases  were  prepared.  Al- 
though possessing  quick  perceptive  faculties  and 
working  with  facility  and  ease,  he  studied  every 
case  closely  and  carefully,  not  grudging  the  most 
prodigious  labor,  so  that  he  might  be  master  of 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


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every  detail;  and  lie  always  went  into  court  fully 
armed  for  the  contest.  As  a  fluent,  earnest  and 
convincing  advocate  he  had  but  few  equals.  Al- 
ways dignified  and  courteous,  he  commanded 
alike  the  respect  of  the  court  and  the  esteem  of 
his  associates  at  the  bar.  His  practice  embraced 
all  branches  of  the  law  except  criminal  and  ad- 
miralty. As  an  expounder  of  commercial  law 
and  the  law  of  real  property,  he  had  no  superior 
at  the  Chicago  bar.  In  the  later  years  of  his 
forensic  career  he  practiced  more  on  the  chancery 
than  the  law  side  of  the  court,  but  in  both  he  shone 
as  an  eloquent  and  successful  pleader.  Latterly 
his  practice  was  very  extensive  in  the  federal 
courts;  and  it  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  he 
was  of  counsel  in  the  first  case  heard  before  the 
late  Chief  Justice  \\^aite  when  he  went  upon  the 
bench, — Tappan  vs.  The  Merchants'  National 
Bank.  That  was  in  1874;  and  since  that  time, 
as  well  as  for  some  years  before,  scarcely  a  term  of 
that  court  passed  in  which  he  had  not  one  or  more 
cases  on  the  docket. 

Among  the  more  important  of  his  later  cases  in 
the  federal  courts  may  be  mentioned  the  Lake 
Front  case,  which  involved  a  long  protracted 
struggle  between  the  city  of  Chicago  and  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  for  the  con- 
trol of  the  lake  front,  along  which  the  railroad's 
right  of  way  extended.  The  litigation  over  this 
matter  dragged  its  slow  length  along  for  many 
years,  assuming  in  its  course  many  new 
phases,  which  it  would  be  tedious  to  de- 
scribe in  detail  even  were  it  possible  within 
any  reasonable  limits  to  recount  a  histon,' 
with  which  most  of  the  older  generation 
of  Chicago  citizens  are  familiar.  In  the  whole  of 
that  litigation  Mr.  Fuller  successfully  represented 
the  interests  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  while  the  most 
eminent  counsel  available  at  the  Chicago  bar  were 
arrayed  against  him;  but  he  fought  them  single- 
handed  with  wonderful  pertinacity,  and  with  ap- 
parently inexhaustible  resources  of  argument, 
until  at  the  final  hearing  before  Justice  Harlan 
and  Judge  Blodgctt,  a  year  before  Mr.  Fuller's 
elevation  to  the  federal  bench,  a  result  was  arrived 
at  which  was  essentially  a  triumph  for  the  city,  the 
credit  of  which  was  freely  acknowledged  to  be  due 
to  the  learning,  research,  and  skill  with  which  Mr. 
Fuller  had  conducted  the  litigation  on  the  city's 
behalf.     It  was  one  of  the  most  memorable  legal 


battles  that  have  ever  been  fought  in  the  courts 
of  the  United  States, — memorable  alike  for  the 
magnitude  of  the  issues  involved,  the  eminence  of 
the  counsel  engaged,  and  the  length  of  time 
through  which  it  lasted;  and  Mr.  Fuller  came  out 
of  it  with  honor  and  with  a  vastly  enhanced  pro- 
fessional reputation. 

A  Democrat  all  his  life,  Mr.  Fuller  gave  a  loyal 
and  earnest  support  to  the  cause  of  the  Union 
during  the  war,  believing  the  principles  of  the 
Jeflfersonian  party  to  be  not  inconsistent  witli  the 
purest  patriotism.  Ardently  desiring  the  triumph 
of  the  Union  arms  and  the  suppression  of  tJie 
rebellion,  he  yet  saw  no  reason  to  change  the 
political  opinions  which  he  had  cherished  from  his 
earliest  years,  and  has  always  been,  through  all 
vicissitudes  of  party  fortune,  a  consistent  and 
zealous  member  of  the  Democratic  party.  A 
thorough  student  of  economic  science,  as  well  as 
of  the  principles  of  the  law,  he  quickly  discerned 
the  fallacy  of  an  attempt  to  increase  the  general 
prosperity  by  an  inflation  of  the  currency,  and 
gave  his  firm  support  to  the  policy  of  resumption 
of  specie  payments  and  a  return  to  what  was 
popularly  known  as  "hard  money." 

He  was  a  devoted  personal  friend  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  and  among  the  ablest  adherents  of  that 
statesman.  He  welcomed  Senator  Douglas  to 
Chicago  in  i860,  in  an  address  characterized  both 
by  elegance  of  diction  and  vigor  of  thought,  and, 
in  the  following  year,  he  delivered  a  commemora- 
tive oration  which  was  widely  praised  for  its  style 
and  matter.  In  1861  he  was  a  member  of  the 
convention  called  for  the  purpose  of  revising 
the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  in  that 
body  his  legal  knowledge  and  abilities  enabled 
him  to  render  important  service.  In  1862  he  was 
elected  to  the  State  legislature  and  scr\'ed  one 
term.  He  was  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the  Demo- 
craticnationalconventionsof  1864, 1872,  1876  and 
1880,  and  in  1876  was  selected  to  nominate  Mr. 
Hendricks  for  the  vice  presidency,  which  he  did 
in  a  brilliant  speech.  In  recent  years,  however,  he 
has  withdrawn  himself  from  all  active  participa- 
tion in  politics,  though  he  still  retains  a  warm  in- 
terest in  the  success  of  his  party  and  the  principles 
which  it  represents,  is  a  close  observer  of  public 
events  and  as  keen  a  student  as  ever  of  the  public 
questions  of  the  day. 

A  thorough  student  from  his  college  days,  Mr. 


RS 


niOORAPlIICAI.  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


luillor  has  all  his  life  been  a  man  of  scholarly 
habits, — not  merely  a  /iMuc  libioniin,  though  he 
is  that, — but  one  who  constantly  exemplifies 
Bacon's  maxim  as  to  the  right  results  of  reading. 
His  classical  erudition  tinctures  his  style  on  all  oc- 
casions, in  legal  arguments,  in  public  addresses, 
and  even  in  lighter  and  less  carefully  prepared 
postprandial  utterances,  and  oftentimes  overflows 
with  quotation.  In  the  same  way  his  wide  ac- 
quaintance with  the  best  modern  literature  is 
manifest  not  merely  in  the  grace  and  polish  of 
his  diction,  but  also  in  the  wealth  of  allusion  and 
felicitous  quotation  with  which  it  is  embroidered. 
And  above  all,  one  rare  clement  of  strengtli  which 
pervades  his  more  serious  discourse,  is  his  famil- 
iarity with  the  bible,  the  very  phraseology  of 
which,  grand  in  its  mere  simplicity,  crops  out 
frequently  in  Mr.  Fuller's  speeches  as  though  by 
an  act  of  unconscious  assimilation.  By  the  mem- 
bers of  his  own  profession  he  is  held  in  the  highest 
respect  for  the  thoroughness  of  his  legal  learn- 
ing. He  displays  as  complete  a  familiarity  with 
fundamental  principles  as  with  precedents.  A 
profound  jurist  as  well  as  an  accomplished 
scholar,  he  is  moreover  a  singularly  effective 
orator,  a  charm  of  his  diction  being  enhanced  by 
a  graceful  delivery  and  a  dignified  bearing  which 
at  once  make  a  favorable  impression  upon  an 
audience. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  1888,  Mr.  Fuller  was  ap- 
pointed by  President  Cleveland  to  the  high  office 
of  chief  justice  of  the  United  States,  made  vacant 
by  the  death  of  Hon.  Morrison  R.  Waite.  His 
appointment  was  most  favorably  received  by  the 
legal  profession  throughout  the  country.  Even 
his  strongest  political  opponents  were  among  the 
first  to  recognize  his  eminent  fitness  for  the  posi- 
tion. Called  in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood  from 
the  active  practice  of  the  bar,  it  was  universally 
felt  that  Mr.  Fuller,  as  a  lawyer  of  wide  experience 
and  commanding  position  in  his  profession,  and 
a  citizen  of  the  very  highest  personal  character, 
would  undoubtedly  prove  a  worthy  successor  to 
Jay,  Ellsworth,  Marshall,  Taney,  Chase  and 
Waite.  His  old  college,  Bowdoin,  was  among 
the  foremost  to  greet  the  new  chief  justice  with 
the  highest  honor  in  its  gift,  the  degree  of  LL.  D., 
which  was  conferred  upon  him  on  commencement 
day  in  July,  1888.     Mr.  Fuller  was  present  in  at- 


tendance on  a  meeting  of  his  class,  that  of  1853, 
and  at  the  commencement  dinner,  in  response  to 
the  call  of  the  president,  he  made  a  response 
which  was  characterized  by  all  the  felicities  of 
diction  which  have  already  been  enumerated. 
"Praise  from  those  who  have  been  crowned  with 
praise,''  he  said,  "is  necessarily  gratifying;  and  it 
is  delightful  on  returning  from  long  absence  to  re- 
ceive the  cordial  welcome  of  the  friends  of  one's 
youth  and  early  manhood,  and  of  the  many  with 
whom  kinship  has  been  created  by  the  tender 
touch  of  the  fair  and  gracious  mother  in  letters  of 
us  all.  I  cannot  escape  if  I  would,  and  I  would 
not  if  I  could,  the  touch  of  vanquished  hands  and 
the  sound  of  stilled  voices."  Speaking  of  his  old 
teachers,  he  went  on  to  say:  "Though  in  the  care- 
less gayety  of  youth  I  count  myself  as  not  having 
fully  apprehended  it,  I  have  since  appreciated,  and 
profoundly  appreciate,  the  value  of  the  works 
which  follow  them,  now  that  they  rest  from  their 
labors.  It  was  not  learning  merely,  it  was  not 
mental  discipline  merely,  that  they  sought  to  im- 
part, but,  in  addition  to  and  above  these,  they 
labored  to  ground  the  student  in  that  faith  in  the 
eternal  verities  which  would  enable  him,  when 
the  rain  descended  and  the  winds  blew  and  the 
floods  came,  to  withstand  the  storm  as  he  only 
finally  can  do  whose  feet  are  planted  on  that  rock. 
Wherever  the  sons  of  Bowdoin  have  acquired  dis- 
tinction— and  what  region  of  the  earth  is  not  full 
of  their  labors? — I  think  it  will  be  found  that  their 
success  is  largely  attributable  to  the  integrity  of 
character  developed  by  the  spirit  of  the  teaching 
of  their  alma  mater." 

His  fellow  citizens  of  Chicago  were  not  slow  to 
acknowledge  the  honor  conferred  upon  this  com- 
munity by  the  selection  of  one  of  its  members  for 
the  highest  judicial  office  in  the  land.  His  breth- 
ren of  the  Chicag'o  bench  and  bar  entertained  him 
at  a  magnificent  banquet,  presided  over  by  the 
venerable  Thomas  Drummond,  Judge  of  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the  Northern  Dis- 
trict of  Illinois,  himself  a  graduate  of  Bowdoin 
College.  In  proposing  the  health  of  the  new 
chief  justice.  Judge  Drummond  referred  to  the 
attempted  opposition  to  his  confirmation  by  the 
senate.  Characterizing  Mr.  Fuller  as  "one  who 
has  gone  in  and. out  among  us  for  more  than 
thirty  years  with  an  untarnished  name  and  with  a 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


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moral  character  which  even  malice  could  not 
sully,"  he  said  that  the  citizens  of  Chicago  could 
commend  Mr.  Fuller  "as  one  who,  from  the 
eminence  he  has  occupied  as  a  lawyer,  from  his 
learning,  from  his  ability,  and  his  integrity,  will 
adorn  the  high  office  to  which  he  has  been  ap- 
pointed." The  earnest  and  feeling  words  with 
which  Chief  Justice  Fuller  responded  will  long 
echo  in  the  memories  of  those  who  were  present 
on  that  occasion,  and  a  brief  extract  from  them 
may  fitly  close  this  sketch: 

"It  has  come  to  pass,"  Mr.  Fuller  said,  "that 
as  the  star  of  empire,  moving  westward,  hangs 
fixed  and  resplendent  above  the  glorious  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  a  member  of  this  bar  and 
citizen  of  Chicago  has  been  designated  to  the 
headship  of  the  mightiest  tribunal  upon  earth. 
Of  that  tribunal,  or  the  grave  and  weighty  re- 
sponsibilities of  that  office,  it  does  not  become  me 
now  to  speak,  nor  could  I  if  it  were  otherwise  ap- 
propriate; for  I  am  oppressed  with  the  sadness 
inevitable  where  one,  after  long  years  of  battle, 
puts  his  armor  oft  and  retires  from  the  ranks  of 
his  comrades.  Whatever  the  vicissitudes  of  these 
thirty-two  years,  they  have  never  been  marred 
bv  personal  estrangement  from  my  brethren,  and 
they  have  been  happy  years.  Personally  unam- 
bitious, I  have  not  thought  myself  selfish    in  in- 


dulging my  preference  for  the  sweet  habit  of  life 
rather  than  the  struggle  involved  in  prominent 
position.  I  have  always  been  deeply  impressed 
with  the  truth  of  the  words  of  one  of  the  wisest 
of  mankind,  that  'men  in  great  place  are  thrice 
servants, — servants  of  the  sovereign  or  State, 
sen^ants  of  fame,  and  sen'ants  of  business;  so  as 
they  have  no  freedom,  neither  in  their  persons 
nor  in  their  actions,  nor  in  their  times.'  But  I 
also  know,  of  course,  that  the  performance  of  duty 
is  the  true  end  of  life;  and  I  find  consolation  in 
the  thought  that,  though  in  the  efTort  to  prove 
worthy  of  the  confidence  of  a  great  and  common 
countrv.  I  must  tread  the  w^ine-press  alone,  I  shall 
be  sustained  by  the  sympathy,  the  friendship,  and 
the  good  will  of  those  with  whom  I  have  dwelt  so 
long,  and  my  affection  for  whom  no  office  how- 
ever exalted,  no  eminence  however  .great,  can  im- 
pede or  diminish." 

Mr.  Fuller  has  been  twice  married:  In  1858  to 
Calista  O.  Reynolds,  and  in  1866  to  JNIarv  Ellen 
Coolbaugh.  He  is  the  father  of  eight  daughters 
and  one  son — two  of  the  daughters  being  the 
issue  of  the  first  marriage. 

The  biography  of  Chief  Justice  Fuller  as  it  ap- 
pears above  was  prepared  for  and  published  in 
volume  II  of  the  Encyclopedia  of  Biography  of 
Illinois.  I      11: 


HON.  JOHN  G.  ROGERS, 

CHICAGO. 


IN  the  last  half  century  especially,  it  is  seldom 
that  one  wins  prominence  in  several  lines.  It 
is  the  tendency  of  the  age  to  devote  one's  entire 
energies  to  a  special  line,  continually  working  up- 
ward and  concentrating  his  efforts  toward  ac- 
complishing a  desired  end ;  yet  in  the  case  of  John 
Gorin  Rogers  it  is  demonstrated  that  an  exalted 
position  may  be  reached  in  more  than  one  line 
of  action.  He  was  an  eminent  jurist,  an  able 
judge  and  a  leader  in  political  circles.  His  long 
connection  with  the  public  life  of  Chicago  and  a 
reputation  that  extended  beyond  the  confines  of 
Illinois  well  entitle  him  to  representation  in  this 
volume. 

Judge  Rogers  was  born  in  Glasgow,  Kentucky, 


December  28,  1818,  descending  from  an  old  Vir- 
ginian family  founded  in  America  by  English  an- 
cestors more  than  two  hundred  years  ago.  The 
judge  acquired  his  elementary  education  in  the 
schools  of  his  native  county  and  in  1841  was 
graduated  at  the  Transylvania  University,  at  Lex- 
ington, Kentucky,  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Laws.  He  was  then  admitted  to  the  bar  and  at 
once  opened  an  office  in  his  native  city,  where  he 
soon  won  prominence,  for  his  abilities  were  such 
that  they  commanded  recognition.  Desiring  a 
wider  field  of  labor,  in  the  year  1857  he  came  to 
Chicago,  where  within  a  short  time  he  was  ac- 
corded a  foremost  position  among  the  ablest 
lawyers  of  the  city.     \Miilc  still  in  Kentucky  he 


70 


BIOORAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


twice  served  as  presidential  elector,  first  in  1848 
and  again  in  1852.  In  1871  he  was  elected 
associate  jndge,  and  after  eight  years'  service  in 
that  office  became  chief  justice  of  the  circuit  court, 
in  1879.  It  is  said  if  a  man  follows  that  pursuit 
for  which  nature  intended  him  he  cannot  but  win 
success;  and  nature  evidently  intended  Mr. 
Rogers  for  a  judge  if  success  is  any  criterion.  He 
was  a  fluent  speaker,  an  able  writer,  clear  and 
forcible,  and  the  charge  which  he  gave  to  a  jury, 
while  summing  up  the  evidence  in  a  concise  and 
logical  way,  was  always  suited  to  his  auditors.  If 
the  jurors  were  of  the  more  cultured  class,  his  lan- 
guage was  chosen  accordingly;  if  the  men  were 
illiterate  his  words  were  of  a  simple  nature,  yet 
brought  in  all  the  points  of  the  case  in  their  various 
bearings.  Judge  Rogers'  knowledge  of  real-estate 
law  has  been  seldom  equaled,  he  being  consid- 
ered authority  on  all  such  matters.  He  was  an 
eloquent  pleader,  a  keen  debater  and  his  remark- 
able memory  furnished  him  with  a  wealth  of  cita- 
tion and  precedent. 

In  1844,  before  leaving  his  native  State,  the 
Judge  was  united  in  marriage  with  IMiss  Arabella 
E.  Crenshaw,  the  eldest  daugliter  of  B.  Mills 
Crenshaw,  late  chief  justice  of  Kentucky.  A  lady 
of  gentle  and  refined  manner,  she  shared  in  the 
high  esteem  in  which  her  husband  was  held.  She 
took  great  delight  in  her  home  and  family,  which 
numbered  two  sons  and  two  daughters;  and  as 
the  Judge  was  a  man  of  domestic  tastes  a  happy 
circle  gathered  round  the  fireside. 

In  early  life  Judge  Rogers  was  a  supporter  of 
the  Whig  party,  and  in  i860  joined  the  Democ- 
racy, w-ith  which  he  afterward  continued  in  con- 


nection. He  was  by  no  means  a  politician,  yet 
was  a  man  of  pronounced  views  on  various  ques- 
tions and  never  feared  to  give  expression  to  his 
sentiments.  He  was  a  member  of  the  national 
convention  which  nominated  Millard  Fillmore  for 
the  presidency. 

He  first  became  a  member  of  the  Independent 
Order  of  Odd  Fellows  in  1849,  joining  Glasgow 
Lodge,  No.  65.  Upon  his  removal  to  Chicago  he 
became  a  member  of  Excelsior  Lodge,  No.  22,  and 
after  several  times  representing  it  in  the  grand 
lodge  he  was,  in  1863,  elected  grand  master  of 
Illinois,  and  in  1869  was  chosen  grand  represent- 
ative to  the  grand  lodge  of  the  United  States. 
In  1871  he  was  selected  as  one  of  the  Chicago  Re- 
lief Committee  of  the  Odd  Fellows'  society,  and 
being  made  its  treasurer  received  and  disbursed 
more  than  $100,000.  That  committee  received 
the  highest  commendations,  not  only  from  tlie 
fraternity,  the  almoner  of  w'hose  bounty  it  was, 
but  also  from  the  public,  cognizant  of  its  acts;  and 
its  admirable  conduct  of  the  delicate  work 
assigned  it  shed  new  luster  upon  the  name  of  the 
beneficent  order.  The  Judge  was  modest  and 
unassuming  in  disposition,  courteous  and  suave 
in  manner,  self-poised  and  dignified  in  demeanor, 
thoughtful  of  the  feelings  and  respectful  toward  the 
opinons  of  others,  and  aided  his  fellow  men  with  a 
generous  devotion  that  won  him  the  highest  re- 
gard of  all  with  whom  he  was  brought  in  contact. 

His  death  occurred  in  Chicago,  January  10, 
1887,  and  the  community  mourned  the  loss  of  one 
of  its  most  valued  and  highly  respected  citizens, 
the  bar  one  of  its  most  able  members  and  his 
associates  a  most  loyal  friend. 


ROBERT  J.  BENNETT, 


IN  past  ages  the  history  of  a  country  was  the 
record  of  wars  and  conquests ;  to-day  it  is  the 
record  of  commercial  activity,  and  those  whose 
names  are  foremost  in  its  annals  are  the  leaders 
in  business  circles.  The  conquests  now  made 
are  those  of  mind  over  matter,  not  of  man  over 
man,  and  the  victor  is  he  who  can  successfully 
establish,  control  and  operate  extensive  commer- 


cial interests.  Robert  J.  Bennett  is  one  of  the 
strong  and  influential  men  whose  lives  have  be- 
come an  essential  part  of  the  history  of  Chicago 
and  of  the  West.  Tireless  energy,  keen  percep- 
tion, honesty  of  purpose,  genius  for  devising  and 
executing  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time,  joined 
to  every-day  common  sense,  guided  by  great  will 
power,  are  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  man. 


.rf"3i-:sf  Brc-' 


.^^f^^^^^'^^^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


n 


Connected  with  one  of  the  leading  wliolcsale 
grocerv'  houses  of  Chicago,  tlie  place  that  he  occu- 
pies in  business  circles  is  in  the  front  rank. 

Mr.  Bennett  was  born  in  Pulaski,  Osweg'o 
county,  New  York,  on  the  9th  of  Februan,-,  1839, 
and  descended  from  Illinois'  pioneers.  The  Ben- 
netts are  of  Irish  ancestn.-,  the  family  having  been 
founded  in  America  by  those  of  that  name  who 
left  the  Emerald  Isle  and  took  up  their  residence 
in  this  country  during  early  Colonial  days.  His 
father,  Reuben  J.  Bennett,  was  one  of  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  Oswego  county.  New  York,  and  mar- 
ried Alta  Haskins,  who  was  of  the  seventh  gener- 
ation from  Miles  Standish,  governor  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Colony. 

When  Robert  w-as  a  child  of  five  years,  in  1844, 
the  parents  left  their  old  home  in  the  Empire 
State  and  started  westward,  their  destination  be- 
ing Lake  county,  Illinois.  From  the  Govern- 
ment the  father  purchased  a  tract  of  land  near 
Diamond  Lake,  and  continued  the  cultivation 
and  improvement  of  the  same  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death,  which  occurred  in  1883.  His  w-ife  sur- 
vived him  ten  years  and  passed  away  in  1893,  at 
the  age  of  eighty-five. 

Upon  the  old  homestead  farm  Robert  J.  Ben- 
nett spent  his  boyhood  and  youth,  the  outdoor 
life  giving  him  the  necessary  physical  training, 
while  the  schools  of  the  neighborhood  afforded 
him  the  means  of  mental  development.  He  was 
an  apt  student  and  soon  fitted  himself  for  the  pro- 
fession of  teaching,  which  he  followed  to  a  limited 
extent  during  his  earlier  years,  having  charge  of 
several  district  schools.  A  new  life  opened  to 
him  in  1863,  when  he  came  to  Chicago.  He  de- 
sired a  broader  field  of  labor  and  usefulness  and 
sought  it  in  the  rapidly  growing  city  by  the  lake. 
He  was  at  that  time  a  young  man  of  good  gen- 
eral information,  ambitious  and  enterprising, 
and  at  once  secured  the  position  of  cashier  and 
general  bookkeeper  for  William  M.  Hoyt — a 
wholesale  dealer  in  fruits  and  fancy  groceries. 
He  held  that  position  for  two  years,  and  in  1865 
joined  A.  AI.  Fuller  in  the  purchase  of  Mr.  Hoji's 
interest  in  the  store  and  business.  Air.  Hoyt  then 
embarked  in  the  wholesale  grocery  trade.  This 
undertaking  was  prosperous.  In  tlie  great  fire 
of  1871  Bennett  &  Fuller  lost  their  all  and 
much  more.     Their  creditors  voluntarily  signed 


an  agreement  to  take  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar, 
but  these  young  men  paid  in  full.  Concerning 
this  settlement  Mr.  Bennett  wrote:  "I  worked 
fifteen  to  sixteen  hours  per  day  and  had  but  one 
suit  of  clothes  at  a  time  until  all  of  that  great 
debt  was  paid  one  hundred  cents  on  the  dollar 
with  interest  from  the  day  it  was  due.  The  time 
of  final  release  was  a  proud  day  in  my  life." 

On  the  1st  of  August,  1874,  a  connection  was 
formed  between  the  old  house,  of  which  Air.  Hoyt 
was  leading  partner,  and  the  firm  of  Bennett  & 
Fuller.  On  the  consolidation  of  the  two  houses 
Air.  Bennett  assumed  financial  direction  of  the 
new  company's  affairs,  a  position  which  has 
claimed  his  constant  attention  since.  His  share 
in  shaping  the  policy  of  the  house  has  had  a 
marked  influence  in  winning  its  phenomenal  suc- 
cess. About  this  time  the  plan  of  selling  goods 
through  the  medium  of  traveling  salesmen  was 
discontinued  and  that  of  winning  customers 
through  the  medium  of  printed  price  lists  adopted. 
The  incorporation  of  the  firm  w'as  recorded  in 
1882,  under  the  title  of  the  William  AI.  Hoyt 
Company,  the  capital  stock  being  placed  at  $500,- 
000,  of  which  sixty  per  cent  was  paid  at  that  date. 
The  of^cers  were  William  AI.  Hoyt,  president; 
A.  AI.  Fuller,  vice-president;  and  R.  J.  Bennett, 
secretary  and  treasurer.  The  officers  named, 
with  A.  C.  Buttolph  and  Graeme  Stewart,  who 
were  admitted  in  the  company,  formed  the  board 
of  directors,  and  have  sensed  in  their  respective 
positions  for  the  last  twelve  years.  To-day  the 
capital  is  entirely  paid  up  and  a  surplus  fund  of 
over  .$100,000  is  recorded. 

Alany  are  the  business  houses,  retail  and  whole- 
sale, located  in  Chicago,  but  none  have  a  higher 
reputation  as  substantial  and  reliable  concerns  than 
that  oi  the  William  AI.  Hoyt  Company,  which  is 
primarily  due  to  the  untiring  industry  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  firm  and  to  the  reputation  they  have 
won  for  honorable  dealings  throughout  the  en- 
tire territory  tributary  to  Chicago.  From  the 
time  when  Air.  Bennett  entered  the  employ  of  Air: 
Hoyt  as  bookkeeper,  the  relations  existing  be- 
tween them  have  been  of  the  most  pleasant  char- 
acter. It  is  seldom  that  one  sees  a  firm  where 
the  members  work  together  with  such  perfect 
harmony,  the  labors  of  one  seeming  to  perfectly 
supplement   and    round    out  those  of  the  other. 


72 


BIOORAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


The  interests  of  Mr.  Bennett  and  Mr.  Hoyt  are  as 
one,  and  two  more  honored  business  men  cannot 
be  found  in  the  city  of  Chicago  to-day  than  these 
gentlemen. 

The  site  of  their  large  house  is  that  on  which 
stood  Fort  Dearborn,  and  upon  a  white  marble 
tablet,  which  is  inserted  in  the  front  of  the  build- 
ing, is  a  bas-relief  of  the  old  "block  house,"  below 
which  is  the  inscription:  "This  building  occupies 
the  site  of  Fort  Dearborn,  which  extended  a  little 
across  Michigan  avenue  and  somewhat  into  the 
river  as  it  now  is.  The  fort  was  built  in  1803  and 
1804,  forming  our  outmost  defense.  By  order  of 
General  Hull  it  was  evacuated  August  15,  1812, 
after  its  stores  and  provisions  had  been  distributed 
among  the  Indians.  Very  soon  after,  the  Indians 
attacked  and  massacred  about  fifty  of  the  troops 
and  a  number  of  citizens,  including  women  and 
children,  and  next  day  burned  the  fort.  In  1816 
it  was  rebuilt;  but  after  the  Black  Hawk  war  it 
went  into  gradual  disuse,  and  in  May,  1837,  was 
abandoned  by  the  army,  but  was  occupied  by  var- 
ious Government  ofifices  until  1857,  when  it  was 
torn  down  excepting  a  single  building  which 
stood  upon  the  site  until  the  great  fire  of  October 
9,  1871.  At  the  suggestion  of  the  Chicago  His- 
torical Society  this  tablet  was  erected,  Novem- 
ber, 1880,  by  W.  M.  Hoyt."  This  inscription  was 
written  by  Mr.  Bennett  at  the  request  of  the  Chi- 
cago Historical  Society,  and  the  plan  of  the  tablet 
was  drawn  by  him.  It  seems  appropriate  that 
one  of  the  oldest  and  most  reliable  houses  in  Chi- 
cago should  stand  upon  this  historic  ground, 
around  which  clusters  the  romance  of  the  city. 

The  attention  of  INIr.  Bennett  has  by  no  means 
been  limited  to  one  line  of  enterprise,  for  he  is  a 
man  of  broad  capabilities.  He  has  been  a  director 
in  the  Atlas  National  Bank  and  the  owner  of  con- 
siderable real  estate  in  Ravenswood,  which  he  has 
greatly  improved,  thereby  adding  to  the  beauty 
and  prosperity  of  one  of  Chicago's  most  delight- 
ful suburbs.  He  to-day  enjoys  the  reward  of  his 
painstaking  and  conscientious  work.  By  his 
energy,  perseverance  and  fine  business  ability  he 
has  been  enabled  to  secure  an  ample  fortune.  Sys- 
tematic and  metliodical,  his  sagacity,  keen  dis- 
crimination and  sound  judgment  have  made  him 
one  of  the  prosperous  wholesale  merchants  of  the 
city.     It  is  not  alone  in  the  business  world  that 


Mr.  Bennett  is  well  known.  The  metropolis  of 
the  West,  which  for  a  third  of  a  century  has  been 
his  home,  is  indebted  to  him  for  the  efforts  he  has 
put  forth  in  her  behalf.  Social,  educational  and 
moral  interests  have  been  promoted  by  him,  and 
anything  that  tends  to  uplift  and  benefit  humanity 
secures  his  hearty  co-operation.  He  is  especially 
liberal  in  his  donations  to  the  Congregational 
Church,  and  was  the  principal  contributor  toward 
that  church  at  Ravenswood,  of  which  he  and  his 
wife  are  active  members.  He  is  a  leader  in  the 
work  of  the  Sunday-school,  has  been  prominent  in 
the  advancement  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  and  built  and  equipped  the  gym- 
nasium of  the  Ravenswood  branch,  at  a  cost  of 
$15,000,  which  he  gave  to  the  society  free  of 
charge  for  five  years.  The  cause  of  education 
finds  in  him  a  warm  friend,  and  his  deep  and  sin- 
cere interest  in  the  welfare  of  his  fellowmen 
prompts  his  support  of  various  charities  and  en- 
terprises that  are  calculated  to  prove  of  general 
benefit.  His  political  support  is  given  to  the 
Republican  party,  and  he  is  one  of  the  best  in- 
formed men  in  the  country  on  the  subject  of 
American  politics.  He  ranks  among  the  most 
honored  counselors  of  the  party,  and  his  opin- 
ions and  advice  are  continually  sought  on  ques- 
tions of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  city.  He 
has  often  been  solicited  to  become  a  candidate 
for  office,  but  has  always  declined  all  honors  of 
a  political  character. 

Fond  of  travel,  Mr.  Bennett  finds  his  chief 
source  of  recreation  and  rest  in  this  way.  He 
has  made  many  visits  to  different  parts  of  this 
countr>',fonningnew friendships  and  associations. 
In  June,  1895,  he  returned  after  a  six-months 
absence  in  the  Old  World,  during  which  time  he 
visited  the  Holy  Land  and  Egj-pt,  which  were 
of  great  interest  to  him,  not  only  on  account  of 
the  difference  in  the  life  of  the  inhabitants  of  to- 
day, but  also  because  of  memories  and  associa- 
tions in  connection  with  the  scenes  of  Bible 
history.  He  has  also  traveled  through  continental 
Europe,  has  seen  the  ancient  ruins  of  northern 
Africa,  visited  the  old  Byzantine  empire  and  class- 
ic Greece,  contrasting  the  present  with  the  past 
civilization,  has  seen  the  Orient's  extensive  em- 
pire, China,  has  spent  some  time  in  the  enterpris- 
ing and  progressive  empire  of  Japan,  and  has 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


73 


traveled  in  the  land  of  Montezuma.  In  manner, 
Mr.  Bennett  is  pleasant  and  genial,  in  disposition 
is  kindly,  and  the  high  regard  in  which  he  is  uni- 
versally held  is  well  deserved. 

The  domestic  relations  of  Mr.  Bennett  have 
ever  been  of  the  most  pleasant,  and  he  finds  in 
his  home  his  greatest  enjoyment.     He  was  hap- 


pily married,  in  1862,  to  Miss  Electa  M.  Hovt, 
sister  of  William  M.  Hoyt,  and  to  them  were  bom 
three  children:  Arthur  G.,  connected  with  tlie 
wholesale  house;  Maude  E.,  wife  of  Morri- 
son H.  Vail,  of  Chicago,  an  architect;  and  Will- 
iam Hoyt  Bennett,  now  an  employee  of  the 
company. 


HENRY  C.  CONNELLY, 


ROCK  ISLAND. 


THE  gentleman  whose  name  honors  this  page 
was  born  in  the  village  of  Petersburg,  Som- 
.rrset  county,  Pennsylvania,  December  22,  1831, 
the  fourth  in  order  of  birth  of  the  eight  children  of 
James  and  Maria  (Hugus)  Connelly,  the  former 
a  contractor  and  heavy  dealer  in  stock,  who  as- 
sisted in  building  the  great  National  road. 

Our  subject's  maternal  ancestors  on  both  sides 
were  Huguenots,  who  fled  from  France  at  the 
time  of  the  massacre.  Some  of  their  descendants, 
Hugus  and  Ankeny  by  name,  fought  with 
Washington.  Plis  paternal  grandfather,  Bernard 
Connelly,  came  to  this  country  from  the 
north  of  Ireland  mear  the  close  of  the  last  century 
and  located  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  met  with 
financial  success.  In  after  years  he  located  in 
Somerset  county,  where  he  purchased  a  large 
tract  of  land  and  engaged  extensively  in  the  rais- 
ing of  live  stock.  He  reared  three  sons  and  four 
daughters.  One  of  the  points  he  loved  to  dwell 
upon  in  his  old  age,  was  that  he  had  given  his 
children  the  best  education  the  country  afforded, 
in  addition  deeding  each  a  farm. 

The  early  boyhood  days  of  our  subject,  until 
the  death  of  his  father,  were  passed  in  his  native 
village.  Then  his  mother  moved  to  the  town  of 
Somerset  with  her  family,  thus  enabling  her  chil- 
dren to  enjoy  the  superior  educational  advan- 
tages afiforded  there.  After  leaving  the  Somer- 
set Academy  he  learned  the  trade  of  printing  in 
the  ofiice  of  the  Somerset  Visitor,  whose  editor 
was  General  A.  H.  Cofifroth,  who  has  since  be- 
come one  of  Pennsylvania's  distinguished  sons. 
When  twenty  years  of  age  he  became  half  owner 
and  editor  of  the  Beaver  Star,  a  connection  that 
continued  for  two  years  and  a  half,  at  the  expi- 


ration of  which  period  he  disposed  of  his  interest 
therein,  and,  forming  a  partnership  with  Eman- 
uel J.  Pershing,  brother  of  Judge  Cyrus  L.  Per- 
shing, of  Pennsylvania,  moved  to  Rock  Island, 
in  February,  1855,  and  purchased  the  Rock 
Islander,  which  was  soon  afterward  changed  to 
a  daily. 

In  1857  Messrs.  Pershing  &  Connelly  purchased 
the  Argus  and  consolidated  the  two  papers.  Mr. 
Connelly's  connection  with  the  consolidated  pa- 
per continued  until  1859. 

In  1858  he  began  reading  law,  under  the  in- 
struction of  Judge  J.  W.  Drury,  and  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  in  i860.  He  at  once  entered  upon 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  continuing  suc- 
cessfully in  his  new  vocation  until  September  12, 
1862,  when  he  entered  the  army.  From  the  Chi- 
cago Inter  Ocean  of  September  27,  1887,  the  fol- 
lowing outline  of  Major  Connelly's  military  ca- 
reer is  taken: 

Henry  Clay  Connelly  is  a  member  of  General 
John  Buford  Post,  No.  243,  Rock  Island,  of  which 
he  was  a  charter  member  and  its  first  commander. 
He  was  commissioned  second  lieutenant  of  Com- 
pany L,  Fourteenth  Illinois  Cavaln',  lanuarv  7, 
1863. 

In  the  spring  the  regiment  went  to  the  front, 
its  first  headquarters  being  Glasgow,  Kentucky. 
While  here  the  regiment  was  active  in  scouting, 
and  the  Confederate  forces  at  Celina  and  near 
Turkey  Neck  bend  on  the  Cumberland  river  were 
attacked  and  routed.  The  next  work  was  the 
pursuit  of  General  Morgan  for  twenty-eight  days 
and  nights,  the  battle  of  Buffington  Island,  in 
Ohio,  and  the  capture  of  Morgan.  Lieutenant 
Connelly  was  present  at  the  capture.    In  August, 


74 


BlOOliAPlIIUAL  DICTIONARY  AXD  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


under  General  lUinisido,  the  Union  forces  went 
into  cast  Tennessee.  With  the  advance  guard 
Lieutenant  Connelly  entered  Knoxville  Septem- 
ber I,  General  Burnside  taking  formal  posses- 
sion on  the  3d.  He  heard  the  last  toot  of  the  last 
locomotive  of  General  Buckner  commanding  the 
Confederates  sounded  in  Knoxville.  He  was  at 
the  taking  of  Cumberland  Gap,  at  Bristol,  and 
at  the  numerous  encounters  in  that  locality,  at 
the  defense  of  Knoxville  and  its  incidents,  at 
Bean  Station,  at  Dandridge,  Fair  Garden,  Walk- 
er's Ford,  Stra\vberry  Plains,  and  at  the  fight  with 
Thomas'  Cherokee  Indian  Legion  in  North  Car- 
olina. During  the  east  Tennessee  campaign  he 
was  placed  in  charge  of  a  battery  of  artillery.  On 
the  Indian  raid,  after  following  a  mountainous 
old  Indian  trail,  the  2d  of  February  the  Chero- 
kees  were  surprised  in  their  camp,  attacked  and 
the  legion  cut  to  pieces,  many  of  them  being 
killed  and  captured.  Lieutenant  Connelly  had 
with  him  part  of  his  battery.  Herculean  efforts 
were  required  to  take  the  guns  and  caissons  over 
the  great  mountains  and  through  the  deep  ra- 
vines, but  the  work  was  successfully  accomplished. 
General  Grant,  in  a  special  dispatch,  highly  com- 
plimented the  Fourteenth  for  this  work. 

He  received  his  commission  as  captain  after 
this  expedition  and  did  duty  at-  brigade  head- 
quarters as  Assistant  Adjutant  General,  and  also 
as  inspector.  He  participated  in  the  Atlanta  cam- 
paign. On  the  Macon  raid  his  regiment,  being 
in  General  Stoneman's  command,  shared  the  mis- 
fortune of  this  officer,  and  after  it  had  cut  its  way 
out  in  a  splendid  charge.  Being  dismounted  by 
reason  of  loss  of  horses  on  the  Macon  raid,  the 
regiment  did  duty  as  infantry  at  the  siege  of  At- 
lanta and  was  one  of  the  first  which  entered  the 
city  after  its  fall.  Being  remounted  and  re- 
equipped  about  the  ist  of  November,  1864,  it 
took  a  position  on  the  right  of  the  Union  army 
on  the  Tennessee  river  to  watch  General  Hood's 
advance.  From  the  river  to  Columbia  ]\Iajor  Con- 
nelly day  and  night  was  with  the  rear  guard,  being 
repeatedly  surrounded.  With  splendid  courage 
his  command  charged  the  Confederate  lines  with 
success.  Near  jSIount  Pleasant,  and  also  at  Duck 
river,  after  dark,  finding  himself  cut  ofif  and  sur- 
rounded, he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
command  and  carried  his  column  through  the 


Confederate  lines  with  success.  During  the  ad- 
vance of  General  Hood's  great  and  aggressive 
army,  including  the  battle  at  Franklin  and  the 
advance  of  tlie  Union  army  at  Nashville,  his  offi- 
cers and  the  men  of  his  command  speak  in  en- 
thusiastic terms  of  ^lajor  Connelly's  leadership 
and  his  great  qualities  as  a  soldier.  From  sec- 
ond lieutenant  he  was  promoted  captain  over  his 
first  lieutenant,  and  by  a  vote  of  the  officers  of 
*  I'lis  regiment,  who  also  voiced  the  sentiment 
of  the  rank  and  file,  he  was  elected  major 
over  six  captains  who  held  commissions  older 
than  his! 

The  Inter  Ocean's  article  is  brief,  and  does  not 
give  in  detail  the  events  leading  to  Captain  Con- 
nelly's promotion,  which  are  related  in  the  next 
two  paragraphs.  Colonel  F.  i\I.  Davidson,  of  the 
Fourteenth,  wrote  two  letters  to  Governor 
Oglesby  recommending  the  subject  of  our  sketch 
for  the  position  of  major.  These  letters  were 
written  at  Edgefield,  Tennessee,  the  first  bear- 
ing date  I'ebruary  7,  1863,  in  which  Colonel  Da- 
vidson says: 

"In  recommending  Captain  Connelly  for  this 
position  (Major)  it  affords  me  much  pleasure  to 
bear  witness  to  the  gallant  and  successful  man- 
ner in  which  he  has  conducted  himself  as  a 
soldier  whenever  and  wherever  he  has  been  called 
upon  to  face  the  enemy.  His  bearing  on  the 
Morgan  raid  to  the  day  he  (Morgan)  was  cap- 
tured; his  skill  through  the  entire  campaign  in 
east  Tennessee  under  General  Burnside,  and  par- 
ticularly on  the  14th  day  of  December,  1863,  at 
the  battle  of  Bean  Station,  fighting  Longstreet's 
corps,  in  which  he  handled  a  battery  with  the 
coolest  daring  and  most  splendid  success;  his  en- 
ergy on  the  North  Carolina  expedition  in  the 
month  of  February,  1864,  commanded  by  my- 
self; his  bravery  and  dash  during  the  recent  cam- 
paign in  Tennessee  under  General  Thomas,  and 
particularly  on  the  night  of  the  23d  of  November, 
1864,  when,  being  surrounded  by  General  Forrest, 
after  otlier  officers  failed  in  charging  the  enemy's 
lines,  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  column, 
rallied  the  men  and  charged  out  without  the  loss 
of  a  man;  and  also  on  the  15th  of  December  (at 
Nashville),  when  he  rallied  his  regiment  after 
being  broken  under  a  fearful  cannonade  from  the 
enemy's  batteries.     In  short  his  whole  career  as 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


a  soldier  proves  him  to  be  wortliy  of  prompt  pro- 
motion." 

Governor  Oglesby  hesitated  to  commission  a 
junior  captain  over  so  many  seniors,  and  Colonel 
Davidson,  being  advised  of  this  hesitation,  on 
March  28,  1865,  wrote  again  as  follows:  •  *  * 
"I  can  only  repeat  what  I  said  of  Captain  Con- 
nelly in  my  communication  to  Governor  Oglesby 
dated  February  7,  1865.  Aside  from  his  being 
an  officer  of  the  first  order  (particular  mention 
of  some  of  his  acts  of  bravery  being  therein  set 
forth),  his  high  tone  as  a  gentleman  and  his 
acknowledged  talent  as  a  man  loudly  call  for 
official  recognition  of  his  services  to  his  countr}'. 
He  has  capacity  for  any  position  as  field  officer. 
Anything  you  may  be  able  to  do  for  him  will  be 
esteemed  as  a  personal  favor." 

Upon  his  return  from  the  war  Major  Connelly 
resumed  his  practice.  In  1866  he  was  elected 
police  magistrate  for  a  term  of  four  years,  and 
was  city  attorney  of  Rock  Island  during  the  years 
1869-70-71.  Januar}',  1894,  his  son,  Bernard  D., 
who  is  a  graduate  of  the  Iowa  State  University, 
and  had  been  for  five  years  associated  with  the  law 
finn  of  Douthitt,  Jones  &  Mason,  of  Topeka, 
Kansas,  became  associated  mth  him  under  the 
firm  title  of  Connelly  &  Connelly.  Their  practice 
covers  the  various  branches  of  the  law,  and  the 
firm  ranks  as  one  of  the  leading  law  firms  of  Rock 
Island. 

Bailey  Davenport  in  his  lifetime  was  president 
and  owner  of  the  Rock  Island  &  Moline  Street 
railway.  Major  Connelly  succeeded  to  the  presi- 
dency of  the  company  after  Mr.  Davenport's 
death. 

In  August,  1869,  the  steamer  Dubuque,  plying 
on  the  Mississippi  river  between  St.  Louis  and 
St.  Paul,  on  an  up-river  trip,  carried  a  large  num- 
ber of  han-cst  hands.  The  employes  on  the  boat 
were  negroes.  Some  difficulty  arose  between  a 
white  man  and  a  negro  which  resulted  in  a  riot 
on  the  boat,  when  near  Hampton,  Rock  Island 
county.  About  a  dozen  negroes  lost  their  lives 
by  being  clubbed,  and  then  thrown  or  driven 
into  the  river,  in  which  they  were  drowned. 
Michael  Lynch  led  the  assault  on  the  defenceless 
blacks.  He  and  a  dozen  others  were  indicted 
for  murder,  all  of  them  except  Lynch  taking  a 
change  of  venue  to  Henry  county.     Lynch  was 


captured  in  Arkansas  and  brought  back  a  pris- 
oner to  Rock  Island,  tried,  convicted  and  sent 
to  State's  prison  for  ten  years.  A  most  intense 
hatred  existed  against  Lynch  among  the  people. 
Major  Connelly  ably  defended  him  and  procured 
a  comparatively  light  verdict  for  Inm.  The 
mass  of  the  people  thought  he  should  have  been 
hung. 

Major  Connelly  was  one  of  the  original  stock- 
holders of  both  the  Rock  Island  Buggy  Com- 
pany and  the  Rock  Island  Savings  Bank.  He 
has  always  taken  great  interest  in  all  matters  per- 
taining to  the  advancement  of  the  prosperity  of 
Rock  Island,  and  in  1861  labored  many  weeks 
with  senators  and  members  of  the  house  at  Wash- 
ington to  secure  the  passage  of  the  bill  by  Con- 
gress locating  the  great  national  arsenal  at  Rock 
Island.  More  recently  he  has  been  one  of  those 
who  obtained  the  passage  of  a  special  bill  through 
both  branches  of  Congress  authorizing  the  con- 
struction of  an  electric  railroad  across  the  Mis- 
sissippi between  Rock  Island  and  Davenport, 
Iowa. 

Major  Connelly  is  a  strong  believer  in  and  sup- 
porter of  the  doctrines  of  the  Democratic  party. 
In  the  Buchanan  campaign  of  1856,  and  the 
Douglas-Lincoln  campaign  of  1858,  he  was  an 
active  worker.  The  late  Judge  Jere  S.  Black,  who 
was  a  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Connelly,  and  at 
that  time  a  member  of  Buchanan's  cabinet,  gave 
him  to  understand  that  he  could  have  the  post- 
office  at  Rock  Island.  This  appointment  he  re- 
spectfully declined.  He  was  a  firm  friend  of  Sen- 
ator Douglas,  and  considered  it  inconsistent  for 
him  to  accept  office  from  Mr.  Buchanan  while 
he  used  the  power  of  his  administration  in  the 
State, — though  unsuccessfully, — to  defeat  Sena- 
tor Douglas.  President  Johnson  appointed  him 
to  the  postmastership  of  Rock  Island,  but  a  Re- 
publican senate  failed  to  confirm  the  nomination. 

At  the  Democratic  Congressional  convention 
which  met  at  Monmouth  in  1882,  the  late  Hon. 
P.  L.  Cable  placed  Major  Connelly  in  nomination 
in  a  strong  speech.  This  was  done  in  opposition 
to  the  latter's  wishes.  The  Democratic  State  con- 
vention which  met  in  Peoria  in  1884  honored  him 
by  making  him  temporary  chairman  of  the  conven- 
tion. His  severe  campaign  work  in  the  army 
developed  heart  disease,  and  the  excessive  heat, 


76 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTION-ART  AXD  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


combined  with  the  work  he  had  done  in  the  Con- 
gressional convention  before  taking  his  place  in 
the  State  convention,  produced  an  attack  which 
prostrated  him,  and  he  was  obliged  to  retire  from 
the  chair. 

He  has  been  an  indefatigable  worker  for  the 
success  of  the  Hennepin  canal,  and  for  nearly 
twenty  years,  as  member  and  president  of  the 
Rock  Island  school  board,  and  as  member,  sec- 
retary and  president  of  the  public  library  of  the 
same  city,  has  given  his  personal  attention  to 
their  success. 

On  the  I2th  day  of  May,  1857,  Mr.  Connelly 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Adelaide  Mc- 
Call,  a  native  of  New  York,  whose  grandfather 
fought  in  the  war  of  18 12  and  other  ancestors  in 


the  Revolutionary  war.  Of  their  children,  Clark 
H.  has  for  ten  years  past  been  with  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Sioux  City,  Iowa;  Alvin  H.  is  a 
manufacturer  of  and  wholesale  dealer  in  hard- 
wood lumber  in  Kansas  City;  Mabel  is  the  wife  of 
Dr.  C.  W.  McGavren,  of  Missouri  Valley,  Iowa; 
Bernard  D.  is  associated  with  his  father,  and  Miss 
Lucia  is  at  home. 

Major  Connelly  has  been  a  frequent  contrib- 
utor to  the  National  Tribune,  of  articles  relating 
to  personal  experiences  during  the  war,  and  has 
written  several  instructive  and  interesting  papers 
for  various  law  journals. 

His  success  in  life  may  be  ascribed  to  posi- 
tive, determined  pursuit  of  business,  and  to  the 
fact  that  he  is  a  man  of  honesty  and  integrity. 


JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 


JOHN  P.  ALTGELD,  the  present  governor  of 
Illinois,  was  born  in  Prussia,  in  1848,  and 
came  to  this  country  with  his  parents  when  a 
boy,  his  father  settling  on  a  farm  near  Mansfield, 
Ohio.  At  an  early  age  he  showed  studious  traits, 
applying  himself  to  his  books  whenever  he  could 
steal  a  few  moments  from  work  on  his  father's 
farm.  He  attended  the  district  school  when  the 
farm  work  was  not  pressing,  but  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  enlisted  in  Company  C,  One  Hundred  and 
Sixty-third  Ohio  Infantry,  and  went  to  the  front, 
where  he  participated  in  the  closing  campaign  of 
the  Civil  war. 

Returning  home  he  spent  the  next  few  years  in 
alternately  teaching  school,  study  and  working  as 
a  farm  hand.  Then  he  went  to  St.  Louis,  where 
he  read  law  in  a  desvdtory  wiay,  and  afterward  in 
a  law  ofKce  at  Savannah,  Missouri.  His  industry 
and  faculty  for  getting  to  the  heart  of  a  subject 
soon  brought  him  clients  and  prosperity.  In 
1S74  he  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  of 
Andrew  county,  but  in  October  of  the  succeeding 
year  he  resigned  this  office  and  removed  to  Chi- 
cago. Then  he  took  little  interest  in  politics  for 
several  years,  but  in  i884he  accepted  anomination 
for  Congress  in  an  overwhelming  Republican 
district,  and  was  defeated,  but  by  a  much  reduced 


Republican  majority.  In  1886,  without  his  solici- 
tation, he  was  nominated  for  superior  judge  of 
Cook  county,  which  at  that  time  gave  a  Republi- 
can majority  of  about  12,000.  He  hesitated  some 
time  before  accepting,  but  finally  did  so,  and  so 
thorough  a  canvass  did  he  make,  and  so  perfect 
was  his  organization,  that  notwithstanding  defec- 
tions from  the  Democratic  party  and  quarrels 
within  its  ranks,  he  was  elected  by  a  large  major- 
ity, the  laboring  men  being  especially  active  in  his 
interests.  He  was  on  the  bench  nearly  five  years, 
being  chief  justice  of  the  superior  court  for  one 
year.  A  multiplicitv  of  private  interests  compelled 
him  to  resign  this  position  in  August,  1891.  He 
has  become  very  wealthy,  principally  by  the  buy- 
ing and  selling  of  real  estate  in  Chicago  and  in- 
vestments in  street  railways.  He  designed  and 
built  a  number  of  the  finest  business  blocks  in 
Chicago. 

He  was  nominated  for  Governor  of  Illinois  on 
the  first  ballot  in  the  Democratic  convention  of 
1892,  and  made  two  efficient  canvasses  of  the 
State,  a  preliminary  one  in  which  he  visited  every 
county  to  ascertain  its  political  condition,  and  give 
instructions  for  organization,  and  another  to  ad- 
dress the  people  on  the  issues  of  the  day.  He  was 
triumphantly  elected,  to  the  surprise  of  even  his 


ct^idyt-^^^  ly^ u^?nA^^ /^^H^£^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


own  party.  For  over  thirty  years  Illinois  had 
been  considered  safe  for  25.000  to  50,000  Repub- 
lican plurality.  While  Michigan,  Iowa,  Kansas, 
Wisconsin,  Ohio  and  other  Republican  States  had 
at  times  wandered  from  the  path  of  Republican- 
ism, it  was  believed  that  nothing  could  affect  Illi- 
nois. So  the  Democrats  entered  the  campaigfu 
without  hope;  but  ^Ir.  Altgeld  was  sanguine  of  an 
election,  and  those  nearest  him  predicted  it  with 
confidence.  The  energy,  ability  and  talent  for 
organization  which  he  possessed  in  a  great  meas- 
ure decided  the  contest.   His  promise  to  the  con- 


vention that  his  "would  be  a  strictly  business 
administration"  is  being  fulfilled.  He  is  a  busi- 
ness man  and  he  applies  business  principles  to  the 
discharge  of  his  ofificial  duties,  and  he  demands 
qualifications  other  than  party  service  from  the 
men  he  appoints  to  office.  He  has  filled 
the  more  important  places  with  men  of  fit- 
ness and  ability,  and  the  press  generally 
has  indorsed  his  policy.  Some  years  ago  he 
published  a  book  on  the  penal  machiner\'  of 
the  State,  and  since  then  he  has  published  "Live 
Questions." 


MARTIN  KINGMAN, 


ONE  of  the  ablest  and  l)cst  known  business 
men  of  Illinois  is  Alartin  Kingman,  of  Peo- 
ria, who  was  born  in  Deer  Creek,  Tazewell 
county,  this  State,  April  i,  1844,  the  youngest 
of  the  four  sons  of  Abel  and  Alary  Ann  (Bing- 
ham) Kingman,  who  were  natives  respectively 
of  Massachusetts  and  Virginia. 

The  Kingman  family  is  of  English  origin,  those 
of  the  name  in  America  having  descended  from 
Henry  and  Joanna  Kingman,  who  landed  at 
Weymouth,  Massachusetts,  in  May,  1622,  at 
which  point  the  former  operated  a  ferry  across 
Weymouth  bay, — a  fact  which  is  commemorated 
in  the  family  coat  of  arms  adopted  at  the  reunion 
four  years  since,  at  which  time  funds  were  sub- 
scribed to  erect  a  monument  to  the  founders  of 
the  family  in  America. 

The  children  of  Henry  Kingman  located  in 
North  Bridgewater,  Massachusetts,  a  short  dis- 
tance from  Weymouth,  where  the  grandfather  of 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born. 

Abel  Kingman,  the  father  of  Martin,  was 
born  at  Pelham,  Massachusetts,  and  in  1834 
removed  to  Illinois,  where  he  engaged  in  farm- 
ing, in  Tazewell  county.  It  was  here  that 
he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Mary  Ann 
Bingham,  to  whom  he  was  married  in  1835. 
She  was  of  English  and  French  descent,  and 
removed  from  Norfolk,  ^'irginia,  her  birthplace, 
with  her  parents.  The  other  sons  of  this  worthy 
couple  are  all  living,  Charles  residing  in   Cali- 


fornia, Cyrus  at  Delavan,  and  Henry  in  Kansas. 
When  Alartin  was  but  four  years  of  age  his  father 
was  accidentally  drowned  while  crossing  the 
AJackinaw  river,  and  his  mother  was  left  with 
four  children  and  the  farm,  upon  which  our  sub- 
ject passed  his  early  boyhood.  He  attended  the 
local  district  school  until  his  fifteenth  year,  when 
he  entered  the  academy  at  Tremont,  supplement- 
ing the  instruction  there  received  by  a  two-years 
course  at  the  Washington  Academy,  attending 
school  in  the  summers  and  teaching  winters. 

While  he  was  engaged  in  teaching  the  Civil  war 
broke  out,  and  his  elder  brother  C)tus  joined  the 
Union  army.  Alartin  was  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  patriotism,  and  upon  the  president's  call  for 
300,000  troops  in  1862,  he,  though  but  a  youth  of 
eighteen,  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Eighty-sixth 
Illinois  Volunteers.  Upon  the  organization  of 
his  company — G — he  was  elected  second  lieu- 
tenant, being  the  youngest  ofilicer  in  the  regiment, 
brigade  or  division.  Lieutenant  Kingman  par- 
ticipated with  his  regiment,  which  was  a  part  of 
the  Third  Brigade,  Second  Division  of  the 
Fourteenth  Army  Corps,  Army  of  the  Cumber- 
land, in  all  battles  from  Perryville  to  the  capture 
of  Atlanta,  also  in  Sherman's  memorable  march 
to  the  sea.  From  Savannah  he  marched  through 
the  Carolinas  and  Virginia  to  Washington  and 
took  part  in  the  grand  review  of  the  army  prior  to 
its  disbandment.  During  the  last  year  and  a  half 
of  his  service  he  was  on  detached  service,  as  acting 


78 


niOORAPHICAL  niCTIONART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


assistant  quartermaster  on  tlic  staff  of  Colfjnel 
Dan  McCook — youngest  of  tire  famous  fighting 
McCooks — and  liad  cliarge  of  the  ambulance 
train  and  army  stores  of  the  Third  Brigade, 
Second  Division,  Fourteenth  Army  Corps,  dur- 
ing the  Atlanta  campaign  and  until  Washington 
was  reached.  After  his  return  home  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  his  regiment  a  member  of  a  com- 
mittee to  arrange  for  a  regimental  reunion  at 
Peoria,  August  27,  1865,  and  came  to  that  city 
for  that  piu-posc. 

While  in  Peoria  he  began  work  as  salesman  in 
a  flouring  mill,  an  employment  in  which  he  con- 
tinued during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1865,  until 
the  spring  of  1866,  at  which  time,  having  saved  a 
snug  sum  of  money  from  his  army  pay,  he  formed 
a  partnership  with  a  Mr.  Clauson,  under  the  title 
Clauson  &  Kingman,  to  carry  on  the  grocery 
business.  This  connection  continued  for  three 
months,  at  the  expiration  of  wliich  period  he  dis- 
posed of  bis  interest  at  a  handsome  profit,  and 
engaged  as  a  ti-aveling  salesman  for  a  wholesale 
boot  and  shoe  house  of  Peoria. 

In  January,  1867,  he  relinquished  this  position 
and  established  the  present  agricultural  imple- 
ment business  of  Kingman  &  Company.  For 
three  years  the  firm  was  Kingman  &  Dunham, 
when  Mr.  Dvinliam,owingto  ill  health,  disposed  of 
his  interest  to  Mr.  Hotchkiss,  and  for  three  years 
the  concern  was  known  as  Kingman,  Hotchkiss 
&  Company.  In  1873  it  became  Kingman  & 
Company  and  was  ip'-orporated  under  that  title 
in  1882.  Of  this  corp  jration,  which  has  a  capital 
stock  of  $600,000  and  a  surplus  of  $400,000,  Mr. 
Kingman  is  president, — not  merely  in  name,  but 
also  in  reality,  for  his  is  the  heart  to  resolve  and 
the  brain  to  direct  all  of  its  vast  amount  of  busi- 
ness. Branch  houses  are  operated  at  St.  Louis, 
Kansas  City,  Omaha  and  Des  Moines,  with  trans- 
fer houses  at  Detroit,  Milwaukee,  Sioux  City  and 
Teire  Ilaute.  Employment  is  given  to  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  people, — a  vast  number  when  one 
takes  into  consideration  the  fact  that  it  is  not  a 
manufacturing  concern.  Forty  traveling  sales- 
men represent  the  house  "on  the  road,"  and  its 
goods  find  a  market  throughout  the  central  West- 
ern States.     It  is  a  leader  in  its  line. 

Mr.  Kingman  is  also  president  of  the  Weir 
Plow  Company,  of  Monmouth  (of  which  his  son 


Louis  S.  is  manager),  with  a  capital  of  half  a  mil- 
lion dollars  and  employing  two  hundred  and  fifty 
hands.  Fie  was  the  organizer  and  is  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Peoria  Cordage  Company,  which  has  a 
capital  of  $200,000  and  a  surplus  of  $50,000,  and 
employs  about  the  same  number  of  hands  as  does 
the  plow  company;  and  he  is  also  a  director  and 
one  of  the  largest  stockholders  of  the  Marseilles 
(Illinois)  Manufacturing  Company,  manufacturers 
of  cornshellers  and  windmills.  Almost  the  entire 
product  of  these  three  great  establishments  is  sold 
by  Kingman  &  Company,  and  some  idea  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  company  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  its  sales  for  the  year  1892  aggregated 
five  millions  of  dollars. 

But  Mr.  Kingman  has  not  confined  tlie  field  of 
his  usefulness  to  manufacturing  alone.  As  a 
financier  he  is  equally  prominent,  being  presi- 
dent of  the  Peoria  Saving,  Loan  &  Trust  Com- 
pany, capitalized  for  $200,000,  and  a  director  and 
the  largest  stockholder  of  the  Central  National 
Bank  of  Peoria  (of  which  he  was  formerly  presi- 
dent), whose  capital  and  surplus  approximate  a 
quarter  of  a  million.  He  was  one  of  the  organ- 
izers and  original  stockholders  of  the  Peoria  Gen- 
eral Electric  Light  Company,  of  which  he  is  treas- 
urer. He  also  fills  the  presidency  of  the  National 
Hotel  Company  of  Peoria,  as  well  as  being  one  of 
its  organizers  and  heaviest  stockholders.  Other 
enterprises  of  importance  might  be  added  to  this 
list,  but  enough  have  been  enumerated  to  show 
the  versatility  and  scope  of  liis  genius. 

Mr.  Kinginan  is  a  member  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church,  of  which  for  twenty  years  he  has 
been  a  trustee,  and  was  one  of  the  largest  in- 
dividual contributors  toward  the  erection  of  its 
handsome  edifice  in  Peoria.  He  is  also  a  member 
of  the  Illinois  Home  Missionary  Society;  was  the 
first  president,  and  assisted  in  the  organization, 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of 
Peoria,  and  gave  largely  to  assist  it  in  erecting  its 
magnificent  office  building  on  Jefferson  avenue. 

In  political  faith  he  is  a  strong  Republican,  and 
was  for  six  years  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of 
Canal  Commissioners,  having  been  appointed  as 
such  by  Governor  Cullom.  He  served  on  the 
board  of  supervisors  of  Peoria  county,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  building  committee  of  that  body  at 
the  time  the  present  courthouse  was  built.     He 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


79 


is  also  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Re- 
public, and  of  the  Illinois  Commandry  of  the 
Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion. 

Mr.  Kingman  was  married  May  21,  1867,  to 
Miss  Emeline  T.  Shelley,  a  native  of  Illinois.  Of 
their  five  children  there  are  living:  Louis  Shelley, 
previously  mentioned;  Walter  Bingham,  at  the 
head  of  the  bicycle  department  of  Kingman  & 
Company;  and  a  daughter,  Mabel  Dunham.  The 
Kingman  residence,  on   Perry  street,   is  one  of 


the  charming  homes  of  Peoria,  both  in  point  of 
elegance  and  hospitality. 

Personally  Mr.  Kingman  is  the  most  genial  of 
men,  and  though  his  time  is  fully  occupied  by  the 
details  of  his  vast  business  interests  he  always 
finds  time  and  opportunity  to  devote  to  those  of 
his  friends  whose  calls  are  purely  of  a  so- 
cial character.  He  is  a  thorough  exempli- 
fication of  the  typical  American  business  man 
an'i  gentleman. 


BENJAMIN  F.  JACOBS, 


THERE  are  many  men  in  Chicago — leaders  in 
professional  and  commercial  circles — who 
have  acquired  a  national  reputation  as  business 
men  and  are  known  to  business  men  throughout 
the  country,  but  in  the  homes  of  this  land,  as  well 
as  in  the  establishments  devoted  to  commerce,  the 
name  of  B.  F.  Jacobs  is  familiar.  Amidst  life's 
busy  cares  he  has  found  time  to  devote  to  human- 
ity, and,  recognizing  the  brotherhood  of  mankind, 
he  has  labored  for  the  advancement  of  the  human 
race  and  especially  has  devoted  himself  to  the 
work  of  educating  and  preparing  children  for  a 
higher  moral  life.  Realizing  the  truth  and  wis- 
dom which  Solomon  expressed  in  the  well-known 
words,  "Train  up  a  cliild  in  the  way  he  should 
go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from 
it,"  Mr.  Jacobs  has  devoted  much  of  the  best 
years  of  his  manhood  to  Sunday-school  work. 

He  was  born  in  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  Septem- 
Ijcr  18,  1834,  and  is  a  son  of  Charles  P.  and  EUza 
(Pelton)  Jacobs.  He  is  distinctively  American, 
as  were  his  ancestors  for  several  generations  back. 
His  father's  family  lived  in  Rhode  Island  and 
came  originally  from  England  to  this  country. 
His  mother  was  of  French  extract,  a  descendant 
of  the  Huguenots.  The  public  schools  afforded 
Mr.  Jacobs  his  educational  privileges,  and  he  re- 
ceived his  early  buisness  training  in  his  father's 
store;  but  the  ambitious  young  man  desired  a 
broader  field  of  usefulness  and  sought  it  in  the 
thriving  city  of  Chicago,  where  he  arrived  in 
April,  1854.  Here  he  secured  a  clerkship  and 
continued  in  the  employ  of  others  until  1861,  when 


he  became  a  partner  in  a  grocery,  fruit  and  pro- 
vision store  on  South  Water  street.  To  the  work 
in  hand  he  ever  devotes  his  earnest  and  thought- 
ful attention,  and  in  business  hours  he  is  purely 
a  business  man,  putting  forth  every  legitimate 
effort  to  crown  his  undertakings  with  success,  yet 
the  accumulation  of  wealth  has  never  been  with 
him  the  important  aim  of  his  life.  In  1868  he 
was  joined  in  business  by  his  brothers,  and  they 
continued  operations  on  South  Water  street  until 
the  great  fire  of  1871,  when  they  lost  nearly  all 
their  property. 

In  the  meantiine,  however,  Mr.  Jacobs  began 
extending  his  operations  to  other  fields  of  labor, 
and  had  already  made  some  investments  in  real 
estate. 

In  1870  he  ceased  the  personal  management 
of  the  business  on  Water  street  in  order  to  devote 
his  entire  time  to  real-estate  dealing.  After  the 
fire  of  1871  he  engaged  more  extensively  than  ever 
in  this  pursuit  and  began  building  one  of  the  sub- 
urbs of  the  city,  but  was  overtaken  by  the  financial 
panic  of  1873.  With  others  his  business  suffered, 
but  he  managed  to  meet  every  obligation,  and 
from  that  time  forward  prosperity  has  attended 
his  efforts.  Considering  his  life  from  the  finan- 
cial standpoint  alone,  it  will  be  regarded  as  one  of 
the  greatest  success,  and  demonstrates  the  truth 
of  the  old  saying  that  "God  helps  him  who  helps 
himself."  He  is  to-day  numbered  among  the 
most  successful  and  prominent  real-estate  dealers 
of  Chicago,  and  the  plans  and  methods  which  he 
has  followed  in  his  business  transactions  com- 


80 


BIOanAPIITCAL  DWTIONAUr  AND  POItTHAir  GALLERY  OF  THE 


mend  themselves  to  the  judgfiiient  of  all.  He  is  a 
man  of  strong  force  of  character,  of  great  energy 
and  perseverance,  and  his  honorable,  straight- 
forward dealings  have  brought  to  him  a  merited 
prosperity.  JNIr.  Jacobs  has  largely  promoted  the 
material  welfare  of  Chicago  by  his  real-estate 
dealings  and  has  succeeded  in  establishing  and 
improving  some  of  the  best  suburban  property  of 
the  city. 

If  seen  only  in  the  hours  of  business,  Mr. 
Jacobs  might  be  said  to  be  a  typical  business  man 
of  Chicago,  possessing  the  characteristic  enter- 
prise and  indomitable  perseverance  of  the  city; 
yet  instinctively  in  dealing  with  him  one  recog- 
nizes that  they  have  met  a  man  who  is  above  the 
petty  intrigues  that  characterize  many  in  the  fields 
of  commerce,  a  man  who  would  scorn  to  over- 
reach or  take  advantage  of  another.  His  Chris- 
tianity is  a  part  of  his  life. 

Coming  to  Chicago  in  his  twentieth  year,  he 
united  with  the  First  Baptist  Church  and  entered 
the  Sunday-school  as  a  pupil,  but  was  soon  made 
a  teacher.  In  1856  he  was  elected  superintendent 
of  the  first  mission  Sunday-school  established  by 
his  denomination  and  the  third  mission  school. 
Subsequently  he  became  the  superintendent  of  the 
home  school,  which  made  for  itself  a  notable  repu- 
tation throughout  the  country.  At  the  same  time 
he  taught  a  class  of  adults  numbering  five  hun- 
dred pupils.  His  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
Bible,  his  deep  undertaking  of  all  knotty  prob- 
lems and  his  entertaining  and  instructive  manner 
of  imparting  his  knowledge  to  others  made  his 
class  very  popular  among  intelligent  people  who 
were  interested  Bible  students.  After  the  fire  of 
1874  had  destroyed  the  First  Church,  Mr.  Jacobs 
organized  a  down-town  mission,  from  which  was 
developed  the  Newsboys'  Mission,  now  called  the 
Waifs'  Mission.  In  1881  he  united  with  others 
in  the  organization  of  the  Immanuel  Baptist 
Church,  and  from  the  beginning  has  been  super- 
intendent of  its  Sunday-school,  his  career  as  a 
Sunday-school  superintendent  covering  a  period 
of  thirty-nine  years. 

A  spirit  of  helpfulness  to  young  men  has  also 
characterized  the  life  of  Mr.  Jacobs,  and  in  iS.sS 
he  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  of  which  he  served  as  presi- 
dent in  1863  and  1864.     He  is  also  one  of  the  life 


trustees.  To  help  his  fellowmen  seems  to  be  his 
motto.  When  the  Civil  war  broke  out  in  1861  he 
was  made  one  of  the  army  committee  and  for  four 
years  was  secretary-  of  the  northwestern  branch  of 
the  United  States  Christian  Commission.  In 
this  capacity  he  was  often  on  the  battlefield  from 
the  time  of  the  engagement  at  Fort  Donelson 
in  1862  until  after  the  battle  of  Nashville  in  De- 
cember, 1864.  He  also  traveled  over  the  North- 
west, holding  meetings  and  raising  money  and 
supplies  for  the  troops.  When  the  war  was  over 
he  again  became  deeply  interested  in  Sunday- 
school  work  and  joined  Mr.  Moody  and  others 
in  the  work  of  .Sunday-school  organization.  In 
1868  he  was  made  president  of  the  State  Sunday- 
school  convention,  five  years  later  was  made  chair- 
man of  the  State  executive  committee,  and  at 
each  general  election  has  been  chosen  to  the  lat- 
ter position,  so  that  he  has  now  served  in  that 
capacity  for  more  than  twenty  years.  Along  the 
line  of  Sunday-school  work  perhaps  the  great 
credit  is  due  him  for  his  efTorts  in  introducing 
what  is  now  known  as  the  international  Sunday- 
school  lessons.  In  1867  he  began  to  urge  the 
plan  of  all  Sunday-schools  using  uniform  lessons. 
This  was  at  length  done,  and  the  children  to-day 
all  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  are 
studying  the  same  truths.  Nothing  has  been  of 
greater  benefit  in  doing  away  with  doctrinal 
prejudice  and  bringing  together  as  a  harmonious 
whole  the  Christian  people  who  are  working  to- 
gether for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

The  National  Sunday-school  Convention  which 
met  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  in  1872,  adopted  the 
plan  proposed  by  Mr.  Jacobs  and  a  committee 
was  chosen  to  adopt  the  first  course  of  lessons 
for  seven  years;  in  1878  a  second  committee 
was  named,  at  Atlanta,  Georgia;  in  1884  a  third 
was  named,  at  Louisville,  Kentucky;  and  a  fourth 
in  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  in  1890,  the  term  of 
service  of  the  last  to  continue  from  1894  until 
1899.  The  founder  of  this  movement  has  always 
been  a  member  of  the  committee.  In  1881  he 
was  elected  chairman  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  International  Sunday-school  Convention, 
and  was  re-elected  in  1884, 1887,  1890  and  1893  f^"' 
terms  of  three  years  each.  He  planned  the 
World's  Sunday-school  Convention  held  in  En- 
gland in  1889,  and  secured  the  attendance  of  four 


£^£^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


81 


hundred  and  twenty-eight  delegates  from  Amer- 
ica, a  steamship  being  chartered  to  convey  them 
across  the  Atlantic.  Another  labor  in  connec- 
tion with  Sunday-school  work  which  he  has  in 
charge  is  a  teachers'  meeting  held  in  Farwell  Hall 
each  Saturday  noon,  which  has  an  attendance  of 
over  five  hundred  active  Sunday-school  workers. 
His  own  denomination  has  claimed  his  services 
as  president  of  the  Chicago  Baptist  Social  Union 
in  1887  and  1888,  and  as  chairman  of  the  Illi- 
nois Baptist  Sunday-school  Commission,  having 
served  in  the  latter  capacity  for  several  years. 

While  perfectly  true  to  his  own  church  and  un- 
tiringly devoted  to  its  upbuilding,  Mr.  Jacobs 
is  broad  and  liberal  in  his  views  and  charitable 
toward  the  opinions  of  all  others.  He  endeav- 
ors to  make  his  life  the  embodiment  of  the  true 
Christian  spirit,  which  seeketh  not  evil  and  which 
bears  one  another's  burdens.  Although  he  claims 
not  to  be  an  orator  nor  has  he  made  public 
speaking  a  part  of  his  work,  he  is  yet  often  before 
the  public  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  Sunday- 
school  and  the  church,  and  is  always  entertaining 
and  instructive.  One  cannot  hear  Mr.  Jacobs 
without  carrying  away  with  him  truths  that  will 
bear  an  influence  on  his  life.  He  always  satisfies 
the  intellect  while  moving  the  hearts  of  men,  and 
can  hold  spell-bound  a  great  convention  in  the 
same  way  that  he  would  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
hearers.  Webster  has  said  that  "True  eloquence 
does  not  consist  in  words  alone.  It  is  action, 
noble,  sublime,  Godlike  action":  and  such  it  is 
with  Mr.  Jacobs. 


We  cannot  better  close  this  record  of  the  life  of 
this  honored  man  than  by  quoting  from  Miss 
Frances  E.  Willard,  who  said  of  him:  "Ours  is  a 
day  in  which  each  great  movement  has  for  its 
central  figure  some  personality  that  incarcerates 
its  method  and  idea.  Organization  being  the 
watchword,  there  must  be  organizers;  and  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  each  of  the  guilds  now  so  numer- 
ous is  a  success  according  to  the  vigor  and  de- 
votion of  its  chief.  Men  will  not  rally  around 
vacancy  but  they  will  around  the  leader.  He 
must  be  born,  he  cannot  be  made.  He  must  have 
a  hand  of  iron  in  a  glove  of  velvet.  He  must  be- 
lieve in  and  work  for  their  best  interests  without 
haste  and  without  rest.  He  must  fling  himself 
into  the  movement  with  it  to  sink  or  swim,  and  he 
must  be  loyal  to  the  unfolding  purpose  of  God 
as  he  understands  it  even  unto  death.  A  man 
who  was  to  develop  after  this  fashion  until  he  be- 
came the  central  figure  of  the  world's  Sunday- 
school  movement  now  lives  in  the  electric  city, 
otherwise  Chicago,  and  his  name  is  Benjamin  F. 
Jacobs." 

On  the  i6th  of  April,  1854,  was  celebrated  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  Jacobs  and  Miss  Frances  M. 
Eddy,  daughter  of  Dr.  John  M.  Eddy,  of  Naper- 
ville,  Illinois,  formerly  a  leading  physician  of 
Rochester,  New  York.  Her  mother  was  the 
daughter  of  Judge  Benjamin  Wiley,  formerly  of 
Rome,  New  York.  Mrs.  Jacobs  is  a  lady  of  cul- 
ture, refinement  and  high  education,  and  shares 
with  her  husband  in  his  work  for  the  interests  of 
humanity. 


STEPHEN  H.  VELIE, 


No  adequate  memorial  of  Stephen  H.  Velie 
can  be  written  until  many  of  the  useful  en- 
terprises with  which  he  was  connected  have  com- 
pleted their  full  measure  of  good  in  the  world, 
and  until  his  personal  influence  and  example  shall 
have  ceased  their  fruitage  in  the  lives  of  those 
who  were  about  him  when  he  was  yet  an  actor 
in  the  busy  places  of  the  world ;  yet  there  is  much 
concerning  him  that  can  with  profit  be  set  down 
here  as  an  illustration  of  what  can  be  done  if 
0 


a  man  with  a  clear  brain  and  willing  hands  but 
sets  himself  seriously  to  the  real  labors  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  life. 

Stephen  Henry  Velie  was  born  April  21,  1830, 
at  Hyde  Park,  Dutchess  county.  New  York.  His 
parents  were  Henry  and  Susan  Velie,  the  former 
a  farmer  by  occupation,  and  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  lived  at  home  until  he  was  fifteen  years  of 
age,  passing  those  years  after  the  fashion,  so 
common  at  that  time,  of  attending  school  during 


82 


DIOGnAPHTCAL  DTCTIOXART  ASD  POnTRAIT  GALLEIiT  OF  THE 


the  winter  months  and  working  on  the  farm  in 
the  simimer. 

In  1845  he  removed  to  New  York  city,  where 
he  made  his  home  with  his  grandfather,  Stephen 
Herrick,  who  was  a  commission  merchant.  For 
two  years  he  was  employed  in  Mr.  Herrick's  office, 
and  then  accompanied  that  gentleman  to  New 
Orleans,  where  he  remained  for  a  short  time. 
He  then  retmned  to  New  York  and  for  a  little 
while  resided  at  Poughkeepsie,  leaving  there  and 
going  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  was  employed  in 
the  wholesale  grocery  house  of  Edward  J.  Gay 
&  Company.  Mr.  Gay's  residence  was  in  Lou- 
isiana, and  he  was  later  elected  to  Congress  from 
that  State.  For  two  years  Mr.  Velie  made  his 
home  with  Mr.  Gray  and  managed  a  large  plant- 
ation for  him. 

In  1853  he  came  to  Rock  Island  and  entered 
the  employ  of  C.  C.  Webber  &  Company  as  head 
of  the  office  force.  For  two  years  he  resided  at 
Frinceton,  Illinois,  where  he  was  engaged  in  the 
grocery  business,  and  in  1863  became  a  partner 
with  Hon.  John  Deere,  of  J\Ioline,  in  the  manu- 
facture of  plows.  In  1868,  when  the  concern 
was  incorporated,  he  was  elected  its  secretary, 
and  was  successively  re-elected  every  year  there- 
after until  his  death,  which  resulted  from  heart 
failure,  superinduced  by  an  attack  of  the  grip, 
February  14,  1895. 

In  addition  to  his  interest  with  Deere  &  Com- 
pany, he  also  held  stock  in  the  Moline  Water 
Power  Company,  the  People's  Power  Company, 
the  Sylvan  Steel  Company,  the  stone  quarries  01 
Le  Claire,  Iowa,  the  Moline  Central  Railway 
Company,  of  which  he  was  president,  and  the 
First  National  Bank  of  Moline,  being  a  member 
of  the  directory  of  that  institution.  He  was  also 
a  member  of  the  jMasonic  and  Odd  Fellow^s  fra- 
ternities. 

Mr.  Velie  was  formerly  a  Whig,  but  when 
slaverj'  became  an  issue  he  transferred  his  al- 
legiance to  Republicanism,  and  ever  afterward 
was  loyal  to  tliat  party.  He  was  in  no  sense, 
however,  a  politician,  and  was  content  to  let  oth- 
ers seek  the  offices. 

Mr.  Velie  was  united  in  marriage,  on  the  loth 
day  of  May,  i860,  to  Miss  Emma  Deere,  daugh- 
ter of  the  late  Hon.  John  Deere,  and  they  have 
had  five  children,  four  of  whom  are  living:  Charles 


D.,  Stephen  H.,  Jr.,  Willard  L.  and  Grace,  now 
Mrs.  Stuart  Harper,  of  Rock  Island.  To  his 
children  Mr.  Velie  was  not  only  a  devoted  parent 
but  a  comrade  in  a  literal  sense  as  well,  sharing 
all  their  games  and  sports  with  as  much  zest  as 
he  would  have  shown  had  he  been  their  brother 
rather  than  their  father.  He  was  a  man  of  do- 
mestic habits  and  loved  his  home  and  family 
with  a  loyal  devotion.  His  tastes  were  also  liter- 
ary, and  from  close  reading  and  deep  thought 
he  had  a  vast  fund  upon  which  to  draw  when  in 
social  intercourse.  The  versatility  of  his  studies 
was  remarkable.  Notwithstanding  the  multi- 
plicity of  his  business  cares  he  was  kind,  unaf- 
fected and  approachable.  He  considered  that 
every  comer,  no  matter  what  his  station  in  life, 
had  a  claim  upon  his  courteous  attention,  and  it 
is  something  to  say  of  him  that  among  the  sad- 
dest hearts  his  death  has  made  are  those  whom 
he  has  left  as  partners  and  employes. 

His  benevolence  was  unostentatious  and  gen- 
uine, and  there  is  nothing  in  the  story  of  his  life 
to  show  that  he  ever  for  a  moment  sought  to 
compass  a  given  end  for  the  purpose  of  exalting 
himself.  He  championed  measures  and  aided 
men,  and  accepted  as  his  reward  that  thrill  of 
delight  which  always  accompanies  victories 
achieved.  Endowed  by  nature  with  a  sound  judg- 
ment and  an  accurate,  discriminating  mind,  he 
feared  not  that  laborious  attention  to  the  details 
of  business  so  necessary  to  achieve  success,  and 
this  essential  quality  was  ever  guided  by  a  sense 
of  moral  right  which  would  tolerate  the  employ- 
ment only  of  those  means  that  would  bear  the 
most  rigid  examination  by  a  fairness  of  inten- 
tion that  neither  sought  nor  required  disguise. 
It  is  but  just  and  merited  praise  to  say  of  Mr. 
\  elie,  that  as  a  business  man  he  ranked  with  the 
ablest;  as  a  citizen  he  was  honorable,  prompt 
and  true  to  every  engagement;  as  a  man  he  held 
the  honor  and  esteem  of  all  classes  of  people,  of 
all  creeds  and  political  proclivities;  as  a  husband 
and  father  he  was  a  model  worthy  of  all  imita- 
tion; unassuming"  in  his  manner,  sincere  in  his 
friendships,  steadfast  and  unswerving  in  his  loy- 
alty to  the  right.  His  memory  will  be  a  sacred 
inheritance  to  his  children;  it  will  be  cherished 
by  a  multitude  of  friends.  Throughout  his  career 
of  continued  and  far-reaching  usefulness,  his  du- 


(riL^^^      ^^^-^-"-^ 


<2-/. 


C>-ir-(^_ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


83 


ties  were  performed  with  the  greatest  care,  and 
during  a  long  life  his  personal  honor  and  integrity 
were  without  blemish. 

Mr.  Velie  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  inexorable 


law  of  compensation,  and  one  favorite  quotation, 
frequently  used,  was,  "As  a  man  soweth,  so  shall 
he  also  reap."  Upon  these  lines  were  his  actions 
based  through  life. 


EMORY  COBB, 


K.'\NKAKEE. 


THE  Cobb  family  is  one  of  the  early  and 
prominent  Colonial  families  of  America. 
The  ancestry  was  originally  English,  and  while 
there  appears  no  absolutely  authentic  record  of 
their  first  advent  in  America,  yet  it  is  known  that 
there  were  two  brothers,  Morgan  and  Nathan 
Cobb,  who  came  to  this  country  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  from  them  are  de- 
scended many,  if  not  all,  of  the  name  in  this  coun- 
try. The  Rev.  Sylvester  Cobb,  historian  and 
novelist,  is  a  descendant  of  Nathan  in  the  seventh 
generation,  which  fact  tends  to  confirm  approxi- 
mately the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  two  brothers 
in  this  country.  On  this  subject  William  Cobb, 
of  Warwick,  Massachusetts,  wrote  to  William 
Newell  Cobb,  May  17,  1844,  as  follows:  "I  have 
no  one  to  consult  on  this  subject  except  my 
mother,  who  resides  in  our  family,  and  is  now 
ninety-four  years  of  age,  but  retains  her  mental 
faculties  to  a  good  degree.  The  most  that  I  can 
learn  is  that  two  brothers  by  the  name  of  Cobb 
emigrated  from  England  to  America,  but  at  what 
time  I  cannot  ascertain.  One  was  named  Mor- 
gan, the  other  Nathan.  Our  family  is  descended 
from  Morgan  Cobb.  It  has  been  said  that  we 
are  tinctured  with  Scotch  blood." 

Emoiy  Cobb  traces  his  ancestry  back  to  Mor- 
gan Cobb  in  the  following  manner:  His  father, 
William  Cobb,  was  a  son  of  Elisha  and  a  grand- 
son of  William,  whose  father  bore  the  name  of 
Morgan,  and  was  a  grandson  of  Morgan,  the 
original  emigrant.  In  the  Revolution  this  family, 
which  had  become  quite  numerous,  was  well  rep- 
resented, and  its  members  were  active  and  prom- 
inent Whigs. 

Emory  Cobb  was  born  in  Dryden,  Tomnkins 
county,  New  York,  August  20,  1831,  and  is  a 
son  of  William  and  Achsah  (Bradley)  Cobb,  the 
former  a  farmer,  who  also  operated  several  mills 


on  Fall  creek  in  Tompkins  county.  New  York. 
Here  our  subject  spent  his  boyhood  days  until 
his  twelfth  year,  when  his  father  died  and  he  went 
to  live  with  his  paternal  grandfather,  Lemi  Brad- 
ley. He  had  the  usual  common-school  advan- 
tages, and  when  sixteen  years  of  age  (1847)  went 
to  Ithaca,  New  York,  to  learn  telegraphy.  The 
following  year  he  secured  a  position  as  operator 
at  Fredonia,  New  York,  on  the  Erie  &  Michigan 
telegraph  line,  which  had  just  been  constructed  by 
Hon.  Ezra  Cornell  and  Colonel  J.  J.  Speed  be- 
tween Bufifalo  and  Milwaukee.  His  services 
gave  such  satisfaction  that  in  185 1  he  was  made 
bookkeeper  of  the  company  at  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
and  in  March  of  the  following  year  became  mana- 
ger of  their  office  in  Chicago.  It  was  while  he 
was  occupying  this  position  that  the  first  telegraph 
pool  ever  formed  in  this  country  went  into  effect. 
There  were  at  that  time  three  telegraph  companies 
doing  business  from  Chicago  to  the  East — the 
Erie  &  Michigan,  the  Ohio,  Indiana  &  Illinois, 
and  the  Southern  Michigan.  In  1853  it  occurred 
to  the  managers  of  these  lines  that  they  could  unite 
their  ofKces  in  Chicago  and  divide  their  earnings, 
thus  avoiding  the  evil  results  of  direct  competi- 
tion and  save  much  unnecessary  expense.  This 
was  done  under  Mr.  Cobb's  supervision,  and  the 
experience  proved  so  satisfactory  that  it  was  fol- 
lowed, in  1856,  by  the  merging  of  the  companies 
into  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  Mr. 
Cobb  being  retained  in  charge  of  the  Chicago 
office,  and  his  territory  and  powers  enlarged  by 
his  appointment  as  superintendent  of  the  western 
division.  He  held  this  important  position  until 
1865,  when  his  arduous  duties  began  to  under- 
mine his  health  and  he  was  given  a  year's  leave 
of  absence,  which  he  spent  in  foreign  travel 
through  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa. 

On  his  return  in  1866,  Mr.  Cobb  was  solicited 


84 


BIOGRAPUICAL  DICTIONART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  TEE 


to  resume  his  former  position,  but  fear  of  2^\^^m 
breaking  down  under  tlic  growing  cares  and  re- 
sponsibilities incident  to  the  office  led  him  to  de- 
cline; afterward  he  served,  however,  as  a  member 
of  the  board  of  directors.  During  his  connection 
with  the  company  as  western  superintendent,  he 
originated  and  introduced  an  innovation,  which 
has  since  become  one  of  the  important  features  of 
the  commercial  system  throughout  the  world,  and 
the  importance  of  which  can  hardly  be  overesti- 
mated, namely,  the  transmission  of  money  by 
telegraph.  When  he  proposed  the  measure  the 
managers  of  the  Western  Union  were  doubtful 
of  its  feasibility  and  refused  to  adopt  it,  but  gener- 
ously allowed  j\Ir.  Cobb  to  try  the  experiment  on 
his  own  accoiuit,  which  he  did.  He  established 
agencies  throughout  the  Eastern  cities  and  for 
ten  yeai's,  from  1857  until  1867,  conducted  the 
business  as  a  personal  venture,  in  the  meantime  so 
thoroughly  establishing  its  practicability  that  in 
the  last  named  year  it  was  incorporated  as  a  part 
of  the  system  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company,  and  has  since  been  one  of  the  leading 
features  of  its  service. 

As  early  as  1861,  Mr.  Cobb  had  made  invest- 
ments in  real  estate  in  Kankakee,  Illinois,  and 
when  he  retired  from  active  connection  with  the 
telegraph  business  he  determined  to  seek  recre- 
ation and  rest  amid  rural  pursuits  in  Kankakee 
county;  but  to  a  man  by  nature  so  active,  recre- 
ation and  rest  meant  merely  a  change  of  base  of 
operations.  He  soon  became  prominent  as  a 
breeder  of  shorthorn  cattle ;  and  when  the  Ameri- 
can Shorthorn  Breeders'  Association  was  formed 
in  1 88 1  he  was  chosen  as  its  first  president,  which 
position  he  has  held  most  of  the  time  since.  This 
is  perhaps  the  most  important  association  of  its 
kind  in  America,  and  conducts  the  official  register 
for  breeders  of  the  various  grades  of  shorthorn 
cattle  in  the  United  States  and  Canada.  He  was 
for  many  years  a  member  of  the  State  board  of 
agriculture,  serving  as  vice-president  until  1882, 
when  he  declined  re-election  on  account  of  a  con- 
templated trip  abroad  with  his  family.  He  re- 
mained abroad  aI)out  two  years,  visiting  in  that 
time  most  of  the  important  points  of  interest  in 
the  Old  World.  He  was  one  of  the  original  trus- 
tees of  the  Illinois  Industrial  University  at  Cham- 
paign,   Illinois,    now  the  University  of  Illinois, 


and  was  president  of  the  board  from  1873  until 
1883. 

The  beautiful  and  prosperous  little  city  of 
Kankakee  owes  to  Mr.  Cobb  more  perhaps  than 
to  any  other  man  the  credit  for  its  development 
in  late  years.  He  invested  liberally  in  all  kinds 
of  enterprises  to  help  build  up  the  town.  There 
is  scarcely  an  important  manufacturing  venture 
undertaken  in  the  city  since  he  identified  himself 
with  Kankakee  that  he  has  not  taken  stock  in  and 
encouraged.  In  1884  he  erected  the  Arcade, 
the  most  modern,  complete  and  unique  office 
building  in  the  cit)*.  He  was  instrumental  in 
erecting  the  hotel  River  Mew.  It  was  mainly 
through  his  instrumentality  that  the  Illinois  East- 
ern Hospital  for  the  Insane  was  located  in  Kan- 
kakee, and  he  donated  thirty  acres  of  land  toward 
its  original  site.  He  is  largely  interested  in  tHe 
Kankakee  Electric  Railway  Company,  was  its 
original  promoter,  and  its  existence  is  due  almost 
errtirely  to  his  efforts  and  financial  support.  The 
First  National  Bank  of  Kankakee  owes  its  exist- 
ence to  him;  he  was  its  president  from  its  organi- 
zation until  1893,  and  is  now  the  largest  stock- 
holder. He  has  also  been  at  various  times  ex- 
tensively interested  in  business  enterprises  in  other 
parts  of  the  country,  and  in  short  stands  as  a  type 
of  our  best  class  of  self-made,  energetic,  liberal 
and  progresisve  men  of  this  pushing  age.  Mr. 
Cobb's  investments  have  not  been  made  from 
purely  selfish  motives.  He  had  years  ago  amassed 
a  competency;  but,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
progress  and  humanitarianism,  he  has  used  the 
means  he  had  acquired  for  the  benefit  and  up- 
building of  the  home  of  his  choice,  and  like  other 
men  whose  interests  were  extensive  and  diversi- 
fied, he  suffered  considerably  in  the  financial  panic 
which  swept  the  countn,^  in  1893.  With  shrinkage 
of  values  the  suspension  of  manufactories  and  the 
uncertainty  and  lack  of  confidence  in  business 
circles  cost  Mr.  Cobb,  as  it  did  our  most  public- 
spirited  and  enterprising  men  throughout  the 
country,  many  thousands  of  dollars;  but  we  find 
him  to-day  undaunted  and  undismayed,  calmly 
and  persistently  pushing  forward  his  various  en- 
terprises. He,  like  others  of  his  class,  will  still  be  at 
the  "head  of  affairs."  Such  men  were  not  in- 
tended as  failures.  They  may  meet  with  reverses, 
they  may  suffer  serious  losses,  but  as  inevitably  as 


REPnESEXTATIV.'C  MEN  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES.-  II.I.IXOIS  VOLUME. 


So 


the  disturbed  needle  reverts  to  the  pole  so  inevita- 
bly do  men  of  his  type  res;ain  the  ascendency  by 
virtue  of  superior  ability. 

Mr.  Cobb  was  niarriecl  Fcliruary  y,  1858,  to 
Isabella,  daughter  of  Aaron  Haven,  one  of  the 
pioneer  merchants  of  Chicago.  They  have  three 
children:  Charles  Haven,  bom  February  7, 
i860;  William  Walter,  born  November  14,  1862; 
Duwane  Phillips,  born  November  14,  1867. 

Mr.  Cobb  is  a  genial,  courteous  gentleman,  a 
good  judge  of  men  and  measures,  prompt,  deci- 
sive, unselfish,  broad-minded  in  his  views,  and  lii)- 


cral  and  charitable  toward  others.  He  is  on;  of  ih? 
most  active  members  of  the  Episcopal  church, 
and  has  l)cen  a  member  of  the  vestry  of  St.  Paul's 
Church  of  Kankakee  since  the  parish  was  organ- 
ized in  1863,  and  a  warden  since  1865.  While  he 
is  unusually  liberal  in  support  of  all  church  work 
within  the  pale  of  his  own  religious  creed,  he  is 
too  fair-minded  to  confine  his  sympathies  or  chari- 
ties within  the  boundary  lines  of  tenet  or  creed, 
and  any  deserving  call  for  aicl  outside  his  church 
meets  with  equally  ready  response. ' 


GEORGE  H.  MCILVAINE, 


GEORGE  H.  McILVAINE  was  born  at  East 
Liberty  village,  now  the  east  end  of  the 
city  of  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  August  10, 
1834.  His  parents  were  Rev.  William  B.  and 
Elizabeth  (Breading)  Mcllvaine,  both  of  Scotch- 
Irish  descent,  and  both  of  whose  grandfathers 
were  commissioned  officers  in  the  same  brigade 
at  Valley  Forge.  William  B.  Mcllvaine's  family 
resided  in  Lancaster  county,  and  his  wife's  people 
in  Allegheny  county,  for  years.  The  last  named 
gentleman  died  at  Peoria,  in  1892,  at  the  ad- 
vanced age  of  eighty-six  years,  having  been  for 
over  sixty  of  them  a  clergyman  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  and  for  forty  pastor  of  the  East 
End  Church  of  Pittsburg. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  spent  his  boyhood 
in  East  Liberty,  where  he  attended  the  East  Lib- 
erty Academy.  Later  he  pursued  his  studies  at 
Washington  (Pennsylvania)  College, — the  same 
institution  at  which  the  lamented  James  G.  Blaine 
was  educated,  and  of  which  it  is  said  that  it  has 
sent  out  into  the  world  more  great  men,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  its  alumni,  than  any  in- 
stitution of  learning  in  the  country. 

Upon  graduating  at  Washington  College  in 
1853,  young  Mcllvaine  found  that  his  health 
would  not  permit  of  his  studying  a  profession, 
which  had  hitherto  been  his  ambition,  and  he 
was  constrained  to  seek  other  fields  of  labor. 
He  therefore  turned  his  face  resolutely  westward 


and  set  out  for  Illinois,  where  he  engaged  in 
farming,  in  Whiteside  county,  for  a  year. 

In  the  spring  of  1855  he  came  to  Peoria,  and 
being  possessed  of  some  means  purchased  the 
interest  of  Hervey  Lightncr  in  the  wholesale  and 
retail  hardware  and  iron  house  of  Walker  & 
Lightner,  Mr.  Isaac  Walker,  the  senior  member 
of  the  firm,  l:)eing  his  uncle.  The  new  firm  of 
Walker  &  Mcllvaine  was  a  successful  one,  and 
Mr.  Mcllvaine's  connection  therewith  continued 
until  1872,  at  which  time  he  disposed  of  his  in- 
terest to  the  Walkers.  Mr.  Walker  continued 
the  business  until  his  death,  which  occurred  about 
thirteen  years  ago,  and  it  has  since  been  con- 
ducted by  his  children  under  the  corporate  title 
of  The  Isaac  Walker  Hardware  Company. 

Mr.  Mcllvaine  was  now  free  from  business 
cares  and  anxiety,  l)ut  his  health  was  not  good, 
and  he  therefore  availed  himself  of  the  oppor- 
tunity offered  for  rest  and  recreation.  He  spent 
the  subsequent  six  months  in  Europe,  passing  a 
large  portion  of  the  time  in  Switzerland,  and 
landed  in  New  York  on  his  return  to  America 
llie  very  day  in  1872  that  Jay  Cooke  &  Company 
failed,  precipitating  the  nation  into  what  is  known 
as  the  "panic  of  ^y^-^' 

r.eing  interested  as  a  stockholder  and  director 
in  the  Second  National  Bank  of  Peoria,  he  was 
naturally  solicitous  as  to  the  welfare  of  that  in- 
stitution, and  his  stay  in  the  East  was  brief,  he 


86 


BTOnRAPinCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GAILERY  OF  THE 


feeling  that  Ik-  mij^ht  be  of  assistance  at  home. 
Nor  (hd  he  conic  too  soon.  Peoria  was  in  the 
throes  of  the  wildest  excitement  and  every  finan- 
cial institution  was  the  ol)ject  of  concern.  The 
cashier  of  the  Second  National  lost  his  head  in 
the  turmoil  and  resigned  his  office,  and  Mr.  Mo- 
ll vainc  was  chosen  manager  of  the  bank.  As  his 
health  had  been  greatly  benefited  by  his  foreign 
trip,  he  accepted  and  at  once  entered  upon  the 
duties  of  his  position,  and  carried  the  bank  safely 
through  the  crisis.  He  continued  as  manager 
until  the  expiration  of  the  bank's  charter  in  1883, 
at  which  time  he  wound  up  its  affairs,  and  did 
it  so  well  that  he  was  able  to  pay  the  stockhold- 
ers seventy-six  and  one-half  per  cent,  premiuin 
on  their  holdings. 

After  the  close  of  his  successful  career  with 
the  Second  National,  he  became  one  of  the  prime 
movers  in  the  organization  of  the  Peoria  Na- 
tional Bank,  which  was  capitalized  at  $150,000, 
and  shortly  afterward  increased  to  $200,000.  Of 
this  institution  Mr.  Mcllvaine,  who  is  one  of  the 
largest  stockholders,  was  chosen  cashier,  an  of- 
fice which  he  ably  filled  till  1888,  when  failing 
health  compelled  its  relinquishment.  His  serv- 
ices, however,  were  too  valuable  to  be  dispensed 
with,  and  he  was  elected  vice-president,  and  con- 
tinued as  such  for  four  years,  at  the  expiration 
of  which  period  he  succeeded  the  late  C.  P.  King 
as  president,  which  position  he  now  fills  in  a 
manner  that  reflects  credit  not  only  on  himself 
but  also  upon  the  bank  as  well.  The  surplus  of 
the  Peoria  National  is  $55,000,  and  it  is  one  of 
the  soundest  monetary  institutions  in  Illinois. 

A  sound  Republican  in  politics,  Mr.  Mcllvaine 
has  never  allowed  his  name  to  be  used  in  con- 
nection with  a  political  office,  though  repeat- 
edly urged  to  do  so.  He  has  for  the  past  twen- 
ty-five years  been  a  member  of  the  board  of  edu- 
cation, having  been  re-elected  every  two  years 
during  that  entire  period,  and  Peoria's  excel- 
lent school  system,  than  which  there  is  no  better 
in  the  State,  may  be  ascribed  to  his  efforts  more 
than  to  those  of  any  other  one  man.     He  also 


organized  the  Peoria  Clearing  House  and  Bank- 
ers' Association,  of  which  he  is  the  president,  and 
for  many  years  was  a  director  of  the  Peoria 
Chamber  of  Conmierce  and  chairman  of  one  of 
that  body's  most  important  connnittees, — that 
on  arbitration. 

For  many  years  he  has  been  president  of  the 
Mercantile  Library  Board,  and  here  as  elsewhere 
his  sterling  sense  and  great  executive  ability 
have  been  of  the  greatest  value. 

With  the  religious  training  instilled  into  his 
youthful  mind  by  pious  and  loving  parents,  it 
was  but  natural  that  he  should  be  a  firm  believer 
in  the  doctrine  taught  by  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  an  elder  of  which  he  has  been  for  the 
past  third  of  a  century,  and  giving  freely  both 
of  time  and  money  to  its  advancement.  He  is 
and  has  been  for  twenty-five  years  the  superin- 
tendent of  its  Grace  mission  Sunday-school,  a 
position  in  which  his  marked  individuality  has  en- 
abled him  to  do  much  good  for  the  cause  of 
Christianity.  During  the  war  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Christian  and  Sanitan,'  Commission  in- 
stituted by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, and  one  of  its  most  earnest  members. 

]Mr.  Mcllvaine  has  traveled  a  great  deal,  hav- 
ing been  all  over  the  United  States  and  passed 
several  summers  at  both  Atlantic  and  Pacific  sea- 
side resorts,  and  winters  in  Florida. 

On  the  i8th  day  of  August,  1857,  ^Ir.  Mcll- 
vaine was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Priscilla  J. 
McClure,  a  member  of  an  old  and  prominent 
family  of  Franklin  county,  Pennsylvania,  and 
sister  of  Colonel  J.  D.  McClure.  Of  this  union 
have  been  born  seven  children,  five  of  whom  are 
living,  namely:  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  Albert 
Johnson,  who  has  been  connected  with  the  Peo- 
ria National  Bank  and  its  predecessors  since  boy- 
hood; William  B.,  of  the  well-known  law  firm  ot 
Wilson,  Moore  &  Mcllvaine,  of  Chicago ;  Emma. 
who  resides  at  home  with  her  parents:  Priscilla, 
now  Mrs.  Glenn  S.  Allen,  of  Kalamazoo,  Michi- 
gan; and  George  H.,  Jr.,  who  is  pursuing  his 
studies  in  the  Peoria  high  school. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


87 


LYSANDER  HILL, 


CHICAGO. 


IT  is  said  that  the  poet  is  ]Dorn,  not  made;  but 
the  successful  lawyer  has  to  be  both  born 
and  made, — made  by  close  application,  earnest 
effort,  by  perseverance  and  resolute  purpose. 
The  abilities  with  which  nature  has  endowed  him 
must  be  strengthened  and  developed  'by  useV, 
and  only  by  merit  can  the  lawyer  gain  a  pre- 
eminent position.  The  study  of  biography  yields 
in  point  of  interest  and  profit  to  no  other  study, 
for  it  is  here  that  we  learn  how  success  ha=  been 
achieved,  the  plans  that  have  been  followed  and 
methods  that  have  been  pursued.  In  the  life 
record  of  Mr.  Hill  are  contained  many  valuable 
lessons,  showing  what  can  be  accomplished  by 
the  young  men  of  this  free  country,  though  they 
have  no  capital  with  wliich  to  start  out  on  life's 
journey. 

A  native  of  Maine,  Mr.  Hill  was  born  in  Union, 
Lincoln  county,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1834,  and  is 
a  son  of  Isaac  and  Eliza  M.  (Hall)  Hill.  On 
both  the  paternal  and  matemal  sides  he  descends 
from  honored  New  England  families  that  were 
founded  on  American  soil  during  early  Colo- 
nial days,  settling  with  the  Puritans  in  Massa- 
chusetts. The  elementary  education  of  the  Judge 
was  obtained  in  the  common  schools  of  his  native 
town,  and,  entering  Warren  Academy,  he  pre- 
pared for  college,  for  it  was  his  desire  to  fit  him- 
self for  his  life  work  by  a  thorough  education. 
In  1854  he  became  a  student  of  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege, at  which  he  was  graduated  in  1858,  at  the 
head  of  his  class,  on  the  completion  of  the  regu- 
lar four  years'  course.  Even  before  this  time  he 
had  determined  to  enter  the  legal  profession, 
and  when  his  literary  education  was  completed 
he  entered  the  office  of  A.  P.  Gould,  a  prominent 
attorney  of  Thomaston,  Maine,  under  whose  di- 
rection he  prosecuted  his  studies  until  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  i860.  Immediately  he  opened  an 
office  in  that  city,  forming  a  partnership  with  J. 
P.  Cilley,  under  the  firm  name  of  Cilley  &  Hill, 
the  connection  existing  until  1862,  when  Mr.  Hill 
withdrew  in  order  to  give  his  services  to  his 
country. 

Immediately  after  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter, 


Mr.  Hill  aided  in  raising  and  equipping  a  battery 
of  light  artillery,  in  which  he  himself  enlisted. 
This  battery,  fully  equipped  and  armed  at  pri- 
vate expense,  was  offered  to  the  Government  for 
service  in  May,  1861,  but  was  declined  because 
General  Scott  thought  the  Government  already 
had  "more  artillery  than  it  knew  what  to  do  with." 
After  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  Mr.  Hill  prevailed 
upon  Governor  Washburn  to  organize  a  regi- 
ment of  cavalry  and  took  an  active  part  in  rais- 
ing it,  although  business  duties  obliged  him  to 
decline  a  commission  in  it.  This  regiment  was 
the  celebrated  First  Maine  cavalry,  afterward 
conmianded  by  his  law  partner,  General  Cilley, 
which  participated  in  more  battles  than  any  other 
regiment  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  In  the 
early  summer  of  1862  he  aided  in  raising  the 
Eighth  Maine  Infantrs',  and  after  the  State  quota 
was  hill  he  prevailed  upon  Governor  Washburn 
to  raise  an  additional  regiment,  the  Twentieth 
Maine  Infantry,  in  which  he  accepted  the  com- 
mand of  a  company.  Colonel  Bacheldor,  the 
historian  of  Gettysburg,  credits  this  regiment 
with  turning  the  tide  of  battle  in  that  decisive 
fight.  In  1863  Mr.  Hill's  health  rendered  fur- 
ther service  in  the  field  impossible,  and  he  was 
honorably  discharged.  His  health  was  so  greatly 
impaired  that  his  physician  forbade  his  return 
to  the  North  for  several  years.  His  loyalty  as 
a  citizen  and  his  devotion  to  the  country's  inter- 
ests have  ever  been  among  his  marked  charac- 
teristics, and  the  community  is  fortunate  that 
numbers  him  among  its  citizens. 

Upon  leaving  the  army  Judge  Hill  located 
in  Alexandria,  Virginia,  wiiere  he  resumed  the 
practice  of  law,  also  opening  an  office  in  Wash- 
ington, District  of  Columbia,  dividing  his  time 
between  the  two  points.  In  tlie  former  city  he 
was  associated  with  George  Tucker,  under  the 
style  of  Hill  &  Tucker.  While  thus  engaged,  in 
1867,  he  was  made  register  in  bankruptcy  for  the 
Eighth  Judicial  District  of  Virginia,  a  position 
which  he  resigned  in  1869  upon  his  appointment 
as  judge  of  the  same  district  to  fill  an  unexpired 
term.    In  1874  he  left  his  Virginia  home  and  re- 


88 


BIOQRAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OP  THE 


moved  to  Washington,  where  entering  into  part- 
nership with  E.  A.  Ellsworth,  under  the  firm 
name  of  Hill  &  Ellsworth,  he  began  a  success- 
ful business,  which  continued  for  many  years. 
The  firm  connection  existed  until  1878,  and 
Judge  Hill  was  then  alone  in  business  in  the 
Capital  City  until  1881. 

It  has  largely  become  a  custom  at  the  present 
day  to  devote  one's  attention  not  alone  to  one  line 
of  business,  but  to  one  single  branch  of  the  busi- 
ness: and  while  Mr.  Hill  is  an  able  lawyer  under 
any  consideration  and  in  any  place,  he  has  given 
his  special  attention  to  patent  litigation.  By 
degrees  it  superseded  his  general  practice,  and 
he  became  known  as  one  of  the  most  prominent 
patent  lawyers  in  the  city  of  Washington.  Patent 
law  is  peculiar  and  demands  peculiar  talents  and 
experience.  The  successful  patent  lawyer  must 
be,  naturally  if  not  practically,  enough  of  a  me- 
chanic and  scientist  to  discern  the  merits  of  any 
invention  or  discovery.  To  this  qualification  he 
must  add  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  law,  an 
ingenuity  that  will  compass  any  purpose,  and 
an  experience  wide  and  varied  enough  to  give 
him  the  most  absolute  confidence  in  his  manage- 
ment of  the  case  even  when  success  seems  farthest 
away.  He  must  be  a  man  of  infinite  resources, 
and  such  a  man  is  Judge  Hill,  his  success  indi- 
cating that  he  possesses  all  requirements.  He  is 
regarded  as  authority  on  all  matters  pertaining 
to  patent  law,  and  to-day  he  stands  among  the 
foremost  of  those  who  are  devoting  their  talents 
and  energies  to  this  specialty. 


In  May,  1881,  Judge  Hill  came  to  Chicago  to 
make  the  Queen  City  of  the  West  his  home,  and 
to-day  he  is  in  the  front  rank  among  the  many 
able  members  of  the  bar  of  Cook  county,  where 
some  of  the  finest  minds  of  the  land  are  found. 
He  formed  a  partnership  with  T.  S.  E.  Dixon, 
which  continued  for  nine  years,  and  since  has 
been  alone  in  business,  enjoying  a  most  extended 
clientage,  which  comes  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. In  February,  1864,  was  celebrated  the  mar- 
riage of  Mr.  Hill  and  Miss  Adelaide  R.  Cole,  of 
Roxbury,  Massachusetts.  Their  family  numbers 
three  children,  and  the  Judge  finds  his  chief 
source  of  pleasure  in  his  home.  In  his  political 
views  he  has  always  been  a  stalwart  Republican, 
unwavering  in  his  allegiance  to  the  party  whose 
principles  he  believes  are  best  calculated  to  pro- 
mote the  country's  best  interests.  In  earlier 
years,  before  his  legal  duties  were  so  pressing, 
he  devoted  considerable  attention  to  political  af- 
fairs, and  in  1868  was  a  delegate  to  the  national 
convention  which  nominated  General  Grant  for 
the  presidency.  He  was  also  chairman  of  the 
Republican  State  central  committee  of  Virginia 
for  two  years.  Upright,  reliable  and  honorable, 
his  strict  adherence  to  principle  commands  the 
respect  of  all.  The  place  he  has  won  in  the  legal 
profession  is  accorded  him  in  recognition  of  his 
skill  and  ability,  and  the  place  which  he  occu- 
pies in  the  social  world  is  a  trbute  to  that 
geiuiine  worth  and  true  nobleness  of  char- 
acter which  are  universally  recognized  and 
honored. 


DAVID  D.  EVANS, 


ILLINOIS  has  always  been  distinguished  for 
the  high  rank  of  her  bench  and  bar.  Perhaps 
none  of  the  newer  States  can  justly  boast  of  abler 
jurists  or  attorneys.  Many  of  them  have  been 
men  of  national  fame,  and  among  those  whose 
lives  have  been  passed  on  a  quieter  plane  there 
is  scarcely  a  town  or  city  in  the  State  but  can 
boast  of  one  or  more  lawyers  capable  of  cross- 
ing swords  in  forensic  combat  with  any  of  the 
distinguished  legal  lights  of  the  United  States. 


While  the  growth  and  development  of  the  State 
in  the  last  half  century  has  been  most  marvelous, 
viewed  from  any  standpoint,  yet  of  no  one  class 
of  her  citizenship  has  she  greater  reason  for  just 
pride  than  her  judges  and  attorneys. 

In  Judge  Evans  we  find  united  many  of  the 
rare  qualities  which  go  to  make  up  the  success- 
ful lawyer  and  jurist.  He  possesses  perhaps  few 
of  those  brilliant,  dazzling,  meteoric  qualities 
which  have   sometimes   flashed  along  the  legal 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


horizon,  riveting  the  gaze  and  blinding  the  vision 
for  the  moment,  then  disappearing,  leaving  little 
or  no  trace  behind,  but  rather  has  those  solid 
and  more  substantial  qualities  which  shine  with 
a  constant  luster,  shedding  light  in  the  dark 
places  with  steadiness  and  continuity'.  Judge 
Evans  can  scarcely  be  termed  an  orator,  but  he 
has  in  an  eminent  degree  that  rare  ability  of  say- 
ing in  a  convincing  way  the  right  thing  at  the 
right  time.  His  mind  is  analytical,  logical  and 
inductive.  With  a  thorough  and  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  law, 
he  combines  a  familiarity  with  statutory  law  and 
a  sober,  clear  judgment,  which  makes  him  not 
only  a  formidable  adversary  in  legal  combat  but 
has  given  him  the  distinction,  while  on  the  bench, 
of  hafing  fewer  of  his  decisions  revised  or  re- 
versed than  any  other  judge  in  the  State  of 
Illinois. 

Judge  Evans  is  a  native  of  the  Keystone  State, 
but  the  family  is  of  Welsh  origin.  His  paternal 
grandfather  was  a  native  of  north  Wales,  while 
his  grandmother  was  from  south  Wales.  They 
came  to  America  when  children  and  settled  with 
their  parents  in  Pennsylvania.  The  maternal 
grandfather  of  the  Judge  was  named  Lloyd,  and 
was  a  man  of  prominence  in  his  day.  It  was 
through  his  influence  that  a  new  county  was 
formed  in  Pennsylvania,  which  he  named  Cam- 
bria, in  honor  of  the  land  of  his  birth,  Cambria 
having  been  the  ancient  name  of  Wales.  He 
laid  out  and  founded  a  town,  the  county  seat  of 
the  new  county,  which  he  named  for  his  son, 
calling  it  Ebensburg.  He  was  a  prominent  min- 
ister of  the  gospel  and  a  man  of  much  note. 

Judge  Evans  is  the  son  of  David  and  Anna 
(Lloyd)  Evans,  and  was  bom  at  Ebensburg, 
Pennsylvania,  April  17,  1829.  His  father  was  a 
stone-mason  and  contractor,  and  aided  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  famous  Portage  road  across  the 
mountains  in  Pennsylvania.  This  was  in  the  early 
days  of  railroading  and  the  Portage  road  was 
considered  a  wonderful  engineering  achievement. 
With  the  money  earned  in  the  construction  of 
this  road,  Mr.  Evans  purchased  a  farm  and  re- 
tired to  rural  pursuits. 

Judge  Evans  may  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the 
word  be  termed  self-educated.  He  was  never  in 
a  schoolroom  until  he  was  ten  years  of  age,  and 


then  spent  only  abotit  two  winter  months  of 
each  year  in  pursuing  his  studies  there.  He  was, 
however,  of  a  studious  disposition,  and  by  course 
of  self-instruction  became  qualified  to  teach  and 
taught  one  or  two  terms,  after  which  he  went  to 
Hiram,  Ohio,  attending  the  institute  at  that 
place.  During  the  summer  months  he  worked 
in  the  hanest  fields  for  the  money  to  defray  his 
expenses  during  a  school  term.  After  leaving 
Hiram  he  went  to  southern  Ohio,  where  he 
taught  for  five  or  six  years,  and  during  the  time 
attended  the  Normal  Institute  at  Lebanon,  Ohio, 
for  one  term.  In  the  meantime,  also,  while  en- 
gaged in  teaching,  he  had  taken  up  the  study  of 
law,  and  in  i860  entered  upon  a  course  of  study 
in  the  law  department  of  the  L^niversity  of  Mich- 
igan, at  Ann  Arbor,  at  which  institution  he  grad- 
uated in  1863.  After  leaving  Ann  Arbor  he  en- 
listed in  the  army,  but  soon  contracted  typhoid 
fever  and  had  to  return  home. 

In  November,  1864,  Judge  Evans  came  to 
Danville,  Illinois,  and  in  partnership  with  John 
A.  Kumler  opened  a  law  office.  Clients  not  be- 
ing as  plentiful  at  the  start  as  he  had  hoped  for, 
he  resorted  to  his  former  profession  of  teaching, 
and  for  a  }-ear  conducted  a  prosperous  school 
in  this  place.  In  company  with  Judge  Clapp 
he  then  purchased  the  Chronicle  and  consoli- 
dated it  with  the  Vermilion  County  Plaindealer, 
making  the  Danville  Plaindealer,  and  became 
its  editor.  A  year  later.  Judge  Evans,  dispos- 
ing of  his  interest,  again  returned  to  the  prac- 
tice of  law,  this  time  in  company  with  M.  D. 
Hawes.  Four  years  later  Mr.  Hawes  abandoned 
the  profession  for  that  of  the  ministry  and  Judge 
Evans  was  alone  for  two  years,  when  he  asso- 
ciated with  him  Charles  M.  Swallow,  the  part- 
nership continuing  four  years.  Judge  Evans 
was  then  alone  until  1881,  when  he  was  elected 
on  the  Republican  ticket  to  the  office  of  county 
judge:  and  this  brings  us  to  consider  perhaps 
the  most  important  work  he  has  done. 

When  Judge  Evans  came  to  the  bench  he  found 
the  afifairs  of  the  court  in  a  deplorable  condi- 
tion, owing  partly  to  the  long-continued  illness 
of  his  predecessor.  Judge  Hanford,  and  partly 
to  the  loose  and  wholly  inefficient  methods  which 
had  prevailed  in  the  conduct  of  the  office.  When 
he  entered  upon  his  duties  he  found  the  office  of 


90 


/iroaUAPIIWAL  DICTWNART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


the  count)  jiulj?eship  of  but  little  more  importance 
than  that  of  any  ordinary  justice  of  the  peace. 
He  found  the  afTairs  of  the  ofSce  a  tangled  skein, 
dif^ficult  indeed  to  unravel  and  straighten  out. 
He  found  cases  on  the  docket  ten,  fifteen  and  even 
twenty  years  behind.  Nothing  had  been  attempted 
beyond  probate  adjustment,  and  even  in  this  mat- 
ter grave  abuses  and  neglect  of  duty  were  evi- 
dent, not  the  least  of  which  was  the  practice  of 
allowing  guardians,  executors  and  administra- 
tors to  settle  at  such  times  as  they  might  elect, 
with  their  wards  out  of  court,  and  such  settle- 
ments had  been  accepted  by  the  court  in  direct 
violation  of  law,  which  requires  such  settlements 
to  be  made  under  oath,  in  court,  with  an  item- 
ized account  of  all  transactions  pertaining  to  the 
estates  or  other  property  in  trust.  Judge  Evans 
insisted  upon  changing  all  this.  It  is  probable 
that  the  history  of  the  entire  State  would  fail  to 
show  such  a  complete  and  radical  reformation 
and  transformation  in  so  short  a  time  as  was 
wrought  by  him  during  his  first  term  in  this  of- 
fice. He  radically  revised  the  methods  in  vogue 
in  probate  matters,  and,  as  rapidly  as  possible 
under  the  circumstances,  took  up,  straightened 
out  and  disposed  of  the  old  cases  which  had  so 
long  been  lingering  on  the  docket;  required  all 
guardians,  administrators,  executors,  assignees 
and  conservators  to  account  for  their  trusts  in  the 
manner  prescribed  by  law;  developed  the  common 
law  term  from  practically  nothing  to  three  terms 
per  year  of  several  weeks  each,  or  in  short  he  made 
the  county  court  of  almost  equal  importance  to 
the  circuit  court.  He  appointed  over  two  hundred 
executors  and  administrators  and  about  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  guardians  and  conservators,  all  of 
whom  he  required  to  account  regularly  in  court 
as  the  law  required.  He  gave  his  undivided  at- 
tention to  the  duties  of  the  position  to  which  he 
had  been  chosen,  and  gave  careful  consideration 
to  each  case  as  it  came  up;  and  as  a  result  of  this 
care  and  as  evidence  of  his  knowledge  of  law  and 
sound  legal  judgment  he  achieved  the  proud  dis- 
tinction of  having  but  one  finding  revised  and  but 
a  single  one  reversed  by  the  higher  courts  during 
his  term  of  service. 

Upon  the  expiration  of  his  first  term.  Judge 
Evans  was  again  elected  to  the  same  position,  and 
for  four  years  more  presided  over  the  court,  the 


standing  of  which  lie  had  done  so  much  to  estab- 
lish and  elevate. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  methods 
adopted  by  Judge  Evans  met  with  the  unqualified 
approval  of  all  people  in  the  community,  although 
no  one  could  speak  aught  against  him  personally, 
for  in  honor,  integrity,  ability  and  all  that  goes  to 
constitute  the  ideal  judge  he  was  above  reproach; 
yet  there  were  many  malcontents.  There  were 
those  who  had  been  thriving  off  the  use  of  es- 
tates in  trust  who  found  their  occupation  gone; 
the  machine  politicians  were  not  in  love  with  him, 
for  he  was  not  the  kind  of  man  they  could  ap- 
proach, much  less  handle,  for  the  furtherance  of 
their  schemes;  and  when  it  came  time  to  nominate 
a  candidate  for  the  third  term  Judge  Evans  busied 
himself  with  the  duties  of  his  offlce  instead  cff  wire- 
pulling for  the  nomination,  with  the  result  that 
he  awoke  one  morning  and  found  another  Rich- 
mond in  the  field.  Then  it  was  that  the  better 
element  of  the  other  political  party— the  Demo- 
cratic— formed  plans,  and  without  consulting  him 
and  entirely  without  liis  knowledge,  and  of  course 
without  his  consent,  either  direct  or  indirect, 
placed  his  name  on  their  ticket  as  their  candidate 
for  county  judge.  They  justified  their  action  in 
this  matter  partially  by  citing  the  fact  that  during 
his  first  candidacy  for  the  office  they  had  placed 
no  candidate  of  their  own  in  the  field  against  him 
but  had  instead  placed  his  name  on  their  ticket, 
thus  making  him  virtually  the  candidate  of  both 
political  parties;  and  now,  when  the  machine  ele- 
ment in  his  own  party  had  succeeded  in  getting 
him  put  aside,  the  Democrats  placed  his  name  on 
their  ticket  purely  from  consideration  of  the  able 
and  impartial  manner  in  which  he  had  for  eight 
years  conducted  the  afifairs  of  this  important  po- 
sition. This  action  of  his  friends — undoubtedly 
kindly  meant — placed  Judge  Evans  in  an  awk- 
ward position.  He  could  not  without  wounding 
the  feelings  of  his  neighbors  and  friends  peremp- 
torily spurn  this  indorsement,  and  in  fact  and 
truth  he  had  no  opportunity  of  "declining  the 
honor,"'  as  he  was  never  consulted  in  he  matter; 
so  he  simply  let  matters  take  their  course.  His  ene- 
mies worked  persistently  and  desperately,  while 
he  made  no  move  and  gave  no  utterance  in  his 
own  behalf.  The  result  was  that  he  was  defeated 
at  the  polls  by  a  small  majority.    This  may  have 


y^^^^K^7€i<^-2-^/^^^^^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  IILINOIS    VOLUME. 


91 


been  poor  "politics,"  and  undoubtedly  was  from 
a  practical  standpoint,  but  Judge  Evans  was 
never  a  practical  "politician"  in  the  sense  that 
term  is  used  in  the  present  day.  He  has  none 
of  that  "all-things-to-all-men"  sort  of  qualifica- 
tion which  is  the  principal  stock  in  trade  of  the 
average  latter-day  politician.  He  is  modest,  dig- 
nified and  reserved,  and  scorned  the  practice 
of  going  into  the  field  and  actively  soliciting  votes 
for  himself.  The  result  was  that  his  opponents 
called  him  an  aristocrat  without  sympathy  with 
the  common  people,  and  said  he  was  a  party 
turncoat  because  his  name  appeared  on  the  Dem- 
ocratic ticket.  By  these  and  other  like  methods 
enough  votes  were  secured  to  retire  him  from 
the  office  he  had  done  so  much  to  dignify  and 
honor.  He  accepted  his  defeat  gracefully,  and 
at  once  took  up  again  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion. In  1892  he  became  half  owner  of  the 
Wabash  Milling  Company,  and  in  1894  the 
entire  plant  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and,  it 
being  only  partially  insured,  a  large  loss  was 
sustained. 

In  1867  Judge  Evans  was  married  to  Mrs. 
Edwilda  A.  Sconce,  nee  Cromwell.  Of  three 
children  born  to  them  only  one  survives — Waldo 
Carl,  now  seventeen  years  of  age. 

Judge  Evans  has  been  a  member  of  the  board 
of  education  and  chairman  of  the  Republican 
central  committee.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 
Republican  national  convention  in  1876,  which 
nominated   Hayes  for  the   presidency,   and   has 


repeatedly  been  a  delegate  to  State  conven- 
tions. As  a  citizen  no  man  in  Danville  stands 
higher;  his  hospitality  is  unbounded,  and  he 
and  Mrs.  Evans  have  given  many  of  the  most 
successful  and  enjoyable  entertainments  ever  held 
in  that  city.  As  a  lawyer  he  ranks  among  the 
best  inthe  State.  Above  pettifogging  orchicanery, 
he  conducts  his  cases  earnestly,  honestly  and  skill- 
fully. He  is  an  impressive  and  logical  reasoner, 
well  grounded  in  the  principles  of  law,  quick  to 
grasp  the  points  in  the  case  and  adroit 
in  presenting  them.  Of  his  qualifications 
as  a  jurist  we  have  already  spoken  at 
length.  As  a  writer  he  is  graphic,  con- 
cise and  remarkably  forcible.  Had  he  contin- 
ued in  the  fiewspaper  field  he  would  have  un- 
doubtedly ranked  as  one  of  the  ablest  editors  in 
the  State.  He  is  a  man  of  broad  views,  and  his 
religion  is  that  of  works,  not  faith  alone.  He 
believes  that  the  universe  is  governed  by  general, 
not  by  partial,  laws,  and  that  the  infraction  of 
those  laws  brings  its  penalty  regardless  of  faith 
or  belief.  His  mind  is  of  that  logical  type  which 
cannot  accept  on  trust  any  dogma  or  creed 
against  which  his  common  sense  rebels.  In 
this,  as  in  other  matters,  he  is  liberal  and  char- 
itable, according  to  all  the  perfect  right  of  free- 
dom and  reserving  the  same  right  for  himself. 
He  has  proved  himself  in  all  the  relations  of  life 
an  earnest,  honest,  upright  man,  and  a  citizen 
of  whom  any  community  might  justly  be 
proud. 


FREDERICK  A.  SHERWOOD, 


THE  history  of  a  State  as  well  as  that  of  a 
nation  is  chiefly  the  chronicle  of  the  lives 
and  deeds  of  those  who  have  conferred  honor 
and  dignity  upon  society.  The  world  judges  the 
character  of  a  community  by  that  of  its  repre- 
sentative citzens,  and  yields  its  tributes  of  admi- 
ration and  respect  for  the  genius,  learning  or 
virtues  of  those  whose  works  and  actions  con- 
.stitute  the  record  of  a  State's  prosperity  and 
pride;  and  it  is  in  their  character,  as  exempli- 
fied in  probity  and  benevolence,  kindly  virtues 


and  integrity  in  the  affairs  of  life,  are  ever  af- 
fording worthy  examples  for  emulation  and  valu- 
able lessons  of  incentive. 

To  a  student  of  biography  there  is  nothing 
more  interesting  than  to  examine  the  life  his- 
tory of  a  self-made  man  and  to  detect  the  ele- 
ments of  character  which  have  enabled  him  to 
pass  on  the  highway  of  life  many  of  the  com- 
panions of  his  youth  who  at  the  outset  of  their 
careers  were  more  advantageously  equipped  or 
endowed.    The  subject  of  this  review  has  through 


92 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


his  own  exertions  attained  an  honorable  position 
and  marked  prestige  among  the  representative 
men  of  the  West,  and  witli  signal  consistency 
it  may  be  said  that  he  is  the  architect  of  his  own 
fortunes  and  one  whose  success  amply  justifies 
the  application  of  the  somewhat  hackneyed  but 
most  expressive  title,  "a  self-made  man." 

Frederick  A.  Sherwood  was  born  on  a  farm 
near  Rhinebeck,  Dutchess  county.  New  York, 
in  1837,  the  day  of  his  nativity  being  that  which 
marks  the  anniversary  of  our  national  independ- 
ence,— T"ly  4-  H's  parents,  Walter  C.  and  Eliz- 
abeth (Bloomer)  Sherwood,  had  united  their  des- 
tinies while  still  in  youthful  years,  and  they  were 
content  to  begin  their  married  life  in  a  modest 
vvav,  sustained  and  encouraged  by  mutual  af- 
fection and  solicitude.  The  father  finally  be- 
came dissatisfied  with  the  tardy  and  insufficient 
financial  returns  derived  from  agricultural  oper- 
ations in  the  old  Empire  State,  and,  like  many 
another,  he  was  affected  by  the  memorable  gold 
excitement  in  California,  in  1849,  a"''  hoping 
to  improve  his  opportunities  for  acquiring  money, 
he  joined  the  adventurous  throng  which  that  year 
plodded  its  weary  and  perilous  way  over  mountain 
and  plain  to  the  land  where  the  sunset  gates  are 
open  wide.  His  was  the  lot  of  many  another 
of  the  brave  men,  for  he  succumbed  to  the  rav- 
ages of  disease,  and  in  the  fall  of  the  following 
year  was  consigned  to  his  last  resting  place  in 
the  land  where  he  had  hoped  to  win  a  compe- 
tency for  himself  and  his  little  family. 

Frederick  attended  the  district  school  in  the 
v.-mters  and  assisted  in  the  work  of  the  farm  dur- 
ing the  summer  seasons  until  he  had  attained 
the  age  of  fourteen  years,  the  discipline  being 
of  the  sort  that  developed  in  him  that  sturdy 
independence  which  has  been  characteristic  of 
his  entire  life,  while  incidentally  were  gained  the 
elements  of  that  robust  constitution  and  physical 
vitality  which  have  made  him  a  man  of  goodly 
parts — the  possessor  of  not  only  the  sound  mind, 
but  also  the  eminent  prerequisite,  the  sound  body. 
When  he  was  fourteen  years  old  his  uncle,  John 
D.Sherwood,  took  a  kindly  interest  in  the  boy  and 
granted  him  the  privilege  of  attending  for  two 
years  the  excellent  academy  in  the  village  of 
P'i'hkill,  near  that  historic  old  Dutch  Reformed 
church  which  was  utilized  by  the  American  forces 


as  a  prison  during  the  war  of  1812.  The  young 
man  remained  on  the  farm  until  January,  1857, 
when  he  became  imbued  with  the  desire  to  go  out 
in  life  on  his  own  responsibility  and  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunities  which  were  so 
glowingly  described  as  aw^aiting  the  youth  who 
would  follow  Horace  Greeley's  advice  to  go  West 
and  grow  up  with  the  country.  He  was  im- 
mature and  inexperienced  in  the  ways  of  the 
world,  but  he  boldly  sallied  forth  in  quest  of 
fame  and  fortune.  With  one  hundred  dollars 
in  his  pocket  he  left  the  old  home  in  the  East 
and  in  due  time  arrived  in  Centralia,  Illinois. 
Flere  he  was  not  successful  in  obtaining  employ- 
ment, and  he  proceeded  to  Ottawa,  where,  in 
May,  1857,  his  funds  became  exhausted,  and, 
disheartened  and  discouragecf'  at  the  frowns 
w-hich  fortune  had  bestowed  upon  him  in  place 
of  the  radiant  smiles  which  he  had  confidently 
expected,  he  finally  sent  to  his  mother  for  a  re- 
mittance of  twenty  dollars  to  enable  him  to  re- 
turn to  his  home  in  New  York.  Tliat  the  old 
adage,  'it  is  always  darkest  just  before  the 
dawn,"  has  some  foundation  in  fact  was  shown 
to  him  ere  sufficient  time  had  elapsed  for  him 
to  secure  tangible  returns  from  his  somewhat 
pathetic  appeal  to  his  mother.  He  succeeded 
in  finding  a  situation  which  afforded  a  salary 
of  twelve  dollars  a  month  with  board  and  lodg- 
ing. This  position  he  gladly  accepted  and  he 
was  ready  to  render  the  most  faithful  and  effective 
service  which  it  was  in  his  power  to  accord. 
After  receiving  the  twenty  dollars  from  his  mother 
he  immediately  returned  the  money  to  her,  as  she 
was  then  in  very  moderate  circumstances. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  year  he  had,  of  the  one 
hundred  and  forty-four  dollars  received  as  wages, 
saved  the  sum  of  one  hundred  dollars,  showing 
that  he  had  been  signally  frugal  and  indus- 
trious, and  also  that  he  thus  early  had  apprecia- 
tion of  the  practical  necessity  of  saving  his  money 
if  he  hoped  to  advance  in  life.  It  is  interesting 
to  revert  to  the  fact  that  this  nucleus  of  his  pres- 
ent large  fortune  was  secured  in  the  locality 
where  he  has  since  risen  to  a  position  as  one  of 
tlie  most  substantial  capitalists  and  honored  citi- 
zen s^ — one  who  has  undoubtedly  done  more  to 
advance  the  material  interests  of  the  city  of  Ot- 
tawa than  has  any  other  one  individual.     The 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


98 


second  year  his  wages  were  doubled,  and  at 
its  expiration  he  had  accumulated  sufficient 
funds  to  enable  him  to  begin  business  opera- 
tions on  his  own  responsibility.  Such  determi- 
nation and  indomitable  perseverance  as  were  his 
needed  only  the  opening  wedge  of  opportunity 
to  accomplish  results.  With  definite  ends  in 
view,  Mr.  Shervvood  allowed  no  incidental  cir- 
cumstances to  swerve  him  from  his  purpose, 
and  he  showed  a  thorough  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  time  by  utilizing  his  spare  moments  in 
the  study  of  law,  instead  of  wasting  his  leisure 
as  the  average  young  man  would  do  at  his  age. 
In  i860  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  su- 
preme court  at  Ottawa,  and  although  he  did  not 
enter  upon  the  active  practice  of  his  profession 
he  found  his  knowledge  of  law  of  inestimable 
service  to  him  in  his  business  of  loaning  money 
upon  real  estate  securities,  an  enterprise  in  which 
he  engaged  at  this  time  as  the  agent  for  capital- 
ists in  the  East.  For  several  years  he  invested 
largely  in  the  wild  lands  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  his  purchases  in  1880  and  1881 
amounting  to  over  ten  thousand  acres,  on  which 
he  realized  large  profits.  Although  he  has  made 
Ottawa  his  home  and  business  headquarters, 
he  has  found  it  more  profitable  to  invest  money 
in  lands  farther  west.  Three-fourths  of  the 
money  which  he  has  used  or  loaned  to  be  used 
in  the  building  of  over  thirty  business  blocks, 
houses  and  churches  in  Ottawa,  has  been  se- 
cured through  investments  outside  that  city. 
He  has  thus  and  in  other  ways  lent  aid  and  in- 
fluence toward  the  advancement  and  substan- 
tial upbuilding  of  Ottawa,  and,  as  before  sug- 
gested, has  done  more  than  any  other  one  man 
to  make  the  city  what  it  is  to-day,  one  of  tiio 
most  attractive  and  prosperous  in  the  State  of 
Illinois. 

On  the  17th  of  September,  1879,  ^^  New  Lon- 
don, Connecticut,  Mr.  Sherwood  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Phoebe  A.  Anthony,  who  traces 
her  lineage  back  to  prominent  old  Revolution- 
ary families.  Her  ancestors  were  among  the 
Platts  who  established  the  town  of  Plattsburg, 
New  York,  and  she  has  descended  in  line  from 
Lieutenant  Zachariah  Piatt,  who  went  into  camp 
at  New  York  city,  on  May  11,  1776,  holding 
a  commission    signed    by   John    Hancock,    then 


president  of  the  Continental  Congress.  This 
ancestral  association  with  the  great  w'ar  for  in- 
dependence entitles  Mrs.  Sherwood  to  member- 
ship in  that  noble  organization,  the  Daughters 
of  the  Revolution,  and  in  the  same  she  now  holds 
conspicuous  preferment  as  regent  for  Ottawa. 
She  is  a  woman  of  gentle  refinement,  gracious 
presence  and  high  cultivation,  taking  a  great  in- 
terest in  literature  and  society  and  presiding 
with  dignity  over  her  magnificent  home.  Our 
subject  and  his  wife  are  the  parents  of  t\vo  sons: 
Frederick  A.  Sherwood,  Jr.,  born  September  11, 
1881,  and  now  a  student  in  the  Ottawa  high 
school;  and  Everitt  A.  Sherwood,  who  is  also 
attending  the  public  schools  of  the  city. 

Notwithstanding  his  wealth  and  high  posi- 
tion Mr.  Sherwood  is  of  the  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic type  which  is  the  crowning  honor  of  our 
republic.  This  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  he  has 
not  seen  fit  to  isolate  his  children  in  private 
schools,  but  has  gladly  given  them  the  privi- 
lege of  winning  their  own  way  in  competitive 
struggle  with  those  of  their  own  age  in  the  ex- 
cellent public  schools. 

Mr.  Sherwood's  financial  interests  in  tlie  city  of 
Ottawa  are  of  most  extensive  order.  He  main- 
tains here  a  private  banking  institution,  which 
in  its  resources  and  scope  of  operations  is  one 
of  the  most  important  private  banks  in  the  State 
outside  of  Chicago.  Tlie  establishment  has  the 
duplicate  function  of  a  savings  bank  and  a  bank 
of  deposit,  and  is  provided  with  finely  appointed 
counting-rooms  and  offices,  with  the  only  safety- 
deposit  vaults  in  Ottawa.  Mr.  Sherwood  is  the 
ov\ner  of  the  fine  opera-house  which  adonis  and 
furnishes  exceptional  privileges  to  the  city,  and 
ht  stands  as  the  largest  tax-payer  in  the  city. 
In  his  social  relations  he  is  identified  with  the 
Iroquois  Club,  of  Chicago,  the  Ottawa  Boat 
Club  and  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  and  on  the 
2d  day  of  July,  1895,  he  was  appointed  a  di- 
rector of  the  Reddick  Library  of  his  city  for  three 
years.  In  August,  1895,  he  gave  the  city  of  Ot- 
tawa, for  the  use  of  the  people  thereof,  a  drink- 
ing fountain,  ornamented  with  a  statue  of  Hebe. 
It  is  eleven  feet  high  aiul  is  supplied  with  ar- 
tesian water.  It  adorns  Washington  Park  in 
said  city.  From  May,  1889,  until  May,  1891, 
he  served  as  mayor  of    Ottawa,    having    been 


94 


BIOORAPIIWAL  DWTWNART  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


elected  on  the  Democratic  ticket;  and  it  is  con- 
ceded that  he  gave  Ottawa  the  only  economical 
administration  it  has  had  since  becoming  a  cit\'. 

He  is  a  most  genial  man,  easily  approachable 
by  all  who  may  have  occasion  to  seek  an  audi- 
ence with  him,  and  is  very  hospitable  and  gen- 
erous, being  sympathetic  in  nature  and  animated 
by  a  broad  humanitarian  spirit.  Some  of  his  char- 
acteristic tenets  are  that  all  children  should  be 
taught  to  think  consecutively  and  to  cultivate 
memory,  which  has  so  important  an  influence  in 
the  practical  affairs  of  life.  He  holds  that  any 
young  man  who,  beginning  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  will  save  one-half  his  earnings,  will  have 
gained  a  comfortable  competency  by  the  time 
he  is  thirty-five.  This  he  maintains  is  the  true 
secret  of  financial  success.  Absolute  truthful- 
ness and  honesty,  in  thought,  word  and  deed, 
he  considers  as  not  only  cardinal  virtues  but  as 
necessary  adjuncts  if  one  would  realize  the  max- 
imum success  of  which  he  is  capable.  He  urges 
also  the  value  of  perseverance,  and  believes  also 
that 

He  who  wishes  strong  enough. 

He  who  works  hard  enough. 

He  who  vvaits  long  enough. 

Will  get  what  he  wishes,  works  and  waits  for. 
He  believes  that  individual  happiness  and  the 
only  genuine  measure  of  contentment  and  pleas- 
ure in  life  is  gained  as  a  reflex  from  kind  actions 
to  others.  He  says  that  he  is  a  member  of  the 
"church  universal,"  with  the  sky  as  its  vaulted 
roof,  the  earth  its  floor  and  foundation,  with  the 
feathered  songsters  as  its  choir,  the  flowers  of 
the  field  its  incense,  and  nature's  forces  as  sur- 
rounding influences,  bringing  to  us  sublime 
thoughts  and  reverent  feelings  akin  to  heaven. 
He  believes  that  intrinsic  goodness  of  heart 
which  prompts  love  and  kindness  to  one's  fellow- 
men  brings  the  fullest  recompense  of  happiness 
in  this  life  and  insures  as  great  a  certainty  of  hap- 
p:ness  hereafter  as  we  can  reasonably  hope  for. 

Our  subject  has  recently  completed  one  of  the 
finest  residences  in  the  State,  and  this  magnifi- 
cent stone  castle,  on  the  bluff  overlooking  the 
Illinois  river  and  the  city,  on  the  edge  of  his 
park  uf  ninety  acres,  with  its  two  miles  of  finely 
improved  roadways,  and  its  picturesque  eleva- 
tion, is  an  object  of  interest  and  admiration  to 


visitors  for  miles  around  and  to  all  who  may 
pass  through  or  sojourn  in  the  city.  It  will  cer- 
tainly be  appropriate  to  incorporate  in  this  con- 
nection a  brief  description  of  this  beautiful  home, 
which  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  and  its  completion 
having  been  effected  after  three  years'  constant 
labor.  Mr.  Sherwood  personally  superintended 
the  erection  of  the  building,  so  that  many  de- 
tails of  the  structure,  both  from  an  exterior  and 
interior  point  of  view,  are  of  distinctively  original 
design.  As  the  owner  terms  it,  the  architecture 
is  something  of  a  "Colonial"  type,  the  idea  hav- 
ing been  to  blend  the  massive  and  the  ancient 
with  modern  and  unic|ue  styles.  The  house  is 
two  stories  and  a  half  in  height  and  built  of  buff 
Bedford  oolitic  limestone,  with  copings,  caps 
and  trimmings  of  Portage  red  sandstone.  Of 
the  two  towers  the  taller  is  ninefy-two  feet  in 
height.  The  extreme  length  of  the  house  is 
ninety-six  feet,  extreme  width  eighty-five  feet. 
Tlie  two  big  chimneys  are  of  Bedford  stone  with 
terra-cotta  trimmings. 

Entering  the  house  from  the  west  one  passes 
under  a  large  portico,  resting  upon  sandstone 
pillars.  Suspended  from  its  roofs  are  large  elec- 
tric lights,  constructed  after  a  special  design  by 
Mr.  Sherwood.  Going  up  the  steps,  one  sees 
above  the  door  the  motto  "Teneo  amore  et 
tcncor,"  wrought  in  French  stained  glass.  En- 
tering the  large  hall,  thirty  feet  in  width,  and  ex- 
tending entirely  through  the  house,  it  is  seen 
that  the  interior  is  cheerful  though  massive. 
The  woodwork  is  of  light,  oil-finished  oak,  finely 
carved.  Flanking  the  walls  are  ten  French  plate 
mirrors,  each  about  three  to  ten  feet  in  dimen- 
sions. Rich  Swiss  tapestries,  in  Nile  green  and 
dark  amber,  drape  the  doorwavs  to  the  various 
apartments  that  open  off  the  hall,  in  an  angle, 
just  beyond  the  grand  staircase,  is  the  fireplace 
in  Bedford  stone,  there  being  carved  above  the 
mantle  in  old  English  letters:  "Welcome  the 
coming,  and  speed  the  parting  guest." 

On  the  first  floor,  finished  in  sycamore,  cherry 
and  birch  are  the  reception,  living,  library  and 
ofificc  rooms, -and  across  the  hall  the  dining  room, 
thirl\'-eight  by  twenty-two  feet,  finished  in  oak, 
with  oak  floor  bordered  with  walnut.  The  dining 
hall  as  well  as  the  lower  and  upper  halls  have 


REPnESEyTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


95 


panelled  ceilings  of  oak.  The  firci)laces  arc 
of  fine  Italian  marble  and  the  draperies  of 
Swiss  manufacture.  Opening  to  the  north  of 
the  dining  hall  are  the  butler's  and  servants" 
quarters. 

From  the  center  of  the  large  hall  one  can  look 
up  through  an  opening  surrounded  by  an  ornate 
oaken  balustrade,  in  the  second  floor,  to  a  hipped 
oaken  skylight  overhead,  filled  with  stained 
glass  in  pale  blue  and  pink  tints.  On  this  sec- 
ond floor  are  eleven  sleeping  rooms,  done  in 
oak,  cherry,  California  redwood  and  Georgia 
pine.  The  third  floor  has  a  number  of  plain 
rooms  finished  in  pine. 

Both  gas  and  electricity  arc  provitled  for  light- 
ing the  house.  There  are  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-five incandescent  lamps  and  gas  lights  that 
can  be  put  in  use.  They  depend  from  diamond- 
shaped  brasses  of  unique  design  and  are  shaded 
by  variously  made  globes  of  light  blue  and  pink. 
In  the  basement,  wherein  are  also  the  children's 
play-room  and  a  billiard  hall,  are  four  furnaces 
that  do  the  heating.  Indirect  radiators  con- 
structed under  registers  in  the  great  hall  above 
greatly  assist  ventilation  in  summer  by  permit- 
ting cold  air  to  pass  in. 

In  conclusion  it  will  be  germane  to  revert  to 
certain  points  touching  the  genealogy  of  om- 
subject.  The  Sherwoods  trace  their  ancestry 
back  to  England,  presumably  to  the  bandits  who 
made  Sherwood  forest  so  famous;  certainly  to 
the  time  of  John  Calvin,  as  the  Sherwood  and 
Calvin   families  intermarried,   and  maintained   a 


joint  family  motto,  "Teneo  amore  at  teneor,'' 
which  Mr.  Sherwood  utilizes  with  much  consist- 
ency and  of  which  he  is  justly  proud.  His  moth- 
er's ancestors  came  from  France,  but  of  them 
but  little  is  known  in  the  way  of  authentic  his- 
tory. She  entered  into  eternal  rest  in  Novem- 
ber, 1892,  at  the  home  of  her^  daughter  in  New 
Jersey,  having  attained  the  venerable  age  of 
seventy-one  years.  John  D.  Sherwood,  an  uncle 
of  Frederick,  was  a  lawyer  of  considerable  prom- 
inence in  New  York  city  from  1850  to  1875.  He 
traveled  extensively  in  Europe  and  contributed 
many  articles  to  Harper's  Magazine  and  other  pe- 
riodicals. He  also  wrote  a  comic  history  of  the 
United  States  and  published  other  works  of 
greater  importance. 

The  character  and  position  of  Frederick  A. 
Sherwood  illustrates,  most  happily  for  the  pur- 
pose of  this  work,  the  fact  that  if  a  young  man  be 
possessed  of  the  proper  attributes  of  mind  and 
heart  he  can  unaided  attain  to  a  point  of  unmis- 
takable precedence  and  gain  for  himself  a  place 
among  those  men  who  are  the  foremost  factors 
in  shaping  the  destinies  of  the  nation.  His  career 
proves  that  the  only  true  success  in  life  is  that 
which  is  accomplished  by  personal  effort  and 
consecutive  industry'.  It  proves  that  the  road 
to  success  is  open  to  all  young  men  who  have 
the  courage  to  tread  its  pathway,  and  the  life 
record  of  such  a  man  should  serve  as  inspira- 
tion to  the  young  of  this  and  future  generations, 
and  teach  by  incontrovertible  facts  that  success 
is  ambition's  answer. 


FREDERICK  STAHL, 


GALENA. 


MR.  STAIiL  was  born  at  Baltimore,  Mary- 
land, on  the  28th  day  of  Februar\%  1809, 
die  seventh  son  of  Jacob  and  Eva  Barbara 
(Knoblc)  Stahl,  both  of  Stuttgart,  Germany,  and 
received  his  education  in  that  city.  At  the  age  of 
twenty  he  removed  to  what  is  now  the  city  of  Ga- 
lena, where  he  ever  afterward  resided.  He  served 
as  sergeant  in  Colonel  Stephenson's  company  in 
the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  at  the  decisive  battle 
of  Bad  Axe  achieved  distinction.    A  few  months 


prior  to  his  death  he  attended  a  reunion  of  the 
survivors  of  that  war,  of  whom  there  were  but 
fourteen. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  Galena  he  formed 
a  partnership  with  Arthur  L.  Johnson,  a  con- 
nection that  continued  till  1838,  when  the  firm 
was  dissolved  and  the  business  was  continued  by 
Mr.  Stahl  alone.  He  was  actively  engaged  in 
this  enterprise  till  1852,  when  he  was  succeeded 
bv  his  brother  Nicholas  and  Mr.  Tliomas  Fos- 


96 


BIOGRAPniCAL  DICTIONAET  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


ter.  In  i83()  lie  Ix'came  ]ircsident  of  the  Galena 
branch  of  the  Illinois  State  Bank,  and  continued 
in  that  capacity  during  the  existence  of  that  in- 
stitution. For  a  few  years  he  retired  from  active 
business,  but  in  1857  became  president  of  the 
Galena  IMarine  Insurance  Company,  and  re- 
mained its  chief  officer  until  it  was  merged  into 
the  Merchants'  National  Bank  in  1865.  Of  the 
latter  named  institution  he  was  elected  a  director, 
and  continued  as  such  until  his  death,  a  period 
of  nearly  twenty-seven  years.  He  was  also  presi- 
dent of  the  Galena  &  Southwestern  Wisconsin 
Railroad  Company  until  it  became  a  part  of  the 
Chicago  &  Xorthwestern  system. 

Politically  Mr.  Stahl  was  in  early  life  a  Whig, 
later  he  affiliated  with  the  Democracy,  and  was 
chosen  to  fill  a  number  of  important  offices  by 
that  party.  He  was  a  devoted  churchman  and  one 
of  the  founders  of  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  of 
Galena.  For  forty  years  prior  to  his  death  he 
was  senior  warden  of  the  parish,  and  for  a  long 
period  its  treasurer  and  chief  supporter.  For 
forty-five  consecutive  years  be  represented  his 
parish  as  lay  delegate  to  the  diocesan  conven- 
tion, and  was  held  in  the  highest  esteem  and  ven- 
eration by  both  clergy  and  laity,  being  often 
chosen  among  the  men  to  represent  the  diocese 
in  general  convention.  The  diocesan  convention 
shortly  prior  to  his  death  he  was  unable  to  at- 
tend, because  of  ill  health,  and  that  body  paid 
him  a  fitting  tribute,  expressing  appreciation  of 
his  past  valuable  services  through  a  set  of  reso- 
lutions, in  which  the  sentiment  of  the  body  was 
incorporated  by  unanimous  vote.  His  counsel 
was  always  sought,  and  was  ever  on  the  side  of 
peace  and  moderation. 

In  December,  1839,  Mr.  Stahl  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Alice  L.  McLean,  the  eldest 
daughter  of  Samuel  McLean,  of  Alexandria, 
Virginia.  In  connection  with  this  may  be  men- 
tioned the  fact  that  during  the  great  Civil  war 
the  first  battle — that  of  Bull  Run — was  fought 
upon  McLean  brother's  home  plantation,  and  in 
1865  the  terms  of  Lee's  surrender  were  drawn  up 
in  the  dining-room  of  his  house  at  Appomattox; 
his  table,  upon  which  the  signatures  were  written, 
having  been  carried  off  by  General  Sheridan,  is 
now  in  Libby  Prison  Museum,  Chicago. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stahl  have  three  children  living: 


Mrs.  A.  M.  Lawvcr,  of  San  Francisco;  Mrs.  W. 
W.  Steele,  of  Ardmore,  near  Philadelphia;  and 
Miss  Alice  B.,  who  with  her  aged  mother  resides 
at  the  old  homestead  in  Galena.  Mr.  Stahl's 
final  illness  was  brief,  the  result  of  a  cold,  and 
he  passed  away  on  the  8th  day  of  January,  1892. 

The  following,  written  by  Right  Reverend 
W.  B.  McLaren,  appeared  in  the  "Diocese  of 
Chicago"  the  month  subsequent  to  ]\Ir.  Stahl's 
death : 

"Mr.  Stahl  was  a  man  of  remarkably  fine  in- 
tellectual development.  His  reading  was  as 
wisely  selected  as  it  was  widely  extended.  His 
memory  was  a  retentive  one,  and  enriched  his 
conversation  from  its  abundant  stores.  Although 
many  years  absorbed  in  business,  he  always  found 
time  to  devote  to  the  cultivation  of  his  mind. 
Coupled  with  this  was  a  winsome  modesty  which 
prevented  him  from  any  parade  of  his  mental 
acquisitions.  He  was  a  man  of  very  finely  strung 
nature;  his  sensibilities  were  quick  and  his  sym- 
pathies tender.  He  was  withal  cheerful  and 
bright,  very  companionable  and'  always  gov- 
erned by  a  judicious  view  of  persons  and  things. 
Mr.  Stahl  was  a  home-loving  man  and  had  much 
to  love  there.  A  devoted  wife  and  family  of  ac- 
complished daughters  endeared  him  to  the  fire- 
side. Many  must  be  the  memories  which 
they  now  enjoy  of  the  happy  years  passed 
in  his  congenial  presence.  In  his  relations 
to  the  community  he  enjoyed  the  confidence 
which  is  always  awar^led  to  steriijig  integ- 
rity, and  achieved  the  honor  of  a  spotless  name, 
which  was  more  to  him  than  the  millions  whose 
acquisition  has  brought  to  many  the  stigma  of 
dishonor.  He  was  a  man  who  believed  all  the 
articles  of  the  Christian  faith  without  a  doubt,  and 
strove  to  practice  them  in  his  life.  To  him  the 
church  was  a  holy  mother.  He  loved  her  ways, 
her  courts,  her  progress  with  a  filial  reverence. 
*  =■=  *  It  was  the  writer's  privilege  to 
spend  two  days  with  him  a  few  weeks  ago. 
His  hearty  welcome,  his  bright  sallies,  his 
expressions  of  attachment  can  never  be  for- 
gotten. Feeble  as  his  frame  was,  he  walked 
twice  to  church  on  the  Sunday,  and  oh  the 
eagerness  with  which  he  listened  to  the  blessed 
truth  of  Christ!  At  times  tears  rolled  down  his 
cheeks  as  though  he  were  repeating  to  himself, 


liT. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


97 


for  the  theme   was   of  Christ,   and   tlie  joys   of 
heaven. 

'Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  thee 

With  sweetness  fills  my  breast; 
But  sweeter  far  thy  face  to  see, 
And  in  thy  presence  rest.' 
"At  parting  a  playful  compact  was  proposed 
that  we  should  wait  until  the  dawn  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  before   we   would  sing  our  Nunc 
Dimittis.     He  accepted  it  with  a  smile;  but  we 
scarcely  dreamed  that  the  expedient  which  was 
designed  only  to  cheer  him  in  the  infirmities  of 
age  would  so   soon  meet  death's  contradiction. 
At  his  burial,  at  which  were  gathered  a  multitude 


of  those  who  loved  and  honored  him,  the  services 
closed  with  the  solemn  chant,  'Now,  Lord,  lettest 
Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace.' 

"The  dear  old  parish  at  Galena  has  been  sadly 
bereaved  within  a  few  years.  One  after  another 
of  the  noble  men  and  women  have  gone  to  their 
rest;  and  now,  Mr.  Stahl  having  joined  them  in 
Paradise,  it  can  never  be  the  same  Galena  again. 
But  the  vigil  continues  though  the  sentinels 
change.  Others  are  there  to  follow  in  their  steps; 
one  generation  comes  as  another  goes,  and  all 
the  living  will  be  the  better  and  the  stronger  for 
thinking  of  them  who  while  here  lived  as  those 
who  seek  a  better  country." 


JOHN  W.  ARNOLD, 


CHICAGO. 


THE  man  who  was  content  to  go  through  the 
war  as  a  "high"  private,  doing  his  duty 
nobly  and  unflinchingly  on  the  field  of  battle  or 
in  the  camp,  is  the  man  who  to-day  is  serving 
to  the  best  of  his  ability — and  that  ability  is  of  a 
superior  order — as  United  States  marshal  for  the 
Northern  District  of  Illinois;  the  man  who  has 
ever  been  found  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  citizens 
who  are  devoted  to  their  country's  best  interests 
and  tO'  the  welfare  of  their  fellow  men ;  in  private 
life,  in  legislative  halls,  in  official  positions  always 
laboring  for  others  with  an  unselfish  devotion 
that  well  entitles  him  to  the  respect  which  is  so 
freely  given  him  and  to  a  place  among  the  hon- 
ored and  valued  residents  of  the  metropolis  of  the 
\Vest. 

John  W.  Arnold  is  a  New  York  man  by  birth, 
but  almost  his  entire  life  has  been  spent  in  the 
State  of  his  adoption.  He  was  born  in  Wash- 
ington county  of  the  Empire  State  on  the  14th  of 
February,  1842,  and  is  a  son  of  John  H.  Arnold, 
a  native  of  Vermont,  who  emigrated  westward 
in  the  early  '50s  and  for  many  years  was  a  leading 
merchant  of  Lockport,  Illinois,  where  he  is  now- 
living  retired  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight  years, 
enjoying  the  rest  which  should  always  crown  a 
v.'ell-spent  life.  In  his  young  manhood  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Lucretia  M.  Vail,  who  also  was  born 
in  Vermont,  and  died  at  their  home  in  Lockjiort 


in  October,  1893,  ^^  the  age  of  seventy-five  years. 

Mr.  Arnold  of  this  review  is  the  fourth  in  a 
family  of  seven  children,  five  of  whom  are  still 
living.  The  first  thirteen  years  of  his  life  were 
passed  in  the  East  and  he  then  came  with  his 
parents  to  northern  Illinois,  since  which  time  he 
has  been  prominently  identified  with  the  best 
interests  of  the  State.  He  was  educated  in  Lock- 
port,  graduating  at  the  high  school  in  i860,  after 
which  he  engaged  in  clerking  for  a  time  in  his 
father's  store;  but,  when  the  war  broke  out  and 
he  felt  that  his  country  needed  the  services  of 
all  her  loyal  sons,  he  put  aside  the  pursuits  of  civil 
life  to  follow  the  stars  and  stripes. 

In  September,  1861,  Mr.  Arnold  enrolled  his 
name  among  the  "boys  in  blue"  of  the  Fourth 
Illinois  Cavalry,  as  a  member  of  company  D,  and 
as  a  private  served  throughout  the  stntggle, 
which  preserved  the  Union  and  struck  the 
shackles  from  three  million  slaves.  A  look  at 
Mr.  Arnold  shows  that  he  is  fitted  for  leadership, 
but  he  cared  not  for  the  trappings  of  the  official, 
doing  his  duty  in  the  ranks  with  commendable 
fidelity.  He  was  with  the  forces  of  General  Grant 
at  the  battles  of  Fort  Henry  and  Fort  Donelson, 
Shiloh,  Corinth  and  the  battle  of  Hatcher's  Run 
in  Tennessee.  About  this  time  he  was  taken  ill 
with  typhoid  fever  and  asked  for  a  discharge, 
which  was  granted  at  Jackson,  Tennessee,  August 


98 


ISKKIUAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


I,  1862.  He  immediately  returned  home,  where, 
with  good  nourishing  he  soon  recovered,  and  in 
tlie  same  month  lie  again  entered  the  service. 
Tlie  strong  right  arm  of  this  loyal  son  was  found 
supporting  his  country  from  that  time  until  the 
close  of  the  war.  He  this  time  became  a  member 
of  the  Chicago  Mercantile  Battery  and  with  that 
command  participated  in  the  battles  of  Oxford, 
Mississippi,  Haines'  Bluff,  the  battle  of  Arkansas 
Post,  and  was  with  the  forces  of  General  Grant 
at  Magnolia  Hills,  Champion  Hills,  Black  River 
Bridge  and  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  which  began 
on  the  22d  of  INIay,  1863,  and  continued  until  the 
4th  of  July,  following.  With  others  he  volun- 
teered and  took  two  guns  up  to  the  rebel  breast- 
works. This  hazardous  position  they  held  for  two 
hours  when,  by  the  overwhelming  numbers  on 
the  other  side,  they  were  repulsed.  He  then 
helped  to  drive  Joe  Johnston  out  of  Jackson, 
Mississippi,  and  participated  in  the  battle  of 
Sabine  Cross  Roads,  Louisiana,  April  8,  1864, 
where  the  battery  was  captured  and  thirty-five  of 
the  men  were  killed  and  wounded.  Mr.  Arnold 
was  one  of  twenty-two  who.  were  made  prisoners 
of  war  and  sent  to  Camp  Ford,  Te.xas.  There 
he  was  confined  for  fourteen  months.  In  August, 
1864,  in  company  with  three  comrades,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  making  his  escape,  only  to  be  re-cap- 
tured three  weeks  later;  but  after  fourteen  months 
passed  in  captivity  he  was  exchanged  at  the 
mouth  of  Red  river,  May  27,  1865,  and  mustered 
out  on  the  i6th  of  June,  following.  He  was  ever 
found  at  his  post  of  duty,  faithful  to  the  old  flag 
and  the  cause  it  represented.  Amidst  the  rain- 
ing shot  and  shell,  on  the  hard  picket  march  or 
in  the  camp,  he  always  willingly  performed  the 
task  that  was  allotted  to  him.  The  country  owes 
a  debt  of  gratitude,  that  can  never  be  repaid,  to 
the  brave  privates  who  under  any  and  every  con- 
dition followed  their  leaders.  Theirs  was  the 
hard  task,  theirs  the  fatiguing  service, 

"Theirs  not  to  question  why. 

Theirs  but  to  do  and  die;" 
and  if  their  lives  were  spared  they  returned  to 
their  homes  to  become  as  loyal  and  true  citizens 
in  the  days  of  peace  as  they  had  been  in  the  hours 
of  war. 

Upon  his  return  Mr.  Arnold  engaged  in  mer- 
chandising in  Lockport  for  many  years,  and  the 


business  is  still  carried  on  by  his  son.  The 
former  was  a  prosperous  merchant.  It  is  his 
custom  to  carry  forward  to  successful  completion 
whatever  he  undertakes,  and  his  well-directed 
eflorts  and  scrupulous  honesty  and  exactness  won 
him  the  confidence  and  the  patronage  of  the  pub- 
lic. He  has  been  quite  prominent  in  political  af- 
fairs and  has  always  been  a  supporter  of  the 
Democracy.  He  has  held  various  minor  offices, 
and  in  1888  was  appointed  postmaster  of  Lock- 
port,  capably  serving  in  that  position  until  after 
the  inauguration  of  President  Harrison,  when  he 
resigned.  In  November,  1890,  he  was  elected  to 
the  Illinois  State  senate  from  the  Fifteenth  Dis- 
trict, which  is  strongly  Republican,  his  predeces- 
sor having  been  elected  by  a  majority  of  thirteen 
hundred  and  fift}'.  This  he  succeeded  in  over- 
coming and  won  the  election  by  a  majority  of 
one  hundred  and  seventy-two.  This  is  certainly 
a  high  compliment  to  his  superior  qualifications, 
the  confidence  reposed  in  him  and  his  personal 
popularity;  but  his  election  meant  something 
more  than  the  election  of  a  Democratic  senator; 
it  meant  the  election  of  a  L^nited  States  senator 
from  Illinois.  Previously  his  district  had  always 
elected  a  candidate  of  the  opposing  party.  In 
the  joint  assembly  there  were  now  one  hundred 
and  one  Democrats  and  one  hundred  Repub- 
licans. Had  the  district  gone  as  it  usually  had 
done  the  Republicans  woidd  have  had  the  ma- 
jority vote ;  but  Mr.  Arnold  was  the  famous  "one" 
to  make  the  ever-remembered  "loi"  that  sent 
John  M.  Palmer  to  the  United  States  senate,  and 
broke  the  long  continued  deadlock.  In  the  Sen- 
ate Chamber  Mr.  Arnold  made  for  himself  a 
record  as  a  friend  to  the  laboring  man,  working 
earnestly  and  untiringly  for  the  interests  of  those 
who  are  forced  to  earn  their  own  bread  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brow.  He  opposed  all  measures 
that  favored  capital  to  the  oppression  of  labor, 
and  was  instnunental  in  securing  the  passage 
of  the  anti-truck  bill.  He  was  chairman  of  the 
ccmmittee  on  waterways,  drainage,  military  af- 
fairs and  a  member  of  all  the  important  com- 
mittees. 

Mr.  Arnold  was  married  December  22,  1869, 
to  Miss  Abbie  Mathewson,  of  Lockport,  Illinois, 
who  was  born  in  Chicago,  June  14,  1845,  "^  daugh- 
ter of  A.  J.  Mathewson.    Their  only  living  child. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


'.)',) 


John  W.,  Jr.,  was  born  in  Lockport,  December  29, 
1870,  and  is  now  in  business  there.  They  lost 
two  children:  Julius  J\I.,  who  died  lSIarch4,  1895, 
and  Julia  M.,  who  died  June  13,  1888.  They 
were  twins,  born  August  22,  1874. 

Mr.  Arnold  is  a  pleasant,  genial  and  polished 
gentleman  of  high  social  qualities,  and  is  very 
popular,  having  a  most  extensive  circle  of  friends 
and  acquaintances  who  esteem  him  highly  for 
his  genuine  worth.  Socially  he  is  connected  with 
E.  L.  Gooding  Post,  No.  401,  G.  A.  R.,  of  which 
he  is  past  commander. 

On  the  20th  of  February,  1894,  by  President 
Cleveland,  Mr.  Arnold  was  appointed  to  the  re- 
sponsible position  of  United  States  marshal  of 
the  Northern  District  of  Illinois,  and  is  discharg- 
ing his  duties  with  a  promptness  and  fidelity 
which  has  won  him  the  highest  commendation. 
He  is  fearless  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  and 
his  service  has  been  very  valuable,  especially  in 
connection  with  the  suppression  of  the  labor  riots 
which  centered  in  Chicago  in  the  summer  of  1894. 
He  received  many  commendatory  letters,  one  of 
v/hich  we  give,  for  it  shows  his  fidelity  and  how 
it  was  regarded  at  headquarters.  It  reads  as  fol- 
lows : 

August  6,  1894. 
Hon.  Richard  Olnev, 

At/orni-y   General  United  States, 
\\'ashington,  D.  C. : 
Dear  Sir: — 

Mr.  J.  W.  Arnold,  the  United  States  marshal 
for  the  Northern  District  of  Illinois,  has  per- 
formed the  trying  and  onerous  duties  of  his  of^ce 
during  the  recent  railway  strike  with  such  marked 
ability  and  fidelity  that  the  recei\'ers  of  this  com- 
pany desire  to  express  in  a  formal  way  their  ap- 
preciation of  his  splendid  service. 

During  the  two  weeks  following  June  29,  1894, 
he  was  almost  constantly  engaged,  day  and  night, 
in  the  recruiting,  officering,  equipping  with  arms, 


distributing  and  directing  an  army  of  special 
deputy  United  States  marshals.  The  demand  for 
them  was  so  large  and  urgent  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  investigate,  witii  any  thoroughness,  the 
antecedents  of  the  men  who  applied  for  commis- 
sions; yet  Marshal  Arnold,  by  his  energy  and 
care  in  selecting  his  deputies  and  in  placing  re- 
liable officers  over  them,  succeeded  in  furnishing 
promptly  a  surprisingly  effective  guard  for  the 
threatened  and  obstructed  railroads  in  Chicago. 
During  much  of  the  time  he  took  charge  per- 
s^'inally  of  the  deputies  at  the  points  of  gravest 
danger,  and  by  his  courage  and  activity  added 
greatly  to  the  strength  of  the  force. 

From  first  to  last,  he  performed  his  duty  with 
exceptional  courage  and  devotion.  He  is  en- 
titled to  the  highest  praise  for  his  tireless  and 
efficient  action  in  checking  the  lawlessness  of  the 
mob,  and  in  preserving  from  destruction  the  rail- 
road property  in  the  custody  of  the  United  States 
court  here  and  in  keeping  open  the  lines  of  the 
inter-State  transportation. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 
E.  A.   Bancroft, 

Solicitor  /or  Illinois, 
For  Atchison,   Topeka  6^  Santa  Fe  Ry. 

\^''ell  poised  at  all  times,  Mr.  Arnold  was  cool 
and  collected  in  the  midst  of  the  excitement  which 
everywhere  prevailed,  and  with  a  clear  mind  and 
discriminating  judgment  he  was  thus  able  to 
direct  movements  to  the  best  advantage.  It  was 
his  effort  to  save  life,  not  to  destroy  it,  and  the 
policy  which  he  followed  won  the  approval  of  all 
unbiased  persons.  While  possessing  the  qualities 
of  a  successful  business  man  and  a  desirable  social 
companion,  perhaps  ]\Ir.  Arnold's  most  strongly 
marked  characteristic  is  his  unswerving  fidelity 
to  duty.  His  private  interests  must  always  give 
way  to  the  public  good,  and  thus  he  has  become 
honored  and  esteemed  by  all  who  have  the 
pleasure  of  his  acquaintance  or  who  have  met 
him  in  a  business  way. 


100 


BIOORAPIITGAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


DR.  EDWIN  JUDSON, 


CHICAGO. 


THE  subject  of  this  review  is  one  whose 
history  touches  the  pioneer  epoch  in  the 
annals  of  the  State  of  IlHnois  and  whose  days 
were  an  integral  part  of  that  indissoluble  chain 
which  linked  the  early,  formative  period  with  that 
of  latter-day  progress  and  prosperity.  Not  alone 
is  there  particular  interest  attaching  to  his  career 
as  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Chicago,  but  in  review- 
ing his  genealogical  record  we  find  his  lineage 
tracing  back  to  the  Colonial  history  of  the  nation 
and  to  that  period  which  marked  the  inception  of 
the  grandest  republic  the  world  has  ever  known. 
Through  such  sources  have  we  attained  the  true 
American  type,  and  along  this  line  must  our  in- 
vestigations proceed  if  we  would  learn  of  the 
steadfast  and  unyielding  elements  which  consti- 
tute the  basis  upon  which  has  been  reared  the 
lofty  and  magnificent  superstructure  of  an  en- 
lightened and  favored  commonwealth. 

Not  many  years  ago  the  fiery  element  obliter- 
ated one  of  the  famous  old  homesteads  at  East 
Hartford,  Connecticut, — one  known  locally  as 
the  "Judson  place."  This  time-honored  and 
weather-beaten  structure  was  one  of  no  little  his- 
torical interest,  since  it  had  been  in  the  possession 
of  the  Judson  family  for  nearly  two  hundred  years 
and  had  been  the  birthplace  of  many  eminently 
worthy  citizens,  who  played  well  their  part  in 
the  consecutive  annals  of  national  development. 
and  where  two  of  his  nieces  were  murdered.  The 
Judsons  were  very  early  settlers  of  New  England, 
and  the  family  had  given  some  distinguished 
names  to  American  history  more  than  a  century 
ago.  It  is  with  this  particular  branch  of  the 
family  located  at  East  Hartford  that  we  have  par- 
ticularly to  do  in  this  connection,  since  to  it  be- 
longed the  honored  Chicago  pioneer  to  whom 
this  memoir  is  dedicated. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  centur\'  the 
old  homestead  mentioned  was  occupied  by 
Deacon  John  Judson,  who  was  one  of  the  sub- 
stantial agriculturists  of  that  section  of  the  Nut- 
meg State,  and  who  was  held  in  high  esteem 
locally,  having  been  prominent  as  one  of  the 
pillars  of  the  Congregational  Church,  of  which 


he  was  a  zealous  and  devoted  adherent  during 
the  major  portion  of  his  long  and  useful  life.  He 
married  a  Miss  Olcutt,  who  was  also  a  descendant 
of  a  prominent  pioneer  family  of  Connecticut,  and 
they  reared  a  family  of  children,  one  of  whose 
number  was  Dr.  Edwin  Judson,  the  subject  of 
this  review, — a  man  who  for  nearly  a  half  centur)- 
was  identified  with  the  professional,  business  and 
social  interests  of  Chicago,  and  who  was  one  of 
the  first  dental  practitioners  to  locate  in  the  North- 
west, having  been  the  first  resident  dentist  in  the 
city  which  now  stands  as  the  great  and  phenom- 
enal metropolis  of  the  West. 

Dr.  Judson  was  bom  in  the  house  under  whose 
roof-tree  had  three  or  four  generations  of  his 
ancestors  found  an  abiding  place,  the  date  of  his 
nativity  having  been  February  22,  1809.  He 
grew  to  manhood  upon  the  old  ancestral  farm- 
stead, contributing  his  quota  to  carrying  on  the 
work  of  the  farm  and  imbibing  copious  draughts 
of  the  spirit  of  independence,  which  is  ever  the 
concomitant  of  the  life  thus  closely  linked  to 
nature.  The  discipline  was  one  which  also  begot 
a  lively  appreciation  of  the  nobility  of  honest  toil 
and  of  the  advantages  which  stretched  far  be- 
yond such  a  narrowed  mental  horizon.  Our  sub- 
ject was  granted  such  educational  advantages  as 
the  locality  afforded,  attending  the  public  schools 
of  East  Hartford  a  portion  of  each  year  and  sup- 
plementing this  discipline  by  a  course  of  study 
in  the  academy,  where  he  acquired  a  good  Eng- 
lish education.  Now  the  ambition  of  the  youth 
began  to  strain  at  its  fetters,  and  he  determined 
to  prepare  himself  for  a  wider  field  of  usefulness 
than  that  which  is  rounded  up  in  the  monotonous 
routine  of  the  farm.  His  ambition  was  one  of 
effort,  and  he  bent  his  energies  toward  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  desired  ends.  He  went  to 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  where  he  began  and 
completed  the  study  of  dentistry  under  the  effect- 
ive preceptorage  of  one  of  the  old-time  practi- 
tioners of  that  city.  Having  received  in  due  time 
the  requisite  license  or  certificate  which  entitled 
him  to  practice,  he  turned  his  attention  to  pro- 
fessional work  upon  his  own  responsibility,  and 


Q?  dyj4.%.7^ycij:U^' 


-(L 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


101 


was  engaged  in  practice  for  several  years  in  his 
native  State,  his  efforts  being  attended  with 
success. 

Prior  to  this,  however,  the  Doctor  had  made 
a  prospecting  trip  through  several  of  the  Western 
States,  and  though  he  was  not  at  that  time  suffi- 
ciently impressed  with  this  section  of  the  Union  to 
locate  here,  yet  he  had  a  prescience  of  the  posi- 
bilities  in  store  and  of  the  ultimate  conditions  that 
would  prevail  when  the  steady  march  of  progress 
and  development  should  have  set  in  this  direc- 
tion. After  he  returned  to  his  home  in  the  East 
he  maintained  a  watchful  attitude  in  regard  to  the 
advancements  made  in  tlie  West;  and  when  there 
came  to  him  a  realization  that  at  last  the  era  of 
substantial  and  permanent  development,  which 
he  had  anticipated,  had  been  ushered  in,  he  was 
not  slow  to  identify  himself  with  the  new  and 
growing  section,  though  he  retained  a  deep 
attachment  for  his  New  England  home  and  its 
environments  and  associations.  The  strength 
and  courage  of  those  who  thus  became  pioneers 
of  the  West  and  voluntarily  resigned  their  claims 
to  the  conveniences,  comforts  and  delectable  sur- 
roundings of  the  older  sections  of  the  Union,  can 
scarcely  be  realized  by  the  end-of-the-century 
generation  who  are  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
privileges  which  these  organizers  and  institutors 
provided  by  denying  the  same  to  themselves  in 
the  early  stages  of  development.  Dr.  Judson 
thus  became  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  Northwest, 
and  in  coming  here  he  was  determined  to  make 
the  best  of  every  opportunity  offered — to  advance 
himself  as  much  as  might  be  by  thrift,  enterprise 
and  honest  endeavor  and  to  aid  in  the  work  of 
permanent  development,  the  while  reaping  such 
generous  returns  as  were  incidentally  in  store  for 
those  who  thus  valiantly  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  empire  of  the  West.  His  second  journey  to 
the  West  was  therefore  not  one  of  investigation 
and  observation,  but  he  came  hither  with  a  clearly 
defined  purpose  and  with  a  certain  object  in  view. 
This  prime  object  was  to  select  a  location  for 
permanent  residence  and  one  where  he  might 
eventually  gain  a  due  measure  of  success  in  the 
practice  of  his  profession.  That  he  was  favored 
by  fortune  or  that  his  wisdom  was  far-reaching 
in  his  selection  of  the  incipent  metropolis,  Chi- 
cago, as  his  headquarters  and  field  of  operations. 


can  not  be  doubted,  and  that  he  was  not  denied 
the  full  harvest  in  its  time  is  to  be  held  as  a  just 
recompense  for  his  well-directed  and  assiduous 
efforts.  His  name  is  one  which  the  gigantic  and 
wonderful  city  of  the  lake  may  well  hold  in  per- 
petual honor,  as  placed  upon  the  scroll  which 
records  the  names  of  her  pioneers  of  the  early 
'40S. 

Dr.  Judson  arrived  in  Chicago  in  November  of 
the  vear  1840,  and  installed  himself  in  the  old 
Tremont  House,  of  which  Ira  Couch,  tlic  famous 
pioneer  boniface,  was  then  proprietor.  Soon 
after  his  arrival  he  entered  upon  the  practice  of 
liis  profession,  establishing  a  temporary  office  in 
the  hotel,  where  the  parlor  had  been  arranged  for 
his  use  until  such  time  as  he  could  secure  eligible 
quarters.  He  soon  established  a  permanent 
office  at  number  94  Lake  street,  and  there  he  con- 
tinued his  professional  labors  for  the  next  nine-  , 
teen  years,  gaining  marked  prestige  as  a  skillful 
practitioner  and  as  a  man  of  unswerving  honor 
and  integrity.  His  practice  far  transcended  local 
limitations,  patients  coming  to  him  from  all  parts 
of  the  contiguous  country,  many  of  them  travel- 
ing with  ox  teams  for  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
miles  for  the  purpose  of  securing  attention  at  his 
hands.  The  demands  thus  placed  upon  his  at- 
tention led  him  eventually  to  a  certain  itinerancy 
in  his  professional  work,  since,  in  addition  to  re- 
ceiving at  his  office  these  patients  from  remote 
towns  and  settlements,  he  found  it  finally  expe- 
dient to  make  visitations  to  these  places  at  regular 
inter\-als,  and  thus  he  became  widely  known 
throughout  a  wide  radius  of  territory  contiguous 
to  the  city.  His  experiences  in  this  pioneer  prac- 
tice were  necessarily  attended  with  many  incon- 
veniences and  with  much  hard  labor,  for  he  had  to 
traverse  long  stretches  of  unimproved  country 
and  to  accept  accommodations  of  the  most  primi- 
tive order;  but  his  courage  and  zeal  never  flagged, 
and  he  incidentally  gained  a  wide  and  valuable 
knowledge  of  this  section  of  the  West  and  its 
possibilities  for  growth  and  development,  also 
forming  a  wide  acquaintanceship  with  the  pioneer 
settlers,  many  of  whom  subsc(|uently  attained 
fortune  and  distinguished  position. 

The  first  home  of  our  subject  in  Chicago  was 
a  modest  cottage  at  in  State  street,  now  in  the 
very  heart  of  the  great  retail  district  of  the  city, 


102 


DIOORAPIIICAL  DICTIOXARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLKRT  OF  THE 


and  this  property,  which  he  acquired  when  its 
location  was  considered  suburban,  is  still  in  the 
possession  of  the  family,  and  of  course  represents 
a  very  high  valuation.  During  the  years  of  his 
active  practice  in  Chicago  he  gained  signal  prec- 
edence and  held  the  same  against  the  active  com- 
petition which  eventually  existed.  He  was  fully 
conversant  with  both  the  theory  and  the  practice 
of  dentistry  and  was  signally  devoted  to  his  pro- 
fession, keeping  constantly  in  touch  with  the 
advancements  made  in  the  line  and  ever  availing 
himself  of  the  most  modem  and  approved  ap- 
pliances and  accessories  for  facilitating  his  work 
and  improving  its  character.  The  fact  has  al- 
ready been  incidentally  noted  that  at  the  time 
when  Dr.  Judson  located  in  Chicago  skilled  den- 
tists in  the  West  were  very  few  in  number.  In 
the  rural  villages  where  there  were  medical  prac- 
titioners these  pioneer  physicians  were  often 
called  upon  to  transcend  their  normal  professional 
functions  by  extracting  teeth  for  those  who  suf- 
fered through  this  source,  and  in  their  hands  the 
old^ime  "turnkey"  became  often  an  instalment 
of  torture,  though  effectual  in  its  operations.  The 
specific  practice  of  dentistry  was  almost  unknown, 
and  it  is  not  strange  that  when  an  able  dentist 
visited  these  localities  or  administered  to  the 
wants  of  the  people  in  his  office  in  Chicago,  utiliz- 
ing the  most  improved  appliances  of  the  day  and 
standing  ready  to  supplement  the  work  of  nature 
by  supplying  artificial  teeth,  that  he  should  have 
been  looked  upon  as  a  man  of  wonderful  attain- 
ments and  almost  as  a  worker  of  miracles.  Our 
subject  made,  by  virtue  of  his  professional  ability, 
a  profound  impression  upon  the  pioneer  com- 
munities, and  in  exemplifpng  in  a  practical  way 
the  science  of  dentistry  he  became  verj'  prominent 
both  as  a  practitiou'cr  and  a  citizen,  and  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  he  should  be  one  of  the 
pioneers  most  distinctly  remembered  by  a  later 
generation  as  well  as  by  his  contemporaries.  As 
the  glorious  nineteenth  centur\-  draws  to  its  close 
and  the  magnificent  Garden  City  lays  stretched 
far  and  wide  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan, 
Dr.  Judson  is  remembered  as  one  of  the  represent- 
atives of  his  profession  in  the  inceptive  period  of 
its  existence  as  a  sepai-ate  and  distinct  calling  in 
the  Western  States,  and  in  this  connection  there 
may  be  gained  a  distinctive  idea  of  the  conditions 


that  prevailed  in  Chicago  at  the  time  of  his  com- 
ing here,  when  the  statement  is  made,  and  abso- 
lutely vouched  for,  that  the  first  piece  of  polished 
furniture  manufactured  in  the  city  was  the  in- 
strument case  which  found  a  place  in  his  office 
— this  case  still  being  in  the  possession  of  his 
widow.  When  we  look  at  Chicago  to-day  and 
note  her  marvelous  industrial  activities,  it  almost 
passes  belief  that  only  one  generation  ago  the 
facilities  and  conditions  could  have  been  so  radi- 
cally difTerent. 

In  1857,  after  nearly  two  decades  of  close  ap- 
plication to  professional  work,  Dr.  Judson  felt 
constrained  to  retire  from  active  service  in  the 
line,  as  his  health  had  become  somewhat  se- 
riously impaired.  With  a  view  to  recuperating 
his  vital  energies  he  removed,  in  that  year,  to  the 
town  of  Geneva,  in  the  picturesque  Fox  river 
valley,  having  undoubtedly  been  attracted  thither 
by  reason  of  the  marked  resemblance  which  the 
place  bore  to  the  New  England  villages  so  en- 
deared to  him  by  the  hallowed  associations  of  his 
childhood  and  youth — this  typical  analogy  hav- 
ing been  accentuated  in  modern  years,  so  that  at 
the  present  time  Geneva  is  in  appearance  and 
character  more  nearly  like  a  New  England  town 
than  is  any  other  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  Here 
he  purchased  a  beautiful  countn.-  seat,  in  which 
he  maintained  his  abode  for  ten  years;  after  this 
he  returned  to  Chicago  and  devoted  his  entire  at- 
tention to  the  improvement  of  his  city  property, 
to  the  care  of  his  private  estate,  which  had  grown 
and  had  greatly  appreciated  in  valuation,  and 
to  comfortable  proportions.  For  a  score  of  years 
subsequent  to  his  return  to  Chicago  he  retained 
his  residence  here,  and  it  was  terminated  only  by 
his  death,  which  occurred  on  the  3d  of  March, 
1889.  Thus  passed  to  his  reward  a  man  of  noble 
character,  one  who  had  acted  well  his  part  in 
life,  "wherein  all  honor  lies,"  and  who  had  gained 
and  retained  the  confidence,  respect  and  esteem  of 
his  fellow  men.  His  character  was  beyond  re- 
proach, while  in  his  manners  he  was  ever  modest 
and  unassuming,  showing  that  gentle  and  refined 
courtesy  which  was  typical  of  the  "old  school" 
and  which  has  unfortunately  fallen  into  a  measure 
of  decadence  in  these  latter  days.  His  acquaint- 
anceship was  an  extended  one  and  his  friendships 
many,  and  such  of  the  pioneers  of  Chicago  as  are> 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


103 


vet  living'  remember  him  with  a  feeling  of  a^lmira- 
tion  and  almost  reverence.  Well  may  succeeding 
generations  pay  a  tribute  of  honor  to  a  noble 
name  and  to  the  memory  of  noble  deeds. 

The  religious  affiliations  of  Dr.  Judson  were 
ahvays  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  for 
manv  years  he  was  prominently  identified  with 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Chicago,  hav- 
ing transferred  his  membership  from  the  First 
Presbyterian  in  the  year  1843.  His  was  a 
kindlv  and  sympathetic  nature,  and  there  are 
many  who  can  bear  record  to  his  generosity 
and  his  deep  spirit  of  humanity  in  the  daily  walks 
of  life. 

In  1832,  prior  to  his  coming  to  the  West,  Dr. 
Judson  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Julia  L. 
Wheat,  of  Glastonbury,  Connecticut,  by  whom 
he  had  one  daughter,  Julia  Isabella,  now  the 
widow  of  F.  W.  Tourtelotte,  of  Chicago.  Mrs. 
Judson  died  some  time  after  their  removal  to  the 
West,  and  in  1848  was  consummated  the  union 
of  our  subject  to  ]\Iiss  Mary  M.  Shattuck,  a 
representative  of  the  distinguished  New  England 
pioneer  family  of  that  name.  Her  original  Ameri- 
can ancestors  came  hither  on  the  Mayflower,  in 
1620,  and  some  of  them  settled  in  Massachusetts, 
while,  soon  afterward,  some  of  them  took  up 
their  abode  at  Pepperell,  New  Hampshire.  ]\Irs. 
Judson's  paternal  grandfather,  as  w^ell  also  as 
her  maternal  grandfather,  Benjamin  Swetland, 
entered  the  Continental  army  when  mere  lads  and 
were  active  participants  in  the  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  records  bear  evidence  that  more  than 
fifty  individuals  bearing  the  name  of  Shattuck 
bore  arms  in  the  war  for  independence.     Benja- 


min Swetland  held  the  highest  rank  in  the  musical 
branch  of  the  army,  having  been  fife  major,  and 
he  WoS  in  the  battle  of  Burgoyne  and  was  present 
at  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis,  at  the  battle  of 
Yorktown,  as  well  as  other  batdes.  He  wrote  his 
own  musical  scores  and  his  roster  is  still  extant. 
After  the  close  of  the  war  he  became  a  resident  of 
East  Windsor,  Connecticut,  and  removed  from 
there  to\\  aterville.  New  York, where  he  remained 
until  his  death.  The  paternal  grandfather, 
Ebenezer  Shattuck,  removed  after  the  war  to 
Jerusalem,  Yates  county.  New  York,  where  he 
died  in  1840,  at  the  venerable  age  of  seventy-eight 
years.  He  was  a  man  of  prominence  and  in- 
fluence in  the  community,  and  was  conspicuous 
in  the  councils  and  work  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  John  Hancock,  well  known  in  history 
and  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
depenclence,  was  an  uncle  of  Mrs.  Judson's  grand- 
mother on  the  mother's  side.  Ebenezer  Shat- 
tuck, father  of  Mrs.  Judson,  w'as  a  man  of  high  in- 
tellectuality, being  a  distinguished  mathematician 
and  having  been  for  many  years  a  teacher  and 
prominent  in  the  educational  circles  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  Mrs.  Judson  is  a  member  of  that 
noble  organization,  the  Daughters  of  the  Revolu- 
lution.  She  still  retains  her  residence  in  Chicago 
and  is  revered  for  her  nobility  of  character  and 
as  one  vi'hose  memory  traces  the  course  which 
binds  the  early  pioneer  days  to  the  present,  with 
its  electrical  vitality  and  prosperit}'.  She  holds 
sacred  the  memory  of  the  one  who  was  her  de- 
voted companion  for  so  many  years  and  whose 
name  is  deeply  engraven  upon  the  scroll  of  the 
honored  pioneers  of  Chicago. 


DANIEL  H.  PADDOCK, 


KANK.AKEK 


HON.  DANIEL  HOOIES  PADDOCK  is 
a  well-known  and  successful  lawyer,  having 
served  three  terms  in  the  Illinois  legislature  as 
representative  from  the  Sixteenth  Senatorial  Dis- 
trict, which  comprises  the  counties  of  Kankakee 
and  Iroquois. 

His  birth  occurred  in  Lockport,  Illinois,  on  the 
lodi  of  April,  1852.  He  is  a  son  of  Colonel  John 
Williams  and    Helen    (Har\'ey)    Paddock.     The 


father  was  an  eminent  lawyer  and  a  distinguished 
military  man  of  eastern  Illinois.  Mr.  Paddock 
came  to  Kankakee  with  his  parents  in  1853,  while 
an  infant,  and  has  made  that  city  his  home  since 
that  time.  At  the  early  age  of  eleven  years  he 
was  called  upon  to  mourn  the  loss  of  his  father. 
His  primary  education  was  received  in  the  public 
schools,  and  when  twelve  years  of  age  he  com- 
menced learning  the  printer's  trade  in  the  office 


104 


BIOGRAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLKRT  OF  THE 


of  ihc  Kankakee  Gazette,  where  he  spent  one 
year.  The  succeeding  six  years  were  passed 
upon  a  farm  during  the  summer  and  in  attendance 
upon  the  scliools  of  the  district  during  the  winter 
season.  He  next  took  a  year's  course  at  the 
Soldiers'  College  at  Fulton,  Illinois,  after  which 
he  accepted  the  position  of  deputy  postmaster  at 
Kankakee,  where  he  served  faithfully  for  two 
years.  For  the  two  years  following  this  he 
served  as  deputy  county  clerk  of  Kankakee 
county.  During  the  time  of  his  ofificial  service  he 
had  also  been  directing  his  attention  toward  the 
study  of  law,  under  the  preceptorship  of  Thomas 
P.  Bonfield,  and  in  1873  he  entered  the  law  de- 
jiartment  of  Union  University,  of  Albany,  New 
York,  at  which  he  was  graduated  in  the  spring 
of  1S74.  In  May,  1874,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  at  Albany.  In  September  of  that  year  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Mount  Vernon,  Illinois, 
and  at  once  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession at  Kankakee,  in  partnership  with  T.  P. 
Bonfield,  which  connection  was  continued  until 
October,  1875,  since  which  time  our  subject  has 
been  in  practice  alone. 

On  the  1 8th  of  July,  1876,  ]\fr.  Paddock  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Kate  Almira  Barton, 
of  Kankakee.  The  lady  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Marshall,  Oneida  county,  New  York,  on  the  5th 
of  February,  1854,  and  is  a  daughter  of  William 
L.  and  Sarah  (Lumbard)  Barton,  who  also  were 
natives  of  Oneida  county.  They  removed  to 
Kankakee  in  1870,  where  they  still  reside.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Paddock  are  the  parents  of  seven  chil- 
dren: Helen  Barton,  Shirley  Barton,  Emma 
Barton,  Bessie  B.,  Evelyn  B.,  Catherine  B.  and 
Priscilla  B. 

In  politics  Mr.  Paddock  has  always  been  a  Re- 
publican since  old  enough  to  form  political 
opinions,  and  while  but  a  youth  took  an  active 
interest  in  politics.  In  1876  he  was  elected  State's 
attorney  for  Kankakee  county,  and  was  re-elected 
in  1880.  He  was  city  attorney  for  Kajikakee 
from  1878  to  1880.  In  1883  he  was  made  a 
master  in  chancery,  which  office  he  resigned  on 
being  again  elected  to  the  legislature.  In  1885 
he  was  chosen  city  attorney  for  the  special  pur- 
pose of  defending  the  city  in  several  long  con- 
tested and  important  suits.  Three  years  later  he 
was  elected  on  the  Republican  ticket  to  the  Illi- 
nois legislature,  was  re-elected  in  1890  and  again 


in  1892.  He  was  the  attorney  for  the  Illinois 
State  Board  of  World's  Fair  Commissioners.  In 
1892  he  was  again  chosen  city  attorney,  from 
which  time  he  has  continued  to  hold  that  ofifice, 
having  been  elected  for  the  term  of  two  years  be- 
ginning May  I,  1895. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Paddock  are  members  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  of  which  the  for- 
mer is  vestryman.  He  is  a  Knight  Templar  Ma- 
son, holding  membership  in  Kankakee  Lodge, 
No.  389,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.;  in  Kankakee  Chapter, 
No.  78,  R.  A.  M. ;  and  in  Ivanhoe  Commandery, 
No.  33,  K.  T.,  of  vvhich  he  has  been  commander. 
He  is  an  active  member  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Paddock  Camp,  Sons  of  Veterans,  which  he  was 
instrumental  in  organizing  and  of  whicli  he  has 
been  commander. 

In  political  campaigns  Mr.  Paddock  has  long 
l>ecn  a  potent  factor  in  support  of  Republican 
principles,  and,  being  a  popular  speaker,  his 
services  have  been  much  in  demand  on  the  stump. 
His  first  political  work  was  in  the  support  of 
Hayes  in  1876,  and  in  the  support  of  Garfield 
and  Arthur  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1880, 
when  he  made  a  vigorous  canvass  and  was 
greeted  by  large  and  appreciative  audiences 
wherever  he  spoke.  Since  that  time  he  has  taken 
an  active  part  in  succeeding  campaigns  and  has 
ripened  into  a  finished  and  eloquent  orator. 

In  the  practice  of  his  profession  Mr.  Paddock 
has  been  eminently  successful,  and  has  won  a 
foremost  place  in  the  bar  of  Kankakee  county. 
As  a  trial  lawyer  he  has  shown  unusual  force 
and  has  developed  great  strength  as  well  in  the 
systematic  and  careful  preparation  of  his  cases 
and  the  shrewd  and  thorough  examination  of 
witnesses,  as  in  the  eloquent,  logical  and  con- 
vincing manner  of  their  presentation  before 
court  and  jury.  He  possesses  many  of  the 
traits  that  distinguish  his  illustrious  father 
as  a  brilliant  speaker,  sound  advocate  and  able 
lawyer. 

Mr.  Paddock  has  one  of  the  finest  libraries  to 
be  found  in  Kankakee  and  has  ever  been  a 
thorough  student.  Socially  he  is  deservedly  pop- 
ular, as  lie  is  affable  and  courteous  in  manner 
and  possesses  that  essential  qualification  to  success 
in  public  life, — that  of  making  friends  readily  and 
of  strengthening  the  ties  of  all  friendships  as  time 
advances. 


^^^L^qMu. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


105 


WILLIAM  WALDEN  SHAW. 


WILLIAM  WALDEN  SHAW,  more  pop- 
ularly known  as  W.  W.  Shaw,  was  born  at 
Swineshead,  near  the  city  of  Boston,  Lincoln- 
shire, England,  on  the  14th  of  December,  1832. 
He  is  the  eldest  son  of  Robert  and  Rebecca  Shaw, 
his  father  being  a  prosperous  farmer  at  that  well- 
known  historical  place.  He  received  a  sound, 
practical  education  at  home,  and  in  the  fall  of 
1853,  being  desirous  of  seeking  a  wider  sphere 
for  his  energies  than  his  native  land  afforded, 
he  emigrated  to  the  United  States,  selecting 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  as  his  first  field.  Shortly  after 
his  arrival  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  employ- 
ment with  a  party  surveying  a  railroad  between 
Cleveland  and  Tififin,  Ohio,  with  whom  he  re- 
mained for  a  season,  and  in  March,  1854,  he 
filled  the  position  of  clerk  in  the  freight  office 
of  the  Columbus  &  Cincinnati  Railroad.  This 
position  did  not  appear  to  him  to  open  a  road 
to  the  higher  ones,  for  which  he  felt  himself 
fitted,  and  in  August  of  that  year  he  moved  to 
Chicago,  then,  as  now,  a  city  of  illimitable  pos- 
sibilities. Financial  depression  and  the  cholera 
scourge  (which  was  raging  to  an  alarming  ex- 
tent during  that  year)  offered  a  cold  welcome  to 
the  young  visitor  and  his  search  for  work  was  a 
cheerless  task.  His  perseverance,  however,  was 
rewarded,  for  in  the  little  flour  and  feed  store  of 
Potter  &  Vincent,  then  on  the  northwest  corner 
of  Canal  and  Randolph  streets,  he  found  a  posi- 
tion, in  which  he  remained  for  three  years.  It 
was  the  introduction  to  his  successful  career. 
Shortly  afterward  he  mairied  Miss  Mary  Ann  Har- 
rison, also  a  native  of  Swineshead,  England,  who, 
in  company  with  a  relative,  had  previously  emi- 
grated to  this  country  and  settled  int  Chicago. 
At  her  suggestion  he  resigned  his  position  with 
Potter  &  Vincent  and  entered  Bell's  Commer- 
cial College  as  a  student.  After  four  months  of 
hard  study,  turning  the  night  into  day,  he  grad- 
uated in  that  institution  at  the  head  of  his  class 
and  obtained  the  position  of  bookkeeper  in  the 
Mechanical  Bakery,  the  consideration  for  his 
labors  being  nine  dollars  per  week.  For  twelve 
years  he  remained  with  that  firm  and  saw  his 


salary  grow  from  nine  dollars  per  week  to  two 
thousand  dollars  per  annum.  When  Joseph  M. 
Dake  leased  the  Mechanical  Bakery,  in  1868,  and 
transferred  the  employees  to  his  own  bakery,  he 
placed  Mr.  Shaw  in  charge  of  his  office,  as  he 
thoroughly  understood  his  integrity  and  ability 
in  that  direction.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  most 
important  years  of  Mr.  Shaw's  business  career 
have  been  connected  with  the  Dake  Bakery 
it  will  be  appropriate  here  to  make  mention  of 
that  establishment. 

The  origin  of  the  Dake  Bakery,  which  is  now 
one.  if  not  the  principal,  branch  of  the  Amer- 
ican Biscuit  &  Manufacturing  Company,  dates 
back  to  1861,  when  J.  AT.  Dake  rented  quarters 
in  the  rear  of  McVicker's  theater  and  there  laid 
ihe  foundation  of  a  great  and  useful  industry  in 
this  Western  city.  Prior  to  that  date  he  was  a 
partner  of  O.  Kendall  &  Sons,  who  owned  a 
bakery  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Dearborn  and 
Washington  streets,  the  interests  of  whom  he 
purchased,  subsequently  admitting  C.  L.  Wood- 
man into  partnership.  This  partnership  contin- 
ued until  Mr.  Woodman  retired  to  establish  a 
bread,  cake  and  pastry  manufactory,  leaving  Mr. 
Dake  to  carry  on  the  manufacture  of  crackers. 
In  the  fall  of  1868,  finding  the  Mechanical  Bak- 
ery Company  a  formidable  rival,  Mr.  Dake  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  control  of  its  works,  thereby 
shutting  off  competition  from  that  quarter.  That 
company,  in  1857  or  1858,  erected  a  large  build- 
ing on  Clinton  street,  south  of  Lake  street,  and 
therein  placed  a  $40,000  Berdan  cracker  oven, 
six  connnon  ovens  and  other  valuable  machin- 
er}-,  which  enabled  them  to  do  a  very  successful 
business  during  the  Civil  war.  Some  of  the  best 
citizens  were  connected  with  this  enterprise,  J.  T. 
Ryerson,  Rumsey  brothers,  B.  W.  Raymond,  E. 
C.  Earned  and  others,  being  the  principal  stock- 
holders. Henry  C.  Childs  was  the  superintend- 
ent and  W.  W.  Shaw  (the  subject  of  this  memoir) 
was  chief  bookkeeper.  The  works  were  oper- 
ated by  Mr.  Dake  for  a  short  time,  when  they 
were  finally  closed  down  and  the  majority  of  the 
employees  transferred  to  his  own  bakery,  where 


106 


niOGUAPIIWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


ihcy  were  found  in  1871  by  tlie  great  fire, — two 
years  and  four  months  after  the  death  of  its  suc- 
cessful founder. 

The  executors  of  the  late  Mr.  Dake  sold  the 
bakery  to  a  company  composed  of  E.  Nelson 
Blake,  F.  M.  Herdman,  Samuel  B.  Walker  and 
Kilby  Page,  who  carried  on  the  business  under 
the  firm  name  of  Blake,  Herdman  &  Company 
until  1870,  when  F.  M.  Herdman  retired  and  W. 
W.  Shaw  was  admitted  as  a  partner.  The  new 
firm  name  was  to  be  decided  by  tossing  up  a 
cent,  "heads"  to  favor  Blake,  Walker  &  Com- 
pany, the  reverse,  Blake,  Shaw  &  Company.  The 
former  won  and  as  Blake,  Walker  &  Company 
it  was  known.  On  the  morning  of  October  9, 
1871  (a  day  never  to  be  forgotten  while  Chicago 
lasts),  their  building,  machinery  and  stock  were 
destroyed  by  the  great  fire,  which  also  swept 
away  the  branch  factory  on  Dearborn  and  Illinois 
streets,  their  total  losses  amounting  to  over 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  fire,  how- 
ever, did  not  destroy  the  energy  or  reputation 
of  the  firm,  and,  leasing  ground  from  C.  B.  Good- 
vear,  on  Clinton  street,  near  Lake  street,  for  a 
term  of  ten  years,  a  building  was  erected,  and  on 
January  i,  1872,  the  bakery  was  in  full  operation 
and  doing  a  very  extensive  business.  In  April, 
1875,  C.  H.  Marshall,  who  had  previously  been 
one  of  their  traveling  salesmen,  was  admitted  as 
as  a  partner  of  the  firm,  the  progress  and  pros- 
perity of  which,  from  the  year  1872  to  the  year 
1880,  \vas  phenomenal.  About  1878  Mr.  Walker 
retired;  Mr.  Shaw  increased  his  interest  to  be 
on  an  equality  with  the  senior  partners,  and  the 
name  and  style  of  the  firm  was  changed  to  Blake, 
Shaw  &  Company.  In  July,  1878,  Mr.  Marshall 
retired,  and  in  1881  the  four-story  and  basement 
building,  80x200  feet,  on  Adams  and  Clinton 
streets,  having  been  completed,  was  opened  as 
one  of  the  greatest  biscuit  manufactories  in  the 
United  States.  On  i\Iarch  i,  1884,  Mr.  Mar- 
shall repurchased  an  interest  in  the  firm,  which 
was  followed  in  1885  by  the  retirement  of  Kilby 
Page,  who  left  E.  Nelson  Blake,  W.  W.  Shaw 
and  C.  H.  Marshall  to  carry  on  the  industry.  No 
ether  change  took  place  until  1889,  when  the 
Dake  Bakery  Company  was  incorporated  with 
v..  Nelson  Blake,  president;  C.  H.  Marshall,  vice- 
president;  and  W.  W.  Shaw,  secretary  and  treas- 


urer. On  January  i,  1890,  .Mr.  Shaw  purchased 
the  interest  of  Air.  Blake  in  this  company,  and 
ii!  June  following,  the  American  Biscuit  &  Man- 
ufacturing Company,  having  been  incorporated 
with  a  capital  stock  of  ten  million  dollars,  the 
Dake  Bakery  Company  was  consolidated  there- 
with. This  great  corporation  embraces  the  lead- 
ing bakeries  of  the  Western  States. 

In  addition  to  owning  the  largest  cracker  and 
biscuit  manufacturing  establishment  of  the  West, 
the  American  Biscuit  &  IManufacturing  Com- 
]3any  has  erected  a  plant  in  New  York  city  which 
is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  thoroughly 
equipped  cracker  factories  in  the  world,  its  plant 
having  cost  over  half  a  million  dollars.  W.  W. 
Shaw,  in  addition  to  being  one  of  the  largest 
stockholders,  is  treasurer  of  the  company,  a  di- 
rector, a  member  of  the  executive  committee, 
and  manager  of  the  Dake  Bakery  here. 

The  Dake  Bakery  has  confined  its  attention 
to  the  manufacture  of  fine  crackers,  cakes,  etc., 
and  consumes  from  forty  thousand  to  forty-five 
thousand  barrels  of  flour  per  annum,  its  sales 
extending  all  over  the  Central,  Southern  and 
Western  States.  This  gjeat  business  has  been 
developed  chiefly  through  the  sagacity  and  close 
attention  to  business  of  the  old  firm  of  Blake, 
Shaw  &  Company.  W.  W.  Shaw  has  had  the 
general  charge  of  affairs  (financially  and  other- 
wise) for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  In  the  manage- 
ment, however,  he  has  been  and  is  ably  seconded 
by  an  efficient  corps  of  assistants,  many  of  whom 
have  worked  with  him  and  the  old  firm  for  fully 
twenty  years.  Some  of  them  have  grown  from 
boyhood  to  be  lieads  of  families  while  in  its  em- 
ploy and  could  not  be  induced  to  sever  their  re- 
lations with  this  old  reliable  concern.  Tliis 
speaks  volumes  for  the  generous  treatment  ac- 
corded the  employees  and  could  be  pointed  out 
to  other  cpncerns  as  a  great  object  lesson. 

We  now  resume  the  personal  history  of  Mr. 
Shaw.  His  wife  died  in  1859,  and  he,  with  his 
four-year-old  son,  William  H.  (now  the  owner  of  a 
valuable  stock  farm  near  Belvidere,  Illinois, 
where  he  resides),  visited  England,  and  for  six 
months  studied  the  people  and  conditions  of  his 
native  land.  Four  years  after  his  return  to  Chi- 
cago, on  March  i,  1863,  he  married  Miss  Sarah 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Eli  Bogardus,  the  famous 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


MTi 


broom-corn  grower  of  Belvidere,  Illinois.  By 
luT  he  has  three  children, — Eli  B.,  Robert  and 
Walden  W.  The  first  two  named  are  associated 
with  their  father  in  the  management  of  his  im- 
mense business,  and  the  third  and  youngest  is 
iiow  attending  school.  Air.  Shaw  is  of  a  very 
pronounced  and  positive  nature,  wonderfully 
frank,  very  energetic  and  persevering,  and  a 
straightforward,  upright  business  man.  He  is 
generous  and  kind-hearted,  one  of  the  most 
genial  and  enjoyable  of  men,  and  altogether  a 
striking  example  of  the  few  representative  men 
of  Chicago  who  have  carved  out  their  fortunes 
by  natural  ability,  steady  application  and  indus- 
try. Mr.  Shaw  resides  at  385  Ashland  boule- 
vard, where  he  owns  one  of  the  handsomest 
Imnios    on    that     popular     street.      In     politics 


he  is  a  most  conservative  Repuliliran,  although 
at  all  times  he  advocates  and  supports 
in  the  distribiUion  of  his  suffrage  the  prin- 
ciples he  believes  to  be  just,  irrespective  of 
party. 

Last  but  not  least,  this  gentleman,  whose  ver>' 
successful  business  career  has  been  too  briefly 
narrated  in  these  pages,  can  be  fottnd  every  Sun- 
day morning  with  his  family  at  the  Second  Bap- 
tist Church,  on  Monroe  and  Morgan  streets,  of 
which  he  has  been  a  member  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  at  all  times  rendering  substantial  aid  to  the 
Christian  work  which  has  been  so  successfully 
carried  on  in  that  well-known  and  prominent 
sanctuary  by  the  popular  preacher,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
William  j\I.  Lawrence,  of  whom  he  is  a  great 
admirer. 


JOSEPH  G.  CANNON, 


JOSEPH  GURNEY  CANNON  was  born  in 
New  Garden,  a  Quaker  settlement  of  Guil- 
ford county,  near  Greensboro,  North  Caro- 
lina, May  7,  1836.  Maternally  he  traces  his 
descent  in  a  direct  line  to  the  earliest  arrival  of 
the  Quakers  at  Nantucket.  .  His  father,  Horace 
I'".  Cannon,  M.  D.,  was  of  Huguenot  antecedents, 
and  our  subject  has  inherited  the  best  qualities  of 
those  virile  races. 

In  1840  Dr.  Cannon,  together  with  many  other 
non-slaveholding  residents  of  his  State,  jour- 
neyed across  the  mountains  to  find  a  habita- 
tion where  he  and  his  family  would  be  re- 
moved from  the  distasteful  surroundings  of 
a  slave-holding  community.  He  found  the  loca- 
tuin  he  desired,  on  the  banks  of  the  Waliash 
river,  at  Bloomingdale,  Parke  county,  Indiana, 
and  there  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion., which  he  continued  successfully  until  the 
time  of  his  death,  in  1851. 

At  that  time  Joseph  was  fourteen  years  of  age. 
He  had  attended  the  ordinary  country  school, 
and  also  the  Bloomingdale  Manual  Labor  School 
and  Academy,  founded  by  and  conducted  under 
tlie  auspices  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  This  in- 
stitution was  imder  the  direct  supervision  of  Pro- 


fessor B.  C.  Hobbs,  later  superintendent  of  pub- 
lic instruction. 

Shortly  after  his  father's  death  the  boy  de- 
termined to  earn  his  own  livelihood,  and  in  pur- 
suance of  this  determination,  at  the  age  of  fif- 
teen, he  becaime  an  employee  in  an  ordinary 
country  store,  where  he  remained  five  years,  fol- 
lowing the  usual  routine  life  incident  to  his  po- 
sition, and  performing  the  work  allotted  to  him 
faithfully  and  conscientiously.  For  his  services 
during  this  period  he  received  an  average  an- 
nual compensation  approximating  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  dollars,  in  addition  to  his  board. 

Having  now  practically  attained  his  majority, 
he  determined  to  study  law  and  to  make  that 
profession  his  life  work.  In  November,  1856, 
as  a  student  he  entered  the  office  of  Usher  & 
Pattison,  the  senior  member  of  which  firm,  Hon. 
Tohn  P.  Usher,  afterward  became  a  member  of 
Lincoln's  cabinet.  Pie  also  attended  a  course  of 
lectures  at  the  Cincinnati  Law  School,  at  that 
time  presided  over  by  the  late  Judge  Bellamy 
Storer,  father  of  the  present  Congressman  of  the 
same  name.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar"  in 
1858,  by  Judge  Hanna,  of  Terre  Haute,  and  the 
following  year  came  to   Illinois  and  located  at 


108 


BWORAPIHCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


tlie  town  of  Tuscola,  in  the  county  of  Douglas, 
which  had  just  been  organized  from  a  part  of 
Coles  county.  He  there  entered  upon  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession,  and  being  young,  ambi- 
tious and  energetic  he  soon  became  recognized 
as  the  peer  of  his  brethren  of  the  bar.  He  not 
only  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  a  young 
man  of  ability,  well  versed  in  all  that  pertained 
to  his  profession,  but  also  gained  the  admiration 
and  esteem  of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  con- 
tact from  day  to  day,  professionally  or  other- 
wise. 

In  those  early  days  the  old  judicial  circuit  sys- 
tem was  in  vogue,  and  the  practicing  attorney 
became  personally  acquainted  with  a  great  num- 
ber of  men,  in  the  circuit  with  which  his  labors 
were  associated.  In  1861  Mr.  Cannon  was  elected 
State's  attorney  for  his  district,  and  at  the  expira- 
tion of  the  four-years  term  for  which  he  was 
elected  was  chosen  his  own  successor.  During 
his  incumbency  of  this  office  he  formed  many 
warm  and  loyal  attachments,  as  warmly  and  loy- 
ally reciprocated.  In  1872,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
six,  Mr.  Cannon  received  the  nomination  for  Con- 
gress from  the  Republicans  of  his  district,  and 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  Forty-third  Con- 
gress, defeating  W.  E.  Nelson,  his  Democratic 
competitor,  by  a  majority  of  3,300  votes.  In 
1874  he  was  re-nominated  and  defeated  J.  H. 
Pickerell,  who  was  the  candidate  of  both  the 
Granger  and  Democratic  parties.  In  1876  the 
Democrats  and  the  friends  of  fiat  money  in  Mr. 
Cannon's  district  placed  General  John  C.  Black 
in  nomination  against  him.  He,  too,  was  de- 
feated. In  1878,  1880,  1882,  1884,  1886  and  1888 
he  was  regularly  opposed  each  time  by  one  of 
the  most  prominent  Democrats  of  his  district, 
but  was  uniformly  successful  in  defeating  all  at 
the  polls.  In  1890  Mr.  Cannon's  opponent  was 
Samuel  F.  Busey,  of  Urbana.  The  great  Dem- 
ocratic wave  that  swept  across  the  country  caused 
the  defeat  of  many  of  the  most  prominent  Repub- 
licans in  the  land,  and  Mr.  Cannon,  for  the  first 
time,  and  after  having  served  for  nine  consecu- 
tive terms,  failed  of  re-election,  by  the  small  ma- 
jority of  five  hundred  votes.  In  1892  Mr.  Busey 
was  a  candidate  for  re-election  and  was  again 
opposed  by  our  subject.  This  time  the  result 
was  reversed,  and  Mr.  Cannon,  having  received 


a  majority  of  1,500,  once  more  took  his  seat  in 
Congress.  In  1894  his  district  had  been  changed, 
and  his  adversary  was  Mr.  Donovan,  of  Kan- 
kakee. Again  ]\Ir.  Cannon  was  successful,  and 
by  a  majority  of  over  9,000  votes,  the  greatest 
he  had  ever  received. 

In  1892  he  was  chosen  as  delegate  at  large 
from  Illinois  to  the  Republican  national  con- 
vention at  Minneapolis,  and  took  an  active  and 
prominent  part  in  the  proceedings  of  that  body. 
Together  with  a  majority  of  his  fellow  delegates 
from  Illinois  he  advocated, the  renomination  of 
President  Harrison,  and  labored  zealously  and 
earnestly  to  accomplish  that  result.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  prominent  members  of  that  conven- 
tion, and  was  appointed  one  of  the  committee  on 
resolutions,  and  he  with  ex-Governor  Gear,  of 
Iowa,  Senator  Jones,  of  Nevada,  and  Teller,  of 
Colorado,  as  the  sub-committee  on  currency, 
drafted  and  reported  the  financial  plank,  w'hich 
was  adopted  as  a  part  of  the  platform  for  that 
year. 

A  complete  record  of  the  Congressional  ca- 
reer of  Mr.  Cannon  would  of  itself  fill  a  large 
volume  and  therefore  but  a  few  of  the  more  salient 
points  can  be  referred  to  here.  At  the  time  he 
entered  the  national  legislature  many  of  the  laws 
that  were  considered  necessary  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  Civil  war  still  remained  upon  the 
statutes,  and  the  taxpayers  of  the  country  de- 
manded the  enactment  of  such  legislation  as 
would  relieve  them  of  much  of  their  burden.  Mr. 
Cannon  at  once  became  an  active  member  of  the 
house.  He  decided  to  devote  his  entire  time  and 
attention  to  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  concluded 
to  discontinue  his  professional  career  in  order 
to  be  able  to  give  such  time  and  thought  as  the 
proper  attention  to  his  official  position  required. 
Upon  the  organization  of  the  Fortj'-third  Con- 
gress, of  which  James  G.  Blaine  was  speaker,  he 
was  placed  upon  the  committee  on  post-offices 
and  post  roads,  and  for  some  six  or  eight  years 
thereafter  was  an  active  member  of  that  com- 
mittee. His  labors  in  connection  with  this  po- 
sition have  had  a  most  important  bearing  upon 
the  postal  laws  of  the  nation.  In  the  Forty- 
third  Congress  he  was  appointed  by  J.  B. 
Packer,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  chairman  of 
this  committee,  chairman  of  the  sub-committee 


ItEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


109 


in  charge  of  tlie  revision  of  tlie  postal  code,  wliich 
was  carefully  revised  under  the  lead  of  that  sub- 
committee. Tlie  most  valuable  of  the  alterations 
made  at  that  time  was  the  change  of  method  of 
payment  of  postage  on  newspapers  and  period- 
icals by  prepayment  of  the  same  according  to 
weight.  To  Mr.  Cannon  individually  is  credit 
ilue  for  this  beneficial  and  important  change. 
Inuring  his  early  boyhood  books  were  a  rare 
and  almost  unobtainable  luxury  to  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  West.  The  postal  laws  were  such 
that  the  expense  of  obtaining  them  from  the  pub- 
lishers prohibited  many  from  gratifying  their 
tastes  in  that  direction.  Recollecting  this  fact, 
Mr.  Cannon  at  the  first  opportunity  altered  the 
then  existing  condition,  and  by  his  actions  in  the 
sub-committee  of  which  he  was  chairman  em- 
bodied in  the  code  above  mentioned  provision 
which  practically  gave  the  franking  privilege  to 
newspapers  and  serials  on  the  supposition  that 
they  were  the  great  public  educators.  Mr.  Can- 
non is  also  the  father  of  the  parcel  post.  By  ex- 
tending the  postal  system  so  as  to  include  the 
carrying  of  small  parcels  at  a  minimum  rate,  he 
has  saved  to  the  mass  of  citizens  an  incalculable 
amount  of  money.  Not  only  have  the  people 
been  enabled  to  send  small  packages  of  merchan- 
dise, printed  matter,  etc.,  at  small  expense  by 
mail,  but  the  reduction  in  the  tariff  of  the  various 
express  companies  is  directly  attributable  to  the 
reduction  in  the  rate  of  postage  on  that  class  of 
matter.  Previous  to  this  reduction  the  express 
companies  discriminated  against  all  non-compet- 
itive points.  The  introduction  of  the  parcel  post 
lias  not  only  saved  millions  to  the  masses  but 
has  also  increased  the  revenues  of  the  post-office 
department  Although  ]\Ir.  Cannon  has  not  been  a 
member  of  the  committee  on  post-offices  and  post 
roads  since  1880,  he  has  been  the  champion  on  the 
floor  of  the  house  of  all  measures  calculated  to 
improve  the  postal  system.  From  time  to  time 
vigorous  onslaughts  have  been  made  against  the 
continuation  of  pound  rates  on  serial  publica- 
tions, but  all  efforts  in  that  direction  have  proved 
fruitless. 

.At  the  beginning  of  the  administration  of  Pres- 
ident (jarfield  Air.  Cannon  was  made  a  member 
of  the  committee  on  appropriations,  and  has  re- 
tained his  membership  on  that  committee  through 


the  various  Congresses  in  which  he  has  ser\^ed 
since  that  time.  During  the  session  of  the  Fifty- 
first  Congress  he  acted  as  chairman  of  that  com- 
mittee. 

All  who  followed  the  workings  of  our  national 
legislature  are  well  aware  that  the  committee  on 
appropriations  is  of  all  divisions  of  Congress  the 
most  important.  Mr.  Cannon  has  beeo  for  many 
years  one  of  its  most  indefatigable  members. 
An  exhaustive  account  of  Mr.  Cannon's  actions 
in  connection  with  the  committee  on  appropri- 
ations during  the  past  fifteen  years  would  of 
itself  involve  the  publication  of  the  records  of 
that  committee.  In  the  Fiftieth  Congress  Air. 
Cannon  was  appointed  a  minority  member  of  the 
conmiittee  on  rules  by  Speaker  Carlisle,  and 
upon  the  advent  of  Air.  Reed  to  the  speakership 
he  continued  as  a  member  of  that  committee, 
and  as  such  had  charge  of  the  code  of  rules  and 
reported  the  same  to  the  Fifty-first  Congress. 

Although  a  zealous  worker  in  the  committee 
room,  it  must  by  no  means  be  surmised  that  all 
of  Air.  Cannon's  labor  was  directed  in  behalf  of 
such  measures  as  his  committees  reported.  He 
has  been  an  invaluable  factor  in  smoothing  the 
path  for  many  of  the  worthiest  measures  passed 
by  the  house  of  representatives,  and  has  invari- 
ably opposed  all  attempts  at  vicious  legislation. 

The  Fifty-first  Congress  deemed  it  necessary 
to  revise  the  then  existing  revenue  laws,  and  as 
the  Republican  party  had  always  declared  itself 
in  favor  of  the  principles  of  a  protective  tariff,  it 
required  no  little  ingenuity  and  hard  work  to 
draft  a  revenue  measure  that  would  reduce  the 
revenue  without  withdrawing  protection  from 
the  industries  of  the  nation.  Mr.  Cannon  favored 
the  abolition  of  the  import  duty  on  sugar  in  ad- 
dition to  other  revenue  reforms,  and  under  his 
leadership,  with  the  co-operation  of  his  col- 
leagues, Lewis  E.  Payson  and  John  II.  Gear,  of 
Iowa,  a  vigorous  stand  was  taken  for  free  sugar, 
with  the  result  that,  when  the  bill  was  finally  acted 
upon,  sugar  was  placed  upon  the  free  list. 

The  foregoing  is  a  brief  outline  of  some  of  the 
more  important  events  in  Air.  Cannon's  Congres- 
sional career.  By  discontinuing  his  legal  prac- 
tice in  1874  he  has  been  enabled  to  devote  his 
undivided  time  to  the  interests  of  his  constitu- 
ents.    In  youth  he  displayed  those  qualities  that 


no 


DIOOUAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POliTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


have  since  made  him  one  of  the  most  valuable 
members  of  Congress,  and  with  commendable 
foresight  and  prudence  lie  then  invested  the  pro- 
ceeds derived  from  his  profession  in  Illinois  lands, 
the  increased  value  of  which  has  placed  him,  as 
he  modestly  and  epigrammatically  expresses  it, 
"above  want  and  below  envy."  He  has  also  be- 
come interested  in  various  financial  institutions. 


and  is  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the 
Seconal  National  Bank  of  Danville,  and  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Tuscola. 

Mr.  Cannon  was  married  in  January,  1862, 
to  !\Jary  P.  Reed,  of  Canfield,  Ohio.  She  died 
in  December,  1889,  sui-vived  by  two  daughters: 
Mabel,  now  Mrs.  E.  X.  Le  Seure,  of  Danville, 
and  Helen,  who  resides  with  her  father. 


ORLANDO  POWERS, 


THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  Orlando  Powers, 
was  born  May  21,  1812,  near  the  village  of 
Charlton,  Saratoga  county.  New  York.  He  re- 
mained at  home  assisting  in  the  work  on  his 
father's  farm  and  attending  school  until  he  was 
about  sixteen  years  of  age.  An  older  brother, 
William,  at  that  time  in  business  in  Havana, 
Cuba,  sent  for  Orlando  to  come  and  assist  him. 

He  embarked  upon  the  schooner  Helen  at  New 
York,  which,  when  three  days  out,  encountering 
a  storm  of  great  severity,  was  wrecked.  Mr. 
Powers,  Captain  Tucker  of  the  vessel  and  three 
of  the  sailors  drifted  upon  the  open  sea  for  eleven 
davs, — upon  the  disabled  hulk,  part  of  which  was 
out  of  water, — subsisting  upon  a  scanty  supply 
of  sea  biscuit  and  raw  potatoes,  with  a  very  short 
allowance  of  drinking  water.  At  the  end  of  that 
time,  when  nearly  famished  for  food  and  crazed 
for  drink,  they  were  picked  up  by  a  French  brig 
bound  for  Bordeaux  and  eventually  landed  at  La 
Rochelle,  and  taken  on  to  Bordeaux  by  land. 
He  arrived  penniless  and  even  without  a  hat,  an 
inexperienced  youth  in  a  strange  land.  Through 
the  kindness  of  an  English  gentleman  he  was 
made  comfortable  in  the  city  of  Bordeaux,  his 
immediate  personal  wants  being  liberally  sup- 
plied, until  opportunity  offered  to  return  home. 
Reaching  New  York,  through  the  business  ac- 
quaintance of  Mr.  Powers'  older  brother,  he  was 
enabled  to  promptly  discharge  his  pecuniary  ob- 
ligations, and  went,  by  steamer,  up  the  Hudson 
river  to  his  home,  where  he  had  been  long 
mourned  as  dead. 

An  incident  of  his  early  life  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary interest  was  vividly  called  to  his  recollection 


during  the  Columbian  Exposition.  When  pass- 
ing through  the  Transportation  building  he  came 
upon  the  old  engine,  DeWitt  Clinton,  the  first  in 
use  in  this  country,  with  the  primitive  car- 
riages behind  it.  When  a  very  young  man,  Mr. 
Powers  was  one  of  the  earliest  passengers  in  a 
train  drawn  by  that  engine, — a  fact  which  should 
have  been  made  known  to  the  public  at  that  time, 
for  he  stood  there  a  living  witness  to  the  entire 
development  of  the  railroad  system  of  the  United 
States  from  its  very  beginning  to  the  present. 

Within  a  short  time  after  his  return  from 
France,  he  again  sailed  from  New  York,  going 
this  time  to  Mobile,  Alabama.  For  several  years 
he  was  engaged  in  business  in  Alabama  and  Miss- 
issippi at  Mobile,  Tuscaloosa,  Prairie  Bluff  and 
Aberdeen,  with  his  brothers  and  brother-in-law, 
Chauncey  Wilkinson.  During  the  time  of  his 
residence  in  the  South,  two  of  his  brothers, 
George  and  Samuel,  and  his  mother,  had  re- 
moved to  Decatur,  Illinois.  He  made  several 
visits  to  the  latter  point,  and  eventually,  in  1847, 
removed  there,  where  all  of  his  life  since  then 
has  been  spent,  except  a  period  of  ten  years,  from 
1874  to  1884,  when,  for  the  education  of  his  chil- 
dren, he  lived  in  Jacksonville,  Illinois. 

After  connng  to  Decatur,  .Mr.  Powers  built  and 
operated  for  some  time,  a  saw  and  grist  mill,  and 
later  established  a  boot  and  shoe  store.  He  had 
for  many  years  the  only  set  of  abstract  books  in 
Macon  county.  He  was  keenly  alive  from  the 
first  to  the  opportunities  for  investment  and  in- 
crease of  wealth  in  central  Illinois.  Realizing 
the  value  of  the  fertile  lands  of  the  State,  and  the 
prospective  growth  of  the  city  of  his  residence, 


Wr 


O-L-^c-^^l^     ji'^-^'-^-^} 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


Ill 


he  became  the  owner  of  a  large  amount  of  farm 
land  and  city  property  which,  during  the  middle 
and  later  years  of  his  life,  he  has  improved  and 
developed. 

In  1889  he  built  in  Decatur  an  opera  house, 
which  in  size,  completeness  of  arrangement  and 
elegance  of  finish  would  be  creditable  to  a  much 
larger  city,  and,  while  not  looked  upon  by  him 
as  a  source  of  profit  adequate  to  the  investment, 
has  been,  by  reason  of  the  comfort  and  satisfaction 
which  it  has  given  to  his  townsmen,  a  great 
pleasure  to  him. 

His  character  has  always  been  one  of  great 
sincerity  and  firmness.  His  integrity  has  become 
proverbial.  Careful,  painstaking,  exact  and  con- 
scientious, he  has  prospered  from  year  to  year 
deservingly.  So  great  was  the  confidence  in  his 
solidity  and  judgment,  that,  when  during  periods 
of  the  greatest  financial  depression,  old  and  strong 
financial  houses  were  threatened  with  disaster,  the 
mere  fact  that  Mr.  Powers  stood  by  them  as  a 
friend  with  confidence  in  their  ability  to  take  care 
of  themselves,  and  readiness  to  aid  if  necessary, 
was  sufficient  to  protect  them  from  loss  and  ruin, 
the  extent  of  which  would  be  hard  to  estimate. 


He  has  alwa\s  been  a  quiet  and  unassuming 
man,  not  demonstrative,  but  in  the  enjoyment  of 
the  highest  esteem  and  the  utmost  trust  and  re- 
spect of  all  who  knew  him.  He  is  a  man  of  un- 
ostentatious and  varied  liberality,  giving  freely 
and  constantly  to  objects  of  charitable  interest. 
To  the  erection  of  the  two  successive  edifices  oc- 
cupied by  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Decatur,  of  which  for  many  years  he  has  been 
a  member,  he  gave  many  thousands  of  dollars. 
He  founded  a  scholarship  some  years  ago  in  the 
Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary  of  the  North- 
west. 

While  he  has  never  taken  an  active  part  in 
public  affairs,  lie  has  always  been  deeply 
interested  in  and  contributed  freely  to  the  further- 
ance of  the  parties  and  measures  which  he  ap- 
proved. He  was  in  early  life  a  Whig  and  from 
the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  nomination  an  earn- 
est Republican. 

By  reason  of  his  large  success,  his  unblemished 
character,  his  just  and  liberal  life,  and  the  univer- 
sal esteem  which  he  here  enjoys,  Mr.  Powers 
might,  without  invidious  distinction,  be  called  the 
foremost  citizen  of  Decatur. 


WILLIAM  JACKSON, 


ROCK  ISLAND. 


WILLIAM  JACKSON  was  born  in  the 
city  of  Liverpool,  England,  August  14, 
1834.  His  parents  were  William  Jackson,  orig- 
inally a  farmer,  and  Ann,  >ice  Pott. 

Our  subject  passed  his  boyhood  and  obtained 
his  education  in  his  native  city,  and  was  then  ap- 
prenticed to  a  grocer  for  a  period  of  five  years; 
but  he  did  not  remain  the  entire  term  of  his  ap- 
prenticeship, for,  becoming  imbued  with  a  de- 
sire to  come  to  America,  where  he  had  relatives, 
both  in  New  York  and  Illinois,  he  relinquished 
his  position  after  three  years  of  service  and  sailed 
for  New  York,  landing  in  that  city  July  3,  1851. 

He  remained  in  New  York  but  a  short  time, 
and  then  set  out  for  Illinois,  arriving  in  Rock 
Island  county  in  August  of  the  same  year,  where 
he  at  once  sought  employment  which  he  ob- 
tained, and  during  the  next  few  years  served  in 


a  minor  capacity  in  different  stores  and  facto- 
ries in  Moline.  He  continued  to  reside  in  Mo- 
line  until  1862,  during  the  latter  part  of  which 
time  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  and  practice 
of  law.  As  a  student  he  was  at  first  in  the  office  of 
H.  L.  Smith,  of  Graham  &  Webster  and  aftenvard 
upon  being  admitted  to  the  bar  in  i860,  he  formed 
a  partnership  with  James  Chapman,  under  the 
firm  title  of  Chapman  &  Jackson,  which  contin- 
ued until  May,  1862,  at  which  time  our  subject 
removed  to  Rock  Island  and  practiced  alone 
until  January  i,  1864,  when  he  became  asso- 
ciated with  E.  D.  Sweeney,  the  firm  being  Swee- 
ney &  Jackson.  This  fimi  rapidly  rose  into 
prominence  and  continued  to  occupy  a  leading 
position  in  the  legal  field  until  August,  1883, 
at  which  time  Mr.  Jackson  was  compelled  to 
retire   wholly   from   practice,   owing  to   nervous 


112 


BIOdnArJITCAL  DICTIONAIIY  AND  POUTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


prostration.  After  a  rest  from  business  cares, 
which  lasted  until  May,  1885,  he  once  more  en- 
tered the  field  of  jurisprudence,  and  practiced 
alone  until  March,  1890,  when  he  took  in  as  a 
partner  Mr.  Elmore  W.  Hurst,  forming  the  firm 
of  Jackson  &  Hurst,  which  ranks  as  one  of  the 
leading  law  fimis  of  the  city.  Their  practice  is 
a  general  one,  and  they  are  often  connected 
with  cases  of  local  prominence.  In  fact  Mr. 
Jackson  has  during  his  long  legal  career  been 
couusel  in  many  of  the  cases  of  importance 
that  have  been  tried  in  Rock  Island. 

In  his  political  belief  Mr.  Jackson  is  a  strong 
Republican.  He  was  township  collector  of  Mo- 
linc  in  1859  and  i860,  and  in  1873  was  appointed 
by  President  Grant  as  postmaster  at  Rock  Island, 
and  served  as  such  for  three  years.  In  1880  he 
was  an  alternate  delegate  to  the  Chicago  conven- 
tion that  nominated  Garfield  for  the  presidency. 


But  w  liile  he  lias  taken  great  interest  in  public 
matters  he  has  never  aspired  to  hold  office.  He 
gladly  assists  others,  but  has  no  ambition  for  him- 
self in  that  direction. 

As  president  of  the  Citizens'  Improvement 
Association  of  Rock  Island  for  three  years  and 
as  park  commissioner  he  has  done  jeoman  service 
in  advancing  the  interests  and  beautifying  the 
surroundings  of  Rock  Island.  Spencer  Square, 
which  he,  as  park  commissioner,  laid  out,  is  one 
of  the  prettiest  and  most  ornamental  parks  in  the 
West,  and  stands  as  a  monument  to  his  ability. 

Mr.  Jackson  was  married  on  the  21st  day  of 
May,  1863,  to  Miss  Jennie  E.  Sammis,  of  Moline. 
They  have  two  daughters,  both  of  whom  are 
married,  the  eldest,  Carrie,  being  Mrs.  J.  M. 
Barth;  and  the  second,  Hattie,  is  the  wife  of 
George  M.  Babcock.  INIr.  and  Mrs.  Jackson  at- 
tend the  Methodist  church. 


CHARLES  W.  MARSH, 


ON  a  farm  near  Coburg,  Ontario,  on  the  22d 
of  March,  1834,  C.  W.  Marsh  was  born,— 
a  son  of  Samuel  and  Tamar  Marsh.  His  Amer- 
ican ancestors  on  his  father's  side  descended  from 
William  Marsh,  who  sought  refuge  in  this 
country,  fleeing  from  Kent  county,  England,  in 
1650,  when  the  tide  of  the  great  civil  war  in  that 
country  turned  against  King  Charles  I.  He  was 
a  royalist  and  in  consequence  was  in  danger  of 
losing  his  life  should  he  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
followers  of  Cromwell.  Locating  in  Connecticut, 
he  became  the  progenitor  of  a  family  that  has  won 
prominence  in  New  England  and  has  sent  its 
members  out  into  all  parts  of  this  country  to  take 
their  places  in  the  various  callings  of  life  and 
business.  His  youngest  son  went  to  Vermont 
and  from  this  branch  of  the  family  the  subject  of 
this  .sketch  descends.  The  mother  of  C.  W. 
Marsh  was  a  descendant  of  the  Schermerhoni 
family  of  New  York. 

Thus  from  sturdy  New  England  ancestors 
Charles  W.  Marsh  inherited  worthy  character- 
istics. At  an  early  age  he  began  his  education, 
and  at  the  age  of  ten  became  a  student  in  St. 


Andrew's  school  at  Coburg  and  two  years  later 
entered  Victoria  College,  where  he  remained  for 
more  than  three  years,  when  in  1849  '^^  accom- 
panied the  family  on  their  removal  to  Illinois. 
Notwithstanding  his  life  has  been  devoted  to  agri- 
cultural interests  largely,  he  has  always  been  of 
a  studious  disposition  and  now  spends  his  leisure 
hours  in  familiarizing  himself  with  subjects  that 
add  to  his  large  fund  of  general  information. 
While  in  college  he  was  specially  fond  of  the 
study  of  languages  and  mastered  Latin  and 
French,  and  in  late  years  he  has  acquired  a  good 
knowledge  of  Spanish. 

When  the  Marsh  family  came  to  Illinois,  they 
settled  on  a  farm  in  DeKalb  county.  There  were 
the  parents,  two  sons  and  a  daughter,  the  father 
and  sons  successfully  operating  the  land,  making 
the  farm  very  productive.  The  boys  early  mani- 
fested great  aptitude  for  mechanics  and  were 
always  improving  the  farni  machinery  introduced 
into  that  section  of  the  country.  They  began 
buying  and  selling  farm  machinery,  and  in  addi- 
tion to  managing  the  home  place  they  operated 
"breaking    teams  "  and  threshing-machines,  and 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


113 


also  bought  and  sold  land,  under  the  firm 
name  of  C.  W.  &  W.  W.  Marsh.  During  the 
'50s  reapers  were  generally  introduced  through 
northern  Illinois.  The  Marsh  Brothers  had  been 
working  with  reapers  for  two  or  three  seasons 
previous,  but  did  not  purchase  a  machine  until 
1856.  With  all  the  reapers  of  that  period, 
whether  hand-rake,  self-rake  or  dropper,  the 
grain  was  cut  and  delivered  in  gavels  upon  the 
ground,  the  machines  saving  labor  only  in  the 
cutting,  as  the  gavels  had  to  be  taken  from  the 
stubble  and  bound  as  before. 

Continually  studying  to  improve  machinen', 
during  the  harvesting  season  of  1857  C.  W.  and 
W.  W.  Marsh  came  to  the  conclusion  that  two 
binders,  standing  upon  a  machine  so  constructed 
as  to  carry  them  and  to  cut  and  deliver  the  grain 
to  them  at  proper  height  in  good  shape,  could 
bind  as  much  as  four  or  five  men  on  the  ground 
walking  from  gavel  to  gavel,  stooping  to  the 
stubble  and  gathering  the  grain  therefrom  to  bind. 
The  result  of  their  thought  was  that  before  the 
next  harvest  they  had  planned  and  built,  with 
the  aid  of  a  country  blacksmith,  the  first  harvester, 
so  constructed  as  to  successfully  and  practically 
carry  binders,  whether  manual  or  automatic,  with 
which  they  cut  and  bound  their  harvests  of  1858. 
With  this  machine  the  grain  was  cut,  elevated  and 
then  delivered  down  an  incline  to  the  arms  of  the 
manual  binders  just  the  same  as  it  is  now  cut, 
elevated  and  delivered  down  an  incline  to  the 
arms  of  an  automatic  binder.  The  Marsh  har- 
vester, carrying  its  two  binders,  effected  as  great 
a  saving  in  the  labor  of  binding  as  the  reaper 
had  in  the  labor  of  cutting.  It  did  even  more; 
for  it  furnished  the  foundation  of  the  modern 
harvesting  machine,  as  it  was  the  first  and  only 
machine  to  which  automatic  binders  could  be 
successfully  attached;  but  it  was  so  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  other  grain-cutting  machinery  of  that 
period  that  its  merits  had  to  be  demonstrated  and 
established  by  general  public  use  as  a  carrier  of 
manual  binders,  before  the  idea  of  making  it  a 
carrier  of  an  automatic  binder  was  evolved,  and 
many  years  elapsed  before  this  was  accomplished. 
The  decade  of  the  '70s  had  come  before  Locke, 
the  Gordon  Brothers,  Whittington,  Appleby  and 
others  began  to  attach  their  respective  binders  to 
the  Marsh  harvester. 


From  1858  until  1863  the  firm  of  C.  W.  &  W. 
W.  Marsh,  besides  carrying  on  their  farm  and 
other  business  interests,  were  engaged  in  perfect- 
ing the  details  of  their  machine  and  endeavoring 
to  interest  capitalists  in  its  manufacture.  In  1863 
theyarranged  with  the  Stewardsof  Piano,  Illinois, 
and  established  there  a  manufactory  and  placed 
the  harvester  on  the  market.  It  was  operated  so 
successfully  through  the  season  of  1864  that 
others  became  interested  in  its  manufacture  and 
a  license  was  granted  to  Easter  &  Gammon,  who 
a  few  years  later  dissolved  partnership  and  divided 
up  their  territory,  the  business  being  reorganized 
by  the  former  under  the  name  of  J.  D.  Easter  & 
Company  and  by  the  latter  under  the  style  of 
Ganmion  &  Deering.  The  shops  at  Piano  were 
enlarged  from  year  to  year  and  there  the  harvest- 
ers were  manufactured  for  the  firm  of  Marsh, 
Steward  &  Company,  and  later  for  those  just 
named.  The  firm  of  Gammon  &  Deering  soon 
obtained  an  interest  in  the  Piano  shops,  and 
finally  the  entire  property. 

In  1869  the  Marsh  Brothers  established  the 
Sycamore  Alarsh  Harvester  ^lanufactnring  Com- 
pany at  Sycamore,  Illinois,  and  in  1876  sold  a 
controlling  interest  therein  to  J.D.Easter  &  Com- 
pany, retiring  from  the  business.  The  following 
year  Easter  &  Company  failed  and  deeply  in- 
volved the  Harvester  Company.  The  Marsh 
Brothers  then  came  to  the  rescue  but  undertook 
too  much,  with  the  result  that  in  1881  the 
Harvester  Company  was  closed  out  land  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Marsh  Binder  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany. The  debts  of  the  old  company  and  the 
provision  of  means  for  running  the  new  so  oc- 
cupied the  time  and  thoughts  of  C.  W.  Marsh 
that  he  could  give  little  or  no  attention  to  the 
operation  of  the  factory.  The  company  at- 
tempted unsuccessfully  to  establish  a  new  binder, 
lost  largely  and  in  1884  failed,  dragging  down 
the  JMarsh  Brothers,  who  were  too  hcavil}-  loaded 
with  the  debts  of  the  old  concern.  Meantime 
the  Piano  shops  had  become  a  great  manufactur- 
ing plant,  tuming  out  thousands  of  han'esters  an- 
nuall\',  with  some  automatic  binder  attachments 
as  early  as  1874  and  more  from  year  to  year 
until  1879,  when  the  firm  of  Gammon  &  Deering 
was  dissolved  and  Mr.  Deering  removed  his  in- 
terests   to    Chicago.     A    vear  or  two    later    Mr. 


114 


niOGRAPIIICAL  DICTlONAItY  AND  PORTKAIT  OALLEBT  OF  THE 


Gammon,  in  connection  with  W.  H.  Jones,  or- 
ganized the  Piano  IManufacturing  Company, 
which  occupied  the  Piano  sliops.  Under  Mr. 
Jones'  management,  and  guided  by  his  long  ex- 
perience ill  the  business  and  great  executive 
abilitx',  the  company  has  acliieved  a  won- 
derful success,  and  has  made  the  name  of 
the  old  shops  renowned  throughout  the  agricul- 
tural world. 

In  i88s  the  Farm  Iin|)lcment  News  was  estab- 
lished and  C.  W.  INlarsh,  being  then  out  of  the 
manufacturing  business,  became  its  editor  in 
chief,  which  position  he  has  held  continuously 
since,  making  this  journal  of  great  interest  and 
benefit  to  the  implement  industry.  The  paper 
was  a  success  from  the  start  and  now  has  a  wide 
circulation  in  this  country  and  abroad,  being  one 
of  the  leading  trade  papers  of  the  world. 

Though  not  strongly  partisan  or  aggressive  in 
politics,  J\Ir.  jMarsli  has  been  a  Republican  since 
the  organization  of  the  party.  He  was  elected 
to  the  lower  house  of  the  State  legislature  in  1868, 
and  on  tlie  expiration  of  that  term  so  acceptably 
had  he  filled  the  office  that  he  was  nominated 


and  elected  to  the  State  senate.  He  proved  a 
wise  and  able  legislator,  taking  counsel  of  mature 
judgment  and  supporting  measures  only  after 
careful  deliberation.  He  served  for  twenty  con- 
secutive years  as  trustee  of  the  Northern  Illinois 
Hospital  for  the  Insane,  leaving  that  position  only 
wlicn  the  Democratic  party  came  into  control  of 
tlie  State.  j\Ien  of  little  merit  may  secure  such  a 
position,  but  cannot  hold  it,  and  his  long  con- 
tinued service  is  a  high  tribute  to  his  fidelity  and 
trust.  In  whatever  relation  of  life  we  find  Mr. 
Alarsli,  whether  in  legislative  halls,  in  public 
office,  in  the  manufactory  or  at  the  head  of  one 
of  the  leading  trade  journals  of  the  world,  he  is 
always  the  same  honorable  and  honored  gentle- 
man, whose  worth  well  merits  the  high  regard 
which  is  universally  given  him. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  i860,  Mr.  Marsh  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Frances  Wait,  by 
whom  he  had  three  children — George  C,  Mar)' 
F.  and  Fannie  S.,  all  of  whom  are  yet  living.  The 
motlier  died  Alay  12,  1869,  and  on  the  loth  of 
January.  18S1,  INIr.  ^Tarsh  was  joined  in  wedlock 
with  Sue  Rogers. 


HARVEY  B.  HURD, 


A  POOR  BOY,  a  newspaper  employee,  a 
lawyer,  real-estate  dealer,  educator,  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  history  of  two  States,  a  re- 
former, a  benefactor,  an  honorable  Christian 
gentleman, — in  these  few  words  are  summed  up 
the  life  and  career  of  Harvey  B.  Hurd.  He  is  a 
man  not  alone  of  Evanston — where  he  makes  his 
home — not  even  of  Chicago  alone,  but  belongs 
to  the  entire  West,  by  reason  of  the  part  that  he 
has  played  in  its  history  and  in  molding  its 
destiny.  The  true  Western  spirit  of  progress  and 
enterprise,  combined  with  a  desire  for  pure  gov- 
ernment, are  the  strong  elements  in  his  character 
which  have  left  their  indelible  impress  on  the 
Mississippi  valley. 

Born  in  Huntington,  Fairfield  county,  Connec- 
ticut, on  the  14th  of  Febniary,  1828,  Mr.  Hurd  is 
a  son  of  Alanson  Hurd,  and  on  his  father's  side 
is  of  English  lineage,  while  on  his  mother's  side 


he  is  of  Dutch  and  Irish  descent.  The  energy 
of  the  first,  the  persistence  of  the  second  and  the 
\ersatility  of  the  third  race  seem  to  be  combined 
in  this  product  of  those  various  bloods.  The 
early  life  of  Mr.  Hurd  was  certainly  a  prosaic  one, 
for  he  worked  on  his  father's  farm,  under  very 
limited  circumstances,  until  fifteen  years  of  age, 
and  then  started  out  in  life  for  himself  with  all 
his  earthly  possessions  tied  in  a  handkerchief: 
and  it  is  said  that  when  he  reached  Chicago  some 
years  later  his  capital  consisted  of  a  single  half 
dollar.  His  school  privileges  were  only  those 
that  were  afTorded  by  the  district  schools  near 
his  home,  but  experience  has  been  his  teacher 
and  valuable  are  the  lessons  that  he  has  learned 
under  her  instruction.  Then,  too,  he  possessed 
an  observing  eye  and  retentive  memory  and  stored 
in  the  recesses  of  his  mind  much  that  he  has 
turned  to  account  in  his  varied  business  career 


^ 


/   /'  - __- , 


REPRESENTATIVK  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  Tl.LIXOIS   VOLUME. 


115 


in  early  life.     Those  years  of  trial  tested  his  char- 
acter, which  stood  the  fire  like  pure  gold. 

On  leaving  home  ^Ir.  Hard  walked  to  Bridge- 
port, Connecticut,  and  obtained  a  position  as 
apprentice  in  the  office  of  the  Bridgeport  Stand- 
ard, a  Whig  newspaper.  In  the  fall  of  1844,  in  a 
company  of  ten  young  men,  he  came  to  Illinois 
and  entered  Jubilee  College,  in  Peoria  county, 
then  presided  over  by  Rev-.  Samuel  Chase;  but  after 
a  year  some  disagreement  occurred  between  him 
and  his  teacher  and  he  left  the  school-room  to 
seek  employment  in  the  city  of  Peoria,  but  failed 
in  the  attempt.  What  then  seemed  a  hardship, 
however,  turned  out  for  his  good,  as  it  led  him 
to  Chicago  to  become  in  future  years  one  of  the 
leading  citizens  of  this  great  metropolis  of  the 
West.  He  was  first  employed  in  the  office  of  the 
Evening  Journal  and  later  the  Prairie  I'armer, 
after  which  he  took  up  the  study  of  law  in  the 
office  of  Calvin  De  Wolf,  being  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1848.  He  was  first  associated  in  legal 
business  with  Carlos  Haven,  afterward  State's 
attorney,  and  then  with  Henry  Snapp,  later  Con- 
gressman from  the  Joliet  district.  During  his 
partnership  with  Andrew  J.  Brown,  which  ex- 
isted from  1850  to  1854,  they  dealt  extensively  in 
real  estate,  owning  248  acres  of  land,  which  they 
laid  out  as  a  part  of  the  village  of  Evanston.  Air. 
Hurd  was  one  of  the  first  to  build  in  what  is  n(j\\- 
Chicago's  most  beautiful  suburb,  and  his  Evans- 
ton  home  was  begun  in  the  summer  of  1854 
and  ready  for  occupancy  in  September,  1855.  At 
that  time  it  occupied  a  block  of  ground  and  to- 
day it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  residences  of 
the  town.  Mr.  Hurd  was  honored  with  an  elec- 
tion as  the  first  president  of  the  village,  and  from 
its  earliest  history  his  family  has  been  prominently 
connected  with  its  social  life.  In  May,  1853,  he 
married  j\Iiss  Cornelia  A.  Hilliard,  daughter  of 
the  late  Captain  James  Hilliard,  of  INIiddletown, 
Connecticut,  and  by  this  marriage  were  bom 
three  children:  Eda,  wife  of  George  S.  Lord; 
Hettie,  who  died  in  1884;  and  Xellie,  wife  of  John 
A.  Comstock.  On  November  i,  i860,  he  mar- 
ried Mrs.  Sarah  Collins,  widow  of  George  Collins, 
and  her  death  occurred  in  January,  i8go.  In 
July,  1892,  he  married  ]\lrs.  Susannah  M.  \'an 
Wyck,  a  lady  highly  esteemed  in  social  circles 
in  this  citv  and  Evanston. 


About  the  time  of  his  removal  to  Evanston  Mr. 
Hurd  became  prominent  in  public  affairs,  for  in 
the  year  1854  the  Missouri  compromise  was  re- 
pealed, and  his  actions  had  much  to  do  with  the 
settlement  of  Kan.sas,  although  he  was  never  a 
resident  of  that  State.  This  famous  repeal  made 
Kansas  a  contested  ground,  sought  by  the  free 
pc'iple  and  the  slavery  men.  The  history  of 
e\ents  that  followed  is  familiar  to  all, — how  the 
border  ruffians  controlled  the  State,  the  slave- 
holders destroying  the  property  of  the  "free"  men 
and  the  latter  retaliating,  until  the  cry  of  '"bleed- 
ing Kansas"  echoed  through  the  North,  where 
emigration  societies  were  formed  to  aid,  arm  and 
protect  free-State  settiers.  At  a  convention  held 
In  Bufifalo,  New  York,  at  which  a  national  com- 
mittee was  fomied,  Mr.  Hurd  was  made  secretarv- 
of  its  executive  committee,  with  headquarters  at 
Chicago.  From  that  time  he  took  a  very  promi- 
nent part  in  the  events  that  shaped  die  future 
destiny  of  Kansas,  and  principally  through  peace- 
able means  succeeded  in  largely  quieting  the  dis- 
turbance; and  this  was  accomplished  in  a  large 
measure  by  throwing  into  the  Territory,  in  the 
spring  of  1857,  such  large  bodies  of  free-State 
settlers  as  to  entirely  outnumber  the  slave-State 
people,  and  cause  them  to  exclaim,  "These  black 
caipet  bags  are  too  many  for  us,"  and  retire  from 
the  contest. 

In  1856  the  crops  of  the  State  were  not 
sufficient  to  supply  the  ilcmand,  owing  to  the 
depredations  which  had  been  carried  on,  and,  as 
it  was  seen  there  would  be  a  lack  of  seed  for  the 
planting  in  the  coming  spring,  the  committee 
which  assembled  in  New  York  in  Februan,',  1857, 
passed  a  resolution  instructing  the  executive  com- 
mittee in  Chicago  to  purchase  and  forward  the 
necessary  seed,  and  at  the  same  time  appropriated 
five  thousand  dollars  to  John  Brown  for  the  or- 
ganization and  equipment  of  the  free-soil  settlers 
into  companies  for  self-protection.  Mr.  Hurd 
found  on  his  return  to  Chicago  that  the  treasurv 
would  not  meet  both  demands,  and  therefore  de- 
cided to  buy  and  send  on  the  seed,  purchasing 
and  shipping  one  hundred  tons  of  spring  wheat, 
com,  potatoes,  barley  and  other  seeds.  Some 
fault  was  found  with  Mr.  Hurd  for  his  action  in 
this  matter,  but  it  was  soon  seen  that  he  had  fol- 
lowed the  wisest  policy;  for  had  not  the  settlers 


116 


BIOGHAPIHCAL  DlCTIOyAUY  AND  VOllTUAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


received  the  seeds  and  thus  been  enabled  to  raise 
crops,  many  would  have  been  obliged  to  leave 
Kansas  and  the  State  would  have  been  given  over 
to  the  slavery  men;  but  as  it  was  the  free-State 
settlers  remained,  many  more  came  and  the  pro- 
slavery  men,  thus  outnumbered,  were  forced  to 
give  up  the  contest.  This  action  of  Mr.  Hurd 
largely  influenced  the  future  of  the  common- 
wealth. 

In  1862  Mr.  Hurd  formed  a  law  partnership 
with  Henry  Booth,  and  at  the  same  time  accepted 
a  position  as  lecturer  in  the  law  department  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  which  Mr.  Booth  had 
helped  to  organize  three  years  beifore  and  of 
which  he  was  principal.  The  firm  was  dissolved 
on  the  retirement  from  active  practice  of  Mr. 
Hurd  in  1868.  His  knowledge  of  law  and 
superior  ability  called  him  to  other  duties,  and 
in  April,  1869,  he  was  appointed  by  Governor 
Palmer  one  of  three  commissioners  to  revise  and 
rewrite  the  general  statutes  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 
His  associates,  Messrs.  William  E.  Nelson,  of 
Decatur,  and  Michael  Schaeffer,  of  Salem,  both 
withdrew  in  a  short  time,  leaving  the  work  to  Mr. 
Hurd,  who  completed  the  task  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  Twenty-eighth  General  Assembly  in 
April,  1874,  and  was  appointed  by  that  body  to 
edit  and  supervise  the  publication  of  the  statutes, 
which  he  accomplished  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of 
the  people  of  the  State.  The  labor  which  he  per- 
formed in  this  revision  is  such  as  only  lawyers 
can  fully  appreciate.  He  had  not  only  to  com- 
pile into  one  homogeneous  whole  the  various 
laws  which  from  time  to  time  had  been  enacted 
at  the  biennial  meetings  of  the  legislature,  but  to 
adapt  them  to  tiie  new  State  constitution  of  1870, 
discarding  old  provisions  which  were  in  conflict 
with  it  and  constructing  new  ones  in  conformity 
with  it.  The  success  of  his  work  was  immediate, 
the  State  edition  of  fifteen  thousand  copies  was 
soon  exhausted  and  Mr.  Hurd  has  been  called 
upon  to  edit  eight  editions  since,  all  of  which  have 
received  the  vmqualified  commendation  of  the 
bar;  and  now  Hurd's  Revised  Statutes  is  an  indis- 
l>ensable  work  in  every  law  office  and  in  many 
public  offices  throughout  the  United  States. 

In  the  summer  of  1874  Mr.  Hurd  was  again 
elected  to  a  chair  in  the  law  school  which  had  be- 
come the  Union  College  of  Law  of  the  University 


of  Chicago  and  the  Northwestern  University. 
This  work  is  thoroughly  congenial  to  him,  and 
for  the  work  he  is  specially  fitted  for  his  knowl- 
edge of  law  is  surpassed  by  few,  his  powers  as 
an  advocate  are  superior,  and  he  has  the  happy 
faculty  of  imparting  to  others  the  knowledge 
which  he  possesses  and  of  training  his  classes  to 
systematic  and  methodical  habits.  He  is  a  close 
student  himself,  investigating  all  with  which  he 
comes  in  contact,  analyzing  cause  and  efifect,  and 
his  whole  time  is  now  devoted  to  his  academic 
work  and  his  scholastic  researches. 

He  has  in  the  meantime  come  once  before  the 
public  as  a  candidate  for  public  office,  having 
been  nominated  by  the  Republicans  for  the  office 
of  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  at  the 
special  election  held  on  the  nth  of  December, 
1875,  but  a  combination  of  causes  resulted  in 
his  defeat.  He  was  opposed  by  T.  L.  Dickey, 
one  of  the  strongest  members  of  the  Democracy, 
who,  being  the  corporation  counsel  of  the 
city  of  Chicago,  had  not  only  the  support  of 
his  party  but  also  the  influence  of  the  city 
administration,  and  in  addition  to  this  an  un- 
conquerable power  in  the  railroad  corporations, 
which  took  this  means  of  avenging  themselves 
on  Mr.  Hurd  for  the  stringent  measures  of 
railroad  legislation  which  the  general  assembly 
had  enacted,  and  which  were  contained  in 
Hurd's  Revised  Statutes,  and  with  the  framing 
of  which  he  had  much  to  do.  This  combination 
caused  his  defeat,  and  since  that  time  he  has  been 
associated  with  no  public  office  save  on  one  oc- 
casion, when  he  was  one  of  six  gentlemen  selected 
to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  board  of  county  com- 
missioners of  Cook  coimty,  created  by  the  con- 
viction of  members  of  that  board  for  defraud- 
ing the  county. 

Never  for  an  instant,  however,  has  Mr.  Hurd 
ceased  his  work  in  behalf  of  the  city,  its  improve- 
ment and  upbuilding,  and  no  citizen  has  labored 
more  earnestly  to  advance  the  material  interests 
of  Chicago  than  he.  The  existence  of  one  of  the 
most  important  improvements  of  the  city  of  recent 
years  is  due  to  him, — the  new-  drainage  system,  by 
which  the  sew'age  w  ill  no  longer  be  discharged  into 
the  lake,  the  source  ofthe  water  supply,  but  carried 
oiif  into  the  Illinois  river  by  means  of  a  channel 
across  what  is  known   as  the    Chicago    divide. 


BEPRESENTAriVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


W 


This  channel  had  long  been  talked  of,  but  it  was 
the  labor  of  Mr.  Hurd  and  his  plan  of  operations 
that  made  it  possible.  It  was  thought  that  there 
was  no  way  of  raising  money  for  this  purpose 
without  altering  the  constitution  by  an  amend- 
ment,— for  Chicago  had  already  reached  the  limit 
of  its  borrowing  and  taxing  power, — and  this 
would  cause  a  long  delay;  but  Mr.  Hurd  sug- 
gested the  creation  of  a  new  municipality  with 
power  to  raise  the  necessary  funds  by  taxation,  and 
the  issue  of  bonds,  and  it  was  this  suggestion  that 
led  immediately  to  the  raising  of  the  drainage  and 
water  supply  commission  known  as  the  Hering 
commission.  iSIr.  Hurd  was  the  friend  and  adviser 
of  that  commission,  and  was  the  author  of  the 
first  bill  on  the  subject  introduced  into  the  legis- 
lature in  1886,  known  as  the  Hurd  bill,  which  re- 
sulted in  a  legislative  commission  to  further  in- 
vestigate the  subject  and  present  a  bill.  This  bill, 
which  was  practically  the  same  as  the  Hurd  bill, 
was  passed  in  1887  and  was  supported  before  the 
legislature  by  Mr.  Hurd  and  his  friends,  and  he 
conducted  the  proceedings  for  its  adoption  by  the 
people  of  the  district.  It  was  adopted  at  the 
November  election  in  1887  almost  unanimously, 
and  his  plans  are  now  becoming  a  thing  of  reality, 
the  work  being  vigorously  prosecuted;  and  the 
drainage  canal  is  now  considered  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  age  even  in  this  period  of  great 
achie^'ements.  Its  value  to  this  city  can  never  be 
estimated,  as  it  gives  to  Chicago  an  excellent 
system  of  drainage  and  pure  water,  and  is  the  be- 
ginning of  a  magnificent  waterway  connecting 
the  great  lakes  with  the  ^Mississippi  river  and 
tributaries  and  the  gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  question  of  capital — of  the  amount  which 
may  be  possessed  by  a  single  individual, — the 
question  which  is  agitating  the  country  and  which 
must  some  time  come  up  for  settlement, — has 
claimed  some  of  the  attention  of  Mr.  Hurd.  He 
has  for  several  years  been  at  the  head  of  a  com- 
mittee of  law  reform  of  the  Illinois  Bar  Associa- 
tion, and  the  able  reports  of  that  committee  are 
in  favor  of  extending    the    American    policy  of 


breaking"  up  large  estates  through  the  operation 
of  the  lav.'s  of  descent  and  wills,  by  so  amending 
tlie  laws  as  to  limit  the  amount  one  may  take  by 
descent  or  will  from  the  same  person,  and  in  favor 
of  a  system  of  registration  of  titles  which  will 
make  transfers  of  real  estate  as  simple,  inexpen- 
sive and  secure  as  the  transfers  of  personal  prop- 
erty. The  latter  of  these  has  already  had  its  effect. 
A  commission  to  consider  the  matter  of  trans- 
fer of  titles  was  created  by  the  action  of  the 
general  assembly  of  1891;  of  that  commis- 
sion Mr.  Hurd  was  chairman.  It  made  it.-; 
report  on  December  10,  1892,  reconuiiending  a 
system  of  registering  titles  substantially  embod\j- 
ing  the  essential  principles  of  the  Australian  or 
Torrens  system.  The  bill  recommended  by  the 
commission  was  enacted  into  a  law  on  the  13th 
of  June,  1895. 

Mr.  Kurd's  efTorts  in  the  line  of  charitable  work 
have  also  borne  much  fruit.  He  is  president  of 
the  Conference  of  Charities  of  Illinois, — an  or- 
ganization composed  of  all  charitable  societies, — 
and  holds  the  same  office  in  the  Children's  Aid 
Society  of  Chicago,  which  has  for  its  object  the 
securing  of  comfortable  homes  for  homeless  little 
ones  who  would  otherwise  be  thrown  upon  the 
cold  charities  of  the  world.  These  actions  are 
known  to  the  public,  but  many  more  are  those 
which  he  quietly  performs  of  which  only  the  donor 
and  the  recipient  have  knowledge.  He  gives 
liberally  of  his  means  to  the  poor  and  needy,  but 
it  is  after  the  spirit  of  the  teaching  which  says, 
"Let  not  your  left  hand  know  what  your  right 
hand  doeth."  Viewed  from  any  standpoint,  his 
life  may  be  said  to  be  a  success;  and  it  is  the 
success  not  merely  of  the  man  who  prosecutes 
a  prosperous  commercial  life,  intent  only  on 
winning  wealth,  but  that  of  the  man  who  ad- 
vances public  good  in  promoting  individual  pros- 
perity. The  study  of  the  character  of  the  repre- 
sentative American  never  fails  to  offer  much  of 
pleasing  interest  and  valuable  instruction,  and  the 
life  of  Mr.  Hurd  certainly  furnishes  food  for  deep 
and  profitable  thought. 


118 


niiionM'iiicAL  DicTioNAur  AM)  I'onruAir  (iai.i.eiiy  of  thk 


GEORGE  W.  SMITH, 


THE  ancestors  uf  General  Smitli  on  tlie  pater- 
nal side  oanie  to  New  England  from  old 
England  in  the  last  centur\-  and  his  mother's 
family  alx)nt  the  same  time  from  the  north  of 
Ireland.  He  was  the  son  of  George  Washington 
and  Katherine  (Wilder)  Smith,  and  was  born  in 
Rrooklyn,  New  York,  January  8,  1837.  His 
great-grandfather  was  the  provincial  surveyor 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  his  grandfather,  also 
named  Washington,  was  a  native  of  that  State, 
where,  having  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  he  died 
in  the  same  house  in  which  he  was  born.  Tlie 
General's  father  was  a  manufacturer  of  electro- 
plated ware,  one  of  the  first  in  this  country,  and 
became  a  shareholder  and  ofScer  of  the  Meriden 
Britannia  Company  of  Connecticut.  His  mother 
was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Captain  Ephraim  W'il- 
der,  who  served  as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
convention  by  which  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  was  ratified  and  accepted,  and  one 
of  those  who  gave  that  instrument  their  cordial 
support.  He  had  been  a  captain  in  the  Revolution- 
ary army,  and  in  1775  married  Lucretia,  sister  of 
Samuel  Locke,  who  was  afterward  president  of 
Harvard  College. 

His  father  having  removed  to  Albany,  George, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  secured  his  education  in 
the  schools  of  that  cit\-  and  at  the  Albany  Acad- 
emy. Before  completing  his  scholastic  course  he 
engaged  in  the  business  of  teaching,  which  he 
followed  with  successful  results,  and  then  re- 
turned to  Albany,  entering  the  law  school  of  that 
city,  at  which  he  was  graduated  in  1856.  Turn- 
ing his  eye  to  the  great  West  for  a  field  in  which 
to  b€gin  life  for  himself  in  the  practice  of  his 
I)rofession,  he  at  once,  and  wisely,  decided  that 
the  grov^-ing  and  enterprising  city  of  Chicago  of- 
fered better  opportunities  than  any  other  inviting 
locality,  and  accordingly,  in  October,  1858,  he 
removed  to  this  city  and  "hung  out  his  shingle" 
at  No.  10  South  Clark  street. 

The  hindrances  obstructing  the  success  of  a 
young  lawyer  in  Chicago  in  1856  were  not 
so  many  or  formidable  as  they  have  be- 
come  since  that   lime.      While   there   was   much 


(■i)ni])etition  there  was  not  so  much  con- 
centration of  business,  and  a  young  man  of 
good  address  and  qualifications  had  a  bet- 
ter opportunity  to  become  known,  and  access 
to  a  paying  practice  was  more  readily  obtainable. 
The  grooves  were  neither  well  formed  nor  much 
worn,  and  there  was  a  larger  division  of  clientage 
than  now.  Young  Smith  was  not  slow  in  mak- 
ing acquaintances  among  whom  the  impression 
made  as  to  his  ability  was  favorable,  and  busi- 
ness naturally  increased,  if  slowly. 

The  years  passed  quickly,  and  just  as  he  be- 
gan to  feel  that  he  was  established  on  a  firm  foot- 
ing the  great  Civil  war  broke  out.  The  first  calls 
of  the  government  were  issued  and  the  quota  rap- 
idly filled,  and  there  was  a  surplus  of  volunteers; 
but  this  condition  was  of  a  very  short  duration, 
and  the  country  soon  awakened  to  the  stubborn 
fact  that  it  was  confronted  with  an  exigencv 
which  demanded  all  its  resources  of  men  and 
money.  The  really  trying  time  came  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1862,  up  to  which  period  the  victories  of 
our  armies  on  the  field  did  not  overbalance  their 
defeats,  and  the  outlook  for  final  success  in  put- 
ting down  the  rebellion  was  indeed  gloomy. 
The  president  again  called  for  three  hundred  thou- 
sand volunteers,  to  serve  three  j'ears,  and  a  like 
number  of  militia  to  serve  nine  months;  and  the 
question  presented  itself  in  this  turning  point  of 
the  war.  Will  the  response  be  favorable?  Chicago 
was  stirred  as  never  before  or  since,  and  among 
the  first  to  sign  the  enlistment  rolls  of  the  Eighty- 
eighth,  or  Board  of  Trade,  Regiment,  to  serve 
during  the  war,  was  George  W.  Smith.  One  com- 
pany of  this  regiment  was  chiefly  raised  at 
Tonica  and  Amboy,  where  'Mv.  Smith  went  to 
secure  volunteers,  and  partly  at  Chicago;  and 
\vhen  the  company  came  to  be  organized,  with- 
out any  outside  influence  or  combination  in  par- 
celing out  the  offices,  as  frequently  occurred  in 
such  cases,  he  was  elected  captain  of  the  com- 
pany, receiving  the  votes  (one  hundred  and  two) 
of  every  member.  \\'hen  the  regiment  was  organ- 
ized, as  if  this  expression  was  not  sufficiently  de- 
cisive, another  election  was  ordered,  when  he  was 


liEPRESENTATIVE  MEy  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


119 


again  elected,  receiving  one  hundred  and  one 
votes, — every  one  present. 

The  regiment  was  ordered  to  tlie  front  the  last 
of  August,  and  in  six  weeks  was  under  fire  and 
pubhcly  commended  for  its  gallant  conduct  at 
the  batde  of  Perryville,  October  7.  1862.  Of  the 
many  regiments  raised  under  this  call  none  can 
present  a  more  patriotic  record  than  the  Eight}^- 
eighth.  It  was  always  at  the  front  and  never  sent 
upon  garrison  duty.  It  was  engaged  in  eleven 
[irincipal  battles,  besides  minor  conflicts  and  skir- 
mishes without  number. 

At  the  bloody  two-days  battle  of  Stone  river, 
which  occurred  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1862 
and  January  2,  1863,  the  Eighty-eighth  was  in 
the  thickest  of  the  fight.  The  battle  was  lost  and 
won  on  the  first  day  and  on  the  second  day  was 
finally  won  and  the  Confederates  driven  from  the 
field.  The  terrific  assault  of  Bragg  on  Rosecrans' 
left,  on  December  31,  was  not  staid  until  it  came 
in  contact  with  Sheridan's  division,  containing 
the  Thirty-sixth,  Forty-fourth,  Fifty-first  and 
Eighty-eighth  Illinois  Regiments,  against  which 
thry  hurled  their  victorious  battalions  in  vain  un- 
til after  being  three  times  repulsed,  when,  hav- 
ing lost  their  brigade  commander  and  sixteen 
hundred  and  thirty  men  and  officers,  his  ammuni- 
tion being  exhausted,  Sheridan  slowly  retired. 
Captain  Smith  w^s  severely  wounded,  and  being 
loft  in  a  house  on  the  field  was  taken  prisoner. 
He  remained  in  the  enemy's  hands  only  four 
days,  when,  by  the  assistance  of  a  friendly  colored 
man,  he  was  enabled  to  make  his  escape  to  the 
I  'nion  lines.  After  a  brief  absence  he  returned 
to  his  company. 

At  Chickamauga  Captain  Smith  acted  as  a  line 
officer,  and  as  reported  by  a  correspondent  from 
th;)t  field  of  carnage,  "he  was  in  all  places  where 
the  battle  raged  fiercest."  In  his  report  of  the 
battle  of  ]\Iission  Ridge  the  gallant  Colonel 
Chandler,  who  commanded  the  regiment  at  that 
time,  says,  "Captain  George  W.  Smith,  acting 
field  officer,  was  conspicuous  for  his  bravery 
while  urging  on  the  men  until  about  two-thirds 
of  the  way  up  the  hill,  when  he  fell  severely 
wounded." 

The  captain  was  promoted  major  October  14, 
1863,  and  lieutenant-colonel  June  22,  1864,  and 
after  the  loss  of  Colonel  Chandler,   who   glori- 


ously fell  at  Kcnesaw,  he  commanded  the  regi- 
ment. After  doing  good  service  in  the  Atlanta 
campaign,  the  regiment,  with  its  division,  was  or- 
dered back  to  Chattanooga,  and  engaged  in  the 
campaign  against  Hood. 

The  sanguinary  l)attle  of  Franklin  occurred 
November  30,  1864.  Hood,  with  fifty  thousand 
Confederates  confronting  a  portion  of  Schofield's 
army,  only  ten  thousand  strong,  behind  hastily 
constructed  defenses,  upon  the  banks  of  the  Har- 
peth  river,  riding  in  front  of  his  men,  shouted, 
'Jjreak  those  lines  and  there  is  nothing  more  to 
withstand  you  this  side  of  the  Ohio  river!"  And 
such  was  the  impetuosity  and  strength  of  the  Con- 
federate charge  that  before  the  two  brigades  sta- 
tioned on  the  other  side  of  the  river  could  retire 
in  order,  as  they  had  been  commanded  to  do, 
they  were  hurled  back  in  a  tumultuous  rout  and 
driven  through  our  defenses,  carrj-ing  many  oth- 
ers \vith  them.  Our  breastworks  carried  and  the 
enemy  forming  within  them  to  make  their  victory 
sure,  the  day  seemed  hopelessly  lost.  At  this  time 
a  brigade  in  reserve,  commanded  by  the  gallant 
Cpdyl<e,  in  which  was  the  consolidated  Eighty- 
eiglith  and  Seventy-fourth  Illinois  Regiments, 
moved  upon  the  foe,  and  in  less  time  than  it  re- 
quired to  capture  them  they  were  retaken  and  the 
victory  won. 

Lieutenamt  Colonel  Smith  was  in  the  front  rank 
and  led  the  charge.  An  eye  witness  of  the  scene 
writes:  "In  all  my  life  I  never  saw,  in  all  my  read- 
ings I  never  read,  of  a  more  knightly  scene  than 
Colonel  Smith  at  the  head  of  the  charge  and  col- 
umn, cap  in  hand,  dashing  hither  and  thither  in 
the  heat  of  the  fray,  nerving  the  brave,  shaming 
the  coward, — an  unconscious  hero,  every  inch  of 
him!"  The  thanks  of  his  commanding  general 
and  a  brevet  as  colonel  of  the  United  States  Vol- 
unteers was  the  reward  of  his  valor.  As  a  further 
acknowledgment  of  Colonel  Smith's  distinguished 
services  he  was  appointed  a  brevet  brigadier 
general. 

After  taking  part  in  the  battle  of  Nashville  and 
in  the  pursuit  of  Hood,  the  regiment  was  returned 
to  Nashville,  where  it  was  musteretl  out  June  9, 
1865.  The  story  of  its  losses  give  in  unmistaka- 
ble terms  the  record  of  its  meritorious  services, — 
its  toils,  its  hardships  and  bravery.  Only  two 
hundred  and  nine  of  the  nine  hundred  and  twentv 


120 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIOyARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


men  on  the  rolls  were  present  at  the  muster-out; 
fifty-  officers  and  ninety-eight  men  had  been  killed 
in  battle  or  died  of  wounds.  Many  had  been  dis- 
abled by  wounds  and  some  had  died,  and  some 
were  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

As  an  officer  General  Smith  was  distinguished 
for  his  undaunted  courage  and  devotion  to  dutv'. 
With  the  soldiers  of  his  command,  whose  welfare 
he  was  careful  to  subserve  on  every  occasion, 
there  was  never  a  more  deser\^edly  popular  leader. 
Having  confidence  in  his  military  judgment,  they 
never  hesitated  to  follow  where  he  would  lead 
them  on,  whether  it  was  to  victory^  or  to  death. 

Returning  to  the  walks  of  civil  life,  after  so 
many  years  spent  in  the  field  of  strife,  amid  the 
booming  of  cannon  and  the  march  of  armed  hosts, 
it  naturally  required  some  time  to  adjust  one's  life 
to  the  changed  conditions.  A  few,  like  General 
Smith,  having  a  well  grounded  profession,  which 
had  been  carefully  selected,  such  was  the  disci- 
pline of  their  minds  that  they  were  enabled  to  ac- 
commodate themselves  to  the  new  surroundings 
in  a  comparatively  short  space  of  time;  with  oth- 
ers a  longer  time  was  required,  while  with  many 
the  habits  and  modes  of  camp  life  were  carried  to 
their  graves.  In  resuming  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
sion  of  the  law,  it  was  like  starting  afresh,  and 
before  General  Smith  became  thoroughly  estab- 
lished he  was  nominated  by  the  Republicans,  in 
1866,  and  elected  State  treasurer,  which  position 
he  filled  so  acceptably  as  to  entitle  him  to  a  re- 
nomination,  and  which  could  easily  have  been 
secured  but  for  the  fact  that  the  location  of  other 
State  officers  on  the  ticket  required,  as  it  was  con- 
tended, that  the  treasurer  should  be  taken  from 
the  southern  portion  of  the  State. 

Having  met  the  demands  of  his  friends  and 
party  in  the  matter  of  official  preferments,  and 
having  ik)  farther  ambitions  or  desires  in  this  di- 
rection. General  Smith  now  gave  his  undivided 
attention  to  his  profession.  Of  the  thousand  or 
more  names  enrolled  as  attorneys  in  Chicago,  at 
least  one-half  of  them  find  but  little  to  do.  They 
struggle  along  before  police  magistrates  and  in 
the  justices'  courts  with  here  and  there  a  crumb, 
as  it  were,  falling  from  the  master's  table.  Among 
tlie  next  five  hundred,  perhaps  half  of  them  make 
a  fair  living,  while  the  largest  amount  of  busi- 
ness in  courts  and  offices  is  shared  by  not  ex- 


ceeding a  hundred  names  or  firms.  These  con- 
stitute the  leading  lawyers  of  Chicago,  who  have 
v.orked  their  way  up  from  the  smallest  of  begin- 
nings, either  as  corporation  attorneys  or  promi- 
nent practitioners.  Among  them  is  found  Gen- 
eral George  \V.  Smith,  who  has  achieved  this 
distinction  through  the  adaptability  of  his  men- 
tal, moral  and  physical  constitution  to  the  de- 
mands required  for  a  first-class  lawyer.  He  is  a 
man  of  studious  habits,  profound  learning  and 
broad  grasp  of  mind;  and,  as  has  been  well  said 
of  him  by  an  eminent  brother  (quoting  from  the 
Centiu-}),  "he  has  that  quickness  of  apprehension 
which  enables  him  to  apply  his  knowledge  to  the 
practical  solution  of  intricate  problems  in  everj' 
department  of  professional  life  with  extraordinar\- 
precision  and  clearness.  The  powers  of  the  mind 
are  admirably  balanced  and  have  been  severely 
disciplined.  Cautious  by  temperament  and  always 
avoiding  rash  and  vehement  assertions,  he  is  dis- 
tinguished not  only  for  the  spirit  of  candor  and 
fairness  evinced  in  the  management  of  his  cases, 
but  for  the  sobrietj'  and  solidit)-  of  his  judgment. 
Few  men  can  argue  a  point  of  law  with  more 
learning  and  astuteness  or  try  a  case  with  more 
tact  or  abilit}-.  Xo  man  in  professional  life  is 
held  in  higher  estimation  for  purit\'  of  character 
or  generous  social  qualities." 

To  this  an  ex-chief  justice  of  the  Illinois  su- 
preme court  says:  "General  Smith  is  in  the  best 
sense  an  officer  of  the  courts,  and  he  adorns  the 
position  by  a  life  and  practice  consistent  with  the 
most  exacting  demands  of  his  profession..  When 
trsing  a  case  in  any  court  his  statements  as  to 
tlie  facts  and  issues  involved  are  always  received 
with  the  most  implicit  confidence.  In  his  capac- 
ity of  counselor  and  advocate  he  assists  the  courts 
in  the  administration  of  right  and  justice.  It  is 
difficult  to  conceive  that  there  can  be  any  higher 
privilege  for  a  lawyer  to  attain." 

The  General's  practice  has  taken  a  wide  range 
and  is  not  confined  to  any  special  branch,  except 
that  he  has  eschewed  the  criminal  courts.  In 
1878  he  made  his  mark  as  one  of  the  attorneys 
of  the  city  in  a  decision  sustaining  a  law  providing 
for  the  assessment  of  the  tax  le^^es  of  1873-75, 
which  had  been  declared  illegal,  thereby  saving 
the  credit  of  the  city  in  the  pajTnent  of  $1,400,000, 
which  it  might  have  repudiated.     Following  this 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


121 


he  was  employed  in  important  railway  cases; 
cases  relating  to  the  validity  of  statutes;  large 
corporation  cases.  In  iS<;i  he  was  appointed 
attorney  for  the  drainage  commission,  but 
such  were  the  demands  upon  his  time  in 
other  directions  that  he  was  compelled  to  re- 
sign the  position.  He  is  one  of  the  principal 
attorneys  in  the  lake-front-riparian-rights  litiga- 
tion, carrying  his  side  of  the  question,  success- 
fully thus  far,  to  the  supreme  court.  The  General 
is  a  member  of  the  Chicago  and  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciations, and  finds  time  to  take  an  active  part  in 
their  proceedings. 

Politically  he  is  classed  as  a  Republican,  but  is 
rather  moderate  and  independent  in  his  political 
views.  He  neither  desires  office  nor  admires  the 
methods  of  the  partisan  who  would  sacrifice  the 
best  interests  of  his  country  to  the  success  of  his 
party. 


Socially  General  Smith  is  a  member  of  the 
Union  League  Club,  having  once  been  its  presi- 
dent, and  also  belongs  to  the  Union,  Columbus 
and  Literary  Clubs.  He  is  also  a  vice-president 
of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  and  president 
of  the  Industrial  School  for  Girls. 

In  1869  he  married  Miss  Louisa  Kinney, 
daughter  of  William  C.  Kinney,  of  Rclleville, 
and  granddaughter  of  Lieutenant  Governor 
Kinney.  She  is  also  a  granddaughter  of  Elias 
Kent  Kane,  senator  from  Illinois,  who  died 
in  Washington  in  1836,  during  his  term  of  ofifice. 
The  family  consists  of  two  sons  and  two  daughters. 

The  General  is  of  medium  height,  with  broad 
shoulders,  well  proportioned  and  of  sanguine  tem- 
perament. He  is  well  preserved,  notwithstanding 
the  scars  of  liattle,  and  with  his  abstemious 
habits  and  regular  life  has  many  usehil  years 
before  him. 


THOMAS  FOSTER, 


THOMAS  FOSTER  was  born  in  Carl- 
isle, Pennsylvania,  on  the  17th  day 
of  October,  1817,  and  is  the  elder  of  the 
two  sons  of  Crawford  anfl  Elizabeth  ( Pat- 
tison)  Foster.  Of  his  mother  our  subject  has 
no  recollection,  she  having  died  during  his  child- 
hood. His  father  was  in  early  life  a  printer,  and 
in  after  years  a  merchant.  Thomas  went  as  far  as 
he  could  in  the  academy  of  his  home  village,  but 
owing  to  opposition  from  his  father  was  com- 
pelled to  forego  what  he  was  most  desirous  of, — 
a  collegiate  education.  Being  thus  disappointed, 
he  started  out  at  the  tender  age  of  fourteen  to 
battle  alone  with  the  world.  His  first  employ- 
ment was  as  clerk  in  a  dry-goods  store,  for  which 
he  received  no  compensation.  Relinquishing 
this  position,  he  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years  re- 
moved to  Tennessee,  where  he  was  employed  by 
his  uncle,  who  was  largely  interested  in  the  manu- 
facture of  iron.  Here  he  remained  for  six  years, 
working  night  and  day,  and  saving  as-  much  as 
possible  of  his  earnings  until  he  had  accumulated 
two  thousand  dollars,  which  he  left  in  his  uncle's 
hands.     Unfortunatelv  for  him,  his  uncle  failed 


in  business.  Thomas  was  made  trustee,  but  as 
the  assets  fell  short  of  enough  to  pay  the  liabili- 
ties he  found  that  his  savings  of  years  had  been 
swept  away.  Such  a  blow  to  many  young  men 
would  have  been  disheartening,  but  to  our  sub- 
ject it  only  had  the  effect  of  making  him  more 
determined  than  ever  to  succeed  in  life,  and  he 
set  out,  almost  penniless,  for  St.  Louis.  Here, 
after  long  searching,  he  obtained  a  position  in  the 
wholesale  dr3^-goods  house  of  Woods,  Christy 
&  Company,  as  bookkeeper.  His  excellent 
haljits  and  his  sound  business  judgment 
[prompted  his  employes  to  give  him  the  position 
of  manager  of  a  branch  store  they  owned  and 
operated  at  Galena,  and  he  accordingly  removed 
to  that  city  in  1843.  Mr.  Woods  shortly  after 
retired  from  the  firm,  and  a  new  firm  was  formed, 
under  the  name  of  Woods,  Howse  &  Company, 
Mr.  Foster  being  the  company.  This  connection 
continued  until  1852,  at  which  time  Mr.  Foster 
formed  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Nicholas  Stahl, 
one  of  the  best  men  Galena  ever  produced,  in  the 
wholesale  and  retail  dry-goods  business.  This 
venture  was  very  successful,  and  the  business  was 


122 


iiioanAriiidM.  nicrinXAnv  asd  roirruAir  (iaij.ery  of  the 


carried  on  until  1871.  Wlun  tin.-  ^^crcl1ants■ 
National  LSank  was  ortjanizfd  thirty  years  a^ii, 
Mr.  Foster  became  one  of  the  original  stock- 
lioldcrs,  and  was  elected  a  director,  a  position  he 
lias  held  continuously  ever  since.  In  1882  he 
was  chosen  president  of  the  bank,  succeeding  Mr. 
Augustus  Estey,  deceased.  While  he  does  not 
have  supervision  over  the  minute  details  of  the 
bank's  business,  ^\r.  Foster  has  been  a  most 
valuable  officer.  His  sound  judgment  has  been 
of  utmost  benefit  to  the  bank,  and  of  him  and 
Mr.  Snyder,  the  cashier,  it  may  be  truthfully  said 
that  no  bank  in  the  country  has  a  more  capable 
and  efficient  president  and  cashier. 

In  addition  to  his  banking  interests,  Mr.  Foster 
is  interested  in  other  corporations.  He  has 
always  taken  stock  in  every  enterprise  whose  ob- 
ject was  to  benefit  the  city  or  State  of  his  home, 
even  when  his  better  judgment  told  him  that 
such  investment  would  not  yield  any  pecuniary 
reward. 

He  is  a  moderate  Democrat,  and  has  served  as 
a  member  of  the  Galena  board  of  aldermen  for 
three  years,  and  as  president  of  t!ie  school  board 
fcir  a  like  period. 


A  ccinsistcnt  nicnilier  nf  the  .'^outh  Presbyterian 
("luirch,  lie  was  its  first  elder,  and  for  forty-nine 
years  has  held  that  office,  and  has  always  given 
fieely  both  of  time  and  money  to  the  cause  of 
Christianity.  Since  December,  1880,  Mr.  Foster 
has  been  secretary  of  the  Greenwood  Cemetery 
Association  of  Galena. 

In  1848  Mr.  Foster  was  married  to  Miss 
Tf>rodc,  who  died  leaving  three  children.  In 
1 86 1  he  married  Miss  ]\Iary  L.  Hempstead,  a 
direct  descendant  of  Sir  Robert  Hempstead,  who 
emigrated  to  America  in  1645  and  became  as- 
sociated with  Governor  Winthrop.  Sir  Robert's 
eldest  child,  Mary  Hempstead,  was  the  first  white 
child  born  in  New  London,  Connecticut.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Foster  have  four  children:  Mary  Lisa, 
Augusta  Hempstead,  William  Hempstead  and 
Alfred  Thomas.  To  the  cause  of  education  Mr. 
Foster  is  a  warm  friend.  For  fifteen  years  he  has 
been  a  prominent  director  of  the  German  Theo- 
logical Seminary  at  Dubuque,  Iowa,  and  his  wise 
counsels  have  done  much  toward  the  advance- 
ment of  the  prosperity  of  thi>  noble  institution  of 
learning. 


JOHN  DEAN  CATON, 


WHEX  Judge  Caton  passed  away  on  the 
30th  of  July,  1895,  Chicago  lost  one 
of  the  most  prominent  citizens  tliat  the  West  has 
produced.  From  the  time  that  the  city  had  an 
existence  as  an  incorporated  town  Judge  Caton 
was  inseparably  connected  with  its  history.  He 
was  the  pioneer  lawyer,  an  eminent  jurist,  an 
author  and  one  of  the  most  successful  of  business 
men.  His  profession  was  the  law,  but  his  capa- 
bilities were  by  no  means  limited  to  one  line  of 
action  or  undertaking.  He  was  a  man  of  broad 
resources  and  was  almost  equally  prominent  on 
the  bench,  at  the  bar  or  in  commercial  circles, 
while  his  character  was  one  ever  above  reproach. 
He  rose  from  a  humble  to  an  exalted  position 
entirely  through  his  own  efforts  and  was  a  repre- 
sentative of  our  best  type  of  American  civiliza- 
tion and  American  chivalry. 

Judge   Caton  was   born   in    Monroe,    Orange 


county,  New  York,  March  19,  1812.  His  father 
was  three  times  married,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
four  children  of  the  third  marriage  and  the 
twelfth  son  of  the  family.  His  grandfather  was 
a  British  officer  who  settled  in  Maryland  at  the 
close  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  Shortly  after 
the  birth  of  Judge  Caton,  his  mother  removed  to 
Oneida  county.  New  York,  and  there,  at  the  age 
of  nine  years,  he  began  work  as  a  farm  hand, 
continuing  his  labors  through  the  summer 
months,  while  in  the  winter  season  he  attended 
the  district  schools  of  the  neighborhood.  Re- 
alizing the  value  of  an  education  he  became,  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  a  student  in  the  academy  at 
L'tica,  and  upon  returning  home  a  year  later  be- 
gan school  teaching.  He  possessed  a  laudable 
ambition  to  improve  his  condition  and  make  the 
most  of  his  opportunities  in  life  and  during  tlie 
era  of  school  teaching  also  took  up  the  study  of 


Ir^M^-  ^^^-^^^^^^A^- 


UKrUKSEXTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATE.S:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


1  '2:5 


law  and  of  civil  fiiginceriiig.  The  former,  how- 
ever, proved  more  atractive  and  he  later  read  un- 
der the  instruction  of  Bcardsley  tSr  IMattersoii, 
prominent  attorneys  of  I'tica.  He  afterward 
continued  his  studies  in  the  office  of  Wheeler 
I'larncs,  of  Rome,  and  with  Janies  H.  Collins,  cif 
\'ernon. 

In  1833.  attracted  by  tlic  almost  limitless  op- 
])ortunitics  of  the  A\'est,  Judge  Caton  started  for 
Michigan,  but  while  traveling  he  learned  of  the 
little  town  of  Chicago,  which  as  yet  had  no  mem- 
ber of  the  bar.  He  at  length  arrivetl  at  White 
Pigeon,  ]\Iich.,  but  he  had  determined  to  go  to  the 
future  metropolis  of  the  W'est,  and  on  a  raft  made 
his  -way  to  St.  Joseph,  whence  he  came  to  Chicago 
on  the  vessel,  Ariadne,  under  conuuand  of  Cap- 
tain Pickering.  In  this  latter  part  of  the  19th  cen- 
tury when  Chicago  is  a  metropolis  rivaling  in  size 
and  importance  the  old  Knickerbocker  citj'  of  the 
East,  one  can  hardlv  realize  that  a  man  who  was 
present  at  its  incorporation  has  just  passed  away. 
At  the  time  of  his  arrival  it  contained  about  three 
hundred  inhabitants.  On  the  second  day  he  se- 
cured a  boarding  place  in  a  log  house  just  north 
of  Lake  and  east  of  Dearborn  street,  where  he 
found  and  shook  hands  with  Giles  Spring,  a 
law  \cr  who  had  reached  Chicago  just  five  days 
previous.  The  two  became  fast  friends,  although 
afterward  pitted  against  each  other  in  many 
cases.  Mr.  Caton  looked  over  the  field  and  at 
length  concluded  that  perhaps  business  might  be 
better  on  the  north  side  of  the  river.  Accord- 
ingly he  moved  to  the  office  of  Colonel  R.  I. 
1  familton,  a  log  building,  partly  occupied  by  the 
latter's  family.  Both  the  young  lawyers  were 
k)oking  for  a  good  place  in  which  to  begin  busi- 
ness, but  neither  opened  an  office  until  the  follow- 
ing December,  when  Dr.  John  T.  Temple  erected 
a  small  balloon  building  on  South  Water  street 
near  Franklin.  The  two  young  lawyers  opened 
an  office  together  with  the  agreement  that  when 
one  had  a  client  the  other  should  leave  the  room, 
thus  was  established  the  first  law  office  of  the 
city.  Mr.  Caton  prosecuted  on  the  first  criminal 
case  ever  tried  in  Cook  county.  The  justice  of 
the  peace  wrote  out  the  warrant  for  arrest  on  his 
carpenter  bench  and  then  ^Ir.  Caton  proceeded 
to  the  l(5g  cabinet  shop  of  James  ^^'.  Reed,  who 
was  both  the  onl\    caliinet  maker  and  the  onl\ 


constable  in  the  ti^iwn.  Then  began  the  search 
for  the  accused  man  who  had  stolen  $46.  He 
was  at  length  found,  taken  l)efore  the  justice  and 
Mr.  Caton,  who  acted  also  in  the  capacity  of 
detective,  discovered  the  money  in  the  prison- 
er's stocking.  The  culprit  was  defended  by  Mr. 
S])ring,  the  only  other  attorney  in  Chicago,  but 
Mr.  Caton  secured  a  conviction  and  received  $10 
of  the  recovered  money  as  his  fee,  which  was  just 
sufficient  to  pay  his  board  bill.  He  however 
spoke  of  it  as  the  greatest  fee  he  ever  received. 

On  the  1 2th  of  July,  1834,  when  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  he  was  elected  a  justice  of  the 
peace,  the  precinct  taking  in  the  whole  of  Cook 
county,  and  out  of  two  hundred  twenty-nine  votes 
he  received  one  hundred  eighty-two.  He  was 
connected  with  the  first  murder  case  ever  tried 
in  Cook  county,  but  just  before  the  trial  came  off 
he  was  taken  ill  and  his  partner,  Mr.  Collins,  who 
had  come  to  the  city  six  months  after  Mr.  Caton, 
followed  out  the  plan  which  he  had  mapped  out 
and  won  the  case,  acquitting  the  client.  In  the 
spring  of  1835  the  Judge  determined  to  extend 
his  practice  to  Putnam  county,  the  oldest  settled 
ill  the  northeast  part  of  the  State,  and  started  on 
horseback.  There  he  succeeded  in  soon  securing 
a  liberal  clientage  and  from  that  time  on  his  suc- 
cess as  a  lawyer  was  assured.  He  applied  him- 
self untiringly  to  any  work  that  he  began,  and 
this  application  combined  with  his  superior  legal 
knowledge  won  him  a  position  as  one  of  the  most 
eminent  members  of  the  bar  of  Cook  county — 
a  reputation  which  he  maintained  for  many  years 
thereafter. 

Judge  Caton  was  inan-ied  in  July,  1S35,  to  Miss 
Laura  Adelaide,  daughter  of  Jacob  Sherrill,  of 
New  Hartford,  Oneida  county.  New  \'ork.  She 
was  his  faithful  companion  and  helpmeet  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  sharing  with  him  in  the  hopes 
and  disappointment  in  his  earlier  years,  the  pros- 
perity and  successes  of  his  later  life.  She  passed 
awa\-  in  1892,  and  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  cemetery 
of  Ottawa,  Illinois.  In  the  family  were  three 
children,  but  Mrs.  Charles  E.  Townc  died  in  1891. 
The  son,  Arthur  Caton,  is  a  leading  citizen  of 
Chicago,  and  the  daughter,  Mrs.  Norman  Will- 
iams, at  this  date  (August  7,  1895)  '^  traveling 
abroad. 

fudge  Caton  had  been  in  the  \\'est  fuit  a  short 


124 


BIOnilAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


time  before  he  had  left  an  impress  of  his  ener- 
getic, sturdy  young  character  on  this  section  of 
the  country.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  poHti- 
cal  convention  ever  held  in  Illinois.  It  met  at 
Ottawa  on  the  4th  of  March,  1834,  Dr.  David 
Walker  serving  as  president,  while  Mr.  Caton 
acted  as  secretary.  In  1836  he  formed  a  law 
partnership  with  N.  B.  Judd,  and  the  same  year 
built  the  first  dwelling  within  the  school  section 
on  the  west  side  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Har- 
rison and  Clinton  streets.  About  this  time  there 
was  an  endeavor  made  to  secure  a  charter  for 
the  thriving  little  Western  city  and  the  Judge  was 
active  in  the  movement.  The  following  year, 
when  the  country  became  involved  in  a  financial 
panic,  he  too  lost  most  of  his  real  estate,  and  be- 
coming broken  down  in  health  he  removed,  in 
1838,  to  a  farm  near  Plainfield  that  he  had  rented 
some  years  before  and  to  which  he  removed  his 
family  in  1839. 

Judicial  honors  were  early  in  life  conferred 
upon  Mr.  Caton.  When  not  yet  thirty  years  of 
age  Judge  Carlin  appointed  him  judge  of  the 
supreme  court  and  not  long  afterward  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  Governor  Ford  to  fill  another  vacancy. 
When  the  supreme  court  was  reorganized  under 
the  new  constitution  he  was  chosen  as  one  of  the 
three  judges  of  that  court,  his  associates  being 
Judges  Tree  and  Trumbull.  For  twenty-one 
years  he  filled  that  responsible  position,  and  dur- 
ing six  months  of  the  time  presided  as  chief  jus- 
tice. On  the  bench  his  decisions  were  ever  fair 
and  just.  He  possessed  a  judicial  temperament 
of  peculiar  adaptability  and  acquired  a  broad  and 
comprehensive  grasp  of  law.  Though  devoted 
to  his  chosen  profession  he  by  no  means  confined 
his  energies  to  that  one  calling.  He  was  the  first 
citizen  of  Illinois  to  cross  the  State  with  a  tele- 
graph line.  With  a  sagacity  seldom  equaled  he 
seemed  to  realize  the  importance  of  Professor 
Morse's  invention,  and  organized  and  became 
chief  proprietor  of  the  Illinois  &  Mississippi  Tele- 


graph Company.  The  success  of  the  telegraph 
made  him  extremely  wealthy.  At  one  time  he 
controlled  all  the  telegraph  lines  in  Illinois,  but 
he  leased  them  to  the  Western  Union  when  that 
company  was  organized,  and  thereafter  enjoyed 
an  enormous  income  from  these  leased  lines. 
Judge  Caton  became  interested  in  granite  street 
paving.  He  was  also  a  stockholder  in  a  glass 
factory  in  Ottawa,  and  he  was  equally  successful 
as  a  farmer  and  author. 

On  his  retirement  from  the  bench.  Judge  Caton 
went  to  his  beautiful  farmstead  near  Plainfield 
and  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  agricultural  pur- 
suits. He  also  established  in  Ottawa  a  beautiful 
home  in  the  midst  of  a  fine  park,  where  deer  and 
wild  fawn  roam  at  will  under  magnificent  forest 
trees.  He  also  had  a  substantial  and  tasteful  resi- 
dence in  Chicago,  located  at  1900  Calumet  ave- 
nue. He  was  a  deep  student  of  natural  history 
and  a  lover  of  nature.  A  man  of  broad  general 
information  and  ripe  scholarship,  he  was  a  fluent 
and  forcible  speaker  and  able  writer.  He  traveled 
extensively  in  Europe  and  was  familiar  with  every 
part  of  America.  He  made  a  close  and  compara- 
tive study  of  the  social  and  economic  conditions 
of  the  country  and  published  the  results  of  his 
careful  investigation  in  a  peculiarly  lucid  and 
graceful  style.  He  has  been  the  autlior  oi  many 
able,  entertaining  and  instructive  articles,  and 
among  his  better  known  works  are  "The  Unset- 
ting  Sun — A  Summer  in  Norway,"  "The  Ante- 
lope and  Deer  of  America"  and  "Early  Bench 
and  Bar  of  Illinois."  He  held  membership  with 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  city  and 
gave  his  support  to  all  interests  that  were  calcu- 
lated to  uplift  humanity.  He  was  especially 
charitable  and  benevolent,  and  the  needy  never 
applied  to  him  for  aid  in  vain.  In  social  life  he 
was  a  true  friend,  and  it  is  said  that  no  man  ever 
practiced  before  the  bar  of  Illinois  or  sat  upon 
its  bench  that  was  more  highly  respected  or  ad- 
mired as  a  lawyer  or  citizen. 


nEPRESEy^TATIVE  ME  IS'  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


1-25 


JAMES  A.  STODDARD, 


AAIOXG  the  prominent  insurance  men  of 
America  few  names  are  better  known  than 
that  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  the  founder,  chief 
builder  and  popular  former  secretary  of  the 
Northwestern  Masonic  Mutual  Aid  Association 
of  Chicago. 

James  Alonzo  Stoddard  comes  of  a  family 
which  traces  its  ancestry  in  a  direct  and  unl)rokcn 
line  to  William  Stoddard,  knight,  a  cousin  of  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror,  who  came  from  Normandy 
to  England  with  that  illustrious  gentleman  A.  D. 
1066.  The  origin  of  the  name  of  Stoddard  is 
undoubtedly  of  Norman  origin.  All  books  of 
reference  conclude  that  the  name  was  a  title  given 
to  standard-bearers  during  the  middle  and  dark 
ages,  and  at  first  the  name  was  spelled  De  La 
Standard.  Of  William  Stoddard,  our  subject's 
remote  ancestor,  it  is  recorded  that  he  fought 
bravely  and  was  distinguished  for  his  valor  dur- 
ing the  conquest  of  England  by  his  cousin,  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror.  In  the  si.xteenth  century 
one  of  his  descendants  in  the  fourth  generation 
settled  in  London,  which  at  that  time  was  be- 
coming a  city  of  commercial  importance.  In 
1598  mention  is  made,  in  John  Stow's  Survey  of 
London,  of  a  George  Stoddard  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  previously  mentioned  family.  He  was 
a  merchant  of  the  parish  of  St.  Olave,  Tower 
street.  He  was  well  versed  in  the  intricacies  of 
the  law,  and  by  shrewd  investments  and  merciless 
exactions  became  an  exceedingly  wealthy  man. 
Though  by  occupation  a  grocer,  he  was  some- 
wliat  of  a  speculator  and  a  lender  of  moneys  to 
the  nobility  and  needy  country  gentlemen.  His 
transactions  were  respectable  in  their  nature,  and 
the  afTection  he  displayed  toward  his  brothers, 
and  the  hospitable  manner  in  which  he  treated  his 
neighbors,  who  it  appears  honored  him  most 
highly,  proves  that  he  was  a  man  of  more  than 
ordinary  prominence,  who  in  his  day  and  time 
lived  a  worthy  life.  From  him  descended 
Anthony  Stoddard,  who  left  England  at  the  age 
of  twenty-five,  in  1638,  and  settled  in  the  Alassa- 
chusctts  colony.  From  him  the  Stoddards  in 
America  have  descended.     He  was  a  merchant, — 


a  dealer  in  linen.  He  married  well,  became  ven,- 
wealthy  and  left  sixteen  children.  His  death  oc- 
curred Alarch  16,  1686.  He  brought  with  him 
from  England  the  family  coat  of  arms  which  is 
still  in  the  possession  of  some  of  the  descendants 
of  the  family.  This  coat  of  arms  is  recorded  as 
having  been  used  by  George  Stoddard,  gentle- 
man, of  London,  and  his  ancestor.  Sir  William 
Stoddard,  before  him.  No  other  reference  is 
made  of  the  coat  of  arms  being  used  previous  to 
this  time,  but  it  is  doubtless  true  that  for  many 
generations  previous  thereto  this  coat  of  arms 
was  carried  in  battle  by  many  a  worthy  squire. 
The  coat  of  arms — sable,  three  stars  within  a 
bordure,  gules,  and  the  crest,  a  demi-unicorn, 
ermine  issuing  from  a  ducal  coronet,  or  with  the 
motto,  "Festina  lente"  (Be  in  haste  but  not  in 
a  hurry) — was  constantly  used  by  Anthony  Stod- 
dard of  Boston,  and  in  the  "London  Visitation" 
of  1658  this  coat  of  arms  was  recognized  as  the 
property  of  George  Stoddard,  gentleman,  of  that 
city. 

The  children  of  Anthony  Stoddard  and  their 
descendants  settled  in  various  portions  of  New 
England,  and  some  of  the  family  were  among  the 
founders  of  Woodstock  and  Woodbury,  Connec- 
ticut. The  records  show  that  in  1695  Simeon 
Stoddard  of  Boston  secured  a  tract  of  land  four 
miles  square  located  at  Pomfret,  near  Wood- 
stock, Connecticut.  The  land  was  secured  by  an 
execution  of  a  judgment  against  a  Major  Fitch, 
who  had  become  insolvent  through  convivial 
habits. 

In  1716  Anthony  Stoddard,  a  descendant  of 
this  Simeon  Stoddard,  conveyed  this  land  to  his 
three  sons — ^Anthony,  David  and  William — upon 
the  condition  that  they  would  pay  to  him  sixty 
pounds  in  money  on  the  first  day  of  every  June 
at  his  home  in  Boston.  In  1739  another  member 
of  the  family  gave  the  village  of  Ashford  in  the 
same  county  a  deed  to  two  hundred  acres  of  land 
upon  condition  that  his  title  to  land  in  Windham 
county,  Connecticut,  should  not  be  disputed,  and 
he  thus  received  a  clear  title  to  nearly  nine  thou- 
sand acres  in  that  countv.     Previous  to  this  time 


126 


BwnnAPHicAL  DicrroNAnr  and  ponriiAiT  oallkuy  of  the 


little  effort  had  licen  made  to  cultivate  or  im- 
prove the  property  in  Woodstock,  but  in  1747  the 
Stoddards  had  taken  possession  of  the  Stoddard 
lands,  which  had  been  in  the  family  for  more  than 
half  a  century  previous,  and  Phineas  Stoddard 
became  a  resident  of  Woodstock  and  was  in- 
cluded within  society  limits.  In  1776  Lemuel 
Stoddard  of  Woodstock  became  one  of  the  crew 
of  the  schooner,  Oliver  Cromwell,  which  was 
ef[nipped  for  private  service.  Ebenezer  Stoddard 
was  one  of  the  earliest  lawyers  in  Woodstock  and 
one  of  the  most  prominent  in  the  State.  He  was 
elected  to  Congress  for  four  years,  and  in  1833-5 
was  lieutenant  governor  of  Connecticut.  He  also 
served  in  1834  as  a  commissioner  to  locate  the 
boundaries  between  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut, which  had  been  in  dispute  for  gen- 
erations. The  commission's  laliors  were  highly 
successful. 

Abel  Stoddard,  the  grandfather  of  our  subject, 
was  a  member  of  the  Woodstock  (Connecticut) 
branch  of  the  family.  His  son,  Jeremiah  Stod- 
dard, became  a  minister  of  the  Universal'st 
Church.  He  married  Mary  A.  Smith,  a  dir  tt 
descendant  of  Peregrine  White,  one  of  the  band 
of  pilgrims  who  journeyed  to  their  new  home  in 
the  wilderness  in  the  Mayflower.  Rev.  Jeremiah 
Stoddard  resided  for  a  time  in  Farmington, 
INIaine,  where  his  son,  James  A.  Stoddard,  tlie 
subject  of  this  biography,  was  born,  on  the  i8th 
of  April,  1827.  Later  in  life  he  moved  to  JMilford, 
Massachusetts,  where  he  lived  for  some  years  be- 
tween 1853  and  1865. 

The  boyhood  days  of  James  A.  Stoddard  were 
passed  in  the  New  England  common  schools, 
where  he  obtained  such  education  as  was  afforded 
by  the  facilities  of  the  time.  His  father  possessed 
but  little  means,  and  early  in  life  it  was  de- 
termined that  the  boy  should  begin  work  in 
order  to  support  himself  and  reduce  a  portion  of 
the  family  expenses,  which,  although  very  small, 
were  a  burden  that  was  almost  impossible  for  the 
head  of  the  family,  whose  health  was  failing,  to 
support.  At  an  early  age  James  became  an  em- 
ployee of  a  farmer,  for  whom  he  labored  faith- 
fully, receiving  for  his  services  but  little  more 
than  his  board  and  clothes.  The  little  that  he  did 
obtain  in  wages  he  brought  home  to  his  par- 
ents,  who   highly  appreciated  the   noble   efforts 


prompted  by  filial  love.  Tn  1841  he  attended 
school  during  the  winter,  but  the  following  year 
again  began  work  upon  a  farm,  and  by  his  meager 
earnings  added  most  materially  to  the  comfort 
and  happiness  of  his  father  and  mother.  At  the 
age  of  eighteen  he  went  to  Boston  and  worked 
as  a  clerk  in  a  store.  He  then  learned  the  piano- 
forte trade,  but  in  1851  he  and  his  parents  moved 
to  Milford,  Massachusetts,  where  in  1853  he  was 
married  to  Marion  Parkhurst,  a  daughter  of  Otis 
and  Sarah  (Jones)  Parkhurst,  of  Milford. 

Mrs.  Stoddard  is  a  picmber  of  one  of  the  oldest 
and  most  highly  respected  of  the  early  families  of 
New  England.  In  1735  Isaac  and  Jonas  Park- 
hurst settled  in  ^Massachusetts.  Their  father, 
John  Parkhurst,  had  endowed  each  of  them  with 
eighty  and  a  half  acres  of  land,  which  became  the 
Parkhurst  homestead.  John  Parkhurst's  father 
also  was  named  John,  and  his  grandfather  was 
George  Parkhurst,  who  was  a  son  of  the  original 
George  Parkhurst  of  England,  who  settled  in 
Watertown,  Massachusetts,  in  the  early  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Otis  Parkhurst,  whose 
father  was  Nathaniel,  a  son  of  Jonas,  was  born  on 
the  20th  of  September,  1781,  and  was  a  native 
of  Milford.  He  was  a  man  who  possessed  a 
sti'ongly  constituted  mind  and  an  energy  capable 
of  large  enterprises.  He  did  more  than  anv 
other  to  promote  the  success  of  the  boot  and 
shoe  manufacture  of  New  England,  and  was  an 
active,  responsible  and  highly  respected  citizen. 
He  was  a  stanch  Universalist  and  was  one  of  the 
twelve  men  who  in  1820  built  the  brick  church 
in  which  the  denomination  worshiped,  and  he 
generously  gave  the  society  his  most  earnest  sitp- 
poit.  He  died  on  the  5th  of  March,  1869,  having 
been  preceded  by  his  devoted  wife,  Sarah  Jones, 
the  daughter  of  Nathaniel  Alden  and  Lois 
(Claflin)  Jones,  who  died  Januarj'  14,  1843.  ^'^' 
thaniel  Alden  Jones  was  a  descendant  of  John  Al- 
den, of  Mayflower  stock. 

In  1865  Mr.  Stoddard  removed  to  Chicago, 
where  he  engaged  in  the  book-publishing  busi- 
ness and  also  published  and  edited  a  magazine 
called  The  Western  Home.  The  great  fire  of 
187 1  swept  away  both  his  business  and  his  home, 
and  the  utter  hopelessness  of  his  afTairs  at  that 
time  forced  him  into  the  insurance  business, 
wh.ich  he  entered  with   considerable  reluctance; 


REPRESENrATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


ITi 


but  the  opportunity  for  developing'  and  utilizing 
his  best  powers  and  brilliant  faculties  soon  pre- 
sented itself.  The  peculiar  talent  requisite  to  at- 
taining a  high  degree  of  success  in  the  vast  enter- 
prise of  life-insurance  business  was  a  distinctive 
trait  of  his  character.  He  has  shown  particular 
brilliancy  in  managing  field  work  and  in  marshal- 
ing and  handling  thousands  of  agents:  and  to  his 
remarkable  energy,  industry  and  executive  ability 
is  due  the  credit  for  the  founding  and  upbuilding 
of  the  Northwestern  Masonic  Aid  Association, 
which  now  numbers  about  forty  thousand  mem- 
bers and  carries  over  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
millions  of  insurance  on  the  choicest  risks  obtain- 
able on  human  life.  His  success  in  his  chosen 
line  has  been  highly  appreciated  l\v  his  associates, 
for  on  the  ist  of  January,  1S92,  he  was  chosen 
vice-president  and  general  manager  of  the  associa- 
tion, and  was  succeeded  to  the  responsible  posi- 
tion of  secretary  by  his  son-in-law,  Charles  A. 
Capwell. 

The  entire  life  of  Mr.  Stoddard  has  been  one  of 
unusual  activity  and  industry,  and  he  is  a  self- 
made  man  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  so  frequently 
misused  word.  Holding  such  an  important  posi- 
tion in  the  association  controlling  such  vast  in- 
terests, speaks  louder  than  words  of  Mr.  Stod- 
dard's executive  and  business  ability.  His  meth- 
ods have  always  been  in  keeping  with  the 
highest  prmciples  of  honorable  and  fair  dealing 
and  with  conscious  regard  for  the  rights  of  others. 
He  has  a  clear  and  comprehensive  mind  antl  is 
able  not  only  to  conceive  great  projects  but  also 


to  execute  well-directed  plans.  Although  he  has 
been  closely  identified  with  this  large  enterprise, 
his  time  and  attention  have  not  been  wholly  given 
to  it.  He  has  rare  social  qualities,  delights  in 
good  fellowship  and  lacks  none  of  those  personal 
traits  of  character  which  are  indicative  of  the 
warm-hearted  and  high-minded  gentleman.  His 
life  has  for  years  been  closely  identified  with  the 
Masonic  order,  and  he  was  a  blaster  Mason  in 
Waubansia  Lodge,  No.  160,  in  Chicago  in  1866, 
tilling  successively  the  chairs  of  senior  deacon, 
junior  warden,  senior  warden  and  worshipful 
master.  He  was  e.xalted  in  Englewood  Chapter, 
R.  A.  M.,  No.  176,  and  knighted  in  Apollo  Com- 
mandery,  No.  i,  Chicago. 

The  home  life  of  Mr.  Stoddard  is  particularl} 
happy  and  elevating.  He  is  the  father  of  five 
children,  the  eldest  of  whom,  Irene,  is  the  \\4fe 
of  Mr.  Charles  A.  Capwell.  They  have  one  child, 
Marion  J-,  born  in  Chicago,  April  13,  1875.  The 
second  child  of  Mr.  Stoddard,  James  N.,  died  in 
infancy.  The  third,  Adelaide  .M.,  married  Lee  H. 
Daniels,  now  deceased,  and  had  one  child,  Cora 
Jean,  born  May  17,  1888;  Alice  J.,  was  the  wife 
of  Fred  F.  Aitkin,  of  St.  Paul;  she  died,  giving 
birth  to  Alison  Stoddard,  born  jMarch  25,  1889; 
Herbert  A.  Stoddard  is  Mr.  Stoddard's  youngest 
child,  married  to  Miss  Bertha  Gross;  their  chil- 
dren are:  Dorothy,  who  was  bom  December  18, 
1892;  and  Alice,  born  March  25,  1895.  All  of 
these  were  born  at  Milford,  Massachusetts,  with 
the  exception  of  Herbert,  who  is  a  native  of  Chi- 
cago. 


JAMES  MCBROOAl, 


MR.  McBROOM  was  born  in  county  Ar- 
magh, Ireland,  October  5.  1827,  and  was 
the  eldest  son  of  William  and  ^lary  (Harrison) 
McBroom,  late  of  Rich  Hill,  in  the  above  named 
county,  and  a  landholder  and  an  agriculturist. 

Our  subject  passed  his  boyhood  in  his  native 
country  until  his  eighteenth  year,  at  which  time 
he  emigrated  to  New  York,  and  for  some  time 
served  an  apprenticeship  at  the  tanner's  trade, 
near  Pniffalo.    The  trade  thus  learned  he  followed 


until  1854,  at  which  time  he  removed  to  Illinois. 
Arriving  at  Geneseo,  he  found  the  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific  Railroad  establishing  its  line 
across  the  State,  and  in  company  with  Andrew 
Crawford  he  took  a  contract  to  construct  a  fence 
along  the  right-of-way  of  the  road.  At  that  time 
a  Mr.  Parmelee  was  operating  a  grain  warehouse 
near  the  depot  at  Geneseo,  and,  recognizing  in 
young  McBroom  a  man  not  afraid  of  work,  he 
engaged    him  as  a  workman    abotu   the  ware- 


128 


BlOGRArinCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


house,  and  later  he  was  employed  by  A.  Van 
Winkle  in  the  same  business. 

During  the  time  he  worked  for  the  railroad 
company  and  for  Mr.  Parmelee  he  had  a  very 
intimate  friend  whose  name  was  Isaac  Newton 
Wilson,  and  who  aftenvard  moved  to  Munson 
and  engaged  in  farming.  Mr.  Van  Winkle,  Mr. 
McBroom's  employer,  became  financially  in- 
volved to  such  an  extent  that  he  was  necessi- 
tated to  dispose  of  a  grain  elevator  he  owned. 
Our  subject,  with  that  keen  foresight  for  which 
he  was  noted,  saw  an  opportunity  to  enter  what 
he  believed  would  be  a  profitable  venture,  as 
grain  at  that  time  was  seeking  the  Geneseo  mar- 
ket from  as  far  north  as  Prophetstowii,  and  as 
far  south  as  Andover,  there  being  no  railroads 
through  those  towns  at  that  period.  Mr.  ]\Ic- 
Broom  at  once  wrote  his  friend  Wilson,  which 
after  a  short  delay  reached  him,  and  proposed  that 
they  should  purchase  the  elevator;  and  upon 
Wilson's  acquiescing  both  young  men  journeyed 
to  Cambridge,  the  county  seat,  to  ascertain 
whether  the  title  to  the  property  was  perfect. 
This  being  satisfactorily  accomplished,  the  pur- 
chase was  made,  and  in  1862  the  new  grain  firm 
of  McBroom  &  Wilson  entered  upon  what  has 
proven  a  most  prosperous  career. 

For  about  twenty  years  Mr.  McBroom  was 
president  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Geneseo, 


and  its  success  and  soundness  is  largely  due  to  the 
fact  of  his  having  been  the  head  of  its  affairs. 

For  two  terms  he  was  mayor  of  the  city,  and 
gave  the  same  careful,  conscientious  attention  to 
the  public  weal  as  generously  as  he  always  has 
to  his  private  business.  In  everything  pertain- 
ing to  the  upbuilding  of  the  city  of  his  home  he 
was  a  most  energetic  worker,  and  was  one  of  the 
best  beloved  and  popular  of  her  citizens. 

In  1855  he  was  married  to  Miss  Margritha 
Kaiser,  of  Annawan  township,  and  of  this  union 
six  sons  have  been  born, — Alexander  K.,  William 
J-,  Frederick  K.,  Charles  Emmett,  Isaac  N.  and 
James  H.  A.  K.  and  J.  H.  are  lawyers  at  Spo- 
kane Falls,  Washington,  and  F.  K.  and  C.  E. 
are  bankers  at  the  same  place;  W.  J.  is  with  the 
First  National  Bank  of  Geneseo,  and  I.  N.  is  and 
has  for  many  years  been  in  the  grain  office  of 
McBroom  &  Wilson. 

Mr.  McBroom's  death  occurred  March  2,  1895, 
after  an  illness  of  several  weeks'  duration.  In 
spite  of  the  tender  ministrations  of  a  loving  and 
devoted  wife,  he  passed  away, — secure  in  a  fame 
that  is  part  of  the  history  of  the  city  of  Geneseo. 
Long  a  member  of  the  Unitarian  Church, 
the  funeral  service  was  conducted  by  his  old- 
time  friend.  Rev.  M.  J-  Miller,  assisted  by  the 
pastor,  and  was  one  of  the  largest  that  ever  oc- 
curred in  the  city. 


WILLIAM  CALDWELL, 


ROCK  ISLAND. 


WILLIAM  CALDWELL  was  the  son  of 
Robert  and  Mary  (Ball)  Caldwell,  who 
were  natives  of  New  Jersey.  After  they  were  mar- 
ried they  settled  in  Ohio,  where  they  lived  to- 
gether, sharing  each  other's  joys  and  sorrows, 
successes  and  reverses,  for  about  twenty-eight 
years,  when  they  moved  to  the  State  of  Indiana, 
and  there  resided  until  their  death.  They  had  a 
family  of  thirteen  children. 

William  Caldwell,  whose  name  heads  this 
sketch,  was  the  tenth  child  in  order  of  birth  of  his 
parents'  family.  He  was  born  in  Butler  county, 
Ohio,  December  4,  1813.  He  assisted  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  family,  attending  the  common 


schools  of  his  native  county,  and  resided  at  home 
until  he  attained  the  age  of  fifteen  years,  when  he 
accompanied  his  parents  to  Indiana. 

In  the  latter  State  he  engaged  to  learn  the 
cooper's  trade,  which  he  followed  for  some  fifteen 
years,  and  which,  in  connection  with  his  farming, 
occupied  his  time  in  Indiana,  until  1851.  In  the 
spring  of  that  year,  hoping  to  better  his  financial 
condition  in  life,  he  came  to  this  county  and  pur- 
chased a  farm  in  what  is  now  Rural  township, 
located  on  section  thirty-one,  on  which  he  settled 
and  entered  vigorously  and  energetically  upon 
the  task  of  its  cultivation  and  improvement.  He 
lived  on  this  farm  twelve  years,   and  then  pur- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  USITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


129 


chased  more  land,  in  Mercer  county,  where  he  re- 
moved and  resided  twenty  years,  in  the  mean- 
time improving  and  cuhivating  his  land.  In 
the  spring  of  1883  Mr.  Caldwell  purchased  a  place 
known  as  the  James  Donaldson  farm,  in  Rural 
township,  consisting  of  four  hundred  and  forty- 
five  acres,  on  which  he  settled  and  resided  until 
his  death,  in  1885.  He  came  to  be  ranked  among 
the  large  land-owners  of  the  county,  being  the 
proprietor  of  six  hundred  and  sixt\--five  acres  in 
Rock  Island  county  and  two  hundred  and  forty 
in  Mercer  county. 

He  was  a  gentleman  who  started  in  life  with 
nothing  but  his  own  indomitable  cnerg)',  and 
his  accumulation  of  this  world's  goods  is  attrib- 
utable to  his  good  judgiTient  in  predicting  the 
future  developments  of  the  county  and  conse- 
quently the  enhanced  price  of  real  estate,  com- 
bined with  the  active  co-operation  of  his  life.  His 
word  in  business  transactions  was  considered  as 
good  as  his  bond,  and  he  was  justly  recognized 


as  one  of  the  energetic  and  representative  citizens 
of  Rock  Island  county. 

As  a  citizen  of  the  community  in  which  Mr. 
Caldwell  so  long  lived  and  was  so  active,  he  was 
highly  respected,  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his 
neighbors,  and  was  regarded  a  man  of  ex- 
cellent business  judgment.  Mr.  Caldwell  held 
several  of  the  minor  offices  of  the  township. 
Politically  he  was  identified  with  the  Republican 
party. 

Mr.  Caldwell  was  united  in  marriage,  in  Rural 
township,  in  i860,  to  Mrs.  Lydia  (Wilson)  Halley, 
the  accomplished  daughter  of  William  and 
Rachel  Mills  Wilson  and  widow  of  Henry  Halley. 

Mrs.  Caldwell  had  five  children  by  her  first 
marriage:  ]\[ary  C,  Robert  C,  Hannah  M.,  Isaac 
X.,  William  H. ;  and  of  her  union  with  Mr.  Cald- 
well two  children  were  bom,  namely:  Jerome 
W.,  January  25,  1861 ;  and  Frank  H.,  born  August 
5,  1862.  Mrs.  Caldwell  died  in  Rural  township 
August  16,  1884. 


DAVID  SHEEAN, 


D.WID  SHEEAX,  the  eldest  of  the  five  chil- 
dren of  James  and  Marj-  (Lorden)  Sheean, 
was  born  in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  July  3,  1833. 
When  but  three  years  of  age  he  removed  with  his 
parents  to  Jo  Daviess  county,  Illinois,  where  his 
father  engaged  in  farming.  Our  subject's  educa- 
tion was  obtained  in  the  common  schools  and 
local  academy,  and  after  finishing  his  studies  he 
went  to  California,  in  1851,  where  the  subsequent 
four  and  a  half  years  were  spent  in  mining.  Re- 
turning to  Galena  he  began  the  study  of  law,  and 
after  his  admission  to  the  bar  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  John  A.  Rawlins,  afterward  so  dis- 
tinguished as  General  Grant's  chief  of  staff  during 
the  Civil  war,  and  later  as  secretary  of  war.  This 
connection  lasted  until  1862,  when  Rawlins  en- 
tered the  army  and  Mr.  Sheean  practiced  alone 
until  1867,  and  then  formed  a  partnership  with 
his  brother,  T.  J.  Sheean.  In  1893  J.  M.  Sheean, 
a  nephew,  now  city  attorney,  became  a  member 
of  the  firm,  which  is  conceded  to  be  the  leading 
law  firm  of  Galena. 


Mr.  Sheean's  practice  has  been  a  general  one, 
and  during  his  long  career  he  has  participated  in 
many  important  legal  contests,  among  which 
may  be  mentioned  the  condemnation  suit  of  the 
Chicago,  Burlington  &  Xorthern  Railroad  Com- 
pany against  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany, involving  the  right  of  way  of  the  former 
company  between  Galena  and  Dubuque;  the 
Galena  Axle  Grease  Company  versus  the  Frascr 
Axle  Grease  Company,  which  he  argued  in  the 
.State  supreme  court;  and  a  number  of  will  cases, 
the  more  prominent  of  which  are  the  Richardson 
estate  and  the  Corman  will  cases,  both  of  great  in- 
terest, the  former  involving  an  amount  of  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  One  of  his  recent  im- 
jiortant  cases  was  that  of  John  T.  Davis  versus 
John  H.  Schwartz  et  al.,  which  was  argued  suc- 
cessfully by  Mr.  Sheean  before  the  United  States 
supreme  court  at  Washington,  against  John  W. 
X'oble,  late  ex-Secretary  of  the  Interior.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  foregoing  he  has  conducted  a  number 
of  criminal  cases  of  greater  or  less  importance. 


130 


mnoRAririCAL  dictioxary  and  roRTUAir  gallery  of  the 


Mr.  Sheean  is  a  strong  Democrat,  and  was 
elected  by  his  party  to  the  office  of  city  attorney 
of  Galena,  which  he  filled  most  ably  for  a  number 
of  years.  Later  he  was  elected  and  served  one 
term  as  mayor  of  the  city. 

Socially  he  is  a  member  of  the  Iroquois  Club  of 
Chicago.  He  was  married  in  1876  to  ^Nliss  Cora 
L.  Spare  of  Galena. 


Mr.  Sheean  is  a  pleasant  and  affable  gentle- 
man, and  a  stranger  in  his  presence  soon  feels 
perfectly  at  ease.  Constant  study  and  close  ap- 
plication to  the  details  of  his  profession  have  en- 
abled him  to  reach  the  position — conceded  to 
him  by  all — that  he  occupies,  the  leader  of  the 
Galena  bar. 


GEORGE  MILLS  ROGERS, 


AMONG  Chicago's  business  and  professional 
men,  none  are  more  closely  identified  with 
the  growth  and  best  interests  of  the  city  than 
George  Mills  Rogers,  who  has  made  his  home 
here  for  thirty-seven  years, — a  period  within  which 
Chicago  has  attained  her  present  proud  position, 
vying  with  the  metropolis  of  the  East  for  leader- 
ship in  the  world  of  commerce,  science,  art  and 
letters.  For  many  years  he  has  been  known  for 
his  sterling  qualities,  his  fearless  loyalty  to  his 
honest  convictions,  his  sturdy  opposition  to  mis- 
rule in  municipal  affairs,  and  his  clear-headed- 
ness, discretion  and  tact  as  manager  and  leader. 
His  career  at  the  bar  has  been  one  of  the  greatest 
honor,  and  he  has  given  some  of  the  best  efforts 
of  his  life  to  the  purification  and  elevation  of 
the  municipal  government.  An  eminent  lawyer 
and  the  son  of  a  great  jurist,  he  has  not  only 
maintained  the  high  standard  of  his  name  but  has 
also  added  to  it  new  luster. 

George  Mills  Rogers  is  a  native  of  Glasgow, 
Kentucky,  born  April  16,  1854,  a  son  of  the  late 
Judge  John  Gorin  Rogers  and  Arabella  E. 
(Crenshaw)  Rogers,  coming  of  a  family  which  in 
both  branches  has  been  conspicuous  in  the  learned 
professions  for  more  than  two  centuries.  His 
grandfather,  George  Rogers,  was  the  leading 
physician  in  Glasgow  and  vicinity  for  a  number 
of  years,  where  his  death  occurred  in  i860.  The 
maternal  grandfather  was  the  late  Judge  B.  J^Iills 
Crenshaw,  once  chief  justice  of  Kentucky. 

George  Mills  Rogers,  one  of  a  family  of  two 
sons  and  two  daughters,  was  about  four  years 
old  when  his  parents  removed  to  this  city,  with 
the  historv  of  which  he  has  since  been  familiar. 


He  has  seen  its  rapid  development,  witnessed  its 
destruction  when  visited  by  one  of  the  most  dis- 
astrous fires  the  world  has  ever  known,  and  saw 
it  rise  from  the  ruins  to  develop  into  a  city  that 
has  long  been  the  metropolis  of  the  West  and  is 
rapidly  becoming  the  metropolis  of  the  country. 

His  elementary  education  acquired  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  was  supplemented  by  a  preparatory 
course  in  the  Chicago  University,  after  which  he 
entered  Yale  College,  where  he  \\as  graduated, 
in  the  class  of  1876.  He  had  a  predilection  for 
the  law,  and  entered  upon  its  study  in  the  office 
of  Crawford  &  McConnell,  later  attending  the 
Union  College  of  Law,  which  is  the  law  depart- 
ment of  the  Northwestern  University.  Admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1878,  he  soon  began  the  practice 
of  his  chosen  profession  as  a  partner  of  S.  P. 
McConnell,  who  later  became,  and  served  until 
very  recently,  as  one  of  the  judges  of  the  cir- 
cuit court.  This  connection  continued  until  Mr. 
Rogers  accepted  the  appointment  of  assistant  city 
attorney, — a  position  for  which  he  had  demon- 
strated his  fitness  as  attorney  for  the  Citizens' 
Association.  While  a  member  of  that  associa- 
tion he  took  an  active  part  in  the  preparation  and 
passage  of  the  first  reform  election  law,  and  per- 
sonally drafted  the  first  priniars'  election  law, 
which  was  later  known  as  the  Crawford  law,  from 
the  fact  that  Senator  Crawford  had  charge  of  the 
bill  in  the  legislature. 

I>"or  several  years  after  his  admission  to  the 
bar,  Mr.  Rogers  took  a  prominent  part  in  political 
afTairs  as  a  leader  of  the  Democratic  party.  About 
1880  he  was  nominated  by  the  Democracy  for 
the  position  of  State  Seiiator;  and  the  fact  that 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


131 


he  reduced  the  usual  RepubHcan  majority  of  two 
thousand  down  to  eight  hundred  indicates  his 
personal  popularity  and  the  confidence  reposed  in 
him.  His  abilities,  both  natural  and  acquired, 
fit  him  for  leadership,  and  for  some  time  he 
served  as  vice-president  of  the  Cook  county 
Democratic  LXjmmittee  It  was  a  glimpse  behind 
the  scenes,  and  the  love  of  justice  and  purity  in 
government  as  well  as  in  private  life  led  Mr. 
Rogers  to  attempt  some  reforms  in  party  organi- 
zation and  party  methods;  but  the  results  were 
not  very  encouraging,  as  the  "professional  poli- 
ticians" had  control  and  ran  things  after  their 
own  corrupt  ideas.  Mr.  Rogers  then  became 
one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Iroquois  Club,  which 
took  for  its  field  of  effort  the  domain  of  national 
politics,  leaving  local  fights  to  those  who  might 
consider  it  to  their  interest  to  engage  in  them. 
He  was  elected  one  of  the  first  vice-presidents 
of  the  club,  representing  the  Third  Congressional 
District  of  Illinois.  Again  he  was  called  to  pub- 
lic office  when,  early  in  1886,  he  was  appointed 
city  prosecuting  attorney,  which  position  he  re- 
signed in  April,  1887,  in  order  to  travel  with  his 
wife,  who  was  in  ill  health. 

He  was  married  June  3,  1884,  to  Philippa  Hone 
Anthon,  of  New  York  city,  a  member  of .  the 
Anthoin  family  so  many  of  whom  have  been 
prominent  in  professional  life  in  that  city.  ■  Mr. 
Rogers  and  his  wife  spent  several  months  in 
travel,  and  upon  his  return  home  in  November, 
1887,  he  was  appointed  assistant  United  States 
attorney,  and  served  in  that  capacity  till  the  fol- 
lowing JMarch,  when  he  resigned  to  engage  in 
private  law^  practice. 

He  is  quick  to  master  all  the  intricacies  in  a 
case  and  grasp  all  details,  at  the  same  time  losing 
sight  of  none  of  the  essential  points  upon  which 
the  decision  of  every  case  finally  turns.  He  has 
a  ready  flow  of  language  and  as  a  speaker  is 
fluent,  forcible,  earnest,  logical  and  convincing. 
His  knowledge  of  the  law,  it  must  be  conceded,  is 
hardly  second  to  that  of  any  memlier  of  the  bar 
of  Cook  county. 

On  the  first  of  February,  1889,  he  was  ap- 
pointed master  in  chancery  of  the  circuit  court 
of  Cook  county,  in  which  position  he  has,  if  pos- 
sible, added  to  the  esteem  in  which  he  has  long 
been  held  by  his  fellows  at  the  bar. 

In  1893  't  ^\^s  deemed  advisable  by  the  lead- 


ing lawyers  of  Chicago  to  take  some  practical 
measure  tending  to  the  obliteration  of  political 
interests  in  the  affairs  of  the  courts,  and  to  that 
end  they  decided  to  put  in  nomination  for  judicial 
honors  eight  lawyers  of  high  character, — four 
Democrats  and  four  Republicans.  Mr.  Rogers 
was  chosen  as  one  of  the  Democratic  nominees. 
He  received  the  largest  number  of  votes  of  all 
the  candidates:  out  of  a  total  of  1,346  votes  he 
received  1,222  votes.  This  nomination  came  to 
him  without  any  action  or  solicitation  on  his 
part;  and  although  the  Democratic  convention, 
under  the  machine  rule  by  which  it  is  dominated, 
did  not  endorse  his  selection  for  elevation  to 
the  bench,  his  flattering  endorsement  by  the  bar, 
uninfluenced  by  political  considerations,  and  in 
furtherance  of  a  wish  to  purify  and  elevate  the 
administration  of  justice,  was  regarded  as  a 
greater  compliment  than  could  have  been  his 
election  purely  as  the  political  candidate  of  any 
party,  and,  as  an  endorsement  of  his  pre-eminent 
ability  and  integrity,  more  impressive  than  any 
that  he  could  have  received  from  any  other 
source. 

In  his  social  relations  he  is  connected  with  the 
Illinois  Club,  a  social  organization,  the  Iroquois 
Club,  the  Law  Club  and  the  University  Club.  In 
the  fall  of  1888  he  identified  himself  with  the 
Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  of  which  his 
father  was  such  an  eminent  member,  and  has 
represented  his  lodge  in  the  grand  lodge  of 
Illinois.  In  consequence  of  his  prominence  in 
political,  professional  and  social  life  he  has  a  wide 
acquaintance,  and  has  gained  a  host  of  warm 
friends  whose  high  and  sincere  regard,  recogniz- 
ing his  genuine  worth,  he  fully  possesses.  His 
reading  has  been  chiefly  in  the  line  of  his  profes- 
sion, yet  he  has  given  much  study  to  political 
and  economic  questions;  and,  while  inclined  to  be 
safely  conservative,  he  yet  holds  many  advanced 
ideas  on  questions  of  governmental  policy.  The 
soldier  on  the  field  of  battle  has  displayed  no 
greater  loyalty  than  has  Mr.  Rogers  in  his  sup- 
port of  i\merican  institutions,  and  his  condemna- 
tion of  political  intrigue  as  practiced  by  both 
parties.  There  is  no  doubt  that  had  he  entered 
into  the  methods  of  many  politicians  he  could 
have  obtained  almost  any  office  he  might  desire; 
but  with  him  pnnciple  is  above  party,  purity  in 
municipal   affairs   above  personal   interest. 


i:« 


IlKXlUAflllcM.  DICTKiXMiY  AM)  I'oirriiMr  (tM.I.ICUY  OF  rillC 


JAMES  IRVIN  nV.VV, 


KKKi;i'OKI'. 


THE  Ncft"  family,  of  uhicli  there  are  many 
dcscciKlants  in  various  parts  of  the  I'liiled 
States,  t>riginated  in  Switzerland.  The  first  of 
whom  we  have  any  authentic  account  was  Adam 
Neff  (or  Naf  as  the  name  was  originally  spelled), 
of  Wallenheid,  near  Cappel,  who,  in  the  war  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Protestant  faith,  with 
great  bravery  helped  to  rescue  the  banner  of 
Zurich  on  the  nth  of  October,  1531.  On  the 
nth  of  October,  i88i,  there  was  celebrated  at 
Cappel,  by  a  gathering  of  his  descendants,  the 
350th  amiiversiiry  of  that  event. 

The  first  of  the  name  to  come  to  America  were 
Rudolf  and  Jacob  Naf,  descendants  of  Adam, 
who  sailed  from  Rotterdam,  Holland,  and  ar- 
rived at  Philadelphia,  Pemisylvania,  September 
II,  1749.  These  brothers  located  in  the  colony 
where  now  stands  Frankford,  near  Philadelphia, 
married  and  spent  the  remainder  of  their  lives 
there.  From  them  have  descended  most  if  not 
all  of  the  families  of  that  name  in  this  country. 

Hon.  James  Ir\'in  Xeff  was  bom  in  Center 
county.  Pennsylvania,  October  5,  1839.  His 
father  was  Josiah  Xelf,  a  farmer  and  a  man  of 
many  strong  qualities  and  striking  characteristics. 
He  was  highly  respected  as  a  citizen,  and  was  a 
useful  member  of  the  community  in  which  he 
lived.  James  I.  XefFs  mother  was  Mollie  Em- 
mert,  also  a  native  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  boyhood  and  youth  of  young  XefT  was  in 
no  wise  dissimilar  to  that  of  most  farmers'  lads 
in  that  locality.  He  assisted  in  the  work  on  his 
father's  farm  during  tlie  summer  months,  and 
attended  the  district  school  during  the  winter, 
until  he  was  prepared  to  enter  Dickinson  Semi- 
nary, at  Williamsport.  Pennsylvania,  at  which  in- 
stitution he  was  graduated  in  1861.  Ambitious 
for  a  wider  career  than  the  opportunities  of  his 
native  place  afforded,  he  determined  to  come 
West,  and  in  1862  we  find  him  located  at  Tiffin, 
Ohio,  as  a  law  student  in  the  office  of  Colonel  Le- 
ander  Stem.  The  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war  soon 
interrupted  the  prosecution  of  his  studies,  and, 
fired  with  patriotic  ardor,  he  obeyed  the  call  of  his 
countrv  for  volunteers,  and  enlisted  in  the  One 


llundred  ;md  h'irst  Regiment  of  Ohio  Infantry, 
\\l:icii  had  been  organized  and  was  commanded 
by  his  law  preceptor,  Colonel  Stem.  He  was 
made  second  lieutenant  of  Company  H,  receiving 
his  conunission  before  leaving  the  State.  Tliis 
regiment  was  assigned  to  the  First  Brigade,  First 
Division,  Fourth  Corps,  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cuml)erlar.d.  For  gallant  a/nd  meritorious  serv- 
ice Lieutenant  XefT  was  promoted  as  first  lieu- 
tenant, adjutant  and  finally  as  captain  of  Company 
11.  He  gallantly  led  his  comrades  into  action  at 
the  battles  of  PerrA'ville,  Stone  river,  Chickamau- 
ga.  Missionary  Ridge,  Resaca,  and  other  minor 
engagements.  He  participated  with  his  command 
in  the  Atlanta  campaign,  which  lasted  nearly  one 
hundred  <lays.  At  Kenesaw^  mountain  the  regi- 
ment lost  heavily  in  an  attempt  to  capture  the 
enemy's  position  by  direct  assault.  During  this 
campaign  the  battles  of  Peach-Tree  Creek,  At- 
lanta, and  Jonesboro  were  fought,  in  all  of  which 
Captain  X'efY  was  engaged.  Upon  the  capitu- 
lation of  Atlanta,  Captain  X'efif  united  with  the 
command  of  General  Thomas  in  the  pursuit  of 
Hood,  toward  Nashville,  and  bore  a  gallant  part 
in  the  stubbornly  fought  battle  of  Franklin, 
X'ovember  30,  1864,  and  of  X^ashville,  December 
16  and  17,  which  conflict  resulted  in  the  thorough 
discomfiture  and  utter  defeat  of  Hood's  army. 
Captain  XefT  was  mustered  out  of  service  with 
his  regiment,  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  June,  1865. 
His  old  commander  and  former  preceptor. 
Colonel  Stem,  was  killed  in  battle  during  the  war 
and  upon  Captain  Neff's  return  to  civil  life,  he 
resumed  his  legal  studies,  in  the  office  of  Lee  & 
Brewer,  at  Tiffin,  Ohio,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  January,  1867.  He 
then  began  casting  about  for  a  location  in  which 
to  practice  his  profession.  He  had  three  uncles 
and  a  brother  then  living  at  Freeport,  Illinois.  He 
came  on  a  visit  to  them,  and  while  here  was 
tendered  a  partnership  in  the  law  practice  of 
Colonel  Tliomas  J.  Turner.  Before  accepting  this, 
however,  he  extended  his  investigation  into  Iowa ; 
but.  finding  no  location  which  suited  him  better, 
he  returned  to  Freeport  and  formed  a  partnership 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


138 


with  Colonel  Turner.  This  association  continued 
foT-  two  years,  when  it  was  dissolved  and  the  firm 
of  Bailey  &  Neff  was  established,  and  for  ten 
years  they  did  an  active  and  lucrative  business. 
In  the  autumn  of  1878  Mr.  Neff  associated  him- 
self with  Mr.  J.  H.  Stearns,  which  copartnership 
continued  until  j\lr.  Neff's  death.  During  their 
association  together,  these  two  attorneys  con- 
ducted numerous  important  cases,  in  the  courts 
of  Stephenson  county  and  of  this  and  other  states. 
Both  members  of  the  firm  were  well  versed  in  law, 
keenly  intelligent,  active,  painstaking  and  vigor- 
ous in  the  conduct  of  their  cases,  and  were  more 
than  ordinarily  successful. 

Mr.  Neff  was  for  more  than  fifteen  years  prior 
to  his  death  the  attorney  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  and  was  also  the  attorney  of 
the  Chicago,  Madison  &  Northern  Railroad  until 
the  time  of  its  absorption  by  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad.  He  was  president  of  the  Freeport, 
Dodgeville  &  Northern  Railroad  until  that  road 
was  absorbed  by  the  Chicago,  Madison  &  North- 
ern. He  and  his  partner,  Mr.  Stearns,  were  in 
charge  of  the  litigation  incident  to  procuring  the 
right  of  way  of  what  was  then  known  as  the 
Minnesota  &  Northwestern  Railroad,  now  Chi- 
cago Great  Western. 

Mr.  Neff  was  a  member  of  the  Illinois  legis- 
lature in  1879-80,  and  rendered  valuable  service. 
He  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  election  of  Gen- 
eral Logan  to  the  United  States  senate.  In  1884 
he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  State  board  of 
equalization,  and  served  in  that  capacity  eight 
years.  He  was  a  zealous  advocate  and  earnest 
supporter  of  the  organizations  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  and  was  commander  of  the  John 
A.  Davis  Post,  and  was  also  connected  with  the 
Illinois  Commandery  of  the  military  order  of  the 
Loyal  Legion  of  the  LTnited  States. 

On  January  29,  1879,  Mr.  Neff  was  married  to 


Miss  Katherine  Rowell,  daughter  and  only  child 
of  William  D.  and  Amelia  Rowell,  of  Freeport. 
To  this  union  there  were  born  two  children: 
Florence,  August  19,  1882;  and  Wm.  R.,  Novem- 
ber 9,  1885. 

When  the  World's  Fair  was  celebrated  in  Chi- 
cago, in  1893,  Mr.  Neff  determined  to  take  a  long- 
deferred  and  much-needed  respite  from  business 
cares.  His  health  had  become  seriously  im- 
paired by  over-exertion  and  too  earnest  applica- 
tion to  the  duties  of  his  profession,  and  he  de- 
cided to  rest  for  a  while,  and  at  the  same  time 
enjoy  the  wonderful  exhibits  in  that  marvelous 
display.  He  rented  a  house  in  Chicago  and  re- 
moved there  with  his  family.  His  health  con- 
tinued to  grow  worse,  and  upon  the  advice  of 
friends  he  went  for  a  time  to  French  Lick  Springs, 
with  the  hope  of  recuperating.  Instead  of  this 
he  rapidly  grew  worse  and  came  back  to  Chicago 
with  the  intention  of  returning  to  Freeport.  His 
alarming  condition,  however,  suggested  the  ad- 
visability of  his  being  placed  in  a  hospital  where 
he  could  receive  every  attention.  This  was  done, 
but  to  no  avail.  He  died  at  St.  Luke's  Hospital, 
September  14,  1893. 

As  an  attorney,  Mr.  Neff  certainly  ranked  as 
one  of  the  foremost  lawyers  in  this  part  of  the 
State.  He  was  a  good  judge  of  law,  and,  what 
is  of  almost  equal  importance,  a  good  judge  of 
men;  and  it  was  this  quality,  together  with  his 
great  earnestness  and  ability  as  a  speaker,  that 
gave  him  such  marked  success  in  jury  cases.  He 
was  not  only  a  good  lawyer,  but  he  was  a  good 
business  man  as  well:  in  fact  he  possessed  unusual 
ability  in  that  direction.  He  had  a  correct  judg- 
ment as  to  values,  together  with  admirable  fore- 
sight, and  his  investments,  which  were  many, 
almost  invariably  proved  successful.  In  his 
death,  Freeport  lost  one  of  its  best  citizens  and 
strongest  men. 


134 


BIOCnAl'IIICAL  DICTIONART  AKD  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  TILE 


VOLUNTINE  C  TURNER, 

CHICAGO. 


WITH  the  lasting  work  of  his  great  father 
before  him,  himself  a  witness  of  its  won- 
derful extent  and  magnificent  results,  it  is  small 
wonder  that  Voluntine  C.  Turner  should  have 
turned  from  the  law  to  solve  for  cities  the  problem 
of  rapid  transit,  as  John  Bice  Turner  had  on  a 
more  magnificent  scale,  but  on  a  plan  scarcely 
less  broad,  solved  it  for  vast  areas  of  countn,'. 
When  he  entered  upon  the  pilgrimage  of  life  his 
father  had  not  yet  begun  his  career  as  a  railroad 
builder. 

He  was  born  in  Malta,  Saratoga  -county,  New 
York,  on  the  25th  of  February,  1823,  and  was 
named  in  honor  of  his  mother.  During  his 
early  youth  his  father  became  interested  in  rail- 
roading, and  thus  from  his  childhood  he  was 
somewhat  familiar  with  it. 

His  literary  education  was  begun  in  the  public 
schools,  and,  after  preparation  at  academies  at 
Troy  and  Oxford,  New  York,  he  entered  Will- 
iams College  and  took  the  classical  course,  and 
he  was  thus  engaged  at  the  time  of  his  parents' 
removal  to  Illinois;  but  he  continued  his  studies 
in  the  East  until  his  graduation  at  that  insti- 
tution, in  the  class  of  1846.  He  then  joined  his 
parents  in  Chicago,  and  after  thorough  prepa- 
ration began  practicing  law.  He  spent  ten  years 
in  successful  practice  as  a  partner  of  H.  A.  Clark, 
when  the  connection  was  discontinued  and  a  few 
months  later  he  became  the  partner  of  B.  F. 
Ayer,  their  relation  extending  to  i860,  when  Mr. 
Turner  began  practice  alone.  He  brought  to 
his  law  business  the  same  keen  perception,  log- 
ical reasoning  and  untiring  application  which 
characterized  his  promotion  of  urban  transpor- 
tation.    In  1861  he  joined  his  father  and  William 

B.  Ogden,  Charles  V.  Dyer  and  James  H.  Rees 
in  securing  the  incorporation  of  a  street  railway 
company  to  lay  tracks  on  the  North  Side  and 
operate  with  horse  power.  The  organization  of 
the  company  was  secured  under  the  name  of  the 
North  Side  City  Railway  Company.     Vohuitine 

C.  Turner  was  appointed  secretary  and  treasurer, 
and  served  as  such  until  1865,  when  he  became 
vice-president.     A  little   more    than  two    years 


later  he  became  president,  and  for  the  next  twenty 
years  was  the  wise  and  efficient  head  of  the  com- 
pany, finishing,  improving  and  extending  its 
service  so  that  it  not  only  gave  abundant  satis- 
faction to  citizens  of  the  North  Side  but  also 
became  one  of  the  most  paying  investments  of 
the  city.  The  success  of  the  growing  enterprise 
was  largely  due  to  Mr.  Turner's  executive  abil- 
ity and  competent  management.  Realizing  the 
need  of  rapid  transit,  he  placed  in  operation  a 
system  that  provided  a  means  whereby  a  people 
remote  from  the  commercial  center  might  reach 
their  places  of  business  conveniently  and  quickly. 

After  some  time  the  road  became  an  object 
of  desire  to  a  number  of  capitalists  headed  by 
Charles  T.  Yerkes,  who  secured  the  property  in 
1886  and  converted  the  road  into  the  cable  line, 
now  conducted  under  the  name  of  the  North 
Chicago  Street  Railway. 

At  the  time  of  the  sale  of  the  road  Mr.  Turner 
had  attained  the  age  of  sixty-three  years,  although 
he  appeared  to  be  much  younger;  and,  having 
acquired  considerable  wealth,  he  determined  to 
retire  from  active  life  and  spend  his  remaining 
days  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  well-earned  rest,  with 
the  companionship  of  his  favorite  authors  and 
his  friends,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  the  pleasures  he 
most  enjoys.  He  is  a  man  of  broad  mind,  of 
liberal  general  information  and  scholarly  tastes, 
and  spends  many  of  his  most  delightful  hours 
in  his  fine  library.  His  beautiful  residence  is 
situated  on  the  Lake  Shore  Drive,  and  from  it 
he  makes  occasional  trips  abroad,  visiting  va- 
rious points  of  historical  interest  and  of  beauty. 
The  favorite  sports  of  Mr.  Turner  are  those  of 
the  rod  and  gun,  and  these  he  indulges  each 
summer.  He  is  president  of  the  famous  Pelee 
Club,  which  owns  eight  acres  of  the  island  of 
Pelee,  situated  in  the  midst  of  Lake  Erie,  on  which 
stands  a  palatial  residence.  The  club  member- 
ship numbers  some  of  the  most  prominent  men 
of  Chicago,  New  York  and  Cleveland,  who 
spend  the  months  of  May  and  October  in  this 
delightful  resort,  surrounded  by  the  charms  of 
nature  and  providing  the  means  of  outdoor  sports. 


li^-^. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


185 


There  the  followers  of  Izaak  Walton  tempt,  the 
beauties  of  the  finny  tribe,  and  the  gun  of  the 
hunter  often  awakens  the  echoes.  Among  other 
prominent  members  of  the  club  are  George  M. 
Pullman,  J-  Russell  Jones;  and  the  late  Judge 
Gresliani  and  General  Sheridan  were  also 
members. 

Mr.  Turner  is  a  popular  and  honored  member 
of  the  Union  Club.     He  enjoys  club  life. 

Alen  of  scholarly  tastes  seldom  enter  actively 
into  politics,  and  this  has  been  true  of  Mr.  Tur- 
ner, who  has  been  content  to  leave  political  af- 
fairs in  the  hands  of  others.  During  the  Tilden 
campaign  of  1876,  however,  he  gave  vigorous 
aid  to  the  Democracy,  with  wliich  he  always 
casts  his  ballot. 

In  his  domestic  relations  Mr.  Turner  has  been 
most  liappily  situated.  He  was  first  luarried  to 
Miss  Eliza  Smith,  daughter  of  Colonel  Henry 
Smith,  who  was  a  partner  of  W.  B.  Ogden.  The 
wedding  ceremony  was  performed  on,  the  20th 
of  May,  185 1,  and  for  thirty-five  years  they  trav- 
eled life's  journey  together,  when  death  sepa- 
rated them.  About  the  time  of  his  retirement  to 
private   life   he   was  again   married,   his   second 


union  being  with  Mrs.  Green.  For  a  quarter 
of  a  century  Mr.  Turner  and  his  first  wife  were 
leading  members  of  St.  James  Episcopal  Church ; 
but  on  the  organization  of  the  Central  Church, 
which  convened  in  Central  Music  Hall,  and  over 
which  presided  that  eminent  divine  and  scholar, 
the  lamented  Professor  David  Swing,  Mi.  Tur- 
ner became  one  of  its  active  supporters.  It  is 
often  the  case  that  the  man  of  vast  business  af- 
fairs neglects  the  holier  duties  of  life,  content 
probaljly  with  giving  his  means  for  church  work ; 
but  Mr.  Turner  has  not  only  contributed  liber- 
ally for  the  cause  of  Christianity,  but  has  also 
given  of  his  time  and  energies  for  its  promotion. 
He  is  a  man  of  even  temperament,  calm  and 
self-poised,  of  refined  character,  in  whom  nature 
and  culture  have  vied  in  making  an  honored 
and  interesting  gentleman.  His  erect  form 
and  clear-cut  features  give  no  suggestion 
of  the  fact  that  he  has  already  passed  the 
Psalmist's  span  of  life  of  three-score  years 
and  ten.  Nature  deals  kindly  with  the  man 
who  abuses  not  her  laws,  and  though  his 
business  cares  are  extensive,  age  rests 
lightly     upon     him. 


JOHN  B.  KIRK, 


HONORED  and  respected  by  all,  there  is  no 
man  in  Chicago  who  occupies  a  more  en- 
viable position  than  John  B.  Kirk  in  mercantile 
and  financial  circles,  not  alone  on  account  of  the 
brilliant  success  he  has  achieved,  but  also  on  ac- 
count of  the  honorable,  straightforward  business 
policy  he  has  ever  followed.  He  possesses  un- 
tiring energy,  is  quick  of  perception,  forms  his 
plans  readily  and  is  determined  in  their  execu- 
tion ;  and  his  close  application  to  business  and  his 
excellent  management  have  brought  to  him  the 
high  degree  of  prosperity  which  is  to-day  his. 
It  is  true  that  he  became  interested  in  a  business 
already  established,  but  in  controlling  and  en- 
larging such  an  enterprise  many  a  man  of  even 
considerable  resolute  purpose,  courage  and  in- 
dustry would  have  failed;  and  he  has  demon- 
strated the  truth  of  the  saying  that  success  is  not 


the  result  of  genius,  but  the  outcome  of  a  clear 
judgment  and   experience. 

From  sturdy  Scotch  ancestry  Mr.  Kirk  is  de- 
scended, and  the  sterling  traits  of  character  of  that 
people  have  left  their  impress  upon  him. 

His  father  was  a  ship  builder  and  civil  engineer 
of  prominence,  in  Glasgow,  Scotland,  where 
James  S.  was  born,  in  1818.  When  he  wa^a  child 
six  months  old,  the  family  moved  to  Montreal, 
where  his  childhood  and  earlier  manhood  days 
were  passed.  After  receiving  a  thorough  aca- 
demic education  (graduating  at  the  Montreal 
Academic  Institute),  he  entered  the  lumber  busi- 
ness, and  personally  superintended  the  camp  in 
the  woods  and  the  drive  down  the  Ottawa  river. 
When  scarcely  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Nancy  Ann  Dunning,  at  Ottawa  (then 
known  as  Bytown),  and  removed  to  the  United 


136 


BIOGRAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


States,  making  Utica,  New  York,  his  home.  He 
immediately  began  the  manufacture  of  soap  and 
perfumes,  and  thus,  in  1839,  founded  the  house 
of  James  S.  Kirk  &  Company,  which  has  become 
the  largest  establishment  of  its  kind,  not  only  m 
the  United  States,  but  even  in  the  world. 

In  1859,  James  S.  Kirk  and  his  family  removed 
to  Chicago,  and  continued  in  the  soap  manufac- 
turing business.  With  the  exception  of  the  dis- 
astrous efifects  of  the  fire  of  1871,  the  prosperity 
of  the  house  has  been  uninterrupted.  For  fifty 
years  the  stern  old  churchman  (for  all  his  life  he 
was  an  earnest  and  consistent  Christian)  had 
striven  to  perfect  the  business  scheme  of  his  life. 
Success  crowned  his  efforts,  and  he  was  enabled 
to  pass  his  declining  years  in  well-earned  retire- 
ment in  a  luxurious  home  in  South  Evanston. 

The  ground  that  the  manufacturing  plant  of 
James  S.  Kirk  &  Company  covers  is  the  historical 
site  of  the  first  house  ever  erected  in  Chicago. 
Less  than  a  century  has  passed  since  then,  and  no 
more  fitting  comparison  can  be  drawn  than  the 
statement  that  the  spot  where  a  solitary  hermit 
made  his  abode  ninety-odd  years  ago  is  now  cov- 
ered by  a  manufacturing  plant  that  has  an  output 
greater  than  any  of  its  kind  in  the  entire  world. 

The  business  is  still  continued  under  the  same 
name  under  which  it  was  organized,  an  uninter- 
rupted period  of  fifty-two  years,  and  it  is 
now  one  of  the  very  few  establishments  (if  not 
the  only  one)  in  the  United  States  that  have 
passed  through  a  half  century  of  existence  with- 
out change  of  name.  The  pride  which  the  family 
take  in  the  record  of  James  S.  Kirk  will  undoubt- 
edly cause  it  to  be  unchanged  for  many  decades. 

The  Northwestern  University,  located  in  Evans- 
ton,  that  most  beautiful  of  Chicago's  suburbs,  al- 
ways found  in  James  S.  Kirk  a  warm  champion  and 
firm  fri<!hd.  His  family  still  follows  his  desires  in 
regard  to  assisting  this  worthy  educational  insti- 
tution, and  take  great  and  honest  pride  in  assist- 
ing both  financially  and  personally  any  deserving 
and  needy  cause  that  will  advance  the  people  to 
a  higher  degree  of  education.  Mr.  Kirk  was  es- 
teemed as  a  scholarly  gentleman;  he  was  very 
highly  educated,  and  took  great  interest  in  every- 
thing pertaining  to  higher  cultivation. 

In  summing  up  the  events  of  his  life,  it  can 
most  truly  be  stated  that  there  never  was  a  resi- 


dent of  Cliicago  who  was  more  highly  respected 
and  esteemed  than  he  was.  During  the  years  of 
his  life  he  was  looked  upon  as  a  model  of  honor 
and  an  example  of  the  truly  honest  business  man. 
He  ever  endeavored  to  instill  into  the  minds  of 
his  sons  the  honorable  principles  that  placed  him 
on  such  an  elevated  pedestal.  That  his  descend- 
ants have  treasured  his  desires  and  his  good  pre- 
cepts, is  proven  by  the  universal  respect  and  es- 
teem in  which  all  members  of  his  family  are 
held. 

On  the  fifteenth  day  of  June,  1886,  in  the 
bosom  of  Iiis  family,  he  passed  peacefully  and 
quietly  away  from  this  earth,  like  one  fully  con- 
scious of  meeting  in  a  more  sanctified  place  those 
nearest  and  dearest  to  him. 

By  the  death  of  James  S.  Kirk,  the  city  of 
Chicago  lost  one  of  its  most  respected  citizens, 
its  business  community  one  of  its  brightest 
lights,  and  the  cause  of  education  one  of  its 
strongest  champions. 

If  a  son  follows  in  the  footsteps  of  an  honored 
father  he  adds  new  luster  to  a  name  that  already 
shines  with  the  glorj'  of  noble  achievements. 
This  has  John  B.  Kirk  done.  He  was  born  in 
Utica,  New  York,  November  8,  1842,  and  was 
the  second  .son  of  the  family.  He  acquired  his 
education  in  the  city  of  his  birth,  and  upon  en- 
tering upon  his  business  career  joined  his  father 
in  the  manufacture  of  soap.  In  1859  this  enter- 
prise took  root  in  Chicago,  to  grow  and  increase 
until  the  plant  exceeds  in  dimensions  any  other  of 
like  character  in  the  world,  and  the  annual  out- 
put exceeds  seventy  millions  pounds  of  soap,  in 
addition  to  which  there  are  various  other  articles 
manufactured  in  vast  quantities.  It  is  a  matter 
of  interest  that  the  immense  factory  is  located  on 
the  site  of  the  first  house  ever  erected  in  Chicago, 
and  not  yet  has  a  century  passed.  The  fact  that 
that  spot  now  upholds  the  largest  soap  manufac- 
tory in  the  world  indicates  the  wonderful  and 
almost  phenomenal  growth  of  the  city,  a  growth 
with  which  the  business  of  the  Kirk  Company 
has  kept  fully  abreast.  When  the  sons  were  old 
enough  to  enter  the  business  they  were  taken 
into  partnership,  under  the  name  of  James  S. 
Kirk  &  Company,  and  this  style  has  since  been 
retained,  an  uninterrupted  period  of  fifty-four 
years,  and  in  honor  to  their  fatlier  the  name  will 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


137 


probably  be  retained  while  the  sons  have  control 
of  the  business.  The  success  of  the  industry 
was  assured  from  the  start,  and  only  once  has 
disaster  overtaken  it,  when,  in  the  great  fire  cf 
1871,  it  was  destroyed  by  the  flames;  but  the 
firm  was  reorganized  immediately,  and  through 
the  hearty  co-operation  of  all  the  members  of  the 
Kirk  family  the  business  was  soon  on  a  substan- 
tial footing,  and  it  has  continued  ou  the  road  to 
prosperity  ever  since.  Through  the  ingenuity 
of  John  B.  Kirk  and  his  brothers,  the  process  of 
manufacturing  soap  has  been  revolutionized  and 
many  labor-saving  methods  have  been  devised. 

The  attention  of  Mr.  Kirk  has  not  been  wholly 
confined  to  the  soap  industry.  He  has  been  in 
tcrested  in  banking,  and  his  recognized  ability  as 
a  financier  led  the  directors  of  the  American  Ex- 
change Bank  to  choose  him  for  the  position  of 
vice-president,  and  later  he  was  made  president, 
in  which  capacity  he  has  served  since  1889.  It 
was  his  desire  in  early  life  to  enter  the  medical 
profession,  and  had  it  not  been  his  father's  wish 
for  the  son  to  join  him  in  business,  John  B.  Kirk 
would  probably  have  become  an  eminent  physi- 
cian, for  he  would  never  have  been  content  with 
mediocrity;  and  the  same  perseverance  which  has 
characterized  his  commercial  life  would  have 
gained  him  prominence  in  that  line. 

On  the  4th  of  October,  1866,  Mr.  Kirk  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Susanna  MacVean, 
daughter  of  Donald  MacVean,  a  refined  and 
cultured  lady  who  holds  a  high  position  in  social 
circles,  and  devotes  much  of  her  life  to  charitable 
and  church  work.  She  is  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  actively  interested 
in  home  and  foreign  missionary  societies,  and  a 
liberal  supporter  of  the  Guild  University  and  the 
Hull  House,  most  worthy  institutions.  In  the 
family  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kirk  were  five  children, 
but  the  second,  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  died  in 
infancy.  The  others  are  James  M.,  Frederick  I., 
Josephine  and  Susanna. 

In  his  political  views,  Mr.  Kirk  is  a  Republican, 
inclined  to  conservatism.  For  one  term  he  served 
as  president  of  the  city  council  of  South  Evans- 
ton,  and  has  always  been  active  in  promoting  the 
best  interests  of  this  beautiful  suburb  and  of  the 
city.  The  Northwestern  University,  one  of  the 
most  important  educational   institutions   of   the 


West,  has  found  in  him  a  true  friend,  and  for  ten 
years  he  has  served  as  a  member  of  its  executive 
committee  of  board  of  trustees.  All  worthy  ob- 
jects that  have  the  improvement  of  facilities  for 
advancing  the  citizens  of  this  country  in  educa- 
tion find  in  him  a  ready  and  willing  sympathizer, 
and  his  own  literary  tastes  are  shown  in  the  fine 
library  in  his  own  home,  containing  more  than 
fifteen  hundred  standard  volumes.  Public  and 
private  charities  receive  his  support,  and  no  de- 
serving object  is  ever  refused  his  aid.  He  has 
a  deep  and  sincere  sympathy  for  those  who  have 
a  hard  struggle  to  overcome  the  difficulties  and 
hardships  of  life,  and  is  especially  ready  to  help 
those  who  are  willing  to  help  themselves,  and 
quick  to  recognize  and  rewanl  merit  in  those  in 
his  employ. 

Oratory  and  elocution  are  two  of  the  grandest 
of  man's  accomplishments,  and  to  stimulate  these 
arts  Mr.  Kirk  has  donated  an  annual  prize  of 
$100  to  be  rewarded  to  the  successful  competitor 
in  the  annual  oratorical  contest  held  by  the  senior 
students  of  the  University.  One  of  the  most  in- 
teresting and  longed-for  events  is  this  annual 
contest,  and  who  knows  but  the  desire  of  winning 
this  prize  may  be  the  means  of  developing  the 
talents  of  one  who  may  win  rank  among  the 
statesmen  of  the  world? 

Mr.  Kirk  is  an  honored  anrl  valued  member 
of  various  societies,  civic  and  social.  He  belongs 
to  the  Union  League  Club,  the  Union  Club,  the 
Washington  Park  Club,  the  Tolleston  Club  and 
the  Chicago  Athletic  Club,  and  w^as  a  charter 
or  early  member  of  most  of  them.  He  is  also 
connected  with  the  Country  Club,  the  Boat  Club 
and  the  Evanston  Club,  of  Evanston.  He  be- 
came a  member  of  Evans  Lodge,  No.  524,  F. 
&  A.  M.,  in  which  he  served  as  senior  warden; 
Evanston  Chapter,  No.  144,  R.  A.  M. ;  Evans- 
ton Commandery,  No.  58,  K.  T.;  Oriental  Con- 
sistory, and  the  Medinah  Temple  of  the  Mystic 
Shrine. 

The  career  of  John  B.  Kirk  has  ever  been 
such  as  to  warrant  the  trust  and  confidence  of 
the  business  world,  for  he  has  ever  conducted 
all  transactions  on  the  strictest  principles  of  honor 
and  integrity.  His  devotion  to  the  public  good 
is  unquestioned  and  arises  from  a  sincere  inter- 
est in  the    welfare  of    his  fellow  men.       What 


138 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DWTIONAnT  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


the  world  needs  is  such  men, — men  capable  of 
managing  extensive,  gigantic  mercantile  con- 
cerns, and  conducting  business  on  terms  that 
are  fair  alike  to  employer  and  employee, — men  of 


genuine  worth,  of  unquestioned  integrity  and 
honor, — and  then  the  questions  of  oppression  by 
capitalists  and  resistance  and  violence  by  labor- 
ers will  be  forever  at  rest. 


ISAAC  LEONARD  ELLWOOD, 


THERE  arc  no  rules  for  building  characters; 
there  is  no  rule  for  achieving  success.  The 
man  who  can  rise  from  the  ranks  to  a  position 
of  eminence  is  he  who  can  see  and  utilize  the  op- 
portunities that  surround  his  path.  The  essen- 
tial conditions  of  human  lif;  are  ever  the  same, 
the  surroundings  of  individuals  differ  but  slightly ; 
and,  when  one  man  passes  another  on  the  high- 
wax-  to  reach  the  goal  of  prosperity  before  others 
who  perhaps  started  out  before  him,  it  is  because 
he  has  the  power  to  use  advantages  which  prob- 
ably encompass  the  whole  human  race.  To-day 
among  the  most  prominent  business  men  of  the 
entire  West,  stands  Mr.  Ellwood;  and  his  name 
at  once  brings  to  mind  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant industries  of  the  country.  The  history  of  such 
a  man  cannot  fail  to  be  of  wide-spread  interest, 
for  he  ranks  high  in  commercial  circles  in  the 
Prairie  State,  which  has  given  to  the  Union  some 
of  its  most  eminent  professional  and  business 
men. 

Mr.  Ellwood  was  bom  at  Salt  Springville, 
Montgomery  county,  New  York,  August  3,  1833, 
and  is  the  seventh  son  of  Abraham  and  Sarah 
(Delong)  Ellw^ood.  He  obtained  a  common- 
school  education  such  as  the  period  and  place 
afforded,  and  entered  upon  his  life  work  at  an 
early  age,  driving  a  team  on  the  Erie  canal,  for 
$10  a  month.  Subsequently  he  secured  a  clerk- 
ship and  was  employed  as  a  salesman  until  eigh- 
teen years  of  age.  The  discovery  of  gold  in  Cali- 
fornia attracted  him,  and,  with  the  hope  of  bet- 
tering his  financial  condition  and  more  rapidly 
acquiring  wealth,  he  made  his  way  to  California, 
in  1851,  and  spent  about  four  years  on  the  Pacific 
slope. 

After  a  year's  experience  as  a  miner  he  resumed 
clerking  in  Sacramento;  and  though  he  did  not 
win  a  fortune  in  a  few  months  he  lived  frugally, 


and  as  the  result  of  his  industry  and  perseverance 
he  accumulated  some  little  capital,  which  enabled 
him  to  secure  a  start  in  business  for  himself.  But 
the  far  West  was  not  the  field  in  which  he  wished 
to  enter  upon  his  mercantile  career,  and  journey- 
ing eastward  we  find  him,  in  1855,  conducting 
a  little  hardware  store  in  the  village  of  De  Kalb, 
Illinois.  The  future  millionaire  therefore  had  a 
humble  beginning.  The  story  of  his  life  might 
be  plainly  told — a  record  of  close  application  to 
business,  of  resolute  purpose  and  unfaltering  in- 
dustry. In  the  little  hardware  establishment  he 
sold  stoves  or  nails,  just  as  the  patrons  wished, 
always  endeavoring  to  accommodate  them,  and 
by  his  fair  and  honest  dealing  won  the  public 
confidence  and  the  public  trade.  For  twenty 
years  that  business  was  carried  on,  increasing  in 
importance  and  profit  as  time  went  by.  Nor  did 
he  confine  his  efforts  alone  to  the  hardware  trade. 
He  began  auctioneering  in  the  locality,  and  his 
quick  thought,  keen  comprehension  and  readi- 
ness with  which  he  grasped  the  situation  won  him 
success  in  this  undertaking,  and  he  gained  a  repu- 
tation that  caused  his  services  to  be  in  demand  in 
distant  sections  of  the  State. 

Upon  the  broad  prairies  of  the  West,  where 
the  land  was  so  rich  and  suitable  for  farming 
purposes,  the  agriculturists  met  with  one  seem- 
ingly almost  insurmountable  difficulty.  The  land 
was  comparatively  cheap,  and  they  secured  large 
farms;  and,  in  order  not  to  overstep  the  bounds 
of  one  another's  property,  and  also  to  keep  away 
stock  from  their  crops,  they  must  have  fences. 
It  was  expensive  to  secure  lumber  for  this  pur- 
pose, as  it  had  to  be  shipped  in,  and  then  the 
board  or  rail  fences  were  continually  being 
broken  dowTi  and  there  was  a  pressing  need 
which  nothing  seemed  to  meet. 

J.  F.  Glidden  invented  what  is  to-day  known  as 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


139 


the  Glidden  barb  wire.  Mr.  Elhvood  assisted 
in  obtaining  patents  and  had  a  half  interest  in 
the  invention.  In  1876  Mr.  Ghdden  sold  his  in- 
terest to  the  Washburn  &  Moen  Manufacturing 
Company,  and  they  together,  after  a  litigation 
of  some  years,  granted  licenses  to  various  fac- 
tories. Through  ^Ir.  Ellwood's  influence  and 
foresight,  all  of  the  underlying  and  first  patents 
on  barb  wire  and  machinery  for  making  the  same 
were  combined  together,  enabling  him,  with  the 
assistance  of  others,  to  build  up  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  successful  business  enterprises  in  the 
history  of  this  countn,-. 

For  forty  years  farming  was  carried  on  in  this 
section  of  the  United  States  with  the  same  need 
of  fencing  material;  yet  not  until  the  year  men- 
tioned did  any  one  take  advantage  of  the  oppor- 
ttniitx-  to  give  the  world  this  important  inven- 
tion. 

For  a  time  Mr.  Ellwood  was  associated,  in  the 
n^anufacture  of  barb  wire,  with  J.  F.  Glidden,  antl 
afterward  with  the  Washburn  &  Moen  Manufac- 
turing Company,  of  Worcester,  ^lassachusetts. 
This  connection  continued  for  some  time,  but  ^Ir. 
Elhvood  is  now  exclusive  owner  and  manager 
of  the  large  manufacturing  establishment  at  De 
Kalb,  doing  business  under  the  firm  name  of  the 
I.  L.  Elhvood  Manufacturing  Company.  When 
he  was  associated  with  ^Ir.  Glidden  he  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  business  management  of  the 
firm,  and  to  his  tact  and  business  ability  may  be 
attributed  in  no  small  measure  the  success  of  the 
enterprise. 

From  time  to  time  improvements  have  of 
course  been  made.  Countless  objections  were 
urged  against  the  new  fencing  material,  but  this 
was  to  be  expected,  for  no  successful  invention 
ever  came  at  once  into  general  use.  Its  utility, 
however,  was  soon  demonstrated,  and  the  sales 
increased  rapidly  after  a  time.  The  fencing  be- 
gan to  be  used  not  only  by  the  farmers  but  also 
l)y  the  railroad  companies;  and  although  the 
railroad  corporations  were  loath  at  first  to  accept 
the  invention  they  have  to-day  thousands  of  miles 
i)f  road  inclosed  with  barb-wire  fence.  In  order 
to  turn  out  this  material  at  a  lower  cost,  it  was 
seen  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  autom- 
atic machiners-,  which  was  secured  through  the 
efforts  of  Mr.  Ellwood.    This  machine  was  made 


for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  raw  wire  from  the 
coil,  barb,  twist  and  spool  it  ready  for  use;  and 
in  perfecting  this  invention  over  one  million  dol- 
lars were  spent;  but  the  result  was  at  length 
attained,  and  one  machine  was  able  to  do  the 
work  of  eight  men  and  do  it  more  perfectly. 

The  works  of  the  I.  L.  Elhvood  IManufactur- 
ing  Company  are  very  extensive.  The  main 
building  is  61x400  feet  in  dimensions,  and  is  sup- 
plied with  every  device  for  perfect  workmanship 
known  to  the  business.  In  addition  there  is  also 
a  large  store  house,  100x160  feet,  and  in  this 
establishment  employment  is  furnished  to  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  men.  The  capacity  of 
these  works  is  ten  carloads  of  finished  fencing 
every  ten  hours.  While  others  also  are  engaged 
in  the  manufacture  of  barb  wire,  it  is  a  widely  rec- 
ognized fact  throughout  the  countr\'  that  this  in- 
dustry owes  its  successful  establishment  to  Mr. 
Ellwood;  and  to-day  he  is  at  the  head  of  the 
business.  His  pride  in  his  success  comes  not 
from  the  pecuniary  reward  that  it  has  brought 
to  him,  but  from  the  means  it  has  afforded  him 
for  benefiting  others. 

He  is  a  man  of  fine  personal  appearance  and 
commanding  presence.  His  ambition  has  been 
to  acquit  himself  of  life's  duties  honorably  before 
all  men,  to  improve  his  capabilities  and  oppor- 
tunities and  to  become  of  use  in  the  world;  and 
it  is  this  spirit  mainly  that  has  made  the  little 
farmer  boy  of  New  York  one  of  the  most  eminent 
business  men  of  the  West. 

In  his  political  principles  ^Ir.  Ellwood  is  an 
unswerving  Republican,  devoted  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  his  party,  yet  has  never  sought  or 
desired  political  preferment,  having  held  no 
office  save  that  of  alderman  of  De  Kalb.  In 
his  character  there  is  something  he  obtained  in 
the  primitive  schools  where  he  was  educated, 
and  in  his  early  farming  experiences  something 
that  might  be  termed  solidity  of  puqDOse,  and 
which  is  a  characteristic  worthy  of  emulation. 
His  school  privileges  were  meager,  yet  in  the 
school  of  experience  he  has  learned  lessons  that 
have  made  him  a  well-informed  man,  broad- 
minded  and  liberal  in  his  views  and  with  a  char- 
ity that  reaches  out  to  all  humanity.  He  is  truly 
benevolent,  and  the  poor  and  needy  count  him 
among  their  friends,  for  no  worthy  one  sought 


140 


DIOORAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


his  aid  in  vain.  His  chief  delight  in  life  seems 
to  have  been  to  serve  his  fellow  men,  and  help- 
fulness might  be  termed  the  keynote  of  his  char- 
acter. 

On  the  27th  of  January,  1859,  at  the  home  of 
William  A.  Miller  of  De  Kalb,  was  celebrated  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  Elhvood  and  Miss  Harriet  jNIil- 
ler.  They  have  had  seven  children,  four  sons 
and  three  daughters,  of  whom  two  sons  and  three 
daughters  are  living.     The   eldest,  William   L., 


has  for  several  years  been  engaged  in  importing 
and  breeding  French  draft  horses,  making  annual 
trips  to  France  and  personally  attending  to 
the  purchase  of  his  stock.  He  has  entire 
charge  of  the  Ellwood  stock  farms,  lo- 
cated in  the  vicinity  of  De  Kalb  and  con- 
taining some  three  thousand  and  four  hun- 
dred acres,  all  in  a  high  state  of  cultivation 
and  with  all  modern  improvements  for 
stock-raising. 


OZIAS  M.  HATCH, 


.SPRINGFIELD. 


HON.  OZIAS  MATHER  HATCH,  a  dis- 
tinguished citizen  of  Springfield,  secretary 
of  State  from  1856  to  1865  and  one  of  the  found- 
ers and  most  active  members  of  the  National 
Lincoln  Monument  Association,  was  bom  at 
Hillsboro  Center,  New  Hampshire,  April  11, 
18 1 4,  and  died  at  his  home,  1005  North  Seventh 
street,  Springfield,  Illinois,  on  March  12,  1893. 

His  father,  Dr.  Reuben  Hatch,  born  June 
29,  1787,  at  Alstead,  New  Hampshire,  prac- 
ticed medicine  in  that  State  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  and  was  highly  esteemed  both  as  a 
citizen  and  as  a  physician.  He  resided  at  Hills- 
boro during  nearly  the  whole  of  this  period,  and 
Lucy  Andrews,  his  first  wife  and  the  mother  of 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  the  daughter  of 
one  of  the  best-known  citizens  of  that  place.  In 
1835  Dr.  Hatch  removed  to  Griggsville,  Pike 
county,  Illinois,  taking  with  him  his  household 
effects  and  traveling  overland  with  his  own  teams. 
He  was  accompanied  by  his  wife,  his  two 
daughters  and  seven  of  his  eight  sons, — Ozias, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  not  joining  the  family 
until  the  following  year.  Upon  the  death  of  his 
first  wife  Dr.  Hatch  married  INIiss  Ann  Stratton, 
who  died  without  leaving  issue.  For  his  third 
wife  the  Doctor  married  jSIiss  Mary  Ann  Gilmore, 
of  Newport,  New  Hampshire,  who  bore  him  one 
child,  a  daughter,  Lucy  Ann,  now  the  wife  of  D. 
Walker  Cree  of  Griggsville.  Dr.  Hatch  died  in 
1868.  Of  his  large  fainily  by  his  first  wife  only 
two  sons  and  one  daughter  survive:  Isaac  A. 
Hatch,  a  banker,  and  Franklin  Hatch,  a  farmer, 


both   residing   at   Griggsville,   and    Mrs.    Daniel 
B.  Bush,  of  Portland,  Oregon. 

Ozais  Mather  Hatch,  the  subject  proper  of  this 
sketch,  was  the  third  child  of  Dr.  Reuben  and 
Lucy  (Andrews)  Hatch.  He  received  the  or- 
dinary education  incident  to  New  England,  at- 
tending the  district  school  in  winter  and 
working  on  his  father's  farm  during  the  summer 
season,  supplemented  by  a  brief  attendance  at  a 
private  school  and  academy.  His  father  desired 
that  he  should  study  medicine,  the  family  profes- 
sion, but  he  preferred  business  pursuits,  and  at 
the  early  age  of  fifteen  left  home,  worked  his 
way  to  Boston,  and  for  seven  years  was  clerk  in 
a  wholesale  and  retail  grocery  store;  and  it  was 
while  he  was  employed  there  that  his  father  and 
family  removed  to  Illinois,  as  above  stated.  In 
1836  he  joined  them  at  Griggsville,  and  shortly 
afterward  he  engaged  in  a  general  merchandising 
business  there,  as  a  partner  of  his  brother,  Isaac 
A.  Hatch,  and  David  Hoyt,  the  firm  name  being 
Isaac  A.  Hatch  &  Company.  Two  years  later 
this  firm  was  dissolved.  ^Ir.  Ozias  M.  Hatch 
went  to  the  Eastern  cities  and  purchased  a  stock 
of  goods,  with  which  he  returned  to  Griggsville 
and  opened  a  new  store,  as  a  partner  of  Solomon 
McNeil,  under  the  style  of  McNeil  &  Hatch.  Tn 
1 84 1  he  retired  from  this  firm  to  accept  the  posi- 
tion of  clerk  of  the  circuit  court  of  Pike  county, 
to  which  he  had  been  appointed  by  Judge  Samuel 
D.  Lockwood.  He  served  seven  years  in  this 
capacity,  displaying  high  integrity  and  ability  in 
the  discharge  of  his  duties  and  the  utmost  zeal  in 


^  Pn.  ^u.tc^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


141 


the  public  service.  At  tlie  expiration  of  his  term 
he  re-engaged  in  business,  becoming  the  partner 
of  his  brother,  R.  B.  Hatch,  in  the  firm  of  R.  B. 
Hatch  &  Company,  which  opened  a  general  store 
at  Meredosia,  Illinois. 

Mr.  Hatch  came  prominently  into  politics  in 
1851,  when  he  was  elected  to  the  State  legislature, 
serving  one  term.  He  had  always  been  a  pro- 
nounced abolitionist,  and  his  fearless  denuncia- 
tion of  slavery,  which  he  regarded  as  the  greatest 
blight  of  modern  civilization,  although  making 
some  enemies  of  the  old  pro-slavery  element,  se- 
cured for  him  the  admiration  and  fast  friendship 
of  the  great  body  of  earnest  men  who  were  de- 
termined to  check  and  eventually  exterminate  this 
evil.  In  1856  he  was  nominated  by  the  newly 
orgajiized  Republican  party  for  the  office  of 
secretary  of  State  of  Illinois,  running  on  the 
ticket  headed  by  the  Hon.  William  H.  Bissell  for 
governor.  He  was  elected  by  a  flattering  vote, 
and  gave  the  people  so  efficient  an  administration 
of  the  secretar\ship  that  he  increased  his  popu- 
larity and  the  number  of  his  friends  In  every  part 
of  the  State.  In  i860  he  was  honored  by  a  re- 
nomination,  and  was  elected  by  one  of  the  largest 
votes  ever  polled  in  the  State.  After  the  death  of 
Governor  Bissell,  Mr.  Hatch  performed  the 
duties  of  governor  as  well  as  those  of  secretary 
of  State,  as  the  lieutenant  governor,  John  Wood, 
preferred  to  remain  at  his  home  in  Ouincy, 
where  he  had  large  business  interests. 

Mr.  Hatch's  second  term  as  secretary  of  State 
was  served  during  the  administration  of  Governor 
Yates,  famous  as  the  "War  Governor"  of  Illinois. 
_It  covered  the  period  of  the  outbreak  and  progress 
of  the  Civil  war,  and  by  reason  of  the  delicate 
questions  arising  beforehand  and  the  grave  and 
arduous  duties  during  the  struggle  demanded  a 
high  order  of  character,  ability  and  patriotism. 
In  none  of  these  was  Secretary  Hatch  deficient. 
He  had  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  his  party, 
and  the  whole  mass  of  loyal  citizens  was  in  per- 
fect accord  with  the  chief,  the  earnest  and  patriotic 
Yates.  In  the  work  of  organizing  troops  for  the 
defense  of  the  Union  he  bore  a  conspicuous  part. 
Some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  this  work  may  be 
gleaned  from  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  Illinois 
had  sixty  thousand  armed  men  in  the  field  as 
early  as  Januan'  i,  1862, — some  sixteen  thousand 


in  excess  of  its  quota.  Mr.  Hatch  was  in  a  po- 
sition, as  secretary  of  State,  to  become  almost 
wealthy  by  charging  fees  for  the  issuance  of  com- 
missions, as  allowed  by  law,  but  his  heart  was  too 
deeply  in  sympathy  with  the  Union  cause  and  he 
"voluntarily  resigned  to  the  soldiers  the  fees  to 
which  he  was  entitled  for  such  commissions." 
While  the  war  was  in  progress  he  visited  the  sol- 
diers at  the  front — notably  at  the  great  battle- 
field of  Shiloh — and  was  unwearying  in  his  ef- 
forts to  aid  the  wounded  and  sick,  and  to  secure 
for  all  every  comfort  possible. 

At  the  close  of  his  second  term  as  secretary  of 
State,  the  war  being  practically  ended,  he  declined 
a  re-election,  and  was  never  afterward  an  active 
politician,  although  he  continued  to  take  the  liveli- 
est interest  in  public  affairs  and  remained  closely 
identified  with  his  party  down  to  the  day  of  his 
death.  During  his  public  life  ^Ir.  Hatch  en- 
joyed the  closest  contact  with  the  greatest  states- 
men and  soldiers  of  the  period.  His  admiration 
and  friendship  for  Abraham  Lincoln  were  intense, 
and  were  cordially  reciprocated.  It  was  at  a 
meeting  held  in  Mr.  Hatch's  office,  and  at  which 
he  was  one  of  the  prime  movers,  that  the  first 
steps  were  taken  toward  organization  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  to  Abraham  Lincoln  the  nom- 
ination for  president.  He  was  in  a  certain 
sense  the  right  hand  of  Governor  Yates  in  the 
able  and  successful  efforts  of  the  latter  to  keep 
the  great  State  of  Illinois  in  the  foremost  rank  as 
regards  fidelity  to  the  Federal  Government  and 
the  Union  cause.  His  death  removed  the  last 
living  representative  of  the  State  officers  of  the 
administrations  of  Governors  Bissell  and  Yates. 

Mr.  Hatch's  faith  in  the  development  of  his 
adopted  State  never  wavered,  and  it  was  through 
investments  in  her  rich  soil,  so  fruitful  in  re- 
sources, that  he  became  one  of  the  well-to-do 
men  of  Sangamon  county.  His  farming  inter- 
ests have  thus,  of  late  years,  partially  occupied 
his  attention.  He  was  a  public-spirited  citizen 
and  prominent  in  various  local  enterprises  of 
Springfield,  where  he  resided  after  his  election  as 
secretary  of  State.  He  was  vice-president  and 
director  of  the  Sangamon  Loan  and  Trust  Com- 
pany from  the  date  of  its  organization  until  his 
death.  In  the  spring  of  1870  he  and  his  brother 
Isaac  foimded  a  bank  at  Griggsville,  under  the 


142 


BIOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


firm  name  of  Hatch  &  Brother.  In  1873  this 
was  reorganized  as  a  national  bank,  in  which  he 
continued  interested.  He  was  also  concerned 
to  some  extent  in  railroad  enterprises,  being  one 
of  the  founders  and  builders  of  the  Hannibal  & 
Naples  Railroad. 

His  great  friendship  and  love  for  Abraham 
Lincoln  were  distinguishing  traits  of  his  life. 
He  was  one  of  the  original  members,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  most  active,  of  the  National 
Lincoln  Monument  Association,  temporarily  or- 
ganized in  April,  1865,  and  permanently  and 
legally  incorporated  in  January,  following.  In 
company  with  ex-Governor  Richard  J.  Oglesby 
he  made  a  canvass  of  the  larger  Eastern  cities  to 
]>rocure  funds  for  piu-chasing  the  handsome  statu- 
ary on  the  Lincoln  Monument  at  Springfield,  and 
on  this  mission  his  personal  popularity,  added 
to  the  magnetism  of  the  genial  ex-governor,  was 
attended  with  flattering  results.  Mr.  Hatch  was 
a  man  of  warm  sympathies  and  charitable  in- 
stincts. His  disposition  was  kindly  and  genial 
and  his  manner  cordial.  His  popularity  was 
unbounded:  wherever  he  went  he  made  warm 
friends.  Few  State  officers  have  received  the 
confidence  of  the  general  public  to  so  large  an 
extent  as  he,  and  no  one  could  have  merited  it 
better.  In  his  death  the  State  of  Illinois  lost  one 
of  its  most  able  and  patriotic  public  men,  and 
the  people  one  who  was  ardently  in  sympathy 
with  every  worthy  cause. 

Mr.  Hatch  was  married  in  i860  to  Miss  Julia 
R.  Enos,  daughter  of  Pascal  P.  Enos,  who,  with 
the  assistance  of  Elijah  lies,  John  Taylor  and 
Thomas  Cox,  laid  out  the  city  of  Springfield. 
This  marriage  identified  him  with  one  of  the 
pioneer  and  honored  families  of  the  county. 
IMrs.  Hatch  survives  her  husband;  also  three  of 
their  children, — Ozias  M.  Hatch,  Jr.,  Pascal  E. 
Hatch  and  Frank  I.  Hatch,  the  last  named  a  stu- 
dent at  the  Harvard  Law  School  at  the  time  of 
his  father's  death. 

One  of  Mr.  Hatch's  most  intimate  friends.  Dr. 
William  Jayne,  of  Springfield,  writes  of  him  as 
follows:  "As  a  summary  of  the  moral  and  in- 
tellectual organization  of  the  mind  and  character 
of  Mr.  Hatch,  I  venture  to  assert  that  no  living 
man  could  persuade  him  to  say  that  good  was 
evil,  or  evil  good,  contrary'  to  the  convictions  of 


his  conscience.  He  was,  from  his  early  man- 
hood to  the  last  days  of  his  mature  life,  a  man, 
not  of  impressions  or  opinions,  but  of  convictions. 
As  early  as  the  days  of  the  Alton  riots,  when 
Lovejoy  was  murdered  in  defense  of  the  liberty 
of  the  press,  Mr.  Hatch  was  known  far  and  wide 
as  a  decided  anti-slavery  man.  Tliis  proud  po- 
sition he  never  yielded  until  slavery  was  abol- 
ished by  constitutional  enactment  and  the  Union 
restored  by  the  resounding  tramp  of  a  million 
armed  men. 

"By  birth  and  blood,  by  ancestry  and  educa- 
tion, Mr.  Hatch  was  a  gentleman,  endowed  by 
nature  with  a  commanding  presence,  dignified 
deportment,  refined  manner  and  pleasing  address. 
He  possessed  that  happy  gift  of  making  friends, 
and  that  still  more  valuable  tact  of  character  of 
holding  fast  those  made.  Hence  it  came  that 
the  friends  of  his  earlier  years  were  the  most 
attached  friends  of  his  mature  and  advanced  days. 
His  social  and  political  associates  were  the  lead- 
ing and  most  influential  men  of  the  State  and 
nation.  His  true  and  tried  friends  were  Lincoln, 
Trumbull,  Yates,  Oglesby,  Palmer,  Grimshaw, 
Taylor,  Hurlburt,  Du  Bois, — and  in  fact  all  that 
coterie  of  public  men  who  gave  form,  force, 
charm  and  prestige  to  that  potent  party  which 
made  Illinois  a  power  for  good  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  and  gave  to  our  glorious  common- 
w-ealth  such  a  conspicuous  part  during  those  per- 
ilous years  when  liberty  and  civilization  were 
trembling  undecided  in  the  balance.  His  per- 
sonal popularity  in  the  most  fiercely  contested 
elections  carried  him  far  beyond  a  strict  party 
vote.  This  fact  is  best  illustrated  by  the  sim- 
ple statement  that  in  the  presidential  elections 
of  1856  and  i860,  when  politics  were  at  a 
white  heat,  running  on  the  same  ticket  with 
the  hero  of  Pjuena  Vista,  the  gallant  Bis- 
sell,  in  1856,  and  with  Lincoln  and  Yates  in 
i860,  Mr.  Hatch  led  the  ticket  from  1,000  to 
4,000  votes. 

"Though  not  a  communicant  of  any  Christian 
denomination,  all  churches  had  his  respect  and 
good  will,  and  many  received  from  his  open 
purse  substantial  aid.  In  his  private  and  public 
relations,  his  influence  was  given  for  social  prog- 
ress and  for  the  elevation  and  welfare  of  man- 
kind." 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  Vnil'ME. 


143 


ELISHA  GRAY,  LL.D.,  PH.D., 


CHICAGO. 


INDELIBLY  engraved  on  the  pages  of  history 
is  tlie  name  of  Elisha  Gray.  Within  the  last 
haU'  century  America  has  demonstrated  her  right 
to  the  leadership  of  the  world  in  the  realm  of  in- 
vention. She,  at  first,  by  the  brilliancy  of  her 
achievements,  won  the  attention  of  the  old 
countries,  then  commanded  a  respect  which 
rapidly  developed  into  a  wondering  admiration. 
Though  she  cannot  cope  with  the  old  masters  in 
the  fine  arts,  Europe  has  acknowledged  her  pre- 
eminence in  science  and  useful  invention.  She 
has  given  to  the  world  unexcelled  labor-saving 
and  cost-reducing  machiner}-,  rapid  transit  and 
the  means  of  close  and  immediate  communica- 
tion. She  has  annihilated  space  by  giving  the 
power  of  conversing  with  one  who  may  be  thou- 
sands of  miles  away,  and  time  therefore  is  scarcely 
any  longer  a  matter  of  consideration.  Now  an 
invention  is  attracting  the  attention  of  the  world 
w  hich  is  of  great  superiority  over  the  old  methods 
of  communication,  in  that  a  message  can  be 
transmitted  in  entire  privacy  without  the  interven- 
tion of  operators  between  the  parties.  One's 
private  afTairs  may  still  be  his  own;  and  this 
wonderful  invention, — the  telautograph, — which 
will  undoubtedly  revolutionize  telegraphy,  is  the 
product  of  the  brain  and  inventive  genius  of  Pro- 
fessor Cray. 

This  gentleman  was  born  near  Barnesville,  in 
Belmont  county,  Ohio,  on  the  2d  of  August,  1835, 
and  is  the  son  of  David  Gray,  who  was  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania  and  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry.  His 
mother,  who  had  borne  the  maiden  name  of 
Ciiristiana  Edgarton,  was  born  in  North  Carolina, 
of  English  parentage.  Mr.  and  IMrs.  Gray  were 
Quakers  and  lived  quietly  upon  a  farm  in  the 
Buckeye  State,  where  their  son  Elisha  was  reared, 
acquiring  his  elementary  education  in  the  com- 
mon schools  of  the  neighborhood,  while  his 
physical  training  came  through  work  in  the  fields. 
His  time  was  thus  passed  until  after  he  had  at- 
tained the  age  of  twelve  years,  when  his  father 
died,  and  he  was  thus  largely  thrown  upon  his 
own  resources  for  a  living.  At  the  age  of  four- 
teen he  apprenticed  himself  to  a  blacksmith  and 


partly  mastered  that  trade,  but  the  arduous  work 
greatly  overta.xcd  his  strength  and  he  was  obliged 
to  give  it  up;  so,  accordingly,  he  joined  his 
mother,  who  had  removed  to  Brownsville,  Penn- 
sylvania. 

The  financial  circumstances  of  the  young  man, 
however,  did  not  permit  of  rest  and  recreation 
to  any  great  extent,  and  he  entered  the  employ  of 
a  boat-builder,  serving  an  apprenticeship  of  three 
and  a  half  years,  learning  the  trade  of  ship-joiner. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  he  was  a  first-class 
mechanic  and  began  to  give  evidence  of  his  in- 
ventive genius.  He  recognized,  however,  that 
his  powers  were  limited  by  his  meager  education, 
and  it  was  his  great  desire  to  acquire  the  funda- 
mental knowledge  that  would  open  the  way  to 
intelligent  research,  investigation  and  ultimate 
achievement.  As  each  one  is  conscious,  in  a  de- 
gree at  least,  of  his  own  powers,  so  Mr.  Gray  felt 
that  he  had  resources  which,  if  properly  used, 
would  accomplish  some  impoitant  work  in  life. 
One  of  the  most  hopeful  indications  of  those 
early  years  was  the  fact  that,  added  to  his  genius, 
which  was  then  awakening  into  activity,  there 
was  a  vast  fund  of  practical  common  sense,  for  the 
lack  of  which  so  many  men  of  talent  have  failed  in 
their  life  work.  He  realized  the  need  of  educa- 
tion as  a  foundation  for  further  work,  and  de- 
termined to  secure  the  desired  training. 

While  working  as  an  apprentice  Mr.  Gray 
formed  the  acquaintance  of  Prof.  H.  S.  Bennett, 
recently  of  Fisk  L'niversity  and  now  deceased, 
but  then  a  student  at  Oberlin  College,  Ohio, 
from  whom  he  learned  that  at  that  institu- 
tion exceptional  opportunities  were  afforded 
to  students  for  self-education;  and  immedi- 
ately after  he  had  completed  his  term  of 
service  he  started  for  the  college  with  barely 
money  enough  in  his  possession  to  carry  him  to 
his  destination.  It  was  in  the  sunnner  of  1857 
that  he  reached  Oberlin,  where  he  began  work  as 
a  carpenter,  and  in  this  manner  he  supported  him- 
self during  a  five-years  college  course.  Eager  to 
acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  branches  taught  in 
that  school,  he  applied  himself  diligently  to  his 


]U 


BIOnRAPHICAL  DICTWNART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Studies,  manifesting  that  perseverance  and 
patience  wliich  have  characterized  his  career  in 
later  Hfe  and  been  an  important  factor  in  his  suc- 
cess as  an  inventor.  ^^'hiIe  in  college  he  gave 
special  attention  to  the  physical  sciences,  in  which 
he  was  exceptionally  proficient,  his  ingenuity 
being  strikingly  manifest  from  time  to  time  in  the 
construction  of  the  apparatus  used  in  the  class- 
room experiments,  his  cleverness  in  devising 
these  various  appliances  making  him  a  con- 
spicuous character  among  his  fellow  students. 

At  this  time  he  had  not  yet  determined  what 
line  of  work  he  should  follow  and  at  one  time 
thought  some  of  entering  the  ministry,  but  finally 
abandoned  this  idea.  Seeming  trifles  often  mold 
the  lives  of  people;  and  a  chance  remark,  Mr. 
Gray  says,  had  much  to  do  with  his  subsequent 
career.  The  lady  who  afterward  became  his 
mother-in-law  remarked  one  day  that  "it  would  be 
a  pity  to  spoil  a  good  mechanic  to  make  a  poor 
minister!"'  She  certainly  must  have  possessed  a 
very  sound  and  discriminating  judgment  thus  to 
discover  the  hidden  worth  of  the  young  man;  and 
she,  doubtless,  more  than  anyone  else  in  his 
earlier  days,  fanned  the  latent  sparks  of  genius 
into  the  flame  which  in  later  days  revealed  to 
his  brain  the  contrivances  which  have  made  his 
name  famous,  and  which  have  proved  of  ines- 
timable value  to  civilization. 

The  four  years  of  continuous  and  earnest  study 
left  its  impress  on  the  healtli  of  Prof.  Gray,  and 
when  the  future  seemed  bright  with  promise,  when 
indications  were  that  his  hopes  of  years  were 
about  to  be  realized,  he  was  stricken  with  an  ill- 
ness that  incapacitated  him  for  work  during  the 
five  succeeding  years. 

In  1862  he  was  married  to  Miss  M.  Delia  Shep- 
ard,of  Oberlin,andwiththe  hope  of  improving  his 
health  he  went  to  live  upon  a  farm;  but  the  out- 
door exercise  did  not  bring  the  desired  result,  and 
he  returned  to  his  trade,  working  in  Trumbull 
county,  Ohio,  until  again  prostrated  by  serious 
illness.  His  domestic  relations  have  ever  been 
of  the  most  pleasant  and  happy  character.  His 
wife  has  proved  not  only  the  presiding  genius  of 
a  happy  home,  but  she  has  also  shared  in  his 
hopes,  sympathized  with  his  efforts,  and  has  ever 
been  a  source  of  inspiration  and  encouragement, 
urging  and  aiding  him  in  the  darker  hours  of  his 


history  to  push  forward.  Both  she  and  her 
mother  had  an  abiding  faith  in  his  genius,  and 
to  her  the  Professor  is  always  glad  to  attribute 
much  of  his  success. 

For  a  time  after  his  marriage  the  years  were 
hard  ones,  checkered  by  difficulty,  by  success, 
and  alternate  hope  and  dispair.  He  found  it 
difficult  to  pursue  his  investigations  and  experi- 
ments, for  his  means  were  very  limited;  yet  time 
passed  and  at  length  success  crowned  his  efforts. 
In  1867  he  entered  upon  what  proved  a  more 
prosperous  epoch  in  his  life.  He  invented  a  self- . 
adjusting  telegraph  relay,  and  although  it  proved 
of  no  practical  value  it  served  to  make  him  known 
to  the  late  Gen.  Anson  Stager,  of  Cleveland,  gen- 
eral superintendent  of  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph company,  who  at  once  became  interested 
in  him  and  furnished  him  facilities  for  experiment- 
ing on  the  company's  lines.  Prof.  Gray  then 
formed  a  partnership  with  E.  M.  Barton,  of  Cleve- 
land, for  the  manufacture  of  electrical  appliances, 
Gen.  Stager  becoming  associated  with  him  in 
the  business.  Here  he  perfected  the  type-writing 
telegraph,  the  telegraphic  repeater,  telegraphic 
switch,  the  annunciator  and  many  other  inven- 
tions which  have  become  famous  within  the  short 
space  of  a  few  years.  About  1872  he  organized 
the  Western  Electric  Manufacturing  company, 
which  is  still  in  existence  and  is  said  to  be  the 
largest  establishment  of  the  kind  in  the  world. 

In  1874  Prof.  Gray  retired  from  that  company 
and  began  his  researches  in  telephony,  and  within 
two  years  thereafter  gave  to  the  world  that 
marvelous  product  of  human  genius,  the  speak- 
ing telephone.  Noting  one  day,  when  a  second- 
ary coil  was  connected  with  the  zinc  lining 
of  the  bath-tub — dry  at  the  time — that  when 
he  held  the  other  end  of  the  coil  in  his  left 
hand  and  rubbed  the  lining  of  the  tub  with 
his  right  it  gave  rise  to  a  sound  that  had  the 
same  pitch  and  quality  of  the  vibrating  contact- 
breaker,  he  began  a  series  of  experiments  which 
led  first  to  the  discovery  that  musical  tones  could 
be  transmitted  over  an  electric  wire.  Fitting  up 
the  necessary  devices,  he  exhibited  the  invention 
to  some  of  his  friends,  and  the  same  year  went 
abroad,  where  he  made  a  special  study  of 
acoustics  and  gave  further  exhibitions  of  the  in- 
vention, which  he  developed  into  the  harmonic 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


145 


and  multiplex  telegraph.  While  perfecting  this 
device,  in  1875,  the  idea  of  a  speaking  telephone 
suggested  itself,  and  in  1876  he  perfected  this  in- 
vention and  filed  his  caveat  in  the  patent  ofifice 
at  Washington.  That  another  inventor  suc- 
ceeded in  incorporating  into  his  own  application 
for  a  telegraph  patent  an  important  feature  of 
Prof.  Gray's  invention,  and  that  the  latter  was 
thereby  deprived  of  the  benefits  which  he  should 
have  derived  therefrom,  is  the  practically  unani- 
mous decision  of  many  well  informed  as  to  the 
merits  of  the  controversy  to  which  conflicting 
claims  gave  rise;  and  the  leading  scientists  and 
scientific  organizations  of  the  world — according 
to  a  certain  peritxlical — have  accredited  him  the 
honor  of  inventing  the  telephone.  In  recognition 
of  his  distinguished  achievements  he  was  made  a 
Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  at  the  close  of 
the  Paris  Exposition  of  1878,  and  American  col- 
leges have  conferred  upon  him  the  degrees  of 
Doctor  of  Laws  and  Doctor  of  Science. 

For  several  years  after  his  invention  of  the 
telephone  he  was  connected  with  the  Postal  Tele- 
graph company,  and  brought  the  lines  of  this 
system  into  Chicago,  laying  them  under  ground. 
He  also  devised  a  general  underground  telegraph 
system  for  the  city,  and  then  turned  his  attention 
to  the  invention  of  the  telautograph,  a  device 
with  which  the  general  public  is  becoming  famil- 
iar through  the  published  account  of  its  opera- 
tion. On  March  21,  1893,  the  first  exhibitions 
of  the  practical  and  successful  operation  of  this 
wonderful  instrument  were  given  simultaneously 
in  New  York  and  Chicago,  and  on  the  same  day 
the  first  telautograph  messages  were  passed  over 
the  wires  from  Highland  Park  to  Waukegan, 
Illinois.  The  exhibitions  were  witnessed  by  a 
large  number  of  electrical  experts,  scientists  and 
representatives  of  the  press,  who  were  unanimous 
in  their  opinion  that  Professor  Gray's  invention 
is  destined  to  bring  about  a  revolution  in  teleg- 
raphy. 

One  of  the  beauties  of  electrical  science  is  the 
expressiveness  of  its  nomenclature,  and  among 
the  many  significant  names  given  to  electrical  in- 
ventions none  expresses  more  clearly  the  use  and 
purpose  of  the  invention  to  which  it  is  applied 
than  the  term  "telautograph."  As  its  name  signi- 
fies, the  instrument  enables  a  person  sitting  at  one 

10 


end  of  the  wire  to  write  a  message  or  a  letter 
which  is  reproduced  simultaneously  in  fac  simile 
at  the  other  end  of  the  wire.  It  is  an  instrument 
which  takes  the  place  of  the  skilled  operator  and 
the  telegraphic  alphabet.  Any  one  who  can  write 
can  transmit  a  message  by  this  means,  and  the  re- 
ceiving instrument  does  its  work  perfectly,  with- 
out the  aid  of  an  operator.  The  sender  of  a 
message  may  be  identified  by  the  fac  simile  of  his 
handwriting  which  reaches  the  recipient,  and  pen- 
and-ink  portraits  of  persons  may  be  as  readily 
transmitted  from  one  point  to  another  as  the 
written  messages.  In  many  respects  the  telauto- 
graph promises  to  be  more  satisfactorj-  in  its 
practical  operations  than  the  telephone.  Com- 
munications can  be  carried  on  between  persons  at 
a  distance  from  each  other  with  absolute  secrecy, 
and  a  message  sent  to  a  friend  in  his  absence  from 
his  place  of  business  may  be  found  awaiting  him 
on  his  return.  These  and  many  other  advan- 
tages which  the  telautograph  seems  to  possess 
warrant  the  prediction  that  in  the  not  very  distant 
future  telautography  will  supplant  in  a  measure 
both  telephony  and  telegraphy.  The  transmitter 
and  receiver  of  the  telautograph  system  are  deli- 
cately constructed  pieces  of  mechanism,  each  con- 
tained in  a  box  somewhat  smaller  than  a  type- 
writer. The  two  machines  are  necessarily  at  each 
end  of  the  wire,  and  stand  side  by  side.  In  trans- 
_  mitting  a  message  an  ordinary  feed  lead  pencil  is 
used,  at  the  point  of  which  is  a  small  collar  with 
two  eyes  in  its  rim.  To  each  of  these  eyes  a  fine 
silk  cord  is  attached,  running  ofif  at  right  angles 
in  two  directions.  Each  of  the  two  ends  of  this 
cord  is  carried  around  a  small  drum  supported  on 
a  vertical  shaft.  Lender  the  drum  and  attached 
to  the  small  shaft  is  a  toothed  wheel  of  steel,  the 
teeth  of  which  are  so  arranged  that  when  either 
section  of  the  cord  winds  on  or  off  its  drum  a 
number  of  teeth  will  pass  a  given  point  cor- 
responding to  the  length  of  cord  so  wound  or  un- 
wcund.  For  instance,  if  the  point  of  the  pencil 
moves  in  the  direction  of  one  of  the  cords  a  dis- 
tance of  one  inch,  fifty  of  the  teeth  will  pass  a 
certain  point.  Each  one  of  the  teeth  and  each 
space  represent  one  impulse  sent  upon  the  line,  so 
that  when  the  pencil  describes  a  motion  one  inch  in 
length  a  hundred  electrical  impulses  are  sent  upon 
the  line.    The  receiving  instrument  is  practically 


U6 


lUOaHAPIirCSL  DIcriOXARr  and  PORTRAir  GALLERY  OF  THE 


a  duplicate  of  the  transmitter,  the  motions  of 
which,  however,  are  controlled  by  electrical 
mcxhanism.  The  perfected  device  exhibited  by 
Prof.  Gray  and  now  in  operation,  is  the  result  of 
six  years  of  arduous  labor, — an  evolution  to 
which  the  crude  contrivance  used  in  his  earliest 
experiments  bears  little  resemblance.  The  manu- 
facture of  the  instruments  is  carried  on  by  the 
Gray  Electric  company,  a  corporation  having 
offices  in  New  York  and  Chicago  and  a  large 
manufacturing  establishment  just  outside  the 
limits  of  the  suburban  village  of  Highland  Park, 
Illinois,  of  which  Prof.  Gray  has  been  for  many 
years  a  resident.  Here,  in  addition  to  his  work- 
shop and  laboratory,  the  renowned  inventor  has 
a  beautiful  home,  and  his  domestic  relations  are 
of  the  ideal  kind. 

In  1892  it  was  decided  to  hold  international 
congresses  of  various  kinds,  making  this  a  promi- 
nent incidental  feature  of  the  World's  Columbian 
exposition;  and  accordingly  a  body,  which  be- 
came known  as  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary 
of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  was  or- 
ganized for  the  purpose  of  promoting  and  making 
all  necessary  preparations  for  these  gatherings. 
To  Prof.  Gray  of  Chicago  this  body  assigned  the 
task  of  organizing  the  "Congress  of  Electricians,'' 
and  placed  upon  him  the  responsibility  of 
formulating  the  plans  and  making  all  initiatory 
preparations  for  what  was  unquestionably  the 
most  important  and  interesting  convention  of 
electricians  ever  held  in  this  or  any  other  country. 
While  the  professor  called  to  his  assistance  many 
distinguished  members  of  his  profession,  by  virtue 
of  his  official  position,  he  was  the  central  and 
most  attractive  figure  in  this  great  movement. 
When  the  World's  Congress  of  Electricians  as- 
sembled in  the  Art  Institute  of  Chicago,  August 
2t,  1893,  there  were  gathered  there  the  most  noted 
electricians  of  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  con- 
gress was  divided  into  two  sections,  one  of  which, 
termed  the  official  section,  was  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives designated  by  the  governments  of 
Europe  and  the  Americas,  and  was  authorized  to 
consider  and  pass  upon  questions  relating  to  elec- 
trical measurement,  nomenclature  and  various 
othei  matters  of  importance  to  the  electrical  world. 
To  the  other  section  of  the  congress  were  ad- 
mitted all  professional  electricians  who  came 
properly  accredited,  and  they  were  permitted  to 


attend  the  sessions  and  participate  in  the  deliber- 
ations, although  they  were  not  allowed  to  vote  on 
the  technical  questions  which  came  before  it. 

The  career  of  Prof.  Gray  is  marvelous  in  more 
than  one  particular.  In  his  youth  he  was  seen  to 
possess  the  indomitable  purpose,  industry  and 
resolution  which  are  essential  in  the  make-up  of 
every  successful  business  man.  He  began  his 
inventive  work,  and  in  his  earlier  manhood  gave 
to  the  public  works  which  made  him  famous  and 
for  which  he  merited  the  gratitude  of  the  civilized 
world;  yet,  unlike  many  men  of  talent,  he  did  not 
then  rest  from  his  labors.  Some  of  the  best 
known  inventors  of  the  century  have  perfected 
theii'  wonderful  work  in  earlier  life  to  then  sit 
down  and  make  no  further  progress.  This  may 
be  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  as  a  man  travels  on 
in  the  journey  of  life  mature  judgment  brings  a 
coolness  of  deliberation  and  a  slowness  of  action 
which  is  in  many  cases  commendable;  yet  it  per- 
mits the  enthusiasm  and  daring  of  the  more  youth- 
ful man  to  take  advantage  of  opportunities  which 
he  was  considering.  Prof.  Gray,  however,  has 
not  followed  this  plan.  His  deep  research  has 
continued  up  to  the  present  time,  and  he  has  not 
only  kept  pace  with,  but  has  also  been  the  leader 
in  the  progress  and  advancement  which  have 
mcrked  the  electrical  world;  and  the  more  mature 
judgment  and  riper  experience  which  have  come 
with  advancing  years  and  which  have  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  newer  problems,  have  in 
many  cases  resulted  in  inventions  and  improve- 
ments of  the  utmost  importance  to  mankind  and 
the  cause  of  civilization. 

The  professor  is  a  member  of  the  Union 
League  Club  of  Chicago,  and  in  his  political  views 
he  is  a  stalwart  Republican.  He  has  traveled  ex- 
tensively in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  is 
a  gentleman  of  fine  personal  appearance,  pleasing 
address  and  commanding  bearing,  who  will 
attract  attention  in  any  assembly.  Although  he 
has  the  appearance  of  the  profound  student,  he 
has  none  of  the  eccentricities  generally  attributed 
to  inventors;  and  when  not  in  his  work-shop  or 
his  laboratory,  engaged  with  his  experiments,  he 
is  a  most  genial  and  affable  gentleman,  whose 
pleasing  manner  has  won  him  hosts  of  friends, 
while  his  great  electrical  skill  and  general  scien- 
tific attainments  command  the  adnn'ration  and 
respect  of  the  world. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


147 


GUSTAVUS  KOERNER, 


BELLEVILLE. 


IN  a  brief  sketch  of  any  living  citizen  it  is 
difficult  to  do  him  exact  and  impartial  justice, 
— not  so  much,  however  from  lack  of  space  or 
words  to  set  forth  the  familiar  and  passing  events 
of  his  personal  history  as  for  want  of  the  perfect 
and  rounded  conception  of  his  whole  life,  which 
grows,  develops  and  ripens,  like  fruit,  to  disclose 
its  true  and  best  flavor  only  when  it  is  mellowed 
by  time.  Daily  contact  with  the  man  so  familiar- 
izes us  with  his  many  virtues  that  we  ordinarily 
overlook  them  and  commonly  underestimate  their 
possessor.  Nevertheless,  while  the  man  passes 
away  his  deeds  of  virtue  live  on,  and  will  in  due 
time  bear  fruit  and  do  him  the  justice  which  our 
pen  fails  to  record. 

The  Hon.  Gustave  Koerncr,  of  Bencville, 
was  born  November  20,  1S09,  in  the  city 
of  Frankfort,  Germany.  A  fact  worthy  of  notice 
is  that  this  same  year  Lincoln,  Gladstone  and 
Tennyson  also  came  into  this  world.  The  father 
of  our  subject,  Bernhard  Koerner,  was  a  pub- 
lisher and  bookseller  and  much  esteemed  as  a 
man  of  great  public  spirit.  He  was  extremely 
patriotic,  an  enemy  of  Napoleon;  and  before  the 
.defeat  of  Napoleon  published  many  war-songs  of 
Ernst  Amdt  and  Theodore  Koerncr.  After  the 
war  of  Independence  and  the  restoration  of  Frank- 
fort as  a  free  city,  he  was  repeatedly  elected  to 
the  legislative  assembly,  in  which  he  became  con- 
spicuously known  for  his  strong  liberalism.  He 
died  in  1829,  aged  fifty-six,  and  his  wife  died  in 
1847,  aged  about  seventy  years. 

Gustavus  Koerner  received  his  first  education 
at  an  elementary  school  established  upon  the 
system  of  Pestalozzi,  called  the  Model  school; 
and  when  about  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  sent 
to  college  at  Frankfort,  where  he  remained  about 
six  years,  pursuing  a  classical  course,  and  perfect- 
ing himself  in  English,  writing  and  reading.  At 
the  age  of  eighteen  he  attended  the  University  of 
Jena,  to  study  law,  remaining  for  two  years.  He 
pursued  his  studies  for  one  year  at  Munich  and 
completed  them  at  Heidelberg  1832,  where  he 
graduated  and  obtained  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
A  law  of  his  native  citv.  being  a  queer  old  law 


which  ought  to  have  been  repealed  long  before, 
required  him  to  take  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Civil  and  Canon  Law  before  he  could  be  admit- 
ted to  the  bar.  He  received  a  diploma  of  Doctor 
of  Law  of  a  very  high  grade  (insigni  cum  laude). 
The  faculty  of  Heidelberg  sent  him  a  letter  of 
congratulations  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
promotion,  in  which  they  gave  him  the  highest 
degree,  "Summa  cum  laude."  His  examination 
was  in  Latin,  and  he  had  to  write  two  dissertations, 
one  on  civil  law  and  one  on  common  law.  Li 
June,  1832,  he  underwent  the  State  examination 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Frankfort  by  the 
judges  of  the  highest  courts.  While  a  student 
he  employed  his  leisure  during  vacation  in  visit- 
ing almost  every  part  of  Germany,  familiarizing 
himself  with  the  institutions  and  acquiring  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  character  of  the 
people. 

During  his  residence  in  Munich,  and  while,  in 
coinsec[uence  of  the  excitement  produced  by  the 
French  revolution  of  July,  disturbances  of  a 
serious  nature  had  broken  out  in  that  place  as 
well  as  many  others  in  Germany,  in  which  bloody 
conflicts  between  the  military  and  civilians,  very 
often  students,  took  place,  Koerner,  with  some 
forty  other  students,  was  charged  with  having 
forcibly  attacked  the  armed  troops  of  the  king. 
For  this  he  was  closely  confined  in  prison  for  five 
months,  but  was  finally  discharged  of  the  com- 
plaint by  the  supreme  court  of  Bavaria.  In  1833, 
lie,  with  thousands  of  other  young  men,  prin- 
cipally professional,  joined  in  an  attempt  to  break 
up  the  German  Diet,  which  had  rendered  itself 
obno.xious  and  had  by  unconstitutional  ordi- 
nances destroyed  the  liberty  of  the  press  and  free- 
dom of  teaching  at  the  universities,  and  the  rights 
of  association  and  public  meetings  in  the  States 
of  Germany.  His  activity  along  this  line  in- 
volved him  in  a  rising  at  Frankfort  on  the  3d  of 
April.  1833,  and  in  conflict  with  the  soldiery,  while 
storming  a  militar}-  post,  he  was  disabled  by  a 
wound.  After  the  failure  of  the  movement  he 
succeeded  in  escaping  from  the  city  to  France. 
The  French  government  did  not  permit  him  to 


us 


lUnORAPlIICAL  DICTIONART  AAD  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


stay  and  sent  him  under  escort  to  Switzerland. 
However,  he  again  made  his  way,  in  disguise,  into 
France,  went  to  Paris  and  finally  to  Havre,  where 
he  set  sail  for  the  United  States  and  arrived  at 
New  York  on  the  i8th  of  June,  1833,  ^fte*"  ^ 
seven-weeks  journey. 

The  second  day  after  his  arrival  he  took  out 
first  papers  of  citizenship.  He  then  came  with 
the  family  of  the  lady  who  afterward  became  his 
wife,  to  Illinois,  the  journey  from  New  York  to  St. 
Louis  being  about  four  weeks.  This  family  he  knew 
in  Germany,  the  father  being  master  of  forests 
with  the  rank  of  major  in  the  army.  Mr.  Engel- 
mann  (this  being  his  friend's  name)  on  his  ar- 
rival purchased  a  farm  and  our  subject  spent  one 
year  there  and  pursued  his  studies.  In  the  fall  of 
1834  he  attended  the  law  school  at  Lexington, 
Kentucky,  principally  to  perfect  his  English,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court, 
June,  1835. 

Ho  selected  Belleville,  near  St.  Louis,  as  his 
home,  and  here  married  Miss  Sophie  Engelmann 
in  1836.  To  this  union  there  were  born  eight 
children.  Mrs.  Koerner  died  March,  1888,  aged 
seventy-two.  iThey'  had  a  golden  wedding  in 
1886,  when  500  people  were  present.  She  was  a 
lad_\-  of  culture  and  refinement,  whose  main  joy  in 
life  was  to  make  her  home  and  husband  happy 
and  the  abode  of  good  cheer. 

In  1836  Mr.  Koerner  formed  a  partnership  with 
Adam  W.  Snyder,  father  of  Judge  William  W. 
Snyder,  who  was  then  senator  of  the  State  and 
was  elected  to  Congress  the  same  year.  This  dis- 
sohed  the  partnership,  and  on  the  advice  of  Mr. 
Snyder  he  formed  a  partnership  with  General 
James  Shields,  who  by  the  way  held  more  offices 
than  any  other  man  known  to  the  writer  of  this 
sketch.  He  was  senator  from  three  different 
States.  Their  intimacy  existed  until  the  death  of 
General  Shields.  When  the  general  was  ap- 
pointed commissioner  of  the  land  ofifice  Mr. 
Koerner  became  a  partner  of  Judge  Breese,  while 
he  was  in  the  United  States  senate. 

In  1840  Mr.  Koerner  was  appointed  by  the 
presidential  electors  of  Illinois  as  the  messenger 
to  carry  the  vote  to  Washington,  and  while  there 
he  became  acquainted  with  \^an  Buren,  and  was 
introduced  by  Governor  John  Reynolds  to  Henry 
Cla;,       He  also   became  acquainted   with  J.    O. 


Adams  and  others  of  equal  importance,  He 
heard  speeches  of  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Pres- 
ton of  North  Carolina,  Benton  and  others. 

]  n  1 842  he  was  elected  from  St.  Clair  county  to 
the  legislature  for  two  years,  and  in  1845  was 
appointed  by  Governor  Ford  to  fill  a  vacancy  on 
the  supreme  bench,  to  which  he  was  shortly  after- 
ward elected  by  the  legislature.  The  office  of 
judge  having  in  1849  been  made  elective  by  the 
people,  and  the  new  constitution  reducing  the  court 
to  three  members,  each  with  a  small  salary,  he 
did  not  become  a  candidate,  but  returned  to 
his  law  practice.  In  1852  he  was  elected  lieu- 
tenant governor  of  Illinois,  for  four  years.  He 
attended  the  convention  which  was  held  in 
Philadelphia  in  1856,  and  which  nominated  Fre- 
mont and  Dayton.  In  1858  he  was  president  of 
the  convention  where  Lincoln  was  nominated  a 
candidate  for  United  States  senator  against  Doug- 
las and  where  Lincoln  made  his  celebrated  speech, 
"A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand." 
In  1856,  owing  to  the  Nebraska  question,  he, 
with  Medill,  Horace  White,  Palmer,  Trum- 
bull and  many  otlier  Democrats,  voted  for 
Fremont.  He  made  no  less  than  fifty  speeches  in 
each  campaign,  speaking  English  and  German. 
In  i860  he  was  appointed  by  the  State  con- 
vention as  a  delegate  at  large,  with  Nomian  B. 
Judd,  to  the  Republican  national  convention  in 
Chicago.  This  was  when  Lincoln  was  nominated 
for  president  of  the  United  States.  He  attended 
the  inauguration  of  Lincoln  at  Washington. 
There  were  about  five  hundred  Illinois  men  there, 
many  armed  in  case  of  trouble,  which  was  thought 
might  happen. 

The  war  breaking  out.  Governor  Koerner  in 
the  summer  of  1861  raised  an  infantry  regiment 
(the  Forty-third),  but  before  its  organization  was 
completed  he  received  from  Lincoln  an  appoint- 
ment as  colonel  of  volunteers  and  was  assigned  to 
the  staff  of  General  Fremont  and  afterward  to  that 
of  General  Halleck.  Severe  illness  compelled  him 
to  resign  in  1862.  In  the  June  following  the  presi- 
dent appointed  him  minister  to  Spain,  which  he 
filled  until  1865,  when  he  resigned  for  financial 
reasons  and  returned  to  the  United  States. 

In  1868  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  electors  for 
the  State  at  large  on  the  Grant  ticket,  and  pre- 
sided over  the  electoral  college  of  Illinois.     In 


REPRESEyTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  VXITED  STATES;  ILLIXOIS  VOLUME. 


U9 


1871  he  was  appointed  by  the  governor  one  of 
the  newly  created  Board  of  Railroad  and  Ware- 
house commissioners,  of  which  he  was  elected 
chairman.  The  governor's  well  known  statesman- 
ship and  his  large  and  liberal  views  on  questions 
of  public  policy  naturally  indicated  him  as  a 
leader  in  the  political  contest  of  1872,  and  he  be- 
came the  nominee  of  the  Liberal  Republican  and 
the  Democratic  parties  as  governor  of  Illinois;  but 
he  was  defeated,  though  he  ran  15,000  votes  ahead 
of  Greeley!  Governor  Palmer  appointed  him 
one  of  the  board  of  directors  to  establish  and  or- 
ganize the  Soldiers'  Orphans'  Home,  to  erect 
buildings  and  secure  grounds.  Since  this  time 
he  has  declined  all  public  offices,  giving  his  time 
to  his  practice.  He  was  an  active  w'orker  for 
Tilden  for  president,  and  took  an  active  part  in 
the  Hancock-Garfield  campaign. 

It  would  be  trespassing  on  the  domain  of 
history  to  recount  his  attendance  to  many  con- 
ventions and  the  speeches  delivered,  the  public 


men  with  whom  he  has  labored  and  the  political 
issues  he  has  originated  and  supported.  It  is 
only  necessarj-  to  add  that  Governor  Koemer's 
life  has  been  busy,  honorable  and  useful,  and,  as 
expressed  by  a  friend  of  his,  "like  a  clear  limpid 
stream  wherein  you  can  see  the  form  and  color  of 
the  pebbles  at  the  bottom,  and  through  whose 
meandering  course  no  sediment  appears."  He  is 
a  man  with  pleasing  and  expressive  features.  His 
voice  is  still  strong.  His  language  is  clear,  simple 
and  graceful,  and  he  leads  his  auditors  along 
through  an  argumentative  path,  decked  with 
classic  allusions,  that,  like  the  flowers  on  the  bor- 
ders of  a  stream,  seem  to  be  native  there. 

After  a  pure,  honorable  and  useful  life,  actuated 
by  vmselfish  motives,  prompted  by  patriotism 
and  guided  by  truth  and  justice.  Governor 
Koerner  may  in  old  age  rest  assured  that  the 
[jeople  of  this  country  are  not  unmindful  of  those 
who  have  devoted  themselves  to  their  interests. 
"Palmam  qui  meruit  ferat." 


GEORGE  W.  FUNK, 


HLOOMINGTOX. 


GEORGE  W.  FUNK,  the  eldest  son  of  Isaac 
and  Cassandra  (Sharp)  Funk,  was  born  at 
Funk's  Grove,  McLean  county,  Illinois,  May  14. 
1827.  He  was  reared  upon  his  father's  farm, 
and  early  taught  those  habits  of  industry  which 
have  had  such  an  important  bearing  upon  his 
entire  life.  He  obtained  his  education  in  the 
district  school,  in  the  meantime  assisting  his  fa- 
ther in  such  work  as  his  age  and  strength  would 
permit.  He  became  interested  in  farming  and 
stock-feeding  wiien  a  boy,  and  has  ever  since  fol- 
lowed that  pursuit  as  his  main  business. 

Upon  the  death  of  his  father,  Isaac  Funk,  in 
1865,  a  great  amount  of  labor  of  settling  up  the 
estate  devolved  upon  him.  The  estate  was  the 
most  valuable  ever  divided  in  central  Illinois;  it 
included  27,000  acres  of  land  and  a  large  amount 
of  stock  and  other  property.  By  the  unanimous 
consent  of  his  brothers,  he  took  charge  of  the 
lands,  and  that  the  estate  was  divided  without  a 
will  and  without  any  misunderstanding  or  con- 
tention speaks  volumes  for  the  undotibted  integ- 


rity and  honesty  not  only  of  our  subject  but  of 
the  entire  family. 

In  the  year  1868  Mr.  Funk  moved  to  Mount 
Hope  township,  and  he  now  operates  farms 
amounting  to  4.000  acres  in  McLean  county: 
1. 000  acres  lie  in  West  township,  eastern  part  of 
McLean  county,  and  include  the  site  of  the  old 
Indian  town  and  fort.  He  has  also  become  in- 
terested in  various  banking  institutious.  among 
which  are  the  First  National  Bank  of  Blooming- 
ton  and  banks  in  Lincoln  and  Springfield  and  the 
People's  Bank  of  Atlanta,  of  which  he  is  presi- 
dent. 

He  has  been  twice  married.  His  first  wife. 
Susan  Pumpelley,  to  whom  he  was  married  in 
1868,  died  the  following  year,  leaving  an  infant 
son.  Isaac  G.,  now  a  young  man  of  twenty-seven 
years.  In  1876  Mr.  Funk  w^as  united  in  mar- 
riage to  Rose  Fitzwilliams.  They  are  the  parents 
of  three  children,  one  of  whom  is  dead.  The  liv- 
ing are  Madeline  and  Julius. 

Politically  Mr.   Funk  is  a  stanch  Republican, 


150 


lUnaUAI'IIICAL  DICTIOXAUr  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  TILE 


and  is  ever  ready  to  aid  his  party  during  its  cam- 
paigns. While  never  seeking  political  office,  he 
has  been  honored  by  his  fellow-citizens  by  elec- 
tion to  the  State  legislature  in  1870.  During  tli:_> 
time  he  was  a  member  of  the  assembly,  a.i  im- 
mense amount  of  work  was  performed  by  that 
body.  It  was  the  first  session  after  the  adoption 
of  the  new  constitution,  and  it  was  an  almost  con- 
tinuous session  for  t^vo  years.  Mr.  Funk  did 
effective  work  as  a  legislator  and  served  as  a 
member  of  the  committees  on  banking,  fanning 
and  agriculture. 


Mr.  Funk  has  made  good  use  of  his  op- 
portunities, he  has  prospered  from  year  to 
year,  and  has  conducted  all  business  matters 
carefully  and  successfully,  and  in  all  his  acts 
disjilays  an  aptitude  for  successful  manage- 
nicnt.  He  lias  not  permitted  the  accumula- 
tion of  a  vast  fortune  to  affect  in  any  way 
his  actions  toward  those  less  successful  than 
he,  and  has  always  a  cheerful  word  and  pleas- 
ant smile  for  all  with  whom  he  comes  in 
contact. 


WILLIAM  W.  KIMBALL, 


THE  pioneers  of  a  country,  the  founders  of  a 
business,  the  originators  of  any  undertak- 
ing, that  will  promote  the  material  welfare  or  ad- 
vance the  educational,  social  and  moral  influence 
of  a  community,  deserve  the  gratitude  of  human- 
ity. The  name  of  Kimball  at  once  suggests  the 
music  trade,  and  the  subject  of  this  review  is  the 
pioneer  of  this  enterprise  in  the  Northwest.  He 
now  has  a  reputation  which  extends  throughout 
the  country,  and  to-day  is  ranked  among  the  most 
prominent  business  men  of  his  adopted  city. 

William  Wallace  Kimball  was  born  in  Oxford 
county,  Maine,  in  1828,  and  is  a  son  of  David 
Kimball,  a  native  of  the  same  place,  which  has 
been  the  ancestral  abode  of  the  family  since  the 
close  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  Through  the 
chronicles  of  early  New  England  the  direct  line 
of  ancestry  of  the  Kimballs  on  American  soil  is 
traced  back  through  some  twelve  generations  to 
Richard  Kimball,  of  Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  who 
emigrated  from  Ipswich,  England,  and  settled  in 
that  colonial  village  in  1634.  The  family  name, 
thus  associated  with  the  antiquities  of  the  nation, 
is  frequently  encountered  in  the  introductory 
chapters  of  our  country's  history,  coming  to 
eminence  in  peace  and  war  alike  during  all  the 
earlier  stages  of  colonial  development  and  throug'i 
the  subsequent  era  of  rapid  political  transition, 
ending  in  the  establishment  of  our  present  repub- 
lican government.  The  family  furnished  many 
representatives  to  the  war  for  independence,  in- 


cluding Moses  Kimball,  the  grandfather  of  Will- 
iam W.:  while  in  the  war  of  181 2  David  Kimball 
served  with  equal  distinction.  The  Revolutionary 
hero  at  the  close  of  the  war  became  a  farmer,  and 
removing  to  Maine  settled  in  O.xford  countv, 
which,  two  hundred  years  subsequent  to  the  time 
of  Richard,  the  Pilgrim  of  Ipswich,  liecame  the 
birthplace  of  W.  W.  Kimball. 

In  the  district  and  high  schools  of  his  native 
county  the  last  named  acquired  his  education,  and 
at  the  age  of  eighteen  entered  upon  his  business 
career  as  a  clerk  in  a  store.  Subsequently  he  en- 
gaged in  teaching,  but  his  tastes  drew  him  toward 
commercial  life,  and  upon  attaining  his  majority 
he  proceeded  to  Boston,  where  he  secured  em- 
ployment in  connection  with  a  mercantile  estab- 
lishment. He  soon  went  upon  the  road,  his 
labors  taking  him  first  to  New  England,  afterward 
to  the  Middle,  Southern  and  Western  States.  In 
this  way  he  acquired  an  intimate  and  comprehen- 
sive knowledge  of  Western  mercantile  geography, 
which  proved  of  inestimable  practical  advantage 
to  him  later  on,  in  supplying  those  various  lati- 
tudes and  communities  with  the  product  of  his 
own  manufacture. 

In  1857  Mr.  Kimball  visited  Chicago,  then  a 
frontier  city,  in  a  comparatively  isolated  region. 
Finding  something  congenial  to  his  own  tempera- 
ment in  the  whirl  of  its  traffic  and  in  the  vitality  of 
its  enterprise,  he  decided  to  locate  permanently 
in  the  place,  and,  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  com- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


151 


menced  business  as  a  dealer  in  pianos  and  organs. 
There  was  apparently  at  that  time  little  to  tempt 
business  enterprise  to  enter  the  musical  field.  The 
infinite  domain  beyond  Chicago  was  mainly  a 
wilderness,  and,  in  the  clearing  and  settlement 
of  that  vast  country,  the  material  necessities  had 
to  take  precedence  of  the  arts.  There  was  no  art 
sentiment  in  the  Morthwest,  for  the  settlers  were 
pioneers  endeavoring  to  make  homes,  and  were 
content  if  they  could  accomplish  this  and  secure 
the  necessities  of  life  during  those  earlier  years. 
It  v.as  often  a  struggle  to  obtain  food  and  cloth- 
ing for  their  families,  and  musical  instruments 
were  luxuries  not  to  be  thought  of;  but  Air.  Kim- 
ball, with  wonderful  sagacity,  looked  forward 
to  the  future  and  saw  the  coming  prosperity  in 
the  piano  trade.  Experience  seemed  also  to  dis- 
courage the  project:  all  who  had  preceded  him 
in  that  particvdar  line  of  business  had  encoun- 
tered only  discouragement  and  failure.  Tlie 
young  merchant  seemed  to  realize  the  necessity 
of  patient  waiting,  and  so  rested  content  with 
the  local  retail  trade  in  the  belief  that  the  grow- 
ing requirements  of  the  country  would  in  time 
call  for  the  establishment  of  a  wide  agency  sys- 
tem and  wholesale  traffic  connections  with  the 
larger  opportunities  thus  implied.  Nor  did  he 
miscalculate. 

In  1864  the  wholesale  trade  in  pianos,  through 
his  individual  efTort,  was  established  for  the  first 
time  in  Chicago,  and  the  development  of  traffic 
became  such  as  to  justify  his  removal  to  the 
fain' us  Crosby  Opera  House  on  Washington 
street.  Here  he  opened  fine  warerooms,  which 
remained  the  center  of  the  polite  trade  of  the 
Northwest  until  the  general'  conflagration  of 
1 87 1.  From  newspaper  records  of  the  period  it 
appear?  that  W.  W.  Kimball,  within  forty-eight 
hours  after  the  subsidence  of  that  historic  fire, 
had  converted  his  private  residence  on  Michigan 
avenue  into  a  beautiful  warehouse,  with  the  bil- 
liard room  for  an  office  and  the  barn  for  a  ship- 
ping department.  The  floorage,  however,  prov- 
ing inadeciuate  for  his  business,  a  removal  was 
made  to  larger  quarters  at  the  northwest  corner 
of  Wabash  avenue  and  Thirteenth  street,  which 
served  his  purpose  until  the  summer  of  1873, 
when  he  took  possession  of  the  commodious 
buildinsr  at   the   southeast   corner   of   State   and 


Adams  streets,  in  the  rebuilt  central  district. 
There  in  1882  the  business  was  reorganized,  un- 
der the  corporate  name  of  the  W.  W.  Kimball 
Company,  and  the  growth  of  trade,  including  the 
extension  of  the  manufacturing  industry,  led  a 
few  years  later  to  the  occupancy  of  the  mam- 
moth structure  at  the  southeast  corner  of  State 
and  Jackson  streets.  In  the  spring  of  1891  the 
final  removal  was  made  to  the  stately  new  edi- 
fice 243  to  253  Wabash  avenue,  which  is  elab- 
orately planned  and  constructed  for  the  perfect 
accommodation  of  all  the  different  parts  of  the 
business  that  has  now  come  to  be  represented 
by  a  thousand  branches  and  to  cover  all  the  wide 
territory  tributary  to  Chicago. 

In  the  prosecution  of  his  business  there  has 
been  manifest  one  of  the  most  sterling  traits  of 
his  character, — his  desire  to  carry  forward  to  the 
highest  perfection  attainable  anything  that  he 
undertakes.  This  has  marked  his  social  and 
business  career  and  has  been  one  of  the  most 
important  factors  in  his  almost  phenomenal  suc- 
cess. Not  content  with  mediocrity  in  any  line 
of  life,  he  has  given  deep  and  earnest  thought 
to  the  study  of  perfecting  the  musical  instruments 
which  he  manufactures.  His  plan  aimed  at  once 
to  advance  the  mechanical  principles  of  construc- 
tion and  to  so  economize  the  industry  as  to  fur- 
nish the  highest  grade  of  instruments  at  a  greatly- 
reduced  cost  to  the  public.  In  pursuance  of  this 
plan  he  erected  an  extensive  organ  factory  in  the 
year  1881.  The  trade  of  the  house  now  covered 
all  the  northwestern  and  western  territory,  and 
a  careful  review  of  the  situation  over  a  larger 
and  more  universal  field  indicated  the  time  as 
opportune  for  inaugurating  the  industry.  The 
experiment  proved  a  wonderful  success.  In  five 
vears'  time  the  Kimball  parlor  organ  was  selling 
in  every  American  market  and  forming  an  im- 
portant item  in  the  national  export  trade.  The 
manufacture  of  pianos  was  begun  six  years  later 
(1887),  when  a  factory,  corresponding  with  the 
dimensions  of  the  vast  organ  plant,  was  erected 
in  juxtaposition  to  the  latter  and  completed  a 
vast  two-fold  manufacturing  system,  covering  a 
floorage  of  over  ten  acres  and  being  thus 
made  jointly  available  to  the  two  separate 
but  related  industries.  The  latter  enterprise  also 
proved  very  successful,  a  product  being  soon  re- 


152 


niOQRAPiriCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


alized,  which,  under  the  name  of  the  new-scale 
Kimball  piano,  was  at  once  accepted  by  the  mu- 
sical authorities  of  this  country  and  of  Europe 
as  among  the  foremost  instruments  of  our  time. 
Recently  the  manufacture  of  pipe  organs  has  also 
been  added  to  the  enterprise. 

]\'Ir.  Kimball  was  married,  in  1865,  to  Miss 
Evalyne  J\I.  Cone,  daughter  of  Hubbell  B.  Cone, 
of  Chicago.  He  is  a  valued  and  interested  mem- 
ber of  various  social  clubs  of  the  city,  and  his 
great  activity,  combined  with  his  genial,  social 
disposition  makes  him  thoroughly  enjoy  the 
higher  class  of  amusements  and  entertainments, 
being  especially  fond  of  the  drama. 

A  man's  business  life  seems  in  part  at  least 
a  public  possession,  but  around  his  home  and 
private  life  there  should  be  drawn  a  veil  which 
shuts  out  the  curious  gaze  of  the  world.  Those, 
however,  who  have  attained  prominence  in  any 
line  cannot  hope  for  the  freedom  from  general 
notice  in  the  same  degree  as  one  who  has  never 
left  the  ranks  of  the  common  people.  In  former 
ages  historj'  was  a  record  of  war  and  warriors, 
of  conquests  and  conquerors;  to-day  history  is 
composed  of  accounts  of  commercial  activity,  of 
advancement  in  the  lines  of  business,  science, 
arts  and  letters.  In  learning  of  the  inventions 
of  printing,  of  cotton  weaving,  the  inventions  of 
the  sewing  machine  and  steamboat,  who  does 
not  stop  to  inquire  of  the  men  in  whose  busy 
brains  these  things  originated  and  learn  of  the 
life  history  of  Gutteuburg,  Arkwright,  Howe 
and  Fulton?  Mr.  Kimball  is  a  man  of  modest 
and  unostentatious  demeanor,  never  seeking  self- 
praise;  but  when  the  complete  history  of  the 
Northwest  shall  be  written  the  question  will  be 
asked.  What  of  the  founder  of  the  piano  and  or- 
gan making  industries  in  this  section  of  the 
country?  It  is  but  just,  therefore,  in  view  of 
Ills  brilliant  success,  to  enter  somewhat  in  detail 


concerning  the  plans  and  methods  he  has  fol- 
lowed and  the  characteristics  which  he  has  man- 
ifested. 

In  business  affairs  Mr.  Kimball  is  energetic, 
prompt  and  notably  reliable.  Tireless  energy,  keen 
perception,  honesty  of  purpose,  a  genius  for  de- 
vising and  executing  the  right  thing  at  the  right 
time,  joined  to  ever\'-day  common  sense,  guided 
by  resistless  will  power,  are  the  chief  character- 
istics of  the  man.  His  business  has  passed 
through  the  era  of  war,  fire  and  financial  panic 
undisturbed,  owing  to  the  reliability  of  the  man 
at  the  head.  Justice  has  ever  been  maintained 
in  his  relations  to  patrons  and  employes,  and 
ni.-aiv  of  those  who  began  with  him  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  career  are  still  in  his  service. 
He  has  not  been  slow  to  assist  and  encourage 
others  who  have  left  his  employ  to  enter  busi- 
ness for  themselves,  and  in  return  he  naturally 
has  the  loyal  support  of  all  the  employes  of  the 
house.  He  has  been  watchful  of  all  the  details 
of  his  business  and  of  all  indications  pointing 
toward  prosperity,  and  from  the  beginning  had 
an  abiding  faith  in  the  ultimate  success  of  his 
cnteiprise.  He  has  gained  wealth,  yet  it  was 
not  alone  the  goal  for  which  he  was  striving,  and 
he  belongs  to  that  class  of  representative  Ameri- 
can citizens  who  promote  the  general  prosperity 
while  advancing  individual  interests.  Charit- 
able and  benevolent,  he  has  given  freely  of  his 
means  in  support  of  worthy  charity,  but  one  of 
his  great  qualities  lies  in  his  encouragement  and 
material  assistance  to  those  who  were  willing 
to  help  themselves.  Indiscriminate  giving  often 
fosters  idleness  and  vagrancy  on  the  part 
of  the  recipients,  but  aid  given  to  those  who 
are  anxious  to  make  the  most  of  their  op- 
portunities will  develop  self-reliance  and  hon- 
orable business  men  who  become  the  bulwarks 
of  the  nation. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


153 


JOHN  W.  PADDOCK, 


KANKAKEE. 


JOHN  W.  PADDOCK  was  born  in  Camillus. 
Onondaga  county,  New  York,  February  14, 
1815.  His  parents  were  James  and  Ann 
Paddock,  his  father  being"  a  miller  and  a  farmer. 
The  Paddock  family  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  this 
country,  their  first  settlements  being  made  in  the 
Plymouth  Colony  as  early  as  1630.  The  Plym- 
outh Colony  records  show  that  Robert  Pad- 
dock was  at  that  time  a  member  of  the  colony, 
and  subsequently  recite  the  fact  of  the  allotment  of 
lands  to  him,  and  record  that  he  was  the  con- 
stable of  Duxbury  about  164 _^,  and  show  the 
(late  I'f  his  death  and  the  record  of  the  menibcrs 
of  his  family.  His  descendants  afterward  emi- 
grated to  Yarmouth,  and  from  there  to  Dutchess 
county,  New  York ;  thence  to  Washington  county, 
from  there  to  Onondaga,  New  York,  and  then 
to  Illinois. 

David  Paddock,  the  grandfather  of  John  W. 
of  this  article,  lived  near  West  Point  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolutionary  war,  was  a  soldier  in  Cap- 
tain Waterbury's  company.  Seventh  New  York 
Continental  Volunteers,  and  was  engaged  in  the 
campaigns  up  and  down  the  Hudson  and  in  the 
battle  of  Saratoga.  Tiie  father  of  John  W., 
James,  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  181 2:  and  the 
mother  of  John  W.,  Ann  T^IcClaury,  was  of 
.Scotch-Irish  descent.  Her  parents  emigrated  to 
New  York  from  the  north  of  Ireland  with  the 
Clintons  of  Revolutionary  fame,  and  were  re- 
lated to  that  family.  The  David  Williams,  who 
was  the  captor  of  IMajor  Andre,  was  related  to 
the  wife  of  David  Paddock  above  spoken  of, 
and  the  name  of  the  subject  of  this  article  was 
John  Williams  Paddock,  the  Williams  being  in 
recognition  of  the  relationship'  to  the  Williams 
family.  The  origin  of  the  Paddock  family  was 
^\'e]sh.  Windsor,  in  his  history  of  Duxbury, 
states  the  fact  that  there  was  a  tradition  that 
RobiTt.  one  of  the  ancestors,  was  one  of  the 
minors  who  came  over  in  the  "Mayflower."  P.e 
that  so  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  by  blood  and 
tiadiiion  the  subject  of  this  article  descended 
from  a  line  of  men  who  were  thoroughly  endowed 
with  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  whose  convictions 


of  what  was  right  had  all  through  the  years  that 
have  gone  impelled  them  to  brave  every  hard- 
ship and  danger  to  maintain  their  principles. 
They  were  Puritans,  Pilgrims,  Federalists,  \Vhigs 
and  Nationalists. 

Colonel  Paddock's  preliminary  education  was 
acquired  in  the  schools  of  his  native  place, 
whence  he  moved  to  Syracuse,  New  York,  where 
he  completed  his  academic  course  of  studies. 
In  the  office  of  J.  R.  Hickox  he  studied  law; 
from  there  in  1836,  with  his  father,  he  removed 
to  Lockport,  Will  county,  Illinois,  being  the 
teacher  of  the  first  school  in  that  village.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  this  State  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  his  profession  in  1837. 
In  June,  1853,  he  located  in  the  city  of  Kanka- 
kee, then  but  a  prospective  town,  and  in  the  fall 
of  that  year  he  removed  his  family  to  this  place. 
Previous  to  his  settlement  in  this  county  he  trav- 
eled and  practiced  at  Middleport,  Ottawa,  Joliet 
and  Chicago.  After  his  establishment  at  Kanka- 
kee he  was  connected  with  all  the  important  cases 
in  both  Kankakee  and  Iroquois  counties.  Per- 
haps the  most  celebrated  cases  with  which  his 
name  was  connected  were  those  of  the  Chiniquv 
trials.  He  was  occupied  in  the  vigorous  prose- 
cution of  his  professional  duties  until  1862,  when 
he  was  elected  to  the  constitutional  convention 
as  a  Union  man,  and  on  the  Union  ticket.  Fie  re- 
fused to  sign  the  new  constitution  and  contrib- 
uted largely  to  its  defeat  by  the  people.  In  the 
fall  of  that  year  he  entered  the  United  States 
Army.  In  earlv  life  he  was  an  old-line  Whig, 
but  upon  the  dissolution  of  that  party  became 
an  ardent  supporter  of  Douglas,  was  an  ardent 
and  eloquent  speaker,  and  an  effective  and  valu- 
able ally  of  that  great  Democratic  leader.  When 
the  tocsin  of  war  was  sounded  and  the  question 
arose  of  loyalty  or  disloxalty,  he  forsook  a  re- 
nnmerative  practice,  and  at  his  own  expense 
traveled  his  Congressional  district,  delivering 
stirring  speeches  in  favor  of  the  vigorous  prose- 
cution of  the  war  for  the  Union. 

He  greatly  aided  Captain  Vaughn  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  company  of  volunteers  after- 


154 


BinOUArinOAL  DTCTIOXARY  and  portrait  gallery  of  lUK 


warcl  assiijiitnl  to  the  I'ifty -third  Illinois  Infantry, 
and  projected  the  org-anization  of  the  Seventy- 
sixth  Illinois  Infantry.  With  this  regiment  he 
proposed  entering  the  service,  but  six  compa- 
nies still  remained  after  the  Seventy-sixth  was 
filled.  He  remained  with  them  and  subsequently 
went  with  them  to  Chicago,  where  they  were  in- 
corporated with  the  four  companies  of  the  then  or- 
ganizing Third  Board  of  Trade  Regiment,  and  in 
October,  1862,  he  was  commissioned  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Thirteenth  Illi- 
nois Infantry.  Before  leaving  for  the  seat  of  war 
he  was,  in  the  presence  of  the  regiment  at  Camp 
Hancock,  presented  with  a  superb  sword  by  his 
fellow-townsman,  James  M.  Perry,  of  Kanka- 
kee. The  One  Hundred  and  Thirteenth  joined 
Sherman  in  his  expedition  against  Vicksburg 
in  the  fall  of  1862,  and  witnessed  that  terrible 
but  unsuccessful  struggle.  Colonel  Paddock- 
participated  actively  in  the  battles  of  Chickasaw 
Bayou  and  of  Arkansas  Post,  after  which  the 
regiment  was  divided,  part  going  to  Springfield, 
Illinois,  the  remainder  being  assigned  to  Young's 
Point,  Louisiana.  They  were  also  engaged  in 
the  movements  which  resulted  in  the  capture  of 
Vicksburg,  July  4,  1863,  Colonel  Paddock  being 
in  command  at  the  time.  He  was  with  General 
Sherman  on  the  Rolling  Fork  expedition,  and 
during  the  greater  portion  of  the  time  consumed 
in  the  siege  of  Vicksburg  commanded  the  force 
assigned  to  the  protection  of  the  landing  of  the 
Yazoo,  whence  Grant  drew  his  supplies.  In 
August,  1863,  Colonel  Paddock  was  ordered  to 
report  to  General  Hurlbut,  at  Memphis,  an  or- 
der which  he  at  once  prepared  to  obey  in  com- 
pany with  his  regiment,  then  badly  stricken  with 
disease.  He  reached  Memphis,  but  owing  to 
the  return  of  that  dreaded  fever,  contracted  while 
on  the  field,  he  was  sent  to  the  officers'  hospital 
located  in  that  city.  There,  after  lingering  in 
great  pain,  he  died  Sunday  evening,  August  16, 
1863,  attended  by  the  chaplain  of  the  regiment. 
His  remains  were  brought  home  and  interred 
on  the  24th  of  August,  at  Kankakee,  followed  to 
the  grave  by  one  of  the  largest  funeral  corteges 
in  the  history  of  the  county.  Colonel  Paddock 
was  a  man  of  commanding  presence;  he  stood 
six  feet  high,  was  well  proportioned  in  his  body, 
had   long,   flowing,   black   hair,   large  blue  eyes 


and  full,  round  face,  and  was  of  light  and  buoyant 
spirits.  To  him  all  men  were  equal  and  every 
man  was  to  be  treated  as  a  man.  He  felt  no  con- 
descension in  listening  to  the  complaints  of  the 
poor  and  lowly,  and  to  assert  and  defend  their 
rights  was  always  a  gratification  to  him ;  nor  did 
lie  feel  any  elevation  in  being  associated  with 
the  wealthy  or  great.  He  was  actuated  through- 
out life  with  a  broad  spirit  of  charity,  and  was 
imbued  with  an  intense  love  of  his  country  and 
its  institutions.  The  principles  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  he  exemplified  in  his  life 
and  his  death.  His  funeral  sermon  was  preached 
bythe  Rev. C.B.Thomas, of  the  Unitarian  Church, 
at  Chicago,  from  which  we  take  the  following 
extracts : 

"  We  have  met  to  do  honor  to  the  noble  dead ; 
we  have  come  here  to  the  home  which  was  so 
dear  to  him  to  pay  to  his  memory  this  last  trib- 
ute of  respect  and  love.  A  generous,  manly,  hon- 
orable man  has  passed  suddenly  away  from  us, 
and  gone  out  into  solemn  mystery.  Another 
great  heart,  which  beat  with  an  intelligent,  wise, 
determined  love  of  his  country,  is  stilled  forever. 
I  could  not  now  recount  the  story  of  his  noble 
life  here  among  his  neighbors  and  friends,  who 
l<new  it  so  much  better  than  I,  and  who  loved  it, 
too.  I  need  not  remind  you,  I  am  sure,  while 
his  silent  fonn  is  before  us,  of  the  great  heart, 
more  thoughtful  of  others  than  himself,  which 
our  brother  carried  in  his  bosom;  of  the  sterling 
qualities  which  made  him  the  good  citizen,  the 
earnest  patriot,  the  firm  friend,  and  hater  of 
all  meanness,  the  lover  of  all  that  was  honorable, 
true  and  brave. 

"Nor  need  I  remind  you  how  he  labored  for 
his  country;  how.  he  went  out  all  unused  to  such 
labor  with  a  holy  purpose  in  his  soul;  how  bravely 
he  shared  the  perils  of  war;  how  finally  he  was 
smitten  with  disease;  how  the  other  day  the  tid- 
ings came  of  his  decline,  and  how  of  the  next  in- 
telligence he  came  wrapped  in  the  folds  of  the 
holy  flag  for  which  he  had  fought  so  manfully, — 
came  in  silence  and  in  gloom,  with  no  word  of 
greeting  on  his  lips,  no  joy  of  a  wanderer  re- 
turning to  the  dear  old  home  flashing  from  his 
eyes.  You  will  not  forget  that  manhood,  you  will 
not  cease  to  be  influenced  by  that  intelligence, 
nor  to  cherish  the  thought  of  that  devoted  and 


REPRESEXTATIS'E  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLIYOIS  VOLUME. 


155 


self-sacrificing'  friendship  v.liicli  was  his.  I  am 
told  how  thoughtfuly  he  cared  to  the  last  for 
those  under  his  command.  I  am  told  how  the 
boys  loved  him,  finding  in  him  the  same  nobility 
and  generosity  which  won  the  affection  and  re- 
spect of  his  neighbors:  I  am  told  how  he  robbed 
himself  of  his  blankets  to  put  them  beneath  a  sick 
soldier;  how  he  drove  miles,  weak  and  ill  himself. 
to  obtain  something  which  could  alleviate  the  suf- 
ferings of  a  dying  youth." 

His  last  letter,  written  on  the  field  of  ^'^icksburg, 
contains  this  sentiment,  speaking  of  the  assault 
about  to  be  made:  "I  may  fall;  I  hope  not,  but 
if  I  do,  may  God  protect  you  and  the  children. 
I  hope  to  survive  and  see  you  all  again,  but  should 
this  be  my  last,  let  the  clustering  recollections  of 
the  past  assure  you  that  my  last  prayer  was  for 
you  and  the  children.  Tell  my  boys  to  stand  by 
their  country's  cause  at  all  times,  love  and  obey 
their  mother,  and,  though  I  never  come  back, 
God  will  prosper  them." 

The  following,  from  the  pen  of  Colonel  Lord, 
who  was  a  young  officer  in  the  regiment  of 
Colonel  Paddock,  is  a  fair  estimate  of  his  relation 
to  the  service:  "Lieutenant-Colonel  Paddock,  of 
the  One  Hundred  and  Thirteenth  Regiment  of 
Illinois  LifantPi',  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the 
personnel  of  that  regiment,  and  the  remembrance 
of  his  face  and  form  and  character  must  always 
awaken  feelings  of  friendly  admiration  and  rc::;^ret 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  knew  him  and  serv'ed 
with  him. 

"  A  Democrat  in  his  political  affiliations  and 
a  politician  of  influence;  a  lawyer  by  profession; 
a  man  in  middle  life  with  a  large  family  to  whom 
he  was  devoted;  having  apparently  no  taste  for 
militar}'  life  in  itself,  and  but  little  of  the  physical 
hardness  required  of  the  campaigner,  it  was 
naturally  a  matter  of  some  surprise  among  tliose 
who  met  him  for  the  first  time  in  the  regiment  that 
he  should  be  in  the  service  at  all.  Longer  ac- 
quaintance, however, made  it  sufficiently  clear  why 
he  was,  and  emphasized  both  the  integrity  of  his 
motives  and  the  degree  of  his  personal  sacrifice. 
His  more  conspicuous  traits  as  they  became  tm- 
folded  to  his  regimental  associates  were  a  broad 
and  general  impulse  of  kindliness  to  everyone,  a 
ready  and  genial  humor,  and  an  intense  form  of 
patriotic  zeal.     He  had  but  a  small  opinion  of 


tactics,  and  was  impatient  of  the  petty  regula- 
tions and  restraints  of  military  routine.  The 
caste  distinctions,  also,  of  rank  in  the  army,  which 
others  gradually  came  to  accept  and  recognize, 
made  little  impression  upon  him.  The  men  and 
officers  whom  he  had  known  in  civil  life  were  just 
as  much  his  neighbors  in  the  ser\^ice  as  before, 
whether  in  commission  or  in  the  ranks,  with  the 
distinction  tliat  he  felt  a  more  personal  responsi- 
bility for  the  well-being  of  the  latter.  He  could 
assert  himself  and  his  right  on  occasions  of  duty 
or  emergency,  but  his  ruling  sentiment  was  one 
of  comradeship  with  all  men  who  had  undertaken 
with  him  to  resent  and  redress  the  evil  which 
threatened  the  country.  On  this  common  ground 
all  men  were  equal  with  him,  and  the  military 
organization  was  nothing  save  a  means  to  an  end 
which  all  equally  sought.  That  end  was  the  over- 
whelming of  the  enemy  and  the  restoration  of  the 
ITnion, — not  in  some  remote  future,  but  at  once. 
He  would  have  massed  an  irresistible  column 
w  ith  which  to  cut  the  Confederacy  in  two  in  a 
single  campaign.  He  seemed  to  sufTer  a  sense  of 
personal  indignity  that  his  late  political  allies 
should  have  betrayed  him  as  well  as  his  countr\', 
and  his  resentment  and  his  patriotism  intensified 
each  other.  He  was  in  a  service  which  was  dis- 
tasteful to  him,  at  a  sacrifice  of  everything  most 
cherished  and  desired,  liut  he  could  not  do  less, 
or  look  back,  until  the  end.  So  beneath  his 
genial  good-nature  there  was  always  a  restless 
impatience  of  delay,  an  impetuous  instinct  to  go 
on  to  the  speedy  deliverance  of  the  country,  and 
then  to  his  own  deliverance  from  his  self-imposed 
task.  His  hour  of  triumph  at  the  surrender  of 
Vicksburg,  after  his  regiment  had  devoted  more 
than  half  a  year  and  sacrificed  many  lives  to  ac- 
complish it,  was  all  too  brief.  The  fatigue  and 
exposure  which  the  campaign  had  made  neces- 
sary, and  the  miasma  of  the  region  in  which  his 
regiment  was  encamped,  proved  too  much  for  a 
constitution  wholly  unfitted  for  the  field,  and, 
almost  before  his  men  knew  of  his  serious  illness, 
his  eager,  hopeful  spirit  had  fled." 

Colonel  Paddock  was  a  devoted  husband,  a 
kind  father,  a  faithful  brother,  an  honorable  and 
enterprising  citizen,  a  genial  and  generous  com- 
panion, an  eloquent  advocate,  a  safe  counselor,  an 
earnest,  patriotic  soldier  and  a  brave,  gallant  and 


156 


BIOGRAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


vigilant,  vet  kind  and  humane,  officer.  Equally  as 
a  lawyer,  soldier  and  citizen,  he  left  a  record  to 
which  his  descendants  may  point  with  just  pride. 
Our  subject  was  twice  married,  his  first  wife 
being  Frances  Birch,  by  whom  he  had  two  chil- 
dren, Henry  C.  and  Emma  J.  Henry  C.  was  after- 
ward a  lieutenant  in  the  Twenty-fifth  Illinois 
Regiment,  and  was  desperately  wounded  at  the 
battle  of  Fort  Blakely.  Subsequently  he  was  for 
five  years  superintendent  of  the  public  schools 
of  Kankakee  county,  and  now  resides  in  Page 
county,  Iowa,  with  his  sister  Emma.  Our  sub- 
ject's second  wife  was  Helen  Tififanny,  who  was 
a   descendant   of   the    Ransom    family,    of   Erie 


county,  New  York,  pioneers  of  that  county  from 
Massachusetts  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century.  By  this  marriage  he  had  ten  children, 
two  dying  in  infancy.  The  surviving  children 
were  James  H.,  of  Springfield,  Illinois;  Daniel  H., 
of  Kankakee;  Helen  '¥.,  now  married  to  D.  F. 
Sherman,  of  Portland,  Oregon ;  John  W.,  of  Port- 
land, Oregon ;  Mary  R.,  now  married  to  George  F. 
Lovell,  of  Kankakee,  Illinois;  Portia  S.,  princi- 
pal of  the  Lincoln  School,  of  Kankakee;  Lucia, 
now  married  to  W.  W.  Cobb,  of  Kankakee; 
and  Catherine  A.,  who  was  drowned  in  1884, 
in  a  pleasure  excursion  on  the  Kankakee 
river. 


JOHN  A.  SEAMAN, 


THE  deserved  reward  of  a  well-spent  life  is 
an  honored  retirement  from  business  in 
which  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  former  toil.  To-day, 
after  a  useful  and  beneficent  career,  jMr.  Sea- 
man is  quietly  living  at  his  beautiful  home  in  Oak 
Park,  surrounded  by  the  comfort  that  earnest 
labor  has  brought  to  him.  He  is  a  prominent 
citizen  not  alone  of  Chicago  but  also  of  the  na- 
tion, winning  this  place  by  his  superior  ingenuity, 
mechanical  skill  and  business  ability,  through 
which  he  has  been  able  to  build  up  the  largest 
business  in  his  line  of  cooperage  in  the  country, 
not  only  to  the  benefit  of  himself,  on  account  of 
his  many  inventions  for  labor  saving,  but  also 
to  the  advantage  to  the  consumer,  both  in  qual- 
ity of  work  and  cheapness  of  price,  thereby  in- 
creasing consumption  as  well  as  proving  a  benefit 
to  the  public.  The  story  of  the  founders  of  this 
nation  and  of  the  Revolutionary  forefathers  is 
interesting,  not  only  from  a  historical  standpoint, 
but  also  as  a  source  of  inspiration  and  encourage- 
ment to  others.  Yet  we  need  not  look  to  the 
past;  the  present  furnishes  many  examples 
worthy  of  emulation  in  the  men  who  have  risen 
through  their  own  efforts  to  positions  of  promi- 
nence and  importance  in  professional,  political, 
mercantile  and  industrial  circles.  To  this  class 
belongs  John  Alexander  Seaman. 

He  was  born   in   New   Mills,   near   Newburg, 


Orange  county,  New  York,  October  10,  1826, 
and  is  a  son  of  John  and  Melissa  Ann  (Wandell) 
Seaman.  His  paternal  grandfather,  John  Sea- 
man, a  native  of  England,  came  to  the  United 
States  in  early  life  and  married  in  this  country. 
He  was  a  cooper  by  trade  and  his  son,  the 
father  of  our  subject,  followed  the  same  occupa- 
tiim,  becoming  an  exceedingly  capable  work- 
man. 

The  early  school  days  of  John  A.» Seaman  were 
spent  in  Orange  county.  New  York,  where  he 
attended  the  common  schools.  When  he  was 
thirteen  years  of  age  the  family  removed  to  New 
York  city  and  he  continued  his  studies  there  for 
a  year.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  entered  a 
cooper  shop,  and  under  the  direction  of  his  father 
became  an  expert  at  that  trade.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-one  he  began  working  for  himself,  and 
soon  saw  the  necessity  for  steady  application  if 
success  was  to  be  attained  in  a  chosen  field. 
Seeking  broader  opportunities  in  the  West,  in 
1854  he  went  to  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  where  for  a 
time  he  was  employed  as  a  journeyman  cooper, 
and  then  began  business  on  his  own  account. 
He  spent  seventeen  years  in  that  city,  but  the 
competition  which  he  there  encountered  did  not 
please  him,  nor  did  it  hold  out  any  promise  for 
success.  Accordingly  he  returned  to  New  York 
city,  where  he  spent  three  years  as  a  journeyman 


,  Nv 


CZZ^-^^^r/ ,  ^-^'=^'^^^3-.^-^^.^^ 


REPRESEXTATIVE  .VEX  OF  THE  UNIT  ED  STATES:  TLLTNOIS  VOLUyfE. 


15- 


cooper,  and  in  1873  became  identified  with  the 
business  interests  of  Chicago. 

After  furnishing  his  home  and  estabhsliing 
himself  as  a  citizen  of  this  growing  metropolis. 
Mr.  Seaman  found  that  he  had  a  cash  capital  of 
only  about  $100.  All  his  life  he  had  engaged 
in  the  cooperage  business  and  had  made  a  thor- 
ough study  of  it.  He  had  invented  many  little 
devices  which  were  important  to  the  trade  in 
handwork,  and  had  also  invented  a  number  of 
machines  to  replace  handwork  but  which  had 
up  to  this  time  never  been  utilized.  Previous 
efforts  at  doing  the  labor  by  machines  had  re- 
sulted in  partial  failure  in  producing  tight  work 
and  had  made  those  who  had  use  for  cooperage 
suspicious  of  any  inventions  along  this  line  and 
disinclined  for  further"  experiments.  The  con- 
sumers who  required  tight  cooper  work  pos- 
itively refused  to  use  machine-made  packages 
because  of  the  inconvenience  and  loss  they  had 
formerly  encountered.  Mr.  Seaman  of  course 
wished  to  have  his  inventions  come  into  general 
use,  but  soon  concluded  that  he  would  be  obliged 
to  overcome  prejudice  by  demonstration  of  the 
superiority  of  his  machine-made  packages  over 
hand-made.  He  did  not  claim  that  his  product 
was  better  than  hand  work  could  be  made,  but 
he  did  maintain  that  the  average  output  of  each 
class  would  prove  that  the  machine-made  was 
superior.  Therefore  he  began  advertising  "pat- 
ent-machine cooperage"  for  tight  work  and  se- 
cured a  few  prominent  patrons  whose  names  he 
used  as  reference,  and  therefore  in  a  short  time  he 
had  secured  a  large  business  and  had  the  satis- 
faction of  receiving  orders  which  called  for  "ma- 
chine" cooperage. 

Mr.  Seaman  always  attended  personally  to  the 
business,  superintending  both  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  his  products.  Having  but  little 
ready  money,  he  became  associated  with  a  part- 
ner who  subsequently  disposed  of  his  interest  to 
a  friend  of  Mr.  Seaman,  by  the  name  of  William 
Kennedy.  Tiie  firm  was  then  Seaman  &  Com- 
pany, and  two  years  afterward  Mr.  Kennedy  sold 
out  his  interest  on  account  of  a  partnership  he 
had  formed  with  a  brother  in  the  oil  business  in 
Pennsylvania.  The  cooperage  business  then  be- 
came the  property  of  our  subject,  who  was  later 
joined  by  liis  brotlicr,   and   the  trade  increased 


until  the  yearly  sales  exceeded  $120,000  per  an- 
num. About  this  time  the  entire  plant  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire,  causing  a  severe  loss.  An  in- 
ventory showed  that  Mr.  Seaman  had  l)Ut  $20,000 
remaining,  and  in  order  to  rebuild  he  was  obliged 
to  purchase  his  brother's  interest  and  reorganize 
the  business.  It  was  then  incorporated  under 
tlie  name  of  Seaman,  Cox  &  Brown,  with  a  cap- 
ital of  $60,000,  the  partners  in  the  enterprise  be- 
ing Rensselaer  W.  Cox,  of  Chicago,  and  William 
Brown,  of  St.  Louis.  The  last  named,  however, 
gave  no  personal  attention  to  the  business. 
Previous  to  ]\Ir.  Brown's  death  the  capital  of  the 
company  had  greatly  increased  and  part  of  his 
interest  was  purchased  from  the  estate  by  the  re- 
maining partners  vmtil  they  held  $140,000  worth 
of  stock  between  them  out  of  a  total  capital  of 
$150,000.  Xo  change,  however,  was  made  in 
the  name,  for  the  company  was  well  known 
under  the  style  of  Seaman,  Cox  &  Brown, 
and  no  desire  to  change  the  firm  title  was  mani- 
fest. 

Mr,  Seaman  retained  the  general  management 
of  the  business  up  to  the  time  of  his  retirement 
to  private  life,  improving  means,  methods  and 
machinery  in  making  this  company  the  largest 
in  the  line  of  general  cooperage  in  the  United 
States,  if  not  in  the  world,  and  obtaining  a  repu- 
tation for  honorable,  straightforward  dealing 
that  might  well  be  envied.  Among  the  very 
valuable  inventions  which  Mr.  Seaman  has  made 
are  three  entirely  new  patented  machines,  all  con- 
structed upon  entire  new  principles,  which  have 
made  it  possible  for  the  Seaman,  Cox  &  Brown 
Company  to  far  distance  its  competitors.  The 
stave-jointing  machine,  in  addition  to  reducing 
the  expense  of  making  uniform  staves  of  superior 
shape,  always  saves  its  waste,  so  that  it  can  be 
otherwise  utilized,  thereby  paying  the  expense  of 
running  the  machine,  while  formerly  it  was  an 
expense  to  remove  the  waste.  The  trussing 
machine  has  done  away  with  the  noisiest  and 
hardest  work  in  the  cooper  trade,  that  of  hammer- 
ing the  bands  on  the  packages.  This  machine 
works  automatically  and  forces  all  the  bands  on 
the  barrel  simultaneously,  irresistibly  and  ac- 
curately. The  third  machine  is  for  finishing  the 
barrel  ready  for  the  head  and  is  called  a  howling, 
chamfering  and   crozing  machine.     In   addition 


158 


DIOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORrUAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


to  these  ^Ir.  Seaman  lias  secured  patents  on 
other  inventions  on  machines  and  improvements. 

The  pohcy  of  the  company  was  ever  a  com- 
mendable one.  All  transactions  were  conducted 
on  strict  business  principles,  and  the  trust  of  those 
with  whom  they  had  dealings  was  unequivocally 
given.  In  the  extensive  establishment  there  was 
a  vast  army  of  employes  who  were  the  more 
faithfully  devoted  to  their  work  because  they 
knew  that  fidelity  to  duty  would  at  the  proper 
tiine   win   recognition. 

Mr.  Seaman  continued  his  connection  with  the 
company  until  1892,  when  he  suffered  from  a 
severe  attack  of  la  grippe.  He  was  seriously  ill 
for  some  time,  and  during  that  period  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  if  he  did  not  seek  rest  from 
financial  care  soon,  he  would  perhaps  never  have 
the  opportunity.  It  had  been  his  desire  in  early 
life  to  secure  a  good  home  and  competence,  and 
his  hopes  have  been  realized.  In  1893  therefore 
he  sold  his  interest  in  the  cooperage  business 
and  retired  to  his  beautiful  home  in  Oak  Park, 
where  he  has  resided  most  of  the  time  since  1882. 
On  his  retirement  the  Seaman,  Cox  &  Brown 
Company  was  consolidated  with  the  Pioneer 
Cooperage  Company,  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  of 
which  Mr.  Seaman's  former  partner,  jMr.  Brown, 
was  the  founder;  but  the  Chicago  branch  of  the 
business  is  still  conducted  under  the  old  name, 
and  its  practical  workings  are  superintended  by 
A.  S.  Ray,  a  son-in-law  of  Mr.  Seaman,  who  has 
been  carefully  instructed  in  all  departments  of 
the  business  in  order  to  insure  the  future  success 
of  the  concern,  and  the  management  shows  a 
high  degree  of  executive  and  mechanical  develop- 
ment. 

In  1894  l\Ir.  Seaman  completed  one  of  the 
finest  homes  in  that  beautiful  suburb,  Oak  Park, 


and  there,  surrounded  by  family  and  friends  and  all 
the  comforts  that  wealth  can  procure,  he  is  spend- 
ing the  evening  of  his  life.  In  1853  was  cele- 
brated his  marriage  to  Miss  Eliza  Josephine 
Lewis,  of  New  York  city.  They  have  three 
daughters:  Ella  T-,  now  the  wife  of  Thomas 
P.radshaw,  of  Oak  Park;  Sarah  J.,  wife  of  Allen 
Ray,  who  has  taken  Mr.  Seaman's  place  in  the 
management  of  the  extensive  cooperage  busi- 
ness ;  and  Eliza  J.,  wife  of  A.  S.  Plurd,  of  Chicago. 
While  living  in  New  York  city,  Mr.  Seaman 
was  a  member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  but  has 
since  taken  no  active  part  in  social  organizations. 
He  is,  however,  connected  with  the  Oak  Park 
Club.  He  thoroughly  enjoys  home  life  and 
takes  great  pleasure  in  the  society  of  his  family 
and  friends.  He  is  always  courteous,  kindly 
and  affable,  and  those  who  know  him  personally 
have  for  him  warm  regard.  A  man  of  great 
natural  ability,  his  success  in  business,  from  the 
beginning  of  his  residence  in  Chicago,  was  uni- 
form and  rapid.  As  has  been  truly  remarked, 
after  all  that  may  be  done  for  a  man  in  the  way 
of  giving  him  early  opportunities  for  obtaining 
the  requirements  which  are  sought  in  the  schools 
and  in  books,  he  must  essentially  formulate,  de- 
termine and  give  shape  to  his  own  character; 
and  this  is  what  Mr.  Seaman  has  done.  He 
has  persevered  in  the  pursuit  of  a  persistent  pur- 
pose and  gained  the  most  satisfactory  reward. 
His  life  is  exemplary  in  all  respects  and  he  has 
ever  supported  those  interests  which  are  calcu- 
lated to  uplift  and  benefit  humanity,  while  his 
own  high  moral  worth  is  deserving  of  the  high- 
est commendation.  He  has  been  a  strictly  tem- 
perate man,  never  using  either  liquor  or 
tobacco,  and  he  has  the  esteem  of  his  friends 
and  the  confidence  of  the  business  public. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


159 


ALONZO  GEORGE, 

AURORA. 


"pr 


>EACE,"  sai<l  Charles  Sumner  in  one  of 
his  most  eloquent  orations,  "hath  its  vic- 
tories no  less  renowned  than  war."  The  man 
whose  enterprise  has  included  within  its  grasp 
the  traffic  of  distant  lands  and  the  production  of 
many  and  various  commodities  has  really 
achieved  a  greater  triumph  and  won  far  more 
than  the  warrior  who  has  led  conquering  hosts 
over  desolate  homes  and  amid  ruins  of  sacked 
cities;  and  if  this  peaceful  hero  uses  his  wealth 
as  wisely  as  he  acquires  it,  and  by  his  enterprise 
and  beneficence  makes  thousands  happy  and 
contented,  then  are  his  victories  greater  than  that 
of  any  marshaled  host  whose  garments  are 
stained  with  blood,  for  his  triumphs  are  over  the 
forces  of  nature  and  the  selfisli  passions  of  men. 
"He  that  ruleth  his  own  spirit  is  greater  than  he 
that  taketh  a  city."  Among  the  heroes  of  such 
a  bloodless  war  that  has  been  waged  in  northern 
Illinois  ever  since  its  first  settlement,  Alonzo 
George  is  entitled  to  a  high  place  of  honor.  Dur- 
ing a  long  and  successful  commercial  life,  char- 
acterized by  enterprise,  he  ever  maintained  an 
enviable  reputation  for  the  highest  honor  and 
principle,  and  no  unworthy  deed  or  word  ever 
linkerl  itself  with  his  name  and  no  citizen  in  Illi- 
nois made  better  or  more  unostentatious  use  of 
his  accumulations. 

The  George  family  originated  in  England  antl 
was  founded  in  America  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  three  brothers  of  the 
name  settled  in  the  New  England  colonies.  They 
were  Isaac,  Moses  and  Benjamin,  the  latter  be- 
ing the  direct  ancestor  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch.  Both  Isaac  and  Benjamin  were  partici- 
pants in  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  the  former 
was  taken  prisoner  at  Quebec,  December  31, 1775, 
while  a  member  of  Captain  Hanchetfs  company. 
(See  Genealogical  Record  of  the  George  family 
published  at  Yarmouth,  Maine,  in  1875,  by  A.  W. 
Corless,  assisted  by  Mrs.  Betsy  Ayre  and  Mrs. 
Mary  H.  Webster,  of  Haverhill,  IMassachusetts.) 

Hon.  Alonzo  George  was  born  at  Strafford, 
Orange  county,  Vermont,  April  11,  1822,  and 
was   a    son    of    Ebenezer    and    Betsy    (Kibling) 


George.  On  his  mother's  side  he  was  also  de- 
scended from  ancestors  who  were  active  in  the 
Revolutionary  war,  and  some  of  her  people  were 
numbered  among  the  pioneers  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, where  both  the  parents  were  born,  the 
father  near  Manchester  and  the  mother  at  Keene. 
They  early  went  to  Vermont,  where  the  father, 
a  man  of  moderate  circumstances,  followed  farm- 
ing. Alonzo  was  reared  there  to  manhood,  as- 
sisting in  the  work  of  the  farm  from  his  early 
youth  as  the  seasons  demanded,  and  his  educa- 
tional advantages  were  those  afforded  by  the  com- 
mon schools  of  the  Green  Mountain  State.  He 
remained  on  the  farm  until  he  reached  the  age  of 
sixteen  years,  at  which  time  he  entered  upon  a 
clerkship  in  a  general  mercantile  establishment  of 
StrafTord,  which  was  conducted  by  Justin  S.  Mor- 
rill, now  United  States  Senator  from  Vermont. 
A  year  later  he  was  admitted  to  a  partnership  in 
the  business,  which  was  successfully  conducted 
for  several  years.  During  that  time  Mr.  Morrill 
was  elected  to  Congress,  but  their  connection 
did  not  cease  until  he  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  senate,  in  which  he  is  now  the  oldest  mem- 
ber in  point  of  continued  service. 

Upon  the  dissolution  of  this  partnership,  Mr. 
George  embarked  in  a  similar  business  at  Post 
Mills,  Vermont,  and  again  met  with  a  high  de- 
gree of  prosperity.  While  there  he  was  twice 
elected  to  the  Vermont  legislature.  During  his 
first  term  the  State  house  was  burned,  and  he 
served  as  a  member  of  the  committee  which  had 
in  charge  the  erection  of  the  present  capitol  build- 
ing. The  general  mercantile  business  during 
those  early  days  embraced  not  only  the  buying 
and  selling  of  produce  and  ordinary  general  store 
commodities  but  also  consasted  largely  in  the  bar- 
ter trade, — the  exchange  of  goods  for  wool  and 
other  farm  products.  The  business  training  so 
secured  has  universally  proved  the  most  suc- 
cessful foundation  for  a  broad,  liberal  and  suc- 
cessful business  career. 

In  1859  Mr.  George  decided  to  visit  the  West 
and  came  to  Aurora,  Illinois,  where  he  remained 
about  a  year.     Fie  then  returned  to  Post  Mills, 


100 


BioanAPmcAL  dictionary  and  portrait  gallery  of  the 


Vermont,  wlicrc  lie  boiig:ht  and  agfain  disposed  of 
a  stock  of  merchandise.  When  he  once  more 
arrived  in  Illinois  and  took  up  his  residence  in 
Aurora,  he  engaged  in  wool  dealing,  building  up 
a  most  extensive  trade  in  that  line.  The  New 
England  frugality  had  enabled  him  while  in  Ver- 
mont to  save  considerable  money,  which  he 
brought  West  with  him;  and,  realizing  that  no 
business  could  be  more  profitable  than  the  loan- 
ing of  money,  he  early  embarked  in  it.  He  also 
engaged  in  the  lumber  trade  and  at  various  times 
owned  one  or  more  farms.  Thus  he  soon  be- 
came one  of  the  most  prominent  as  well  as  in- 
fluential men  in  Kane  county  and  rapidly  in- 
creased his  wealth. 

Up  to  1871  Aurora  could  boast  of  but  one 
regular  banking  institution — the  First  National 
Rank — though  there  were  numerous  banking 
firms.  Mr.  George  recognized  the  necessity  of 
additional  banking  facilities  and  became  the 
prime  mover  in  founding  the  Second  National 
Bank  during  that  year  with  a  capital  of  $100,000. 
Of  the  new  financial  institution  Mr.  George  was 
elected  president,  and  it  immediately  became  the 
most  important  bank  in  Aurora, — ^a  position  that 
it  has  ever  since  maintairied.  His  abilities  as  a 
financier  were  at  once  recognized,  and  the  bank 
successfully  weathered  the  panic  of  1873  and 
was  even  enabled  to  extend  assistance  to  weak- 
ened neighbors.  The  capital  stock  of  this  con- 
cern was  well  distributed,  but  largely  held  by 
well  known  and  careful  business  men;  and  the 
aim  of  the  president  and  other  oiificers  was  ever 
to  do  a  careful  business,  increasing  with  the  de- 
mands of  the  community.  The  principle  upon 
which  Mr.  George  managed  his  bank,  as  shown 
by  the  reports  to  the  comptroller  of  the  currency 
for  the  past  twenty  years,  is  of  the  most  conserva- 
tive kind.  Although  the  bank  regularly  paid 
large  dividends,  amounting  to  ten  per  cent,  per 
annum  from  its  incorporation,  it  created  a  large 
surplus  which  in  1891  amounted  to  $150,000,  or 
$50,000  in  excess  of  the  amount  of  its  capital. 
When,  in  1891,  the  charter  of  the  Second  National 
Hank  expired,  its  affairs  were  liquidated,  the 
surplus  and  capital  of  $250,000  distributed,  the 
bank  reorganized  with  a  capital  of  $200,000 — 
double  its  previous  capiitalization.  Few  people 
knew  what  had  taken  place  until  the  name  of  the 


bank  was  changed  to  that  of  the  Old  Second 
National  Bank,  of  Aurora,  and  none  of  its  pa- 
trons realized  that  any  change  had  been  made. 
The  Second  National  Bank  has  been  a  power  for 
good  to  the  manufacturing  interests  located  in 
its  vicinity.  There  is  not  a  factory  in  Aurora  that 
has  not  at  one  time  or  another  felt  grateful  for 
its  assistance,  which  at  the  most  critical  and  dan- 
gerous moment  was  never  withheld.  The  same 
great  confidence  which  Mr.  George  extended  to 
business  men  of  merit  was  also  cordially  given  to 
many  young  men  of  Aurora  during  the  early 
years  of  their  struggles  when  they  had  no  other 
recommendation  than  their  face  and  honest  effort; 
and  it  is  curious  to  note  that  in  no  case  did  the 
result  fail  to  testify  to  Mr.  George's  sound  judg- 
ment. He  continued  as  president  of  the  bank 
until  January,  1895,  when  he  was  succeeded  by 
his  son,  William  George. 

The  name  of  this  excellent  citizen  will  ever  be 
inseparably  associated  with  many  of  the  sub- 
stantial business  enterprises  that  have  built  up 
Aurora,  and  given  the  city  its  present  industrial 
prominence  among  cities  of  the  West.  He  was 
prominent  in  the  establishment  of  the  Aurora 
Cotton  Mills.  A  year  after  the  organization  he 
took  the  office  of  treasurer  and  the  active  man- 
agement of  the  industry,  which  he  established  on 
a  paying  basis.  The  company  has  paid  large 
and  regular  dividends,  besides  accumidating  a 
large  surplus.  Mr.  George  was  also  president 
of  the  North  Aurora  Flouring  Mills  from  1879 
until  his  death,  and  a  stockholder  in  the 
Aurora  Silver  Plate  Manufacturing  Con%pany. 
His  connection  with  these  largely  insured  their 
prosperity. 

Up  to  the  time  of  his  retirement  Mr.  George 
was  far  too  greatly  engrossed  with  his  business 
duties  to  give  much  time  to  the  social  world. 
His  life  was  that  of  a  thoroughgomg  business 
man.  He  was  particularly  prompt  in  keeping 
his  business  engagements  and  expected  the  same 
consideration  from  others.  He  gave  a  ready 
hearing  to  all  who  desired  to  see  him,  and  dis- 
posed of  all  matters  claiming  his  attention  quietly 
and  critically.  Many  of  his  associates  testify  in 
strong  terms  of  his  kindness  of  heart,  finding  in 
him  not  only  a  safe  adviser  but  also  one  whose 
counsel  was  not  that  of  words  alone.     He,  how- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


161 


ever,  objected  seriously  to  any  publicity  connected 
with  his  charitable  contributions,  desiring  to  see 
only  practical  results  from  his  assistance.  He 
gave  quietly  yet  liberally  to  many  churches 
though  a  member  of  none,  and  the  poor  and 
needy  found  in  him  a  true  friend. 

In  political  life  Mr.  George  was  a  Whig  until 
the  Republican  party  was  organized  in  1856, 
when  he  joined  its  ranks,  yet  he  has  never  been 
strictly  partisan,  believing  it  to  the  interest  of  the 
community  to  have  its  affairs  conducted  by  hon- 
est men,  regardless  of  their  political  affiliations. 
He  was  often  solicited  to  become  a  candidate  for 
public  office,  but  always  refused  save  on  a  few 
minor  occasions.  In  1870  he  was  super\'isor  for 
Aurora,  later  was  school  director  for  three  years, 
was  mayor  of  the  city  in  1873  and  at  various  times 
acted  as  town  treasurer. 

During  the  last  year  of  his  life  Mr.  George 
practically  lived  retired.  A  long  and  active  busi- 
ness career  well  entitled  him  to  rest.  He  had  been 
the  architect  of  his  own  fortune  and  had  builded 


wisely  and  well.  He  was  a  man  of  sound  judg- 
ment, never  arriving  quickly  at  conclusions,  but 
when  once  his  mind  was  made  up  as  to  what  was 
the  right  course  nothing  could  deter  him  from 
pursuing  it.  He  possessed  excellent  executive 
and  business  ability,  combined  with  a  resistless 
energy  and  resolute  purpose.  His  own  success 
was  marv'elous,  but  he  never  selfishly  used  his 
wealth  for  his  own  interest.  He  passed  away 
May  18,  1895,  and  Aurora  mourned  the  loss  of 
one  of  its  most  valued  and  honored  citizens,  a 
man  who  had  the  respect  of  all  who  knew  him, 
the  confidence  of  the  business  public  and  the 
warm  regard  of  a  host  of  personal  friends. 

In  1851  Mr.  George  married  ^liss  Lydia  R. 
May,  daughter  of  Colonel  Elisha  May,  of  West 
Fairlee,  Vermont.  The  Mays  are  of  the  foremost 
of  our  early  American  families,  and  the  ancestors 
were  also  prominent  in  Revolutionary  times.  The 
children  born  of  this  marriage  were:  Lizzie,  born 
in  i860;  and  William,  the  well  known  banker 
and  business  man  of  Aurora. 


HENRY  H.  EVANS, 


THERE  is  no  one  man  in  the  State  of  Illinois 
more  widely  known  than  Hon.  Henry  H. 
Evans,  of  Aurora,  whose  name  is  synonymous 
with  that  of  the  city  of  his  home.  His  efforts 
toward  advancing  the  material  interests  of  Au- 
rora are  so  widely  recognized  that  they  can  be 
considered  as  being  no  secondary  part  of  his 
career  of  signal  usefulness.  While  practical  poli- 
tics have  claimed  much  of  his  time  and  while  his 
stalwart  Republicanism  has  been  exceedingly 
valuable  to  his  party,  his  ser\'ices  in  that  direction 
must  necessarily  be  held  secondary  to  those  of 
much  greater  importance,  as  implied  in  his  public 
spirit,  progressiveness  and  liberality 

Colonel  Evans,  who  is  entitled  to  the  rank 
designated  by  reason  of  his  appointment  on  the 
staffs  of  Governors  Cullom,  Fifer,  Oglesby  and 
Hamilton,  is  a  native  of  Toronto,  Canada,  where 
he  was  born  on  the  9th  of  March,  1836,  being 
the  son  of  Griffith  and  Elizabeth  (Weldon)  Evans, 
both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Harrisburg,  Penn- 
11 


sylvania.  His  father  was  a  millwright  and  his 
work  took  him  to  various  parts  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  and  it  wrs  while  his  parents 
were  thus  absent  from  home  by  reason  of  the 
father's  business  engagements  in  Toronto  that  our 
subject  was  born.  The  Evans  family  traces  its 
lineage  back  through  several  generations  in  Penn- 
sylvania, but  came  originally  from  Wales,  the 
family  having  been  established  in  this  country 
many  years  prior  to  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 
In  June,  1841,  Griffith  Evans  removed  with  his 
family  to  Aurora,  Illinois,  and  here  he  aided  in 
the  construction  of  the  Black  Hawk,  Montgomery 
and  Eagle  mills.  Later  he  was  foreman  of  the 
car  shops  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
Railroad,  in  Aurora.  He  died  suddenly,  of  heart 
disease,  September  28.  1882,  aged  seventy-three 
years.  His  wife  had  preceded  him  into  eternal 
rest,  her  death  having  occurred  January  29,  1882, 
at  which  time  she  had  attained  the  age  of  sixty- 
nine  years.     They  left  a  family  of  ten  children,  of 


162 


BIOORAPJIWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  QALLERY  OF  THE 


whom  the  first  four  were  born  in  Canada  and  the 
remaining  six  in  Aurora.  Colonel  Evans  was 
but  five  years  of  age  when  his  parents  took  up 
their  permanent  abode  in  Aurora,  and  his  life 
since  that  time  has  been  consecutively  passed  in 
this  place,  with  the  w-elfare  and  substantial  pros- 
perity of  which  he  is  unquestionably  more  closely 
identified  than  is  any  other  one  individual.  As 
a  child  he  had  no  special  advantages;  he  went  to 
the  public  schools  and  \vas  reared  in  a  manner 
similar  to  that  which  is  characteristic  of  the  train- 
ing and  discipline  of  the  average  village  boy.  He 
had,  however,  the  benefit  of  a  good  home  train- 
ing and  example,  and  these  have  left  an  indelible 
impress  on  his  character.  One  of  his  most 
marked  traits  was  his  filial  solicitude,  and  in 
1873  he  induced  his  father  to  resign  his  position 
in  the  shop  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
Railroad,  where  he  was  engaged  under  the  surety 
of  a  salary  sufficient  for  all  his  needs.  His  con- 
tract with  his  son  w-as  faithfully  carried  out,  and 
he  was  made  the  recipient  of  handsome  and  valu- 
able presents  from  his  son. 

The  first  business  venture  made  by  young 
Evans  was  in  a  restaurant  and  the  ice  cream 
business,  and  this  enterprise  w^as  conducted  with 
a  fair  profit,  until  1862,  when  his  loyal  nature  was 
thoroughly  aroused  by  the  imperative  needs  of 
his  country,  and  he  enlisted  as  a  member  of  the 
One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fourth  Regiment  of 
Illinois  Volunteers,  serving  until  the  close  of  the 
war.  Our  subject's  first  active  military  service 
was  at  Jackson,  Tennessee,  and  he  thereafter  as- 
sisted in  the  siege  and  capture  of  Vicksburg,  and 
after  the  capitulation  of  that  city  he  was  detached 
and  assigned  to  hospital  duty,  his  knowledge  of 
the  restaurant  business  making  him  a  valuable  as- 
sistant in  the  culinary  department.  Within  the 
time  of  his  military  service  he  made  a  little  money 
in  two  or  three  legitimate  speculations,  and  when 
he  was  mustered  out,  in  1865,  he  returned  to 
Aurora  with  this  as  a  nucleus  for  what  is  now  his 
ample  fortune. 

On  leaving  the  army  Mr.  Evans  again  engaged 
in  the  restaurant  business,  which  he  followed  un- 
til 1873,  when  he  effected  the  purchase  of  the  Fitch 
House,  which  is  now  known  as  the  Hotel  Evans. 
This  popular  house  he  conducted  for  a  few  years, 
and  then    leased    it.     About    this  time    Colonel 


Evans,  with  his  usual  foresight,  began  buying 
real  estate  in  and  about  Aurora,  and  even,'  in- 
vestment of  this  kind  resulted  in  a  decided  profit. 
He  has  platted  ten  large  additions  to  the  city, 
and  his  successful  handling  of  these  properties 
developed  in  him  a  great  capacity  for  other  busi- 
ness enterprises,  which  have  been  of  vital  impor- 
tance in  the  building  up  of  Aurora.  He  organ- 
ized and  put  in  operation  the  first  street  railway 
in  the  town ;  induced  the  Aurora,  Joliet  &  North- 
ern Railway  to  run  its  line  here,  and  secured  the 
watch  factory,  the  Rathbone,  Sard  &  Company 
stove  works  and  several  other  factories,  all  of 
which  have  large  plants  in  Aurora,  and  give  em- 
ployment to  hundreds  of  individuals.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  enterprises  Colonel  Evans  is  con- 
nected w-ith  several  others  of  equally  vital  impor- 
tance to  the  welfare  of  the  city.  He  was  president 
of  the  German-American  National  Bank  of  Auro- 
ra at  the  time  of  its  organization,  and  is  still  one  of 
its  heavy  stockholders,  and  holds  the  incumbency 
as  vice-president  and  a  member  of  its  directory. 
He  is  also  a  director  in  the  Aurora  Gas  Company. 
Colonel  Evans  has  been  largely  instrumental  in 
forming  these  corporations,  and  has  done  much 
to  place  the  enterprises  on  a  paying  basis.  He 
is  the  owner  of  the  new  additions  to  the  city 
and  is  improvi-ng  and  developing  them, 
liaving  also  erected  a  fine  modern  business  block 
and  an  opera  house  wliich  compares  favor- 
ably with  many  in  the  large  metropolitan 
centers. 

In  September,  1882,  our  subject  organized  the 
Aurora  Street  Railway  Company,  was  elected  its 
president,  and  two  months  later  had  five  miles  of 
track  laid  and  the  line  in  operation.  He  was 
also  the  founder  of  the  Aurora,  Joliet  &  Northern 
Railroad,  having  secured  the  most  of  the  sub- 
scriptions to  its  capital  stock,  and  superintended 
its  construction.  He  not  only  had  the  road  in 
running  order  in  a  short  time,  but  made  it  finan- 
cially successful  from  the  start. 

Industrious  and  successful  as  he  has  been  in 
?11  of  his  luidertakings,  whether  for  the  advance- 
ment of  personal  interests  or  the  benefit  of  Au- 
rora, it  is  as  a  politician  of  a  highly  diplomatic 
order  that  he  has  won  his  greatest  fame.  His 
political  career  had  its  inception  in  1876,  when 
he  was  elected  to  the  State  legislature.     In  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS   Vol.C  \l H 


\m 


same  year  he  was  elected  to  the  Aurora  city 
council  from  the  ninth  ward.  In  1880  he  was 
chosen  to  represent  the  district  in  the  State  sen- 
ate, and  was  re-elected  in  1884,  receiving  each 
time  a  very  complimentar}'  majority.  Since  then 
he  has  been  in  the  senate  continuously,  and  has 
done  excellent  service  for  his  constituents  and 
the  State.  It  was  through  the  efforts  of  Colonel 
Evans,  while  representative  in  1877,  that  the 
Soldiers'  Home  at  Ouincy  was  established,  and 
his  fighting  qualities  were  so  tx-pically  manifested 
at  that  time  that  Governor  Cullom  appointed  him 
on  his  staff,  and  he  has  sen-ed  all  succeeding 
governors  in  a  similar  capacity.  He  was  in- 
fluential, also,  in  securing  the  passage  of  the  State 
militia  and  police  pension  bill,  both  of  which 
measures  have  since  received  warm  public  in- 
dorsement, though  only  secured  with  sufficient 
votes  to  carry.  The  only  real  opposition  ever 
developed  against  Colonel  Evans  was  in  1890, 
when  a  faction  of  his  party,  unable  to  defeat  him 
for  renomination,  sought  to  encompass  his  ul- 
timate defeat  by  running  an  independent  candi- 
date at  the  polls.  Colonel  Evans  was  re-elected, 
however,  by  a  good  majority,  and  signalized  his 
return  to  the  senate  by  taking  a  radical  stand 
against  any  compromise  for  the  election  of  a 
United  States  senator.  Neither  the  Republicansv 
or  Democrats  had  votes  enough  to  elect  a  senator 
without  winning  over  the  Farmers'  Alliance  mem- 
bers. The  last  mentioned  repeatedly  offered  to 
vote  with  the  Republicans  on  certain  conditions, 
but  as  often  as  any  movement  in  this  direction 
was  detected  Colonel  Evans  and  three  or  four 
others  who  supported  him  defeated  it  bj'  refus- 
ing to  vote.  The  result  was  the  election  of  the 
veteran  statesman,  Hon.  John  M.  Palmer,  the  Al- 
liance members  finally  conceding  him  the  votes. 
On  being  accused  of  thus  helping  to  elect  a  Dem- 
ocrat, Colonel  Evans  said:  "I  prefer  the  elec- 
tion of  an  outspoken  Democrat  like  Governor 
Palmer  to  that  of  any  compromise  man  secured 
by  a  surrender  of  Republican  principles  by  Re- 
publican members."  His  course  has  since  been  in- 
dorsed by  the  leading  men  of  his  party,  who 
pronounce  it  to  have  been  a  wise  and  proper 
one.  In  1888  our  subject  was  seriously  con- 
sidered as  a  candidate  for  governor,  and  but  for 
his  own  protestations  would  have  been  nomi- 
nated. 


Colonel  Evans  is  a  very  liberal  man  in  the 
matter  of  financial  contributions  to  all  deserving 
objects.  He  is  not  a  church  member,  but  no 
church  edifice  has  been  erected  in  Aurora  with- 
out a  generous  subscription  from  him.  He  was 
one  of  the  largest  contributors  to  the  fund  for 
building  the  Soldiers'  -Memorial  Hall  and  Library. 
In  1888,  when  the  need  for  a  new  city  hospital 
became  imperative,  he  pledged  himself  to  raise 
five  thousand  dollars  for  the  purpose,  and  he  ac- 
complished this,  although  at  the  time  he  was 
more  than  usually  engrossed  with  political  and 
business  affairs.  There  is  no  man  in  Aurora  who 
enjoys  the  confidence  and  respect  of  all  classes 
of  people  to  a  greater  extent  than  docs  Colonel 
Evans.  He  has  not  only  been  signally  fortunate 
in  all  his  ventures  and  free  from  errors  in  his  offi- 
cial career,  but  there  is  a  spirit  of  hearty  good 
fellowship  about  him  that  has  won  him  friends  by 
the  score.  He  is  liberal  and  sympathetic  to  all  in 
misfortune  or  distress,  but  never  makes  his  bene- 
factions with  ostentatious  displa3^  He  is  happy 
in  his  expressions,  whether  of  condolence  or  con- 
gratulation, and  shows  in  all  his  actions  sound 
judgment  and  sterling  common-sense.  At  the 
age  of  fifty-nine  years  (1895)  he  is  a  mental  and 
physical  giant.  He  stands  six  feet  and  two  inches 
in  height  and  is  as  erect,  alert  and  vigorous  as  a 
man  of  twenty-five.  He  is  not  easily  provoked 
to  anger,  but  when  occasion  requires  uses  his 
great  strength  like  an  athlete,  especially  when 
defending  the  weak  and  those  in  need  of  physi- 
cal protection.  The  intellect  of  Colonel  Evans 
is  keen  and  virile  and  is  continuously  at  work 
evolving  some  new  project  for  adding  to  the 
material  prosperity  of  Aurora. 

The  marriage  of  our  subject  was  solemnized  in 
1858,  when  he  was  unnted  to  Miss  Alice  M. 
Rhodes,  a  native  of  Lancashire,  England.  They 
have  one  son,  Arthur  R.  Evans,  who  is  now  in 
the  employ  of  the  United  States  Express  Com- 
pany, as  agent  at  Aurora. 

Colonel  Evans  is  almost  as  well  known  in  Chi- 
cago as  he  is  in  Aurora,  and  he  has  many  warm 
friends  among  the  representative  business  men 
of  the  Garden  City,  where  he  has  also  extensive 
financial  interests.  He  was  a  director  in  the 
National  Bank  of  the  Republic,  in  Chicago,  and  is 
actively  concerned  in  other  financial  and  indus- 
trial enterprises. 


164  BIOORAPIIWAL  DICTWyART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 

ISAAC  FUNK, 

BLOOMINGTON. 


ISAAC  FUNK  was  bom  November  17,  1797, 
in  Clark  county,  Kentucky.  His  ancestors 
were  of  German  extraction,  his  grandfather, 
Adam  Funk,  having  emigrated  from  Germany  at 
an  early  day.  His  mother,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Sarah  Moore,  was  also  of  German  descent. 
Adam  Funk,  Jr.,  the  father  of  Isaac,  was  raised  in 
\'irginia.  and  was  at  one  time  quite  wealthy;  but 
misfortunes  came  and  he  lost  his  property  and 
died  poor.  Isaac  Funk  was  one  of  nine  children, 
six  boys  and  three  girls.  Hie  had  very  little 
schooling,  but  was  prepared  for  the  straggle  of 
life  by  the  roughest  outdoor  education,  where 
his  muscles  were  developed  and  practical  good 
sense  was  brought  into  exercise. 

In  the  year  1823,  Mr.  Funk  set  out  for  Illinois, 
but  did  not  arrive  here  until  the  following  April, 
as  he  was  detained  by  high  water  in  the  Wabash 
river.  He  first  went  to  Sangamon  county,  but 
on  the  third  of  May  he  settled  in  Funk's  Grove, 
in  the  present  McLean  county.  Here  he  and 
his  brother  Absalom,  who  had  accompanied  him 
from  Ohio,  and  Mr.  William  Brock,  built  a  little 
pole  shanty,  twelve  by  fourteen  feet,  at  the  south- 
cast  side  of  the  grove  a  short  distance  from  the 
homestead  of  the  Funk  family,  "Indian  fashion," 
with  no  window  and  one  door  made  of  clap- 
boards. The  Funks  then  went  to  breaking 
prairie  and  buying  and  selling  cattle. 

In  June,  1826,  Isaac  Funk  married  Miss  Cas- 
sandra Sharp,  of  Fort  Clark  (Peoria).  This  lady 
was  born  in  Baltimore,  Maryland.  When  she 
was  only  three  years  of  age  her  father  emigrated 
to  Ohio,  and  sixteen  years  afterward  to  Fort 
Clark,  Illinois,  where,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four, 
she  became  Mrs.  Funk.  The  dowry  which  Mr. 
Funk  obtained  with  his  wife  was  a  cow,  a  spin- 
ning-wheel and  a  bed;  but  he  obtained  with  his 
wife  something  better  than  money;  he  found  in 
her  a  noble-minded  companion.  She  was  an 
active,  stirring  woman,  possessing  the  best  of 
sense  and  discretion ;  and  perhaps  it  was  in  some 
measure  due  to  her  influence  that  Mr.  Funk  was 
afterward  so  remarkablv  successful. 

It  is  not  easv  for  us  to  take  our  mind  back  to 


early  days  and  to  place  the  condition  of  things 
correctly  in  our  imagination.  We  can  only  ob- 
tain some  small  idea  by  making  comparisons  and 
looking  at  particular  things.  It  is  said  of  Mr. 
Funk  that  he  "did  not  own  a  wagon  for  seven 
years;  went  to  mill  near  Springfield  fifty  miles, 
with  oxen;  took  from  ten  to  fourteen  bushels  of 
corn  (no  wheat  then)  part  of  the  way  with  a 
cart  and  sled;  and  carried  a  plow  thirty  miles  on 
a  horse  to  get  it  sharpened!  " 

The  result  of  all  this  energy  and  industry  was 
that  Mr.  Funk  became  worth  at  the  time  of  his 
death  a  large  fortune,  estimated  at  not  far  from 
two  millions  of  dollars.  Perhaps  some  one  will 
think  that  Mr.  Funk  must  have  kept  a  corps  of 
clerks  and  bookkeepers  to  know  where  all  his 
property  was,  and  to  keep  the  matter  clearly  in 
mind ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  he  never  kept  a  diary 
or  even  a  memorandum  book  or  a  regular  ac- 
count-book 

In  politics  Mr.  Funk  was  positive  and  decided 
in  his  views.  He  was  a  stanch  Whig  up  to  the  year 
1854,  when  the  Republican  party  was  formed,  and 
then  he  joined  it  and  remained  an  honored  mem- 
ber of  that  organization  until  the  day  of  his  death. 
In  1840  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature  of  the 
State,  but  no  particular  note  is  made  of  his  con- 
nection with  politics  at  that  time.  In  1862  he  was 
elected  to  the  State  senate  to  fill  the  unexpired 
term  of  General  Oglesby  and  at  the  expiration 
of  his  term  was  re-elected  and  remained  a  mem- 
ber until  his  death.  It  was  in  February,  1863, 
while  he  was  in  the  State  senate,  that  he  made 
his  celebrated  speech  in  favor  of  an  appropriation 
for  the  Sanitary  Commission.  The  circum- 
stances under  which  the  speech  was  made  were 
these:  The  opponents  of  the  war  had  a  majority 
in  the  legislature  and  were  determined  to  prevent 
tlie  passage  of  an  appropriation  in  aid  of  the 
Sanitary  Commission.  They  tried  to  hinder  the 
matter  from  coming  to  a  vote  by  making  all  kinds 
of  dilatory  motions,  and  they  also  discussed  the 
propriety  of  sending  commissioners  to  a  peace 
convention  which  was  to  meet  at  Louisville.  All 
this  aroused  Mr,  Funk's  temper,  and  he  made  his 


BEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS VOLVME. 


165 


knock-down  speech,  which  was  puhlislied  im- 
mediately all  over  the  countn-.  The  following  is 
the  speech  as  reported: 

"Mr.  Speaker:  I  can  sit  in  my  seat  no  longer 
and  see  such  boy's  play  going  on.  These  men 
are  trifling  with  the  best  interests  of  the  country. 
They  should  have  asses'  ears  to  set  off  their 
heads,  or  they  are  secessionists  and  traitors  at 
heart.  I  say  that  there  are  traitors  and  secession- 
ists at  heart  in  this  senate.  Their  actions  prove  it. 
Their  speeches  prove  it.  Their  gibes  and  laughter 
and  cheers  here  nightly,  when  their  speakers  get 
up  in  this  hall  and  denounce  the  war  and  the  ad- 
ministration, prove  it. 

"I  can  sit  here  no  longer,  and  not  tell  these 
traitors  what  I  think  of  them ;  and  while  so  telling 
them,  I  am  responsible  myself  for  what  I  say.  I 
stand  upon  my  own  bottom.  I  am  ready  to 
meet  any  man  on  this  floor,  in  any  manner,  from 
a  pin's  point  to  the  mouth  of  a  cannon,  upon  this 
charge  against  these  traitors!  (Tremendous  ap- 
plause from  the  galleries.)  I  am  an  old  man  of 
sixty-five.  I  came  to  Illinois  a  poor  boy.  I  have 
made  a  little  something  for  myself  and  family.  I 
pay  $3,000  a  year  taxes.  I  am  willing  to  pay 
$6,000,  aye  $12,000.  (Great  cheering,  the  old 
gentleman  bringing  down  his  fist  upon  his  desk 
with  a  blow  that  would  knock  down  a  bullock, 
and  causing  the  inkstand  to  bound  a  half  a  dozen 
inches  in  the  air.)  Aye,  I  am  willing  to  pay  my 
whole  fortune,  and  then  give  my  life  to  save  my 
country  from  these  traitors  that  are  seeking  to 
destroy  it.  (Tremendous  cheers  and  applause, 
which  the  speaker  could  not  subdue.) 

"Mr.  Speaker,  you  must  please  excuse  me.  I 
could  not  sit  longer  in  my  seat  and  calmly  listen 
to  these  traitors.  My  heart  that  feels  for  my 
poor  country  would  not  let  me.  My  heart  that 
cries  out  for  the  lives  of  our  brave  volunteers  in 
the  field,  that  these  traitors  at  home  are  destroying 
by  thousands,  would  not  let  me.  My  heart  that 
bleeds  for  the  widows  and  orphans  at  home, 
would  not  let  me.  Yes,  these  villains  and  traitors 
and  secessionists  in  this  senate  (striking  his 
clenched  fist  on  the  desk  w-ith  a  blow  that  made  the 
house  ring  again)  are  killing  my  neighbors'  boys, 
now  fighting  in  the  field.  I  dare  to  tell  this  to 
these  traitors,  to  their  faces,  and  that  I  am  re- 
sponsible for  what  I  say  to  one  or  all  of  them. 


(Cheers.)  Let  them  come  on,  right  here.  I  am 
sixty-five  years  old,  and  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
t(^  risk  my  life  right  here,  on  this  floor,  for  my 
country. 

"These  men  sneered  at  Colonel  Mack  a  day  or 
two  ago.  He  is  a  little  man;  but  I  am  a  large 
man.  I  am  ready  to  meet  any  of  them  in  place 
of  Colonel  Mack.  I  am  large  enough  for  them, 
and  I  hold  myself  ready  for  them  now,  and  at 
any  time.     (Cheers  from  the  galleries.) 

"Mr.  Speaker,  these  traitors  on  this  floor  should 
be  provided  with  hempen  collars.  They  deserve 
tliem;  they  deserve  them.  They  deserve  hang- 
ing, I  say  (raising  his  voice  and  violently  strik- 
ing his  desk).  The  country  will  be  better  oflf  to 
swing  them  up.  I  go  for  hanging  them,  and  I 
dare  to  tell  them  so,  right  here,  to  their  traitorous 
faces.  Traitors  should  be  hung.  It  would  be 
the  salvation  of  the  country  to  hang  them.  For 
that  reason  I  would  rejoice  at  it.  (Tremendous 
cheering.) 

"Mr.  Speaker,  I  beg  pardon  of  the  gentlemen 
in  the  senate  who  are  not  traitors  but  true  and 
loyal  men,  for  what  I  have  said.  I  only  intend 
it  and  mean  it  for  secessionists  at  heart.  They 
are  here  in  this  senate.  I  see  them  joke  and 
smirk  and  grin  at  a  true  Union  man.  But  I  defy 
tliem.  I  stand  here  ready  for  them  and  dare 
them  to  come  on.  (Great  cheering.)  What  man 
with  the  heart  of  a  patriot  could  stand  this  treason 
any  longer?  I  have  stood  it  long  enough.  I  will 
stand  it  no  longer.  (Cheers.)  I  denounce  these 
men  and  their  aiders  and  abettors  as  rank  traitors 
and  secessionist^.  Hell  itself  could  not  spew 
out  a  more  traitorous  crew  than  some  of  the  men 
who  disgrace  this  legislature,  this  State  and  this 
country.  For  myself,  I  protest  against  and  de- 
nounce their  treasonable  acts.  I  have  voted 
against  their  measures.  I  will  do  so  to  the  end. 
I  will  denounce  them  as  long  as  God  gives  me 
breath;  and  I  am  ready  to  meet  the  traitors  them- 
selves here  or  anywhere,  and  fight  them  to  the 
death.     (Prolonged  cheers  and  shouts.) 

"I  said  I  paid  three  thousand  dollars  a  year 
ta.xes.  I  do  not  say  it  to  brag  of  it.  It  is  my 
duty, — yes,  Mr.  Speaker,  my  privilege, — to  do  it. 
But  some  of  these  traitors  here,  who  are  working 
night  and  day  to  get  their  miserable  little  bills 
and  claims  through  the  legislature,  to  take  money 


16(5 


BIOOnAPinCAl.  DICTIONARY  AND  PURTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


out  of  the  pockets  of  the  people,  are  talking  about 
high  taxes.  They  are  hypocrites  as  well  as 
traitors.  I  heard  some  of  them  talking  about 
high  taxes  in  this  way,  who  do  not  pay  five 
dollars  to  support  the  Government.  I  denounce 
them  as  hypocrites  as  well  as  traitors.     (Cheers.) 

"The  reason  that  they  pretend  to  be  afraid  of 
high  taxes  is,  that  they  do  not  want  to  vote  money 
for  the  relief  of  the  soldiers.  They  want  also  to 
embarrass  the  Government  and  stop  the  war. 
They  want  to  aid  the  secessionists  to  conquer  our 
boys  in  the  field.  They  care  about  taxes?  They 
are  picayune  men  anyhow.  They  pay  no  taxes 
at  all,  and  never  did,  and  never  hope  to,  unless 
they  can  manage  to  plunder  the  Government. 
(Cheers.)     This  is  an  excuse  of  traitors. 

"]\[r.  Speaker,  excuse  me.  I  feel  for  my 
country  in  this,  her  hour  of  danger;  I  feel  for  her 
from  the  tips  of  my  toes  to  the  ends  of  my  hair. 
That  is  the  reason  I  speak  as  I  do.  I  cannot  help 
it.  I  am  bound  to  tell  these  men  to  their  teeth 
what  they  are,  and  what  the  people,  the  true  loyal 
people,  think  of  them. 

"Air.  Speaker,  I  have  said  my  say.  I  am  no 
speaker.  This  is  the  only  speech  I  have  made; 
and  I  do  not  know  that  it  deserves  to  be  called 
a  speech.  I  could  not  sit  still  any  longer,  and 
see  these  scoundrels  and  traitors  work  out  their 
selfish  schemes  to  destroy  the  Union.  They  have 
my  sentiments.  Let  them  one  and  all  make  the 
most  of  them.  I  am  ready  to  back  up  all  I  say, 
and  I  repeat  it,  to  meet  these  traitors  in  any 
manner  they  may  choose,  from  a  pin's  point  to 
the  mouth  of  a  cannon." 

The  legislature  was  sometimes  a  little  more 
sharp  than  honest,  and  it  is  refreshing  to  hear  the 
opinion  of  an  honest  farmer  spoken  boldly  and 
fearlessly,  with  regard  to  some  of  its  acts  and 
doings.  The  following  is  "Senator's  Funk's  pro- 
test against  the  bill  providing  for  the  payment  of 
the  salaries  of  the  officers  in  gold,  delivered  in 
the  senate  of  the  State,  January  14,  1865:''  Air. 
Funk  said: 

"I  would  like  to  have  an  opportunity  to  make 
an  inquiry,  and  then  to  explain  my  position." 
Leave  being  given  the  honorable  senator  pro- 
ceeded as  follows:  "Was  there  a  bill  passed  on 
Thursday  last  respecting  the  pay  of  members  of 
the  legislature  being  made  in  gold?" 


The  speaker:     "Yes,  sir." 

Mr.  Funk:  "These  lawyers  understand  these 
awkward  words,  and  can  sift  them  out  and  arrange 
them  and  comprehend  them  better  than  I  can. 
But  I  want  to  inquire  whether  it  has  ever  been 
the  practice  for  a  member  who  does  not  have 
his  vote  recorded  either  for  or  against  a  measure, 
in  consequence  of  his  absence,  to  have  that  vote 
recorded,  when  it  does  not  alter  the  result?" 

The  speaker:  "The  senate  cannot  alter  the 
'.T.te,  but  he  can  have  it  recorded  on  the  journal, 
if  another  will  join  him  in  requesting  it." 

Air.  Funk:  "I  would  like  to  have  mine  entered 
on  the  journal." 

Air.  Ward:  "I  second  the  request  of  the  senator, 
and  will  join  him,  so  that  there  maybetwo  names." 

Air.  Funk:  "I  am  opposed  to  that  measure.  I 
oppose  it  on  principle.  I  think  that  we  were 
sent  here  to  legislate;  to  set  good  examples;  to 
correct  errors  and  wrongs;  to  do  justice  to  the 
community  and  to  ourselves  also.  Now,  if  a  law 
had  been  passed  to  pay  all  debts  in  gold,  I  w'ould 
not  say  much  about  it;  but  when  this  honorable 
body  passed  a  law  to  pay  itself  in  gold,  I  think 
it  is  setting  a  very  poor  example, — not  but  what 
they  deserve  more  pay  than  they  get,  but  what 
they  get  is  no  object  to  any  member  here,  I  am 
sure.  The  little,  pitiful  sum  that  any  man  gets 
who  represents  the  State  of  Illinois  in  the  gen- 
eral assembly,  every  one  of  us  ought  to  disdain 
to  stoop  down  and  pick  up  in  the  road.  Now, 
for  my  own  part,  I  am  willing  to  receive  my  pay 
as  a  senator  just  as  they  pay  me  at  home  for  my 
cattle  and  hogs,  my  wheat  and  corn.  My  hired 
man  I  pay  in  common  currency,  and  I  do  not 
think  we  are  any  better  than  the  laboring  man. 
I  think  that  the  labor  of  ourselves  should  be 
paid  in  the  same  kind  of  money  that  pays  for 
other  things.  Now,  if  this  becomes  a  lav/,  it  will 
come  up  from  the  hostler  and  the  hired  man  in 
this  State,  and  they  will  say  to  us,  "Why,  my 
dear  sir,  you  voted  yourselves  pay  in  gold:  won't 
you  give  it  to  us?'  What  kind  of  a  position  will 
that  be?  I  would  rather  go  without  a  cent  than 
have  my  pay  in  that  way.  I  object  to  it  on  prin- 
ciple. I  do  not  mean  to  insinuate  anything 
against  my  man,  but  I  do  think  that  men  have 
voted  without  thinking  upon  the  evil  conse- 
quences.    Not  but  that  there  are  men  here  who 


/r^  UyL     Ue^^e^^C 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


167 


could  tell  as  much  in  a  few  minutes  as  I  expect 
to  speak  in  all  my  life,  but  when  I  say  Yes  I 
mean  Yes,  and  when  I  say  No  I  mean  No.  It 
is  the  most  outrageous  thing  I  ever  heard  of, 
and  I  want  it  branded  upon  my  forehead  in  let- 
ters as  big  as  the  moon,  that  I  am  against  it, 
and  shall  ever  be  against  it." 

It  was  not  until  1864,  when  Mr.  Funk  had  be- 
come very  wealthy,  that  he  built  his  large  house, 
the  homestead  of  the  family  at  Funk's  Grove. 
He  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  it,  and  only  slept 
in  it  twice  previous  to  his  death.  The  circum- 
stances of  his  death  are  as  follows:  He  came 
from  his  attendance  at  the  legislature  at  Spring- 
field on  Saturday,  January  21,  1865,  to  his  resi- 
dence at  Funk's  Grcve.  On  the  following  day 
his  health  seemed  poorly  and  on  Monday  he 
came  to  Bloomington,  where  he  was  taken  sick 
abed  at  tlie  residence  of  his  son,  Duncan.  His 
disease  was  erysipelas,  and  he  was  also  afifected 
with  diphtheria.  On  Wednesday  his  wife  came 
to  see  him  and  was  taken  sick  the  following 
day,  because  of  anxiety  for  her  husband.  They 
both  had  all  the  care  and  attention  which  med- 
ical skill  could  give,  but  all  was  unavailing.  Mr. 
Funk  died  at  five  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning, 
the  29th  day  of  January,  1865,  and  Mrs.  Funk 
died  at  about  nine  o'clock!  They  were  both 
buried  at  Funk's  Grove,  in  a  burying  ground, 
beside  Mr.  Funk's  father. 

Mr.  Funk  was  about  five  feet  ten  and  one- 
half  inches  in  height  and  weighed  about  two  hun- 
dred pounds.  He  had  keen,  black  eyes,  which 
were  expressive,  especially  when   aroused.     His 


hair  was  jet  black  and  curly,  but  had  become 
gray  at  the  time  of  his  death.  His  nose  was  rather 
prominent  and  somewhat  Roman.  His  forehead 
was  full  but  retreating,  showing  a  very  practical 
turn  of  mind.  He  was  very  quick  and  loud- 
spoken  and  was  exceedingly  independent.  He 
had  a  great  deal  of  push  and  drive  about  him; 
indeed,  his  energy  was  wonderful.  He  was  very 
quick-tempered,  but  his  anger  did  not  last  long. 
He  was  good-htmiored  and  appreciated  a  joke 
as  well  as  anyone.  He  was  very  accommodating 
as  a  neighbor,  but  would  not  stand  an  imposi- 
tion from  anyone.  He  loved  his  brothers  and  his 
family,  all  of  his  relatives;  and  indeed  the  family 
has  always  been  remarkable  for  the  entire  ab- 
sence of  any  quarrelsome  disposition. 

Isaac  Funk  never  made  any  will.  At  his  death 
his  property  was  divided  by  his  children  among 
themselves,  without  any  difficulty  and  without 
any  administration  or  the  intervention  of  any 
outside  parties.  A  remarkable  fact  in  connec- 
tion with  Isaac  Funk's  estate  is  that  although  it 
had  been  distributed  amongst  the  several  heirs, 
so  well  have  they  cared  for  their  shares  that 
none  of  them  has  permitted  his  portion  to 
depreciate  in  value,  and  to-day,  thirty  years 
after  the  deatli  of  Isaac  Funk,  the  estate  he  left 
is  virtually  intact  and  has  increased  largely  in 
value. 

Since  the  death  of  Mr.  Funk  his  family  have 
subscribed  ten  thousand  dollars  to  endow  the 
Isaac  Funk  Professorship  of  Agriculture  at  the 
Wesleyan  University,  which  is  a  fine  testimonial 
to  the  worth  of  their  father. 


JOHN  M.  SCOTT, 


BLOOM  IKGTOX. 


JUDGE  JOHN  M.  SCOTT,  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  was  born  in  August,  1824,  in  the 
county  of  St.  Clair,  Illinois,  and  has  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  first  native  citizen  to  become 
a  member  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois.  His 
ancestry  in  the  paternal  line  were  Scotch-Irish, 
in  which  fact  he  takes  great  pride,  being  a  constant 
attendant  of  the  sessions  of  the  Scotch-Irish  Con- 
gress and  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  society. 


He  has  many  of  the  characteristics  of  that  sturdy, 
fearless  and  talented  race  of  men.  His  mother's 
maiden  name  was  Nancy  Biggs,  a  daughter  of 
Judge  William  Biggs,  of  Virginia,  who  emi- 
grated to  Illinois  at  a  verj'  early  day,  and  was 
identified  with  the  first  settlement  of  the  State. 
His  mother,  as  a  child,  passed  through  that  fear- 
ful ordeal  incident  to  the  struggle  between  civiliza- 
tion and  barbarism  as  manifested  in  the  massacres 


108 


nroauAPiiicAL  nrcTioNAur  and  portrait  gallery  of  the 


and  wars  between  the  Indian  and  white  man. 
Educated  in  that  school  of  suffering  and  danger, 
in  common  witli  her  many  other  good  qualities  of 
head  and  heart,  she  became  a  woman  of  heroic 
mold  and  well  worthy  to  perform  the  delicate 
trust  of  training  children  in  a  courageous  dis- 
charge of  duty.  His  father  was  in  comfortable 
circumstances,  and  afforded  his  son  all  the  facili- 
ties incident  to  a  new  country  for  procuring  an 
education. 

Having,  in  connection  with  his  attendance  at 
school,  availed  himself  of  the  advantages  of 
private  tuition,  he  acquired  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  English  branches,  besides  a  fair  knowledge 
of  Latin  and  the  higher  mathematics.  The  bar 
at  Belleville  in  the  early  history  of  the  country 
was  the  ablest  in  the  State,  and  well  calculated  to 
fascinate  the  mind  of  a  young  man  with  the  pro- 
fession of  the  law;  and  that,  in  connection  with 
a  natural  taste  for  the  bar,  induced  him  to  read 
law,  in  the  office  of  Messrs.  Kinney  &  Bissell, 
then  among  the  most  accomplished  lawyers  in  the 
West.  Like  many  others  who  have  acquired  dis- 
tinction at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench,  as  prelimi- 
nary to  his  career  as  a  lawyer,  he  devoted  some 
time  to  the  profession  of  school-teaching.  He 
studied  the  elementary  books  of  the  law  with 
industry  and  diligence,  and  thereby  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  legal  philosophy  which,  through  his 
life  both  as  a  lawyer  and  judge,  fitted  him  to  deal 
with  the  law  as  a  science  and  not  as  a  mere  aggre- 
gation of  arbitrary  rules.  Upon  his  admission 
to  the  bar  in  1848  he  removed  to  McLean  county, 
where  for  more  than  forty  years  he  has  resided, 
discharging  during  that  time  some  of  the  highest 
functions  of  a  citizen  of  the  State.  At  the  time 
he  became  identified  with  the  McLean  county  bar, 
lawyers  of  distinction  were  among  its  members. 
Judge  Davis  and  General  Gridley  were  of  the 
local  bar,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  and  John  T. 
Stuart  were  among  the  non-resident  attorneys 
who  attended  the  courts.  While  Judge  Scott  had 
every  qualification  for  a  successful  trial  lawyer, 
like  his  illustrious  predecessor  on  the  bench  of 
the  circuit  court,  Judge  Davis,  he  had  a  peculiar 
aptitude  for  the  higher  function  of  judge,  and 
from  his  admission  to  the  profession  the  taste  of 
his  ambition  inclined  to  the  bench.  He  had  but 
little  trouble  in  securing  his  share  of  business,  and 


was  not  subject  to  that  anxious  solicitude  which 
often  intervenes  between  coming  to  the  bar  and 
coming  to  a  practice. 

In  1849  lie  was  elected  school  commissioner, 
and  served  in  that  ofifice  until  1852,  superintend- 
ing the  educational  interests  of  the  county  and 
distributing  the  money  of  the  school  fund.  In 
the  winter  of  1852  he  was  elected  to  the  respon- 
sible position  of  judge  of  the  county  court,  which 
at  that  time  not  only  had  within  its  jurisdiction 
probate  matters  but  also  all  the  public  business  of 
the  county.  In  addition  to  his  official  duties  and 
general  practice  he  was  the  attorney  of  Blooming- 
ton,  recently  organized  as  a  city.  From  boy- 
hood the  judge  was  a  great  admirer  of  Mr. 
Webster,  and  as  a  result  of  that  predilection  when 
he  came  to  the  years  of  manhood  he  was  a  Whig 
and  continued  an  ardent  supporter  of  that  party 
until  its  dissolution  in  1852.  Upon  the  formation 
of  the  Republican  party  he  became  a  Republican 
when  that  party  was  struggling  for  an  existence 
as  a  political  organization.  In  1856  he  was  nomi- 
nated on  the  Republican  ticket  for  the  State 
senate,  and  made  a  most  vigorous  and  able  can- 
vass for  the  defense  of  Republican  principles  in 
a  district  largely  Democratic  in  sentiment;  and  al- 
though defeated  he  reduced  the  majority  to  a 
point  highly  complimentary  to  himself.  In  this 
campaign  he  and  Mr.  Lincoln  often  addressed  the 
same  audiences,  and  between  them  there  was  the 
most  cordial  personal  and  political  relations. 

In  the  first  years  of  the  Judge's  practice  his 
clearness  of  thought,  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
law,  services  as  county  judge  and  his  dignity  of 
character  directed  the  attention  of  the  people  and 
the  bar  to  him  as  having  the  qualifications  for 
higher  judicial  duty;  so  that  in  the  year  1862, 
when  Judge  Davis  became  a  member  of  the 
supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  Judge  Scott 
was  selected  as  his  successor  by  a  unanimity  of 
sentiment  of  both  the  bar  and  the  people.  He 
did  not,  in  the  administration  of  his  office  as 
judge  of  the  circuit  court,  disappoint  the  expecta- 
tions of  his  most  sanguine  friends,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  unexpired  term  of  Judge  Davis  he  was 
re-elected  without  opposition.  He  held  the  circuit 
ccurt  in  the  eighth  district,  during  the  most 
troublous  times  of  the  Civil  war,  and  was  called 
upon  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  to  repress  the 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UyiTED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


169 


violence  of  both  sides,  which  he  did  with  a  fear- 
lessness and  courage  worthy  of  the  best  age  of  the 
judiciary. 

In  the  year  1870  a  constitutional  convention  was 
held,  and  on  the  2d  of  July,  that  year,  the  con- 
stitution formed  by  that  body  was  adopted,  which 
made  it  necessary  to  elect  additional  members  of 
the  supreme  court.  The  district  of  which  McLean 
county  formed  a  part  was  entitled  to  one  of  the 
new  judges  and  embraced  within  its  limits  the 
central  portion  of  the  State,  commencing  at  Taze- 
well on  the  northwest  and  running  to  Edgar  on 
the  southeast.  Embracing  as  it  did  Sangamon 
and  other  large  and  populous  counties  of  the 
State,  it  necessarily  had  some  of  the  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  profession.  When  it  w^as  known  that 
there  would  be  an  increase  in  the  membership  of 
the  supreme  court,  the  public  mind  was  directed 
to  Judge  Scott  as  well  worthy  of  the  exalted  posi- 
tion. This  was  especially  so  among  the  lawyers 
of  the  district;  and  in  June,  1870,  a  convention 
of  the  bar  was  held,  and  although  some  of  the 
leading  jurists  of  the  district  and  State  were  can- 
didates. Judge  Scott  was  chosen  by  the  conven- 
tion, and  in  July,  1870,  he  was  elected  a  judge  of 
the  supreme  court  for  the  term  of  nine  years. 

At  the  time  he  became  a  member  of  that  court 
many  questions  of  importance  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  State  and  people  were  pending  in  the  supreme 
and  circuit  courts  incident  to  the  extraordinary 
development  of  the  railroad  interest  in  the  North- 
west; and  Chicago,  with  its  complex  and  diversi- 
fied character,  its  extraordinary  and  sudden 
growth,  and  its  many  schemes  of  speculation  and 
trade,  made  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  one  of 
the  most  important  courts  of  the  United  States. 
Outside  of  the  State  of  New  York,  it  may  be  safely 
assumed  that  for  importance  of  litigation,  and 
questions  of  difficult  solution,  no  other  in  tlie 
Union  presented  a  field  more  fruitful  in  legal  con- 
tention than  the  State  of  Illinois.  At  the  time 
Judge  Scott  became  a  member  of  the  court  he  was 
in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  his  life,  and  had  ac- 
quired at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench  a  capacity  for 
legal  information  which  fitted  him  to  deal  in- 
telligently and  ably  with  all  the  questions  which 
came  before  the  court.  He  has  been  identified 
with  the  judicial  history  of  the  State  for  a  period 
of  nearly  forty  years,  as  a  lawyer,  county,  circuit 


and  supreme  judge.  His  name  first  appears  in 
the  3d  volume  of  Gilman's  Reports  as  a  practic- 
ing attorney,  and  his  opinions  extend  from  the 
54th  to  the  126th  volume  of  Reports  as  a  judge 
of  the  supreme  court.  At  the  end  of  his  first  tenn 
as  a  justice  of  the  supreme  court,  he  was  elected, 
in  June,  1879,  by  a  very  large  majority  over  one  of 
the  most  accomplished  lawyers  of  the  State.  His 
second  term  expired  in  June,  1888,  when  he  de- 
clined a  re-election,  having  served  for  a  period  of 
eighteen  years  with  marked  ability,  and  to  the 
cnlire  satisfaction  of  the  people  and  the  bar  of 
the  whole  State. 

During  those  eighteen  years  he  served  as  chief 
justice  three  terms,  and  is  the  first  native  born 
citizen  of  Illinois  who  held  that  responsible  and 
dignified  position.  During  the  eighteen  years 
which  he  held  the  office  of  a  justice  of  the 
supreme  court,  the  litigation  was  larger,  more 
complicated  and  important  than  in  the  fifty-two 
years  which  intervened  from  the  admission  of  the 
State  to  the  year  1870.  The  legal  controversies  of 
the  citizens  had  changed  from  the  simple  ques- 
tions of  law,  which  were  the  subjects  of  judicial 
discussion  and  determination  in  the  early  history 
of  the  State,  to  questions  more  abstruse  and  diffi- 
cult, depending  upon  more  enlarged,  involved 
and  complex  conditions  of  fact.  The  lawsuit  of 
1870  and  that  of  1820  in  the  supreme  court  of  the 
State  were  very  dififerent  as  legal  controversies. 
In  later  years  immense  records  had  to  be  ex- 
amined and  digested  in  order  to  present  the  whole 
case  and  fully  develop  the  real  issue  to  be  de- 
termined. 

In  the  power  to  master  a  voluminous  record, 
and  to  eliminate  the  immaterial  matter  of  a  legal 
proceeding,  Judge  Scott  has  great  ability,  as 
shown  in  his  numerous  opinions  upon  almost 
every  conceivable  subject  of  human  contention, 
.'v  supreme  court  of  die  State  is  much  more  diver- 
sified in  its  jurisdiction  than  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  the 
court  of  final  jurisdiction  for  almost  every  wrong 
which  can  be  committed  and  for  ever\'  right  which 
can  be  protected.  Subject  to  the  limited  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  it 
is  the  court  of  final  resort  which  settles,  by  the 
authority  of  law,  the  many  contentions  and  dis- 
putes incident  to  men  as  they  form  human  society. 


1 


170 


BIOORAPHICAL  DICTIONAnY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


During  his  tenii  of  service  the  labors  of  the  court 
extended  through  seventy-three  volumes  of  re- 
ports, so  that  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  his 
contribution  to  the  body  of  judicial  law  of  Illinois 
is  as  large  and  important  as  any  member  of  the 
supreme  court  at  any  period  in  the  history  of  the 
State.  His  services  in  the  supreme  court  covered 
a  period  which  may  be  called  formative  as  to  some 
of  the  more  material  interests  of  the  State,  and 
from  which  important  litigation  originated,  as  the 
park  systems  of  Chicago,  the  railroad  and  ware- 
house commission,  the  modified  special  assess- 
ment methods,  and  the  many  questions  of  corpo- 
ration law  growing  out  of,  and  dependent  upon, 
the  adoption  of  the  new  constitution. 

The  protection  of  the  life  and  liberty  of  the 
citizen  is  the  most  important  and  delicate  trust 
committed  to  the  jurisdiction  of  a  court;  and  one 
of  the  leading  opinions  of  the  court  on  that  sub- 
ject was  written  by  Judge  Scott  in  the  case  of 
Ker  vs.  The  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  re- 
ported in  the  iioth  volume.  The  question  pre- 
sented by  the  record  was  one  new  and  novel,  and 
called  for  the  highest  and  best  resources  of  judicial 
reasoning  in  the  determination  of  legal  questions 
made  by  the  facts.  The  defendant,  Ker,  com- 
mitted the  crime  of  embezzlement  and  larceny  in 
Chicago,  as  the  cashier  of  a  bank,  and  fled  to 
Peru,  at  the  time  that  country  was  in  military 
possession  of  the  Chileans,  and  it  was  practically 
impossible  to  proceed  under  the  treaty  for  his 
return.  Owing  to  the  condition  of  the  country, 
the  defendant  was  taken  by  force,  placed  on  board 
a  United  States  ship-of-war  and  brought  back  to 
the  United  States.  When  he  was  arraigned  in 
the  criminal  court  of  Chicago,  he  pleaded  in  de- 
fense the  illegality  of  his  arrest  and  extradition. 
The  court  below  sustiiined  a  demurrer  to  the  plea, 
and  the  case,  upon  the  correctness  of  that  decision, 
was  appealed  to  the  supreme  court.  The  court, 
in  a  very  able  opinion  delivered  by  Judge  Scott, 
sustained  the  decision  of  the  criminal  court,  and 
from  that  decision  an  appeal  was  taken  to  the 
supreme  court  of  the  United  States.  The  State 
court  said:  "A  fugitive  from  justice  has  no  asylum 
in  a  foreign  country  when  he  is  guilty  of  an 
offense  for  which  he  is  liable  or  subject  to  ex- 
tradition by  treaty  between  this  and  the  foreign 
countr}'.     If  he  is  illegally  and  forcibly  removed 


from  such  foreign  country,  that  country  alone  has 
the  cause  of  complaint,  and  he  cannot  complain 
for  it."  In  the  decision  of  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States  it  is  said:  "The  treaties  .of  ex- 
tradition to  which  the  United  States  are  parties 
do  not  guarantee  a  fugitive  from  justice  from  one 
of  the  countries  an  asylum  in  the  other.  They 
do  not  give  such  person  any  greater  or  more 
sacred  right  of  asylum  than  he  had  before."  It 
will  be  seen  that  the  line  of  argument  pursued  by 
Judge  Scott  in  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  was, 
in  substance,  followed  by  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States;  and  by  a  series  of  uniform 
judicial  detenninations,  the  law  upon  an  im- 
portant question  of  individual  liberty  and  inter- 
national right  was  settled  as  far  as  it  can  be 
settled  by  the  decisions  of  the  highest  courts  of 
one  nation. 

In  the  case  of  Lenfers  vs.  Henkle  (73d  Illinois 
Reports)  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  was  called 
upon  to  decide  a  question  which,  up  to  the  time  of 
the  decision,  had  never  been  passed  upon  by  any 
court  either  in  England  or  the  United  States. 
The  controversy  relates  to  the  dower  interest  of 
a  widow  in  the  mineral  or  mining  lands  of  the 
husband.  Judge  Scott  delivered  the  opinion  of 
the  court  on  the  question  involved  in  a  remark- 
ably clear,  original,  and  well-reasoned  argument, 
showing  his  ability  to  deal  with  questions  upon 
the  broad  ground  of  original  thought,  unaided 
by  express  authority.  During  his  term  of  service 
in  the  supreme  court  he  wrote  many  opinions 
upon  the  subject  of  municipal  taxation  and  the 
law  of  real-estate  property  growing  out  of  the 
great  value  of  land  in  Chicago;  but  the  compass 
of  this  article  will  not  permit  special  reference  to 
them.  They  will  stand  as  limitations  to,  and  quali- 
fications upon,  municipal  authority  and  the  law 
of  realty  throughout  the  entire  history  of  that 
State  which  has  to  deal  with  the  most  remarkable 
municipal  corporation  that  has  ever  appeared  in 
the  history  of  time. 

The  Judge  has  great  respect  for  the  dignity  of 
judicial  place  and  power,  and  no  man  ever  pre- 
sided in  a  court  with  more  respect  for  his  environ- 
ments than  did  Judge  Scott.  As  a  result  of  that 
personal  characteristic  the  proceedings  were  al- 
ways orderly  upon  the  part  of  every  one — au- 
dience, bar,  and  the  officers  from  the  highest  to 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


171 


the  lowest.  His  opinions  are  fine  specimens  of 
judicial  thought,  ahva^-s  clear,  logical,  and  as 
brief  as  the  character  of  the  case  will  permit.  He 
never  enlarged  beyond  the  necessities  of  the  legal 
thought  in  order  to  indulge  in  the  drapery  of 
literature. 

His  mind  during  the  entire  period  of  his  course 
at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench  had  been  directed 
in  the  line  of  his  profession  and  his  duty,  and  as 
a  result  he  has  not  given  much  time  to  specula- 
tion and  money-making.  But  by  the  judicious  in- 
vestments of  the  reward  of  his  toil,  he  is  now 
in  independent  and  prosperous  circumstances. 

He  is  the  owner  of  many  fine  farms  in  the 
vicinity  of  Bloomington,  and  to  the  care  of  these 
he  devotes  considerable  attention,  renting  them 
to  good  tenants  at  not  more  than  one-half  the 
ordinary  rent  of  other  farms  of  like  improvements 
and  situation.  He  takes  great  delight  in  the 
success  and  welfare  of  his  tenants,  and  as  an  in- 
ducement to  them  for  their  toil  he  gives  them 
the  lowest  rent  he  can  afford. 

During  his  term  of  sei"vice  as  county  judge,  in 
the  year  1853,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Charlotte 
A.  Perry,  daughter  of  Rev.  David  J.  Perry,  of 
Bloomington.  His  marriage  was  most  happy. 
Mrs.  Scott  is  a  lady  of  culture  and  refinement,  and 
enjoys  with  grace  and  without  ostentation  the 
assured  place  given  her  by  the  public  ser\'ice  and 
life  of  her  husband.     They  have  had  two  children, 


who  died  in  their  infancy,  but  have  an  adopted 
daughter,  to  whom  they  are  devoted  in  the  most 
fervent  attachment. 

The  Judge  is  of  fine  literary  taste,  and  as  a  result 
of  that  inclination  he  has  one  of  the  choicest 
libraries  in  central  Illinois,  abounding  in  books  of 
standard  quality  and  highest  excellence  of  author- 
ship. His  tastes  are  simple,  but  refined  and  deli- 
cate, and, whatever  he  has  is  of  the  best  quality. 
Since  his  retirement  from  the  bench  his  time  has 
been  devoted  to  looking  after  his  private  interests 
and  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  home  and  library. 
Conspicuous  among  the  many  good  traits  of  his 
character,  is  his  fearless  devotion  to  whatever  he 
thinks  comes  within  the  pale  of  public  or  private 
duty.  He  has  moral  courage  fit  for  any  emer- 
gency, and  although  he  has  always  been  a  pro- 
nounced Republican  he  is  without  partisan  prej- 
udice, and  in  his  candidacy  he  has  been  sup- 
ported with  enthusiasm  by  many  leaders  of  the 
opposition.  He  is  now,  as  he  has  been  for  many 
years,  a  devoted  member  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  and  a  constant  attendant  upon  its  minis- 
trations. His  judicial  term,  extending  through 
twenty-six  yeai's  of  uninterrupted  success,  is  an 
honor  to  the  State,  and  his  character  as  a  man  is 
well  worthy  the  admiration  of  the  whole  people. 

The  biography  of  Judge  Scott  as  it  appears 
herein  is  copied  from  volume  i  of  the  Encyclo- 
pedia of  Biography  of  Blinois. 


WILLIAM  GEORGE, 

AURORA. 


FEW  men  are  more  prominent  or  more  widely 
known  in  the  enterprising  city  of  Aurora 
than  William  George.  He  has  been  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  business  circles  and  his  popularity 
is  well  deserved,  as  in  him  are  embraced  the 
characteristics  of  an  unbending  integrity,  unabat- 
ing  energy  and  industry  that  never  flags.  He  is 
public-spirited  and  thoroughly  interested  in  what- 
ever tends  to  profnote  the  moral,  intellectual  and 
material  welfare  of  Aurora. 

Mr.  George  was  born  in  Aurora,  September 
23,  1861,  and  is  a  son  of  Hon.  Alonzo  George, 
deceased,  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  dis- 


tinguished residents  of  this  city.  His  early  child- 
hood days  were  spent  in  his  parents'  home,  and 
he  received  the  best  possible  educational  ad- 
vantages that  money  could  obtain  or  the  commu- 
nity could  provide.  He  entered  the  primary  de- 
partment of  the  West  Aurora  schools,  passed 
through  the  successive  higher  grades  and  was 
graduated  at  the  West  Aurora  high  school  in  the 
class  of  1879.  Subsequently  he  entered  the  State 
University  of  Iowa,  at  Iowa  City,  and  upon  com- 
pleting his  studies  there  he  attended  the  Union 
College  of  Law  at  Chicago,  where  he  was  grad- 
uated with  honor  in  the  class  of  18815. 


172 


BIOGHAI'inCAL  DIcrrONMlY  AXD  rORTRAIT  CALLERY  OF  THE 


Immediately  returning  to  Aurora,  he  entered 
the  law  office  of  Hopkins,  Aldrich  &;  Thatcher, 
in  which  he  remained  until  October,  1887,  when 
he  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  alone.  On 
the  first  of  Januar>-,  1894,  he  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  V.  D.  Winslow,  which  continued  till 
September  16,  1895,  when  the  law  firm  of  Hop- 
kins, Aldrich  &  Thatcher  was  dissolved  and  jNIr. 
Nathan  J-  Aldrich  united  with  Winslow  &  George, 
forming  the  firm  of  Aldrich,  Winslow  & 
George.  His  large  financial  interests  prevent  his 
giving  much  time  to  his  law  practice,  which  how- 
ever is  very  important  and  extensive.  He  en- 
gages in  general  practice,  but  pays  special  atten- 
tion to  corporation  law,  for  which  he  is  particularly 
well  qualified.  In  him  are  combined  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  fundamental  and  statute  law,  natu- 
ral sagacity  and  constant  scrupulous  care,  which 
methods  have  made  his  professional  career  one  of 
success.  His  thorough  knowledge  of  corpora- 
tion law  is  recognized  wherever  he  is  known,  and 
his  profesisonal  services  and  advice  are  in  con- 
stant demand  as  he  possesses  rare  powers  of  or- 
ganization. In  carrying  on  the  important  work- 
that  his  father  began,  he  is  perhaps  best  known 
in  his  native  city. 

In  1891  he  began  taking  charge  of  his  father's 
business  as  the  second  vice-president  of  the  Old 
Second  National  Bank.  At  the  time  of  his  fath- 
er's retirement  from  the  presidency,  which  he  had 
held  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  William 
George  entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  important 
position.  This  was  in  Jauuary,  1895,  and  his  suc- 
cessful management  of  its  affairs  makes  it  a  very 
profitable  institution  as  well  as  one  of  the  solid 
financial  concerns  of  this  section  of  the  state.  No 
special  branch  of  business  or  any  particular  inter- 
est has  any  claim  on  this  institution,  and  his 
policy  is  to  cater  to  all  regular  legitimate  inter- 
ests though  it  is  essentially  a  bank  for  business 


men.  The  new  president  welcomes  all  depositors, 
though  they  have  but  a  few  dollars  to  deposit 
now  ajid  then,  and  is  earnest  in  his  endeavor  to 
cultivate  and  encourage  the  spirit  of  economy 
and  saving  among  the  working  men  of  Aurora. 
This  safe  and  solid  basis  of  transacting  business 
raises  the  Old  Second  National  Bank  of  Aurora 
above  all  fear  of  financial  panic  or  depressions  in 
trade. 

In  addition  to  his  professional  and  financial 
interests,  Mr.  George  is  a  director  in  the  Aurora 
Cotton  Mills,  the  Aurora  Silver  Plate  Manufac- 
turing Company,  director  and  treasurer  in  the 
North  Aurora  Mill  Company,  attorney  and  direc- 
tor in  the  Fox  River  Valley  Building  and  Loan 
Association,  director  in  the  Hercules  Ice  Machine 
Company,  director  in  the  Aurora  Pure  Ice  Company 
and  president  of  the  Aurora  Lumber  Company. 

He  is  a  man  of  broad  capabilities,  as  his  varied 
and  extensive  business  interests  indicate.  He  is 
at  all  times  approachable  and  patiently  listens  to 
whatever  a  caller  may  have  to  say,  always  cour- 
teous and  at  all  times  a  gentleman  in  the  truest  and 
best  sense  of  the  term.  He  cares  not  for  noto- 
riety, nor  is  there  about  him  the  least  shadow  of 
mock  modesty.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  fine  ad- 
dress and  thorough  culture,  occupying  a  first 
place  in  society  as  well  as  in  the  commercial  cir- 
cles of  northern  Illinois.  Mr.  George  usually  ad- 
vocates the  principles  of  the  Republican  party, 
but  is  independent  in  his  voting  and  cares  noth- 
ing for  political  preferment. 

At  all  times  Mr.  George  is  devoted  to  the  wel- 
fare and  interests  of  his  family,  and  it  seems  that 
he  cannot  do  too  much  to  promote  the  happiness 
of  his  wife  and  daughter.  On  the  nth  of  Octo- 
ber, 1887,  he  was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss 
Alice  Maude  Lounsbury,  daughter  of  Rev.  E.  W. 
Lounsbury,  D.  D.,  of  Dayton,  Ohio.  They  have 
one  child — Alice  j\Iav. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TEE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


178 


ALFRED  M.  JONES, 

WAUKESHA,  WISCONSIN. 


ALFRED  MILES  JOXES  is  a  native  of 
the  Granite  State,  having  been  born  at 
Xew  Durham.  New  Hampshire,  Febn.iar\-  5, 
1837.  His  father,  Alfred  S.  Jones,  was  a 
sturdy  type  of  tlie  New  England  farmer,  whose 
wife  Rebecca  was  a  member  of  the  old  Miles 
family  of  Connecticut  Alfred  M.  was  their 
eldest  child.  Ten  years  after  our  subject's 
birth,  his  parents  moved  westward  and  lo- 
cated at  Hebron,  McHenry  county,  Illinois, 
and  resumed  their  farming  operations.  Al- 
fred remained  with  his  parents  till  he  was  sixteen 
years  old,  then  struck  out  for  himself  and  went 
to  the  Michigan  pineries,  remained  there  fi'r  a 
time  and  then  spent  a  year  in  rafting  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi. He  saved  some  money  out  of  this 
venture  and  went  to  Rockford,  Illinois,  and  at- 
tended for  two  winters  the  institute  there,  kept 
by  H.  P.  Kimball,  graduating  in  1856.  After 
this  he  returned  to  Hebron,  working  on  his  fath- 
er's farm  in  the  summer  and  teaching  school 
during  the  winter. 

After  he  had  resided  there  for  a  short  time  his 
father  disposed  of  his  interests  and  moved  to 
Warren  in  Jo  Daviess  count)^  and  here,  in  1857, 
our  subject  started  in  for  himself  in  the  book  and 
jewelry  business.  In  the  follow'ing  year  the 
panic  staggered  the  country,  and  Mr.  Jones  sold 
his  stock  of  goods,  which  invoiced  thirty  dollars, 
and,  being  dependent  on  his  own  exertions,  was 
forced  to  seek  his  livelihood  in  another  direction. 
He  decided  to  go  to  the  Pike's  Peak  country, 
then  in  the  zenith  of  its  fame,  and  in  company' 
with  a  friend,  George  Heafiford,  left  Warren  and 
traveled  by  rail  to  St.  Joseph,  Missouri;  at  that 
point  they  crossed  the  river  and  met  two  Ger- 
mans in  the  town  of  Elwood,  who  had  two  wheel- 
barrows. They  bought  one,  and  Mr.  Jones, 
who  was  the  stronger  of  the  two,  got  a  surcingle, 
put  it  over  his  shoulders,  strapped  the  ends  to 
the  handles  of  the  wheelbarrow,  and  thus  wheel- 
ing it  made  the  entire  journey  to  their  destination, 
— a  trip  that  occupied  twenty  days.  After  the 
first  day  there  Mr.  Jones  left  his  partner.  He 
remained    for   a    short   time,    but,    being  disap- 


pointed in  the  prospects,  decided  to  return 
East,  and  set  out  on  foot  for  Kearney, 
Nebraska,  five  hundred  and  fifty-five  miles  dis- 
tant, which  distance  he  covered  in  ten  consecu- 
tive days,  passing  everything  on  the  road  except 
the  pony  express! 

Upon  arriving  at  \\'arren,  Mr.  Jones,  after 
resting  but  a  day  from  his  fatiguing  trip,  went  to 
work  laying  sidewalks,  for  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  a  day.  From  that  day  to  this  he  has 
ever  been  busy,  actively  engaged  in  work  of 
some  sort.  He  was  then  employed  in  the  sale 
of  farm  machinery,  and  this  he  continued  for 
about  five  years.  Giving  that  up,  he  engaged 
in  the  law  and  real-estate  business. 

Shortly  after  his  return  home  he  was  appointed 
constable,  later  he  held  the  position  of  deputy 
sheriff  and  coroner,  and  was  for  eight  years  chair- 
man of  the  Republican  county  central  committee. 
He  was  elected  to  the  lower  house  of  the  Illinois 
legislature  and  served  during  the  sessions  of 
1872-73-74,  and  in  the  latter  session  was  his 
party's  leader  in  the  house.  It  was  at  this  tin;e 
that  he  received  the  name  of  "Long"  Jones,  un- 
der which  title  he  is  known  to  almost  every-body. 
It  was  given  him  to  distinguish  him  from  Mr. 
Jones,  of  Massac  county,  a  member  of  the  assem- 
bly at  the  same  time;  and  as  A.  M.  Jones  is  over 
six  feet  in  height  it  stuck  to  him,  and  he  has 
ever  since  been  known  as  "Long"  Jones. 

After  his  term  of  service  in  the  legislature  ex- 
pired he  was  appointed  one  of  the  Joliet  peni- 
tentiary commissioners,  and  was  for  three  years 
and  six  months  secretary  of  the  board.  He  was 
then  appointed  by  President  Hayes  collector  of 
internal  revenue  at  Sterling,  Illinois,  and  later 
President  Garfield  appointed  him  United  States 
marshal  of  the  Northern  District  of  Illinois,  with 
headquarters  at  Chicago.  He  continued  in  this 
office  until  June  30,  1885.  During  that  time  he  was 
a  member  of  the  Republican  State  central  com- 
mittee, and  for  twelve  years  of  the  fourteen  that 
he  was  a  member  he  filled  the  position  of  chair- 
man. One  of  the  triumphs  of  which  Mr.  Jones 
and  his  friends  are  justifiably  proud  is  that  he 


174 


nionRAPIfTCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


was  chairman  ol  the  State  central  committee  in 
the  year  1878,  tliat  broucrht  about  the  election 
of  General  John  A.  Logan  to  the  United  States 
senate;  and  for  this  ser\'ice  he  was  presented  by 
his  admirers  with  a  handsome  silver  service  as  a 
token  of  their  appreciation.  The  last  two  times 
that  General  Logan  was  elected  to  the  senate, 
Mr.  Jones,  who  was  his  warm  personal  friend, 
had  charge  of  the  campaign,  successfully  accom- 
plishing, as  he  always  did,  what  he  strove  for. 

In  1892,  at  the  Republican  national  conven- 
tion in  IMinneapolis,  he  had  charge  of  President 
Harrison's  forces,  with  the  result,,  as  is  well  re- 
membered, that  that  gentleman  was  renomi- 
nated to  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  was  on  that  occasion  that  Mr.  Jones  was 
the  recipient  of  a  handsome  cane  from  the  mem- 
Ihts  of  the  "low-water-mark"'  committee  of 
which  he  was  chairman. 

On  the  first  day  of  July,  1885,  Mr.  Jones  took 
charge  as  manager  of  the  noted  Bethesda  min- 
eral springs  at  Waukesha,  which  up  to  that  time 
had  not  proved  a  paying  investment.  Under  his 
management  it  was  soon  "on  its  feet."  In  1888 
he  became  president  of  the  company,  as  well  as 
its  manager.  These  offices  he  still  holds,  and 
the  affairs  of  the  company  are  in  a  most  flour- 
ishing condition.  Mr.  Jones  has  been  a  grad- 
ual purchaser  of  the  stock  of  the  Bethesda  com- 
pany, and  now  holds  about  seventy-five  per  cent, 
of  its  issue.  He  was  instrumental  in  organizing 
the  Wauke.sha  Beach  Electric  Railway  Company, 
which  is  capitalized  for  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars,  and  he  was  elected  president  of  the  cor- 
poration at  its  organization.  The  company  has 
constructed  a  line  of  electric  railway  extending 
from  Waukesha  to  Pew'aukee  lake,  a  distance  of 
five  miles.  After  accepting  the  presidency  of 
the  above  corporation  he  decided  that,  as  his 
business  enterprises  were  so  extensive  as  to  re- 
Cjuirc  his  home  there,  he  would  make  that  city 
his  place  of  permanent  residence;  and  accord- 
ingly, in  the  spring  of  1894,  not  without  regrets, 
he  left  his  residence  in  Illinois  and  moved  his 
family  to  Waukesna,  where  he  has  planned  a 
magnificent  dwelling  which  he  hopes  to  enter 
next  year.  The  handsome  Terrace  Hotel,  lo- 
cated ju.st  across  the  street  from  Bethesda  Park, 
is  owned  by  him. 


On  October  13,  1857,  ]\Ir.  Jones  was  united 
in  matrimony  with  Miss  Emeline  A.  Wright,  a 
native  of  New  York  State,  and  they  have  two 
children:  Alfred  Wirt,  secretary  of  the  Bethesda; 
and  Ernie,  now  Mrs.  J.  L.  Robinson. 

Mr.  Jones  is  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church 
and  a  liberal  contributor  to  its  support;  and  he 
is  also  a  member  of  the  ^Masonic  fraternity. 

It  seems  appropriate  at  this  point  to  say  a  word 
or  two  regarding  the  Bethesda  Spring.  Its  fame 
is  so  widespread  that  mention  of  it  can  with  pro- 
priety be  made  even  in  a  work  devoted  ex- 
clusively to  biography,  and  especially  so  as  the 
biographv  of  its  president  would  be  incomplete 
without  it. 

There  is  but  one  other  spring  in  the  world  so 
well  known  as  the  Bethesda,  and  that  is  the  Carls- 
bad of  Bohemia.  To  Colonel  Richard  Dunbar 
is  due  the  credit  of  the  discovery  of  the  definite 
therapeutic  properties  of  the  Bethesda  Spring, 
although  for  years  previous  to  1868,  the  date  of 
Colonel  Dunbar's  discovery,  the  Indians  had 
drank  of  its  waters  with  marked  benefit.  Colonel 
Dunbar,  who  was  by  occupation  a  railroad  con- 
tractor, and  had  spent  many  years  in  South  Amer- 
ica, was  considered  a  hopeless  invalid,  sufTering 
from  a  supposed  incurable  case  of  diabetes.  His 
wife's  mother,  Mrs.  William  Clarke,  a  resident 
of  Waukesha,  was  fatally  ill  at  that  village,  and 
Colonel  Dunbar  and  his  wife  were  summoned 
to  her  bedside.  The  former  was  in  a  most  de- 
spondent frame  of  mind,  for  the  most  noted 
physicians  of  the  time  had  told  him  he  had  but 
a  few  months  to  live.  His  skin  was  like  parch- 
ment, and  no  perspiration  had  come  from  its 
pores  for  months.  On  the  9th  day  of  August, 
1868,  he  was  taken  out  for  a  drive,  and  upon 
passing  the  spring  the  Colonel,  who  was  always 
thirsty,  requested  a  cup  of  water,  which  was 
given  him, — in  fact  he  drank  nine  cupfuls.  Al- 
most immediately  he  began  to  perspire.  LTpon 
arriving  home  he  was  put  to  bed  and  fell  asleep, — 
the  first  sleep  he  had  obtained  for  a  long  time. 
L'pon  awakening  he  called  for  more  water,  and 
he  continued  to  drink  it  wdienever  thirsty.  From 
this  time  his  recovery  was  rapid,  and  he  lived 
for  a  long  time  afterward,  and  purchased  an  in- 
terest in  the  spring  that  prolonged  his  life. 

In  the  fall  of  1868  the  water  was  first  sold  for 


REPBESFXTATIVE  MFX  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES.-  ILIJXOIS  VOLUME. 


175 


medicinal  puqDoses,  and  ever  since  that  time  it 
has  been  on  the  market.  The  business  of  bot- 
tling and  selling  in  large  quantities  was  begun 
in  1878.  It  is  now  consumed  in  all  parts  of  the 
United  States  and  in  many  European  and  Cana- 
dian cities.  During  1892  over  one  million  bot- 
tles of  the  water  were  sold  and  the  business  is 
steadily  increasing.  The  greatest  care  is  taken 
that  the  consumers  get  the  water  in  a  pure  and 
unadulterated  state,  and  it  is  sold  in  bottles  only, 
and  bottled  only  at  the  springs  with  a  sealed 
label  over  the  cork.  The  supply  is  unlimited, 
and  its  efficacy  is  attested  to,  over  their  own  sig- 
natures, by  some  of  the  most  eminent  physi- 
cians and  citizens  of  our  country,  such  as  Vice- 
President  Stevenson,  ex-Secretary  Rusk,  ex-Sec- 
retary Foster,  ex-Governor  Foraker,  Director 
General  George  R.  Davis.  President  T.  W. 
Palmer,  United  States  Judge  Jenkins,  Dr.  Shrady 
and  others  by  the  score. 

Bethesda  Park,  in  which  the  spring  is  located, 
is  the  most  beautiful  spot  in  ^V'aukesha,  as  well 
as  the  most  popular  with  the  thousands  of  vis- 
itors to  that  noted  resort.  A  handsome  pavilion 
has   been   erected   over   the   spring,    and   this   is 


thronged  continuously  with  young  and  old  to 
drink  the  sparkling  waters.  During  the  sum- 
mer season,  band  concerts  form  an  attractive 
feature  of  enjoyment,  while  tennis  courts,  cro- 
quet giounils,  a  row  on  Fox  river,  or  a  stroll 
among  the  grand  trees  of  the  park  offer  amuse- 
ment for  those  inclined  to  avail  themselves  thereof. 
All  the  attendants  are  uniformed  in  neat  blue, 
with  the  word  "Bethesda"  in  gilt  letters  on  their 
caps,  and  an  air  of  neatness  and  prosperity  per- 
vades everything  connected  with  Bethesda. 

^^'ithin  a  hundred  miles  of  Chicago,  and  less 
than  twenty  from  Milwaukee,  residents  of  those 
cities  are  always  present  in  large  numbers,  while 
as  a  resort  for  Southerners  it  already  rivals  the 
reputation  held  by  Saratoga  in  the  days  before  the 
war. 

Mr.  Jones  has  been  the  leading  spirit  in  the 
advancement  of  Bethesda.  His  has  been  the 
mind  to  conceive  and  direct  and  the  hand  to  exe- 
cute all  of  its  many  improvements,  with  the  re- 
sult that  he  has  placed  Bethesda  water  within  the 
reach  of  all,  and  has  made  Bethesda  Park  one 
of  the  greatest  and  best  known  summer  resorts 
in  the  country. 


JAMES  MILLIKIN, 


E\'ERYWHERE  in  our  land  are  found  men 
who  have  worked  their  own  way  from 
I'.umble  beginnings  to  leadership  in  the  commerce, 
the  great  productive  industries,  the  management 
of  financial  affairs,  and  in  controlling  the  veins 
and  arteries  of  the  traffic  and  exchanges  of  the 
country.  It  is  one  of  the  glories  of  our  nation 
that  it  is  so.  It  should  be  the  strongest  incentive 
and  encouragement  to  the  youth  of  the  country 
that  it  is  so. 

Prominent  among  the  self-made  men  of  Illi- 
nois is  the  subject  of  this  sketch, — a  man  hon- 
ored, respected  and  esteemed  wherever  known, 
and  most  of  all  where  he  is  best  known.  James 
Millikin  was  bom  in  Washington  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, August  2,  1830.  His  father,  Abel  Mil- 
likin,  a  prosperous  farmer,  was  of  Scotch-Amer- 
ican ancestry,  his  forefathers  having  emigrated 


from  Scotland  and  settled  in  Pennsylvania  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Other  branches 
of  the  Millikin  family  settled  in  Maine  and  in 
the  .South, — Titillikin's  Bend  on  the  Mississippi 
river  having  obtained  its  name  frum  some  mem- 
ber of  the  family.  Xancy  (\'an  Dyke)  Millikin, 
mother  of  our  subject,  was  of  Dutch  ancestry. 
Ifer  ancestors  were  among  the  early  Knicker- 
bocker settlers  along  the  Hudson  river.  Her 
immediate  progenitors  were  natives  of  New 
Jersey. 

The  boyhood  days  of  James  Millikin  were 
imeventful.  He  attended  the  di.strict  school 
and  later  for  some  three  years  was  a  student 
in  the  W'ashington  (Pennsylvania)  College,  an 
institution  which  at  that  time  had  few  if  any  su- 
periors. There  he  was  enabled  to  obtain  a  knowl- 
edge of  certain  subjects  that  have  been  a  con- 


176 


BIoaiiAPlIICAI,  DiCT/OXAUY  AXD  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


stant  source  of  i^leasurc  to  liini  in  later  years 
and  whicli  ha\'c  had  a  powerful  influence  in  shap- 
ing his  career. 

Several  members  of  Mr.  Millikin's  family 
were  practicing  physicians, — three  uncles  and 
an  elder  brother  being  members  of  that  profes- 
sion,— and  although  nothing  positive  had  been 
decided  upon,  it  was  almost  assured  that  when 
James  should  reach  the  proper  age  he  should 
follow  in  the  paths  of  his  relatives  and  become 
a  doctor  of  medicine.  The  study  of  medicine 
had  but  little  attraction  for  him,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  exert  himself  in  a  different  direction.  In 
1848  he  came  West  to  Illinois,  locating  at  first 
in  Danville,  X'ermillion  county,  where  he  engaged 
in  the  live-stock  business,  purchasing,  raising 
and  trading  in  stock  of  all  kinds.  In  this,  his 
first  venlnre,  he  showed  remarkable  business 
adaptability,  and  transacted  a  large  and  lucra- 
tive business.  He  rented  farms  which  he 
operated  to  raise  live  stock,  and  he  extended 
his  business  in  several  directions.  He  was  suc- 
cessful and  soon  found  himself  upon  the  road  to 
prosperity. 

The  tide  of  immigration  was  then  moving  west- 
ward with  great  force,  and  to  his  observing  mind 
were  shown  great  possibilities  for  the  increase 
of  the  value  of  farm  lands.  Consequently  he  be- 
gan to  obtain  possession  of  wild  lands,  entering 
some  and  purchasing  others  until  he  owned 
large  tracts  of  land  in  Illinois  and  still  larger  in 
southwestern  Iowa.  Much  of  this  land  cost  him 
from  one  dollar  to  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents 
per  acre.  He  entered  the  lan^d  on  which  the 
town  of  Bemcnt  is  located.  As  the  territory 
west  of  Danville  became  more  thickly  populated, 
new  towns  sprang  into  existence.  Mr.  Millikin 
decided  that  Decatur  had  better  natural  advan- 
tages than  Danville,  and  in  1856  he  journeyed 
thither  and  since  then  has  made  this  city  his 
home.  In  Decatur  he  continued  to  deal  in  lands, 
real  estate  and  live  stock,  and  soon  established 
himself  among  the  progressive  men  of  the  pro- 
gressive little  city. 

In  i860  he  organized  the  private  banking  house 
of  J.  Millikin  &  Company,  and  at  once  entered 
upon  a  successful  career  as  a  banker.  The  few 
years  that  he  had  passed  among  the  citizens  of 
Decatur  had  demonstrated  the  fact  that  he  was 


a  man  t"  be  trusted,  an<l  when  he  established 
the  bank  his  patronage  was  large  from  the  start. 
For  thirty-five  years  the  banking  house  of  J.  Mil- 
likin &  Compaaiy  has  been  in  existence,  and 
during  that  entire  time  the  confidence  of  the 
public  therein  has  never  been  shaken,  and  it  has 
become  one  of  the  largest  financial  institutions 
in  the  State  outside  of  Chicago,  and  probably 
the  largest  private  banking  establishment  in 
Illinois.  During  all  the  years  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  bank  of  J.  Millikin  &  Company 
Mr.  Millikin  has  stood  at  the  helm  and  con- 
trolled its  course.  His  head  and  hands  have 
guided  the  institution  safely  through  all  dan- 
gers, and  in  times  of  storm  its  safety  has  never 
been  questioned,  and  the  confidence  imposed 
therein  has  never  been  abused  and  therefore  has 
always  been  deserved.  He  has  built  several  hand- 
some business  houses,  and  is  now  erecting  a  mag- 
nificent bank  building,  one  of  the  finest  in  the 
entire  State. 

In  addition  to  his  banking  establishment  Mr. 
Millikin  is  president  of  the  Union  Iron  Works 
Company,  which  he  assisted  in  organizing  about 
a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  and  which  has  been 
a  most  successful  corporation.  Large  and  sat- 
isfactory dividends  have  always  been  paid,  and 
its  capital  stock  of  sixty  thousand  dollars  has 
been  augmented  by  a  surplus  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  He  is  also  inter- 
ested in  the  Decatur  Coal  Company. 

Politically  Mr.  Milliken  is  a  Republican,  but 
has  never  desired  to  hold  political  positions  of 
any  kind.  He  has  been  a  member  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  since  boyhood,  and  he  has  ever 
endeavored  to  lead  a  consistent  Christian  life. 
He  was  married  in  1858  to  Anna  B.,  daughter 
of  the  Reverend  Samuel  Aston,  a  Presbyterian 
clergyman. 

In  summing  up  the  points  of  Mr.  Alillikin's 
career,  one  fact,  that  has  not  been  previously 
mentioned  herein,  should  not  he  overlooked, 
and  that  is  the  assistance  he  has  rendered 
young  men.  He  has  given  many  young  men  the 
opportunity  to  advance  in  life,  and  several  of 
thq  most  successful  of  Decatur's  citizens  owe 
their  prosperity  to  the  assistance  rendered  them 
by  Mr.  Millikin.  He  has  always  been  willing 
to  devote  his  wealth  and  his  energies  to  any  feasi- 


y\r(JMUA^IiuZ  \J^' 


,'^-^'^^yu-y~' 


ttEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VoLU.VE. 


177 


ble  undertaking  that  would  increase  the  pros- 
perity of  the  cit}'  and  add  to  the  comfort  of  its 
inhabitants.  His  life  has  been  a  success.  He 
has  accumulated  a  large  fortune  and  has  used 
only  such  means  as  will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny. 
He  has  bestowed  on  worthy  causes  large  sums 
of  money,  and  uses  his  fortune  to  the  advantage 
of  the  community  as  well  as  to  his  own  profit.  To 
such  men  as  he  is  the  development  of  the  West 
due.  He  has  for  nearly  forty  years  been  an 
active  factor  in  advancing  the  city  of  Decatur, 
and  during  that  entire  time  has  so  conducted  all 
of  his  affairs  as  to  command  the  esteem,  confi- 
dence and  respect  of  all  classes.  Personally  he 
is  sociable,  ever  willing  to  accord  to  anyone  the 


courtesy  of  an  inter\'iew.  Although  a  man  of 
great  wealth,  he  is  unostentatious  in  a  marked 
degree,  and  in  this  age,  when  anarchistic  and 
socialistic  doctrines  are  inflaming  the  masses, 
the  demeanor  and  actions  of  such  men  as  he 
do  more  to  quench  the  fire  of  envy  and  malice 
than  all  other  means  combined. 

Mr.  Millikin's  actions  have  during  his  life 
been  such  as  to  distinctively  entitle  him  to  a 
place  in  this  publication,  and  although  his  career 
has  not  been  filled  with  thrilling  incidents,  prob- 
ably no  biography  published  in  this  book  can 
serve  as  a  better  illustration  to  young  men  of 
the  power  of  honesty  and  integrity  in  insuring 
success. 


WASHINGTON  PORTER, 


AMOKG  the  most  loyal  of  Chicago's  citizens 
are  many  who  are  numbered  among  the 
native  sons  of  Illinois.  From  childhood  they  have 
been  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  State  and 
are  now  largely  devoting  the  best  years  of  their 
manhood  to  its  progress  and  advancement.  The 
mar\'elous  growth  of  Chicago  has  been  one  of 
the  miracles  of  the  age,  and  none  the  less  phe- 
nomenal seems  the  advancement  that  has  been 
made  in  science,  art,  literature  and  commercial 
activity.  The  names  of  those  who  have  come 
down  to  us  through  history  from  remote  ages 
are  largely  men  who  were  devoted  to  their  re- 
spective countries,  and  in  this  article  we  record  a 
brief  outline  of  the  life  of  one  whose  interest  in 
his  adopted  city  is  deep  and  earnest,  springing 
from  a  true  desire  to  promote  all  matters  pertain- 
ing to  its  best  advancement  and  progress. 

Born  in  Boone  county,  Illinois,  on  the  26th  of 
October,  1846,  Washington  Porter  traces  his  an- 
cestry back  to  an  old  English  family,  of  whom 
record  is  found  in  the  church  at  Marham,  Nor- 
folk, England,  in  1680.  For  several  hundred 
years,  therefore,  the  family  was  connected  with 
Norfolk,  and  there  lived  James  Porter,  of  Mar- 
ham  Hall,  and  his  wife,  whose  maidan  name 
was  Mary  Winearls.  Her  father,  William  Win- 
earls,  was  a   French  gentleman   who   settled   in 

12 


Norfolk  about  1700,  and  married  into  a  family 
of  that  county.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  literary 
attainments,  a  great  connoisseur  in  art,  and  was 
induced  to  go  to  England  by  a  wealthy  Norfolk 
baron  who  had  a  remarkable  art  collection.  James 
and  Mary  Porter,  of  Marham  Hall,  were  the 
grandparents  of  Washington  Porter  and  the 
father  of  James  Winearls  Porter  and  Thomas 
Winearls  Porter,  the  fonner  being  the  eldest  and 
the  latter  the  youngest  son  of  the  family.  In  the 
old  church  at  Marham  there  are  also  tablets  con- 
cerning the  Winearls  family  which  date  back 
to  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  About 
1830  Thomas  W.  Porter  emigrated  with  his  family 
to  America,  locating  in  ^BufTalo,  New  York, 
where  he  engaged  in  merchandising.  Eight  years 
later  he  came  to  Illinois  and  purchased  a  farm 
in  Boone  county,  upon  which  he  made  his  home 
until  called  to  his  final  rest  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
nine  years.  His  wife,  who  was  in  her  maiden- 
hood Miss  Charlotte  Lane,  died  at  the  age  of 
seventy-three.  In  the  family  were  nine  children, 
six  sons  and  three  daughters,  all  of  whom  are 
now  living  except  Fred  C,  who  died  July  15, 
1885;  Miss  Anna,  who  died  seven  years  previous 
to  the  demise  of  her  parents;  Elizabeth,  who  mar- 
ried S.  L.  Covey,  lived  at  Belviderc,  Illinois,  and 
died  August  27,  1895. 


178 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLKRY  OF  THE 


Upon  the  old  home  farm  luukr  the  parental 
roof,  Washing-ton  Porter  was  reared,  and  in  the 
freedom  of  the  outdoor  life  developed  a  self-reli- 
ant spirit  and  force  of  character  that  has  marked 
his  entire  career.  He  attended  the  schools  of 
the  neighborhood  until  sixteen  years  of  age,  but 
could  no  longer  contentedly  remain  at  home,  for 
the  Civil  war  was  now  in  progress,  and  all  the 
enthusiasm  and  patriotism  of  the  young  man 
was  aroused  in  behalf  of  his  imperiled  country. 
He  joined  Company  B,  Ninety-fifth  Illinois  In- 
fantry, and  served  as  a  private  in  the  Army  of 
the  West,  taking  part  in  many  hotly  contested  bat- 
tles, including  those  of  Champion  Hills,  the  siege 
of  Vicksburg,  and  the  engagements  of  the  Red 
river  expedition.  A  wound  received  in  the 
shoulder  from  a  minie  ball  at  the  battle  of  Gun- 
town,  Mississippi,  caused  his  retention  in  the 
hospital  for  a  month,  after  which  he  was  granted  a 
sixty  days'  furlough,  and  upon  his  return  to  the 
South  he  did  detached  duty  at  Memphis,  Ten- 
nessee, until  his  term  expired,  and  in  May,  1865, 
he  \\'as  mustered  out  and  returned  home. 

He  was  not  then  twenty  years  of  age.  The 
following  winter  he  attended  school  in  Belvidere, 
after  which  he  engaged  in  farming  for  three  years, 
but  not  wishing  to  make  that  pursuit  his  life  work 
he  purchased  a  store  in  Belvidere.  A  year  later 
there  came  an  opportunity  to  sell  at  a  handsome 
profit,  and  he  did  so.  He  then  went  to  the  West 
upon  a  prospecting  tour,  and  when  he  returned  to 
Illinois  endeavored  to  organize  a  colony  to  locate 
in  Kansas,  bvit  in  this  attempt  he  was  unsuccess- 
ful. His  foresight,  however,  in  selecting  a  place 
of  location  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  city 
of  Newton  is  now  located  where  he  proposed  to 
establish  his  colony.  During  this  time  he  turned 
his  attention  to  another  business  enterprise,  em- 
barking in  the  California  fruit  trade  in  connection 
with  his  brother,  F.  C.  Porter.  They  were  the 
pioneers  in  this  line  of  business  and  shipped  the 
first  full  car  of  fruit  in  1869,  the  year  of  the  com- 
pletion of  the  trans-continental  road.  They  had 
at  the  beginning  but  a  small  capital,  but  this  was 
judiciously  invested,  and  through  careful  manage- 
ment, good  executive  ability,  straightforward  deal- 
ing and  enterprise  they  developed  a  business  of 
extensive  proportions;  and  as  their  business  has 
grown  they  have  enlarged  their  facilities  and  ex- 


tended their  operations  until  now,  in  connection 
v.ith  the  main  house  in  Chicago,  they  have  branch 
houses  in  Omaha,  Minneapolis  and  New  York 
city,  besides  packing-houses  in  various  towns  and 
cities  in  California.  On  the  1st  of  January,  1885, 
the  business  was  incorporated  under  the  name 
of  Porter  Brothers  Company,  of  which  Washing- 
ton Porter  has  been  president  from  the  beginning. 
Their  concern  is  the  largest  of  the  kind  in  the 
United  States  if  not  in  the  world,  and  they  are  the 
pioneers  in  establishing  a  business  that  has  growTi 
to  be  one  of  the  important  industries  of  the  West, 
involving  millions  of  dollars  and  furnishing  em- 
ployment to  thousands  of  men.  In  connection 
with  other  interests  Mr.  Porter  has  invested  to  a 
considerable  extent  in  city  real  estate,  and  is  now 
the  possessor  of  some  of  the  most  desirable  and 
valuable  property  in  Chicago. 

When  it  was  proposed  to  hold  in  this  country  a 
World's  Columbian  Exposition  as  a  celebration  of 
the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of 
America,  Mr.  Porter  took  a  deep  interest  in  the 
project  and  did  all  in  his  power  for  its  furtherance. 
When  the  question  of  site  came  before  the  people 
he,  with  many  of  the  most  prominent  men  of  the 
West,  advocated  Chicago  on  account  of  its  cental 
location,  its  natural  advantages  and  eminent  fit- 
ness. He  became  one  of  the  most  valued  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  sent  from  this  city  to  Wash- 
ington to  urge  the  advantages  and  claims  of  the 
western  metropolis,  and  has  the  credit  of  having 
done  more  effective  work  at  that  heated  contest 
than  almost  any  one  else.  He  well  deserves  the 
thanks  of  all  loyal  Chicagoans,  and  his  untiring 
labors  in  behalf  of  this  city  were  the  subject  of 
frequent  and  honorable  mention.  He  spent 
several  months  in  the  capital  city  at  his  own  ex- 
pense, and  never  for  a  moment  gave  up  the  con- 
test for  Chicago.  He  is  a  man  of  perstiasive  power 
and  possesses  that  pleasant,  genial  manner  which, 
combined  with  a  strong  and  decisive  mind,  is 
bound  to  carry  weight  and  influence  with  it  No 
more  suitable  person  could  have  been  selected  for 
the  part  to  be  performed.  He  had  an  extended 
acquaintance  among  the  senators  and  members 
of  Congress  in  this  section  of  the  country  and  on 
the  Pacific  slope,  and  secured  their  support  for 
the  Chicago  site. 

A  well-known  and    able    congressman    wrote 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


179 


concerning  Mr.  Porter  as  follows:  "Without 
detracting  one  jot  from  others  on  the  com- 
mittee toi  secure  the  World's  Fair,  I  can  say  with- 
out fear  of  contradiction  that  the  claims  of  Chicago 
were  presented  b}-  no  one  more  ably  and  zealously 
than  by  ^Ir.  Porter.  His  genial  manner,  his  true 
business  way  of  talking,  coupled  with  his  great 
knowledge  of  the  country  and  his  love  for  Chicago 
made  many  converts.  He  enlisted  me  long  be- 
fore the  session  commenced.  His  personal 
friend  for  years,  I  made  his  cause  mine.  Chicago 
owes  him  a  debt  of  gratitude  which  I  know 
she  will  delight  to  repay.  Too  much  honor 
cannot  be  given  him."  \'arious  other  com- 
mendatory things  were  written  and  said  of 
him  in  connection  with  his  labors  in  behalf  of 
Chicago. 

Mr.  Porter  was  elected  and  served  as  a  director 
throughout  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  ways  and  means  com- 
mittee. He  served  as  chairman  of  the  sub-com- 
mittee of  the  ways  and  means  committee  and  sold 
the  first  souvenir  half  dollar  issued  to  the  firm  of 
Wyckofif,  Seamans  &  Benedict,  for  the  sum  of 
$10,000,  Mr.  Porter  personally  superintending  this 
sale.  It  was  largely  through  his  efiforts  that  the 
financial  affairs  connected  with  the  exposition 
were  systematized  and  arranged  so  as  not  to  bring 
heavy  indebtedness  upon  the  association.  When 
the  fair  was  fully  opened  and  it  was  seen  that  the 
expenses  were  far  greater  than  anticipated  and  far 
greater  than  necessity'  commanded,  Air.  Porter 
originated  the  idea  of  lessening  these,  and  accord- 
ingly the  directory  appointed  a  finance  committee 
consisting  practically  of  Mr.  Porter,  Mr.  Kerfoot 
and  Mr.  Winston.  Through  the  efforts  of  the 
committee  the  expenses  were  very  materially  re- 
duced, to  the  gratification  and  satisfaction  of  the 


stockholders  and  the  entire  community.  From 
the  time  the  fair  was  first  proposed  until  the  clos- 
ing of  its  gates  jNIr.  Porter  did  all  in  his  power 
toward  bringing  about  the  wonderful  success  of 
the  enterprise, — a  success  that  excited  the  wonder 
and  commanded  the  respect  of  the  Old  World  and 
made  the  countries  of  Europe  acknowledge  that  in 
the  works  of  the  New  World  thev  found  a  rival  to 
their  own  skill  and  ingenuity.  When  the  expo- 
sition was  ended  Mr.  Porter  proposed  that  the 
Manufactures  and  Liberal  Arts  Building  be  re- 
moved to  the  lake  front,  thus  obviating  the  need 
of  a  large  public  hall  for  the  purpose  of  holding 
national  conventions,  public  meetings,  and  expo- 
sitions of  various  character.  Although  this  was 
not  done  it  showed  the  public  spirit  of  Mr.  Porter, 
and  was  another  proof  of  his  interest  in  the  wel- 
fare of  Chicago. 

Mr.  Porter  is  a  well  informed  man,  possessed 
of  broad  general  infonnation,  and  in  his  nature 
there  is  nothing  narrow  or  contracted.  He  has 
a  spirit  that  while  devoted  to  his  resident  com- 
munity is  liberal  enough  to  recognize  and  ap- 
preciate advancement  and  progress  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  He  was  popular  as  a  young 
man,  and  in  his  later  years  has  the  esteem  and 
confidence  of  all  with  whom  public  or  private  life 
have  brought  him  in  contact.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  Masonic  fraternity  and  is  also  connected 
with  several  of  the  most  prominent  clubs  of  the 
city. 

Though  we  mention  last,  by  no  means  the 
least  important,  event  in  his  life  took  place  in 
Chicago  on  the  nth  of  June,  1891,  when  was 
celebrated  his  marriage  to  Miss  Frances  Pauline 
Lee.  Two  children  bless  this  union:  Pauline  C, 
born  April  22,  1892;  and  Washington,  Jr.,  bom  on 
llie  28th  of  IDecember,  1893. 


mo 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLFAiY  OF  THE 


THOMAS  DEAN  CATLIN, 

OTTAWA. 


FRENCH  explorers  visited  Illinois  in  1680, 
and  the  eighteenth  century  saw  some  settle- 
ments made  in  the  State,  while  in  the  early  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  admitted  into  the 
Union;  but  at  this  time  the  settlements  had  been 
largely  made  in  the  southern  portion.  It  has 
been  practically  in  the  latter  part  of  the  century 
that  the  northern  portion  has  been  opened  tr,  ihe 
advance  of  civilization,  and  the  cities  of  this  di- 
vision are  the  product  of  the  latter-day  enterprise 
and  progress.  Ottawa,  belonging  to  this  class, 
is  called  in  the  Gazetteer  "the  seat  of  varied  and 
useful  activities;"  and  among  the  prominent  men 
who  have  helped  to  make  it  such  stands  the  gen- 
tleman whose  name  heads  this  review.  He  has 
been  identified  with  this  region  for  more  than 
thirty-seven  years,  and  is  to-day  the  representa- 
tive of  some  of  its  leading  industries. 

Thomas  Dean  Catlin  is  a  native  of  Clinton, 
Oneida  county.  New  York,  born  March  12,  183S. 
His  parents  were  Marcus  and  Philena  (Dean)  Cat- 
lin. His  father  was  a  professor  of  mathematics 
in  Hamilton  College,  Clinton.  He  was  of  Kug- 
lish  descent,  and  his  death  occurred  in  1S49. 
On  the  maternal  side  Mr.  Catlin  descends  from 
an  old  historic  family  of  the  Empire  State.  Tlis 
mother  comes  of  a  family  that  founded  Deans- 
ville.  New  York.  In  1795,  on  the  site  of  that 
town,  lived  the  Brotherton  Indians,  and  in  that 
year  John  Dean,  a  Quaker,  went  to  the  place  as 
a  missionary  to  labor  with  and  for  the  red  men. 
For  a  year  he  lived  in  a  log  house,  and  tlipn 
erected  what  is  now  the  wing  of  the  residence 
owned  by  Charles  Hovey.  There  he  faithfully 
continued  his  work  until  life's  labors  were  ende'l. 
and  he  passed  peacefully  away  in  1820,  at  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty-eight  years.  He  had  a 
son,  Thomas  Dean,  who  also  was  devoted  to  mis- 
sionary work  among  the  Indians.  He  had  been 
his  fatlier's  assistant;  and  when  the  latter  died  he 
continued  to  labor  toward  civilizing  the  red  men. 
He  was  a  man  of  herculean  proportions,  and  of 
great  ability  and  sound  judgment.  He  was  not 
only  Indian  agent  but  was  also  counselor,  spint- 
ual  guide  and  general  lawgiver,  and  was  largely 


instrumental  in  transferring  the  Brotherton  In- 
dians to  a  reservation  at  Green  Bay,  Wisconsin. 
He  seciu-ed  the  appropriation  of  64,000  acres 
from  the  Government,  and  also  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  a  law  through  the  New  York  legislature 
which  enabled  the  Indians  to  sell  their  lands  at 
full  value.  From  1830  to  1840  his  time  was  en- 
tirely taken  up  with  locating  his  dusky  friends  in 
their  new  home  and  adjusting  business  matters 
for  them,  and,  wearied  by  this  great  toil,  death 
came  to  end  his  arduous  service  in  June,  1842, 
when  he  had  reached  the  age  of  sixty-three  years. 
He  was  scrupulously  honest,  and  his  public  and 
private  career  alike  were  above  reproach  in  every 
particular.  He  had  the  love  and  reverence  of 
the  Indians,  and  the  confidence  and  highest  re- 
gard of  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  At 
the  time  when  a  petition  was  circulated  for  the 
establishment  of  a  postofifice  at  another  place  in 
the  vicinity,  he  went  to  Washington  and  secured 
the  office  for  Deansville  instead.  He  became  its 
first  postmaster,  and  the  office  and  the  village 
were  named  in  his  honor.  He  had  five  children, 
and  among  this  number  was  Mrs.  F'hilena  Catlin. 
Her  son,  Thomas  Dean  Catlin,  acquired  his 
education  in  Hamilton  College,  at  Clinton,  New 
York,  being  graduated  at  that  institution  in  the 
class  of  1857,  at  the  early  age  of  nineteen  years. 
He  belongs  to  the  college  society  known  as  Sigma 
Phi.  Upon  the  broad  fields  of  the  West,  with 
its  unlimited  opportunities,  he  entered  upon  his 
business  career.  In  1858  he  came  to  Ottawa, 
Illinois,  to  meet  by  appointment  his  uncle,  A.  H. 
Redfield,  of  Detroit,  who  was  acting  as  Indian 
agent  and  was  stationed  at  the  head-waters  of  the 
Alissouri  river.  It  was  his  intention  to  go  to  that 
region;  but,  his  uncle  having  been  detained  f'lr 
a  time,  he  meanwhile  sought  and  obtained  a  po- 
sition with  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific 
Railway  Company, — first  as  a  freight  clerk,  re- 
ceiving a  salary  of  only  $400  a  year;  but  he  soon 
afterward  won  promotion,  and  for  five  years 
served  as  agent,  finally  receiving  $60  a  month, — 
the  highest  salary  he  ever  received  from  that  cor- 
poration. 


REPREf^EXTATIVE  .VEy  OF  THE  VNITED  STATES;  H.LINOIS  VOLUME. 


181 


His  connection  with  the  establishment  of  tele- 
graphic communication  in  the  West  certainly 
makes  him  worthy  of  a  place  in  this  history.  It 
is  said  that  rapid  transit  and  rapid  communica- 
tion are  the  most  important  factors  in  civilization. 
Mr.  Catlin  is  a  pioneer  in  this  line  of  enterjr.risc. 
In  1863  he  became  the  secretary  of  the  Illinois 
&  Mississippi  Telegraph  Company,  wliicli  had 
been  established  in  1849,  one  of  the  first  in  the 
West.  This  company  owned  telegraph  patents 
for  several  of  the  Western  States,  controlling  the 
business  in  this  section  of  the  country.  It  built 
various  lines  throughout  the  W^est,  and  in  1867 
leased  its  lines  to  the  Western  Union  Telegraiih 
Company,  thus  forming  the  connecting  link  Ijo- 
tween  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific.  Mr.  Catlin 
is  still  secretary  of  the  company. 

Many  and  varied  have  been  the  business  inter- 
ests with  which  he  has  been  connected.  H"  is 
a  man  of  broad  capabilities  and  resources,  and  his 
keen  discrimination,  sound  judgment  and  busi- 
ness sagacity  enable  him  to  carry  forward  to 
successful  completion  whatever  he  undertakes. 
He  is  an  able  financier,  his  ambition  tempered 
with  a  safe  conser\-atism,  and  he  is  now  at  the 
head  of  one  of  the  leading  financial  institutions 
in  the  State.  About  ten  years  ago  he  was  elected 
vice-president  of  the  National  City  Bank  of  Ot- 
tawa, and  in  June,  1891,  after  the  death  of  E.  C. 
Allen,  its  president,  he  was  elected  to  the  superior 
ofSce,  and  has  ever  since  acceptably  and  credit- 
ably filled  that  position.  This  bank  is  capital- 
ized for  $100,000;  it  now  has  a  surplus  of  $125,- 
000,  and  undivided  profits  $50,000,  making  a 
working  capital  of  about  $300,000.  He  is 
also  president  of  the  State  Bank  of  Seneca, 
Illinois. 

In  1867  ]\Ir.  Catlin  organized  the  Ottawa 
Glass  Company  and  they  established  one  of  tiie 
pioneer  industries  of  its  kind  west  of  Pittsburg, 
of  which  he  w-as  the  secretary  and  treasurer.  Busi- 


ness was  carried  on  under  that  name  until  1880, 
when  the  company  sold  its  plant  to  the  United 
Glass  Company  of  New  York,  a  corporation  cap- 
italized for  $1,250,000  and  owning  factories  in 
various  places.  Of  this  company  Mr.  Catlin  is 
the  president. 

In  1866  Mr.  Catlin  was  married  to  Miss  Helen 
C.  Plant,  a  resident  of  Utica,  New  York,  and  a 
member  of  one  of  the  old  and  honored  families 
of  the  Empire  State,  and  connected  with  the 
Daughters  of  the  Revolution.  Their  only  child 
is  James  Plant  Catlin. 

Mr.  Catlin  is  connected  with  many  of  the  puli- 
lic  interests  of  Ottawa,  which  are  calculated  to 
promote  the  moral,  educational  and  material  wel- 
fare of  the  community.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church,  and  is  serving  as 
one  of  its  deacons.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
first  board  of  trustees  of  the  public  library  at  Ot- 
tawa. He  is  president  of  the  board  of  trustc<s 
of  Ryburn  Memorial  Hospital,  and  is  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board  of  trustees  of  Hamilton  College, 
Clinton,  New  York.  Charitable  and  benevolent, 
he  gives  freely  of  his  means  to  those  in  need  of 
assistance,  but  gives  always  in  a  quiet,  unosten- 
tatious way,  seeking  not  the  laudations  of  men. 
In  his  political  views  he  is  a  stalwart  supporter 
of  the  Republican  party,  and  has  served  his  city 
as  alderman  and  a  member  of  the  board  of  edu- 
cation. 

The  record  of  IMr.  Catlin  is  that  of  a  man  who 
by  his  own  unaided  efforts  has  worked  his  way 
upward  to  a  position  of  affluence.  His  life  has 
been  one  of  industry  and  perseverance,  and  the 
systematic  and  honorable  business  methods 
which  he  has  followed  have  won  him  the  support 
and  confidence  of  many.  Without  the  aid  of 
influence  or  wealth,  he  has  risen  to  a  positiijn 
among  the  most  prominent  men  of  the  State, 
and  his  native  genius  and  acquired  ability  are 
stepping-stones  on  w'hich  he  mounted. 


182 


BroORAPinCAL  DICTIONARY  A^'D  PORTRAIT  CALLERY  OF  1  UK 


JAMES  WILMOT  SCOTT, 


IN  this  age  of  colossal  cntcqinse  and  niarkc  1 
intellectual  energy,  the  prominent  and  suc- 
cessful men  are  those  whose  abilities,  persistence 
and  courage  lead  them  into  large  undertakings 
and  assume  the  responsibilities  and  labors  of  lead- 
ers in  their  respective  vocations.  Success  is 
methodical  and  consecutive,  and  however  mu.;h 
we  may  indulge  in  fantastic  theorizing  as  to  its 
elements  and  causation  in  any  isolated  instance 
yet  in  the  light  of  sober  investigation  we  will  find 
it  to  be  but  a  result  of  the  determined  application 
of  one's  abilities  and  powers  along  the  rigidly 
defined  line  of  labor.  America  owes  much  of 
her  progress  and  advancement  to  a  position  fore- 
most among  the  nations  of  the  world  to  her  news- 
papers, and  in  no  line  has  the  incidental  broaden- 
ing out  of  the  sphere  of  usefulness  been  more 
marked  than  in  this  same  line  of  journalism.  Chi- 
cago, the  city  marvelous,  has  enlisted  in  its  news- 
paper field  some  of  the  strongest  intellects  in  the 
nation — men  of  broad  mental  grasp,  cosmopoli- 
tan ideas  and  notable  business  sagacity. 

Prominent  among  the  men  who  have  given  the 
city  prestige  in  this  direction  must  be  placed 
James  W.  Scott,  the  subject  of  this  review.  His 
identification  with  "the  art  preservative  of  all 
arts"  was  one  both  of  inheritance  and  personal 
predilection,  and  though  he  intermittently  turned 
his  attention  to  enterprises  of  different  nature, 
still,  true  to  the  instinct  said  to  characterize  every 
newspaper  man,  he  inevitably  returned  to  the 
work,  strengthened  and  re-enforced  by  the  ex- 
periences which  were  his. 

Jams  Wilmot  Scott  was  born  in  Walworth, 
Walworth  county,  Wisconsin,  on  the  26th  of 
June,  1849,  being  the  only  child  of  David  and 
Mary  (Thompson)  Scott.  The  untimely  death 
of  his  mother  occurred  in  1861,  at  which  time 
she  had  attained  the  age  of  thirty  years,  and  two 
years  later  his  father  consummated  a  second  mar- 
riage, being  then  united  to  Miss  Maria  Saxe.  The 
ancestry  of  our  subject  was  one  of  long  identifi- 
cation with  American  interests,  since  the  paternal 
I'neage  traces  back  to  the  original  representatives, 
of  Scotch-Irish  extraction,  who  emigrated  to  the 


New  World  in  the  year  1600,  settling  in  Connecti- 
cut and  Massachusetts,  while  on  the  maternal 
side  the  original  American  representatives  came 
from  England  and  identified  themselves  with  the 
Colonies  as  early  as  1579.  The  maternal  grand- 
father of  our  subject  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  war 
of  1812,  and  the  great-grandfather  went  forth  to 
his  country's  defense  in  the  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. 

David  Wilmot  Scott  was  born  in  Bainbridge, 
New  York,  and  in  his  early  youth  learned  the  print- 
er's trade  in  the  office  of  the  Chenango  Telegraph 
at  Norwich,  New  York.  In  1849  ''e  came  w^est, 
locating  at  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  where  he  taught 
school  for  a  time  and  was  then  connected  with 
the  Free  Press  until  1852,  when  he  removed  to 
Galena,  Illinois,  started  a  paper  known  as  the 
Daily  JefTersonian,  his  associate  in  the  enterprise 
being  Dr.  Charles  H.  Ray.  In  1855  Dr.  Ray 
came  to  Chicago  to  assume  editorial  charge  of 
the  Tribune,  but  Mr.  Scott  retained  his  residence 
in  Galena  until  the  hour  of  his  death.  He  was 
in  turn  associated  in  the  publication  of  the  Daily 
Courier  and  the  Galena  Gazette,  but  finally  im- 
paired health  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  retire 
from  active  business,  and  he  accordingly  dis- 
posed of  his  newspaper  interests.  Some  years 
later,  however,  he  resumed  his  connection  with 
journalism  by  becoming  concerned  with  the  In- 
dustrial Press  at  Galena.  He  was  very  greatly 
interested  in  horticulture  and  occupied  a  position 
of  much  prominence  in  various  organizations 
whose  object  was  the  promotion  of  this  important 
industry.  He  held  the  position  of  secretary  of 
the  National  Association  of  Nurserymen  and 
Florists  at  the  time  of  his  demise,  having  been 
one  of  the  prime  movers  in  effecting  the  organiza- 
tion of  said  association.  For  fifteen  years  he 
was  the  incumbent  in  the  office  of  secretary  of 
the  Northern  Illinois  Horticultural  Society,  a  pre- 
ferment from  which,  as  in  the  case  just  noted,  he 
was  deposed  by  the  hand  of  death.  He  was  a 
man  of  strong  individuality,  great  mental  force 
and  utmost  rectitude  in  thought,  word  and  deed. 
That  his  life  was  well  ordered  was  shown  in  noth- 


REPRESENTAriVK  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLVMK. 


183 


ing  more  clcarl\'  than  in  the  respect  and  confi- 
dence which  were  vouchsafed  him  by  those  to 
whom  his  career  was  as  an  open  book  with  no 
turned-down  pages.  In  his  pohtical  adherency 
he  was  stanclily  in  line  with  the  principles  advo- 
cated by  the  Democratic  party,  to  the  cause  of 
which  he  lent  an  active  support.  At  the  time  of 
his  death  he  held  the  office  of  postmaster  of  Ga- 
lena. David  Wilmot  Scott  was  gathered  to  his 
fathers  in  1888,  at  the  age  of  si.xty  years,  and  in 
his  death  there  passed  away  a  man  who  had  ever 
stood  four-square  to  every  wind  that  blew. 

James  W.  Scott,  the  immediate  subject  of  this 
review,  received  preliminary  educational  disci- 
pline in  the  public  schools  of  Galena,  and  this  was 
supi)lemcnted  by  a  partial  course  in  Beloit  Col- 
lege, Wisconsin.  Within  this  time  he  had  given 
himself  to  assisting  in  the  newspaper  office  of  his 
father,  having  thus  been  identified  with  journalism 
from  his  boyhood  days — a  fact  of  significance 
when  considered  in  connection  with  the  magnifi- 
cent success  which  was  his  in  this  line.  At  the 
age  of  nineteen  years  he  severed  the  home  tics  and 
went  to  Norwich,  New  York,  where  he  found 
employment  as  clerk  in  the  office  of  clerk  of  the 
circuit  court,  over  which  his  uncle  presided.  He 
retained  this  incumbency  for  one  year,  after  which 
he  went  to  New  York  city  and  sought  a  new  field 
of  endeavor  and  experience,  entering  the  employ 
of  Peter  Henderson,  who  conducted  an  exten- 
sive florist  establishment.  Mr.  Scott  was  thus 
employed  for  one  year,  bis  intention  at  the  time 
having  been  to  become  a  scientific  florist.  Within 
this  time  he  retained  a  quasi-association  with 
journalistic  work,  by  contributing  numerous  arti- 
cles to  the  Hearth  and  Home  and  the  American 
Agriculturist,  said  articles  having  to  do  with 
floriculture,  to  which  line  he  was  greatly  devoted 
at  the  time.  His  natural  taste  and  aptitude  ulti- 
mately led  him  back  to  the  printing  business,  and 
in  1871  he  went  to  Washington,  District  of 
Columbia,  where  he  "held  a  case''  in  the  Govern- 
ment printing  office,  also  serving  as  proof-reader 
on  the  Congressional  Glolic. 

In  the  fall  of  1872  Mr.  Scott  went  10  Hunting- 
ton, Prince  George  county,  Maryland,  where  he 
established  a  weekly  paper  called  the  Hunting- 
tonian.  He  continued  the  enteqirise  one  year, 
and  part  of  the  time  while  conducting  this  paper 


he  lield  a  position  in  the  railway  mail  service.  He 
then  returned  to  Galena,  Illinois,  where  in  com- 
pany with  his  father  he  started  the  Industrial 
Press,  which  he  sold  out  at  the  end  of  one  year. 
Our  subject  recognized  a  subjective  capacity  for 
the  conducting  of  an  undertaking  of  wider  scope 
and  he  determined  to  seek  a  field  whose  limita- 
tions were  not  so  narrowly  circumscribed.  He 
accordingly  came  to  Chicago  at  that  time  (1875) 
and  assumed  control  of  the  Daily  National  Hotel 
Reporter,  his  business  associate  being  F.  Willis 
Rice,  and  the  enterprise  being  conducted  under 
the  firm  name  of  Scott  &  Rice — an  association 
which  was  maintained  up  to  the  time  of  tlie  form- 
er's death. 

The  nucleus  of  the  great  enterprise  which 
brought  to  Mr.  Scott  both  success  and  renown 
had  its  inception  in  May,  1881,  when  he,  with 
others,  established  the  Chicago  Herald,  which 
was  conceded  to  have  occupied  from  the  start  a 
foremost  position  not  only  among  the  great  daily 
publications  of  the  Garden  City  but  of  the  entire 
Union.  Upon  the  organization  of  the  Herald 
Company,  Mr.  Scott  was  elected  secretary  and 
treasurer.  In  1883  John  R.  Walsh  purchased  a 
major  portion  of  the  Herald  stock  and  retained 
his  association  with  the  enterprise  until  March, 
1895,  vvhen  our  subject  purchased  the  former's 
interest  in  the  Herald  and  the  Evening  Post,  which 
latter  had  been  started  in  1889.  The  ambition  of 
Mr.  Scott  was  not  yet  satisfied,  and  he  now  di- 
rected his  energies  to  bringing  about  a  consolida- 
tion of  the  Herald  with  the  other  Democrati>; 
morning  daily,  the  Chicago  Times,  established 
many  years  previous  by  the  late  Wilbur  F.  Storey. 
This  combination  of  the  two  great  dailies  was 
eflfected  March  4,  1895,  with  a  result  that  the 
Times-Fferald  became  one  of  the  most  magnifi- 
cent news  publications  the  world  has  ever  known, 
Mr.  Scott  serving  as  editor-in-chief  and  manager. 
The  Herald  Building,  which  was  retained  as  the 
headquarters  of  the  consolidated  papers,  is  ac- 
credited with  being  the  finest  newspaper  build- 
ing in  the  Union,  both  in  architectural  design 
and  perfection  of  equipments.  It  would  be  a 
work  of  supererogation  to  attempt  in  this  con- 
nection to  enter  into  details  concerning  the  his- 
tory of  the  Herald  or  to  note  the  specific  points 
which  have  marked  the  growth  of  the  enterprise 


C    '- 


'  ^z^^-*-^-^ 


BEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


185 


hulping  the  poor."  Ih  an  editorial  in  the  Times- 
Herald  it  was  written:  "To  the  wife,  upon  whom 
this  shock  comes  with  crushing  weight,  goes  the 
heartfelt  sympathy  of  all  belonging  to  the  staff 
of  the  Tinies-IIerald.  A  home  life  beautiful  in 
the  devotion  of  one  to  the  other  is  shattered  by 
this  calamity.  The  thousands  who  knew  Mr. 
Scott  so  well,  who  at  different  times  and  places 
have  had  opportunity  to  note  how  the  lovable  side 
of  his  nature  was  always  foremost,  will  need  no 
assurance  that  in  his  own  home  he  was  a  tender 
and  an  ever  thoughtful  husband.  The  watchful 
care  and  unremitting  attentions  of  the  wife,  who 
now  mourns  his  loss,  strengthened  him  ever  for 


that  constant  activity  in  the  world  of  affairs  which 
was  his  most  shining  trait.  No  journalist  was 
ever  more  popular  with  his  fellows.  Those  who 
were  associated  with  him  on  the  paper  he  made 
will  miss  from  his  accustomed  place  the  genial 
face,  the  bright  welcome,  the  sound  counselor, 
the  disinterested  friend.  The  entire  community 
which,  young  as  he  was,  had  fully  learned  to  value 
the  intellectual  power  and  to  prove  the  civic  de- 
votion of  him  whose  death  is  a  blow  to  Chicago 
as  it  is  a  disaster  to  American  journalism,  will 
mourn  for  him  with  those  who  have  been  his 
professional  associates.  The  world  is  better  for 
his  having  lived  in  it.'' 


CYRUS  HALL  MCCORMICK. 


To  n<i  man  is  the  gratitude  of  the  agricultural 
world  more  certainly  due  than  to  Cyrus 
Hall  McCormick,  who  gave  to  the  farming  in- 
dustry one  of  the  most  useful  inventions  that  has 
ever  promoted  its  interests.  With  the  spirit  of 
progress  of  the  present  age  Mr.  McCormick,  by 
his  persevering  efforts,  attained  a  pre-eminent 
position  that  excited  the  admiration  of  the  world. 
The  record  of  such  a  man  is  of  general  inter- 
est, inspiring  and  encouraging  others  by  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  characteristics  that  have  marked  his 
career.  He  was  born  on  the  15th  of  February, 
1809,  at  Walnut  Grove,  Rockbridge  county, 
the  valley  of  Virginia,  not  many  miles  distant 
form  the  Natural  Bridge.  The  surroundings  of 
his  early  life  were  picturesque  in  the  extreme, 
the  Blue  Ridge  towering  above  the  valley  to  the 
east,  the  Alleghanies  not  far  away  on  the  west, and 
the  valley  itself  presenting  a  panorama  of  fields 
of  waving  grain,  interspersed  with  streams,  hills 
and  comfortable  homes.  His  parents  were  of 
Scotch-Irish  descent.  His  mother,  Mary  Ann 
Hall,  was  a  native  of  Augusta  county,  and  Rob- 
ert McCormick,  his  father,  was  bom  in  Rock- 
bridge county  in  1780.  He  was  an  extensive 
and  prosperous  farmer,  the  owner  of  eighteen 
hundred  acres  of  excellent  land,  and  operated, 
upon  his  own  estate  in  the  patriarchal  fashion  of 
the  large  planters  of  the  South,  a  flour-mill,  a 


sawmill  and  a  carpenter  and  !)lacksmith  shop. 
He  was  endowed  with  mechanical  talent  and  in- 
vented a  hempbreaker,  a  threshing-machine,  and 
a  tub-shaped  bellows  for  the  blacksmith  shop. 
The  idea  of  constructing  a  reaping  machine  as 
a  means  of  saving  much  of  the  heavy  labor  and 
time  consumed  in  the  harvest  had  engaged  his 
attention  at  various  times  from  1S08  to  1831.  He 
built  a  clumsy  machine  in  his  own  shop  in  which 
he  sought  to  attain  his  object,  with  a  row  of 
upright  cylinders,  armed  mth  sickle  blades,  ro- 
tating against  a  stationary  cutting  edge.  Tlie 
severed  stalks  fell  on  leather  straps  which  carried 
them  to  one  side  and  threw  them  on  the  ground. 

Cyrus  H.  McCormick  watched  his  father's  ex- 
periments with  boyish  curiosity,  and  gained  a 
love  for  the  mechanic  arts.  He  attended  a  coun- 
try school  in  winter,  and  in  the  open  months,  in 
the  work  of  the  farm,  learned  the  importance  of 
a  machine  to  relieve  the  husbandman  of  his  heav- 
iest toil  in  the  harvest  time.  After  the  age  of 
fifteen  he  constructed  a  light  grain  cradle  which 
enabled  him  to  keep  pace  with  the  workmen  in 
reaping.  In  1831  he  patented  a  hillside  plow 
made  to  throw  a  furrow  alternately  to  right  and 
left,  and  in  1S33  another  improved  plow  which 
he  called  "Self-sharpening."  In  183 1,  after  many 
years  of  disappointing  experiment,  Robert  Mc- 
Cormick made  another  trial  with  his  old  machine 


ISfi 


nroGH.i/'ini'Ai.  dictionary  and  portuait  callkut  of  the 


without  success,  and  thereupon  abandoned  fur- 
ther efforts.  Meanwhile  Cyrus  had  resolved  to 
make  an  attempt  of  his  ow-n,  and  was  working 
out  a  new  principle.  His  father  sought  to  dis- 
suade him  from  the  undertaking,  but  the  young 
man  determined  to  make  the  effort.  The  diffi- 
culty of  the  problem  inspired,  rather  than 
disheartened  him.  His  father's  work  showed  the 
errors  to  be  avoided,  and  the  problem  was  a 
deep  one  in  the  young  man's  mind.  He  felt  that 
the  grain  must  be  cut  in  a  body  and  not  in  wisps, 
as  was  intended  by  his  father's  upright  cylinders. 
He  finally  devised  a  straight  cutting  blade,  armed 
with  a  serrated  edge,  and  placed  projecting  guard 
fingers  to  support  the  grain  at  the  point  of  cut- 
ting. He  built  the  machine  with  his  own  hands 
in  the  little  hillside  blacksmith  shop  on  the  farm, 
and  after  a  thorough  test  it  proved  to  be  the  first 
practical  reaping  machine  ever  constructed.  It 
contained  the  straight  vibrating  cutting  knife  with 
serrated  edge;  the  reel  to  bend  the  stalks  of  grain 
tow^ard  the  advancing  machine,  the  platform  on 
w'hich  to  receive  the  grain  (fitted  with  fixed 
fingers,  through  which  the  cutter  vibrated),  and 
the  divider  to  separate  the  stalks  which  w^ere  to 
be  cut  from  those  left  standing.  These  essential 
elements  in  the  reaper  have  never  been  and  cannot 
be  dispensed  with,  and  exist  after  sixty  years  of 
improvement  and  invention  in  all  the  grain  harv- 
esters of  the  world.  There  was  one  driving 
wheel,  operating  the  gear-wheels  and  crank,  and 
a  platform  to  receive  the  cut  grain,  from  which 
it  was  raked  in  sheaves,  but  there  was  no  seat 
for  either  the  raker  or  the  driver.  This  pioneer 
machine,  drawn  by  two  horses,  was  tested  in  a 
field  of  oats  in  July,  1831,  in  the  presence  of 
neighboring  farmers,  to  the  astonishment  of  them 
all.  Not  only  the  family  but  also  the  farmers 
believed  that  the  problem  had  been  solved. 
It  should  be  mentioned  that  Mr.  McCormick  had 
never  seen  or  heard  of  any  other  experiments  with 
a  reaping  machine  except  those  of  his  father. 

The  entire  family  rejoiced  in  the  young  man's 
success,  and  none  more  heartily  than  his  father. 
The  merits  and  defects  of  the  machine  were 
thoroughly  discussed,  and  in  1832  the  reaper, 
somewhat  improved,  was  employed  in  cutting 
fifty  acres  of  wheat,  a  work  whidi  was  performed 
with  so  much  facility  that  its  success  as  a  practi- 


cal machine  was  fully  established.  In  1834  the 
inventor  patented  his  reaper,  but  the  next  year 
the  machine  was  laid  aside  for  a  time  in  order  that 
the  McCormicks  might  engage  in  smelting  iron 
ore,  which  was  then  a  profitable  business.  The 
panic  of  1837  ruined  their  iron  industry — cost 
Cyrus  even  the  farm  his  father  had  given  him, 
and  compelled  him,  to  the  great  benefit  of  man- 
kind, to  take  up  again  the  introduction  and  im- 
provement of  the  reaping  machine.  In  the  old 
blacksmith  shop,  therefore,  Cyras,  aided  by  his 
father  and  his  brothers,  Leander  and  William, 
finally  began  to  build  machines  for  sale.  The 
first  one  was  sold  for  the  harvest  of  1840.  In 
1842  they  sold  half  a  dozen;  in  1843  seven;  in 
1844  forty-four;  and  in  1845  a  second  patent  was 
granted  for  valuable  improvements. 

Mr.  McCormick  had  the  sagacity  to  see  that 
his  principal  market  would  be  in  the  great  grain 
fields  of  the  West,  and  that  the  blacksmith  shop 
on  the  farm,  remote  from  lines  of  transportation, 
was  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  manufacturing. 
In  1844  he  sent  a  consignment  of  machines  by 
wagon  and  canal  to  Richmond,  and  thence  by 
water,  by  way  of  New  Orleans  and  the  rivers 
to  Cincinnati.  Having  taken  a  horseback  trip 
through  Illinois,  Missouri  and  Wisconsin  for  the 
purpose  of  introducing  his  reaper,  and  obtaining 
a  number  of  orders,  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year 
he  turned  these  orders  over  to  A.  C.  Brown,  of 
Cincinnati,  with  whom  he  arranged  for  the  manu- 
facture of  his  machine  for  the  western  trade.  In 
1846-7  some  of  his  machines  were  manufactured 
at  Brockport,  New  York,  the  makers  paying  a 
royalty  on  all  they  sold.  In  1847  Mr.  McCor- 
mick removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  built  new 
shops,  and  in  the  same  year  obtained  a  third 
patent  for  additional  improvements.  The  sale  in 
1847  amounted  to  about  seven  hundred  machines; 
in  1848  to  fifteen  hundred.  The  original  patent 
expired  in  1848,  and  Mr.  McCormick  soon  found 
himself  competing  with  his  own  ideas  as  carried 
out  by  others.  He  had,  however,  made  many 
improvements  upon  the  original  machine,  which 
enabled  him  in  spite  of  this  to  maintain  his  prec- 
edence over  them  all.  He  obtained  additional 
patents  in  1858. 

The  shops  in  Chicago  were  planned  for  the 
manufacture  of  reapers  and  mowers  upon  a  large 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


18' 


scak".  The  success  of  these  works  has  been  bril- 
liant and  unprecedented.  From  a  small  begin- 
ning they  have  since  grown  to  immense  propor- 
tions, supplying  employment  to  two  thousand 
men,  disbursing  millions  of  money  for  supplies, 
and  producing  latterly  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  machines  per  year!  Leander 
J.  and  ^\^illiam  S.  INIcCormick  were  given  an 
interest  in  the  business  in  1858.  The  plant  was 
burned  in  the  great  fire  of  1871,  and  most  men 
would  have  been  discouraged,  but  Mr.  McCor- 
niick  decided  to  rebuild  and  on  a  larger  scale  than 
before.  In  1879  the  business  was  incorporated 
under  the  name  of  the  IMcCormick  Harvesting 
Machine  Company,  the  founder  becoming  presi- 
dent of  the  company.  He  retained  the  presi- 
dency and  management  until  his  death,  at  which 
time  lii.s  son,  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  Jr.,  succeeded 
him. 

After  he  had  insured  the  success  of  his  in- 
vention in  the  United  States,  Mr.  McCormick 
turned  hi.';  attention  to  the  grain  countries  abroad. 
To  introduce  his  reaper  to  the  attention  of  the 
old  world,  he  exhibited  it  at  the  pioneer  world's 
fair,  which  was  held  in  London  in  185 1,  and  his 
invention  redeemed  the  American  exhibit  from 
the  charge  of  being  commonplace.  His  machine 
was  ridiculed  by  the  London  Times,  but  its  work 
compelled  that  journal,  after  the  public  trials,  to 
declare  that  this  reaper  would  be  worth  more  to 
the  farmers  of  England  than  the  whole  cost  of  the 
fair.  After  public  trials  held  by  the  exhibition 
authorities  on  Mechi's  model  farm  and  that  of 
riiilip  Pusey,  M.  P.,  INIr.  McCormick  was  awarded 
the  Council  Medal  of  the  Exposition  "for  the 
most  valuable  article  contributed  to  it"  and  for 
"the  originality  and  value  of  the  reaper;"'  while 
the  journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  re- 
ported it  as  "the  most  important  addition  to  farm- 
ing machinery  that  has  ever  been  invented  since 
the  threshing  machine  first  took  the  place  of  the 
flail."  He  received  the  grand  prize  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  in  1855  for  his  reaper  as  furnishing 
"the  type  after  which  all  others  are  made,  as  well 
as  for  the  best  operating  machine  in  the  field," 
and  thereafter  in  Europe  and  America  the  highest 
praise  was  bestowed  upon  the  reaper  and  its  in- 
ventor. 

Had  his  invention  been  given  first  to  the  old 


world,  the  progress  of  the  United  States  would 
have  been  materially  retarded,  but  the  reaping 
machine  was  an  American  invention  and  it  at 
once  made  the  United  States  the  greatest  grain- 
producing  country  in  the  world.  In  1859  Hon. 
Reverdy  Johnson  announced  that  "the  Mc- 
Cormick machine  was  then  worth  fifty-five  mil- 
lion dollars  per  year  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  which  amount  must  increase  throughout 
all  time;"  and  William  H.  Seward  about  the  same 
time  declared  that,  "Owing  to  Mr.  McCormick's 
invention  the  line  of  civilization  moves  westward 
thirty  miles  each  year." 

In  1861  the  Commissioner  of  Patents,  Mr. 
Holloway,  refused  an  extension  of  the  patent  of 
1847  01  the  ground  that  "the  reaper  was  of  too 
great  value  to  the  public  to  be  controlled  by  any 
in<li\i(Iual!"  But  lie  said,  "Cyrus  H.  McCormick 
is  an  inventor  whose  fame,  while  he  is  yet  living, 
has  spread  through  the  world.  His  genius  has 
done  honor  to  his  own  country  and  has  been 
the  admiration  of  foreign  nations;  and  he  will 
live  in  the  grateful  recollection  of  mankind  as 
long  as  the  reaping  machine  is  employed  in  gath- 
ering the  harvest."  The  McCormick  machine 
won  the  first  prize  at  the  London  International 
Exposition  in  Lille,  France,  in  1863.  During 
the  Paris  World's  Exposition  in  1867  the  Em- 
peror Napoleon  walked  by  the  side  of  the  reapers 
when  the  McCormick  machine  was  exhibited  in 
a  field  trial  under  the  supervision  of  the  inventor 
himself,  and  was  so  impressed  with  its  achieve- 
ments that  he  decorated  Mr.  McCormick  with  the 
Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  The  reaper  also 
gained  the  highest  prize  at  the  London  Exposition 
in  1862,  and  the  chief  award  at  the  International 
Field  Trial  in  Lancashire.  In  1863  it  was 
aw^aa-ded  the  gold  medal  at  the  Hamburg  Expo- 
sition. Honors  were  showered  upon  the  inven- 
tion. It  won  two  international  medals  at  Vienna 
in  1873,  and  the  highest  prizes  at  the  Centennial 
Exposition  in  Philadelphia  in  1876.  Medals  were 
also  won  at  Sydney  in  Australia  in  1879.  At  the 
competitive  trial  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  So- 
ciety at  Bristol,  England,  and  the  Paris  Exposi- 
tion, both  in  1878,  the  McCormick  Wire  Binder 
won  the  Grand  Prize,  and  Mr.  McCoraiick  re- 
ceived from  France  the  rank  of  an  "Officer  of 
Iho  Legion  of  Honor,"  and  was  also  elected  a 


188 


BToaiiAPmrAL  dictionary  and  portrait  gallery  of  the 


corresponding  member  of  the  I'Vench  Academy 
of  Sciences,  "as  having  done  more  for  the  cause 
of  agriculture  than  any  other  living  man." 

The  sale  of  the  MoCormick  machines  is  now 
world-wide  and  enormous.  In  all  the  grain 
countries  of  Europe,  in  Persia,  India,  Australia, 
in  South  Africa  and  South  America,  the  whirr  of 
its  knives  is  heard  in  the  grain  field.  It  brought 
to  its  inventor  fame  and  fortune,  and  to  the  agri- 
cultural interests  of  the  world  it  gave  an  impetus 
such  as  was  never  given  by  any  other  invention  or 
discovery. 

In  1858  Mr.  McCormick  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Nettie  Fowler,  a  daughter  of  Mel- 
zar  Fowler,  of  JeiTerson  county.  New  York.  They 
have  had  seven  children,  five  of  w'hom  are  living, 
namely:  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  Jr.,  now  presi- 
dent of  the  McCormick  Harvesting  Machine 
Company;  Mary  Virginia;  Anita,  widow  of  the 
late  Emmons  Blaine;  Harold  and  Stanley. 

Mr.  McCormick  was  a  strong  Presbyterian  and 
his  nature  led  him  to  generous  benefactions.  As 
early  as  1859  he  gave  $100,000  to  "The  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  of  the  Northwest,"  upon  the  condi- 
tion that  it  be  located  in  Chicago.  The  proposi- 
tion was  accepted  and  he  subsequently  ga^'e  the 
institution  further  endowment  and  buildings. 
He  also  endowed  a  professorship  at  Washington 
&  Lee  University  in  Virginia,  and  contributed  to 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary  at  Hampden- 
Sidney,  Virginia,  and  the  College  in  Hastings, 
Nebraska.  In  1872  he  purchased  "The  Interior,'" 
the  principal  Presbyterian  newspaper  in  the 
Northwest,  and  by  his  advice  and  fostering  care 
the  paper  soon  became  the  leading  American 
publication  of  its  class.  Mr.  McCormick  died 
May  13,  1884,  in  Chicago,  leaving  an  honored 
name  and  a  prosperous  business  to  his  family. 


Cyrus  Hall  AlcCormick,  Jr.,  is  the  oldest  child 
of  the  great  inventor  of  the  reaper.  He  was  born 
May  16,  1859,  in  Washington,  District  of  Colum- 
bia, where  his  parents  were  residing  while  his 
father  was  endeavoring  to  secure  an  extension  to 
his  patents  on  his  reaper.  When  fourteen  years 
old  the  young  man  entered  the  public  schools  of 
Chicago,  and  at  eighteen  was  graduated  at  the 
high  school,  at  the  head  of  a  class  of  sixty-five. 
He  at  once  entered  Princeton  College  and  be- 
came a  member  of  the  class  of  1879.  In  the 
autumn  following  he  entered  the  business  of  the 
McCormick  Harvesting  Machine  Company,  serv- 
ing in  several  departments  in  order  that  he  might 
obtain  a  knowledge  of  its  various  branches.  On 
the  death  of  his  father  in  1884,  he  was  elected  to 
succeed  him  as  president  of  the  company,  and  has 
continued  in  that  position  up  to  the  present 
time.  Under  the  present  management  the  great 
manufacutring  industry-  of  the  McConnick  Com- 
pany has  developed  successfully  and  its  out- 
put of  harvesting  machines  is  the  largest  in  the 
world. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1889,  :\Ir.  McCormick 
was  married,  at  Monterey,  California,  to  Miss 
Harriet  Bradley  Hammond,  a  niece  of  Mrs.  E.  S. 
Stickney  of  Chicago.  They  have  three  children, 
two  sons  and  a  daughter. 

For  several  years  Mr.  McCormick  has  been 
a  director  of  the  Merchants'  Loan  &  Trust 
Company,  of  Chicago.  Since  June,  1889,  he 
has  been  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees 
of  Princeton  University;  is  also  secretary  of 
the  board  of  trustees  of  the  McCormick  Theo- 
logical Seminary^  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  was  for  several  years  vice-president  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of 
Chicago. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


189 


HENRY  F.  J.  RICKER,  Sr., 


QUINCY. 


HENRY  FRANCIS  JOSEPH  RICKER 
was  born  in  Lotten,  Hanover,  SeiJtcniber 
I.  1822.  and  was  the  eldest  of  the  six  children  of 
Joseph  and  Eupheniia  A.  (Peter)  Ricker,  both 
natives  of  Hanover.  The  father  of  our  subject 
was  a  farmer,  and  to  this  hardy  occupation  the 
young  man  was  bred.  His  education  was  only 
such  as  could  be  obtained  at  the  conmion  schools 
of  his  native  village  during  his  earlier  years,  but 
later,  in  the  school  of  experience,  he  acquired  a 
vast  knowledge  of  men  and  of  affairs  that  has 
l)een  of  incalculable  benefit  to  him  throughout 
the  later  years  of  his  life. 

In  1839  he  accompanied  his  parents  to  Amer- 
ica, the  journey  across  the  Atlantic  being  made 
in  a  sailing  vessel,  and  they  reached  the  city  of 
New  Orleans  in  December  of  that  year;  but 
Ouincy,  Illinois,  where  they  had  relatives,  was 
their  destination,  and  they  did  not  tarry  in  New 
Orleans  but  went  directly  by  river  to  St.  Louis, 
where  they  were  obliged  to  remain  till  the  open- 
ing of  navigation  the  following  spring  before 
proceeding  further,  and  thus  did  not  arrive  at 
Quincy  until  March  4,  1840. 

After  reaching  Ouincy  our  subject  spent  the  fol- 
lowing two  years  in  the  employ  of  John  Wood, 
afterward  governor  of  the  State,  and  during  part 
of  that  time  attended  a  commercial  school  in  order 
to  become  proficient  in  the  language  of  his 
adopted  country-.  He  next  entered  the  employ 
of  T.  G.  F.  Hunt,  who  kept  a  grocery  store  where 
the  Hotel  Newcomb  now  stands,  receiving  for 
his  first  year's  salary  one  hundred  dollars,  out 
of  which  he  was  obliged  to  buy  his  clothes  and 
pay  his  board.  Mr.  Hunt  retired  from  business 
a  couple  of  years  later  and  Mr.  Ricker  then  ob- 
tained a  situation  in  the  employ  of  Charles' 
Holmes,  a  dry-goods  merchant.  Shortly  after- 
ward Mr.  Holmes  removed  his  stock  of  goods 
to  St.  Louis  and  Mr.  Ricker  accompanied  him; 
but  as  his  father  was  opposed  to  his  leaving 
Quincy  he  returned  to  that  city  and  clerked  in 
Albert  Daneke's  general  store  until  1849. 

During  the  time  he  held  these  various  clerk- 


ships he  had  been  prudent  and  economical  and 
saved  about  three  hundred  dollars, — not  a  great 
amount,  but  enough  to  enable  him  to  form  a 
partnership  with  Leopold  Anitzen  in  the  dry- 
goods  and  grocery  business.  From  the  start 
this  venture  proved  successful.  A  lot  was  pur- 
chased, a  store  building  erected,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  firm  accumulated  considerable  means. 
This  connection  lasted  until  1857,  when  the  part- 
nership was  dissolved,  Mr.  Arntzen  purchasing 
the  personal  property  and  place  of  business, 
while  the  real  estate,  which  consisted  of  various 
pieces  of  property,  was  divided. 

For  a  short  time  Mr.  Ricker  engaged  in  the 
produce  business  alone,  but  only  until  the  spring 
of  1858,  at  w'lhich  time  he  w-as  elected  police  mag- 
istrate. He  at  once  entered  upon  the  duties  of 
his  new  office,  and  also  engaged  in  the  sale  and 
purchase  of  foreign  exchange,  and  acted  as  agent 
for  some  of  the  trans-Atlantic  steamship  com- 
panies; and  in  this  manner  was  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  great  banking  house  that  he  now 
ccrtilrols.  In  1862  he  was  re-elected  police  mag- 
istrate, and  in  that  year  made  a  trip  to  New  York, 
where  he  made  arrangements  that  enabled  him 
to  carry  on  his  exchange  and  ticket  business  more 
profitably.  His  shrewdness  and  keen  foresight 
served  him  in  good  stead,  and  his  genial  and  af- 
fable manners  brought  him  many  customers. 
He  also  made  a  great  deal  of  money  by  buying 
"slump-tail,"  or  depreciated  currency,  issued  by 
banks  in  Illinois  , Missouri,  Wisconsin,  and  some 
of  the  Eastern  States.  His  prosperity  continued, 
and  his  every  venture  was  successful.  Evei7- 
thing  he  touched  seemed  to  turn  into  money  un- 
der his  skillful  management. 

At  this  time  John  Wood  &  Company,  bank- 
ers, were  closing  their  affairs,  and  Mr.  Ricker, 
after  giving  the  matter  careful  thought,  pur- 
chased the  business,  which  he  carried  on  in  the 
firm's  old  quarters  for  a  few  months,  until  the 
lease  it  had  held  expired,  and  then  transferred 
his  office  to  a  building  he  had  purchased  in  i860, 
on  Hampshire  street  between    Fifth  and   Sixth, 


190 


BI0ailArjlfC.il,  DICTIONAHY  AND  PORTKAIT  GALLEIIY  OF  THE 


the  iipiHi-  ptntitin  of  wliich  he  liad  previously  oc- 
cupicil  as  an  office.  For  two  or  three  years  he 
associated  with  himself  Mr.  Bernard  H.  F.  Hoene, 
and  upon  his  retirement  in  1873  continued  tlie 
Inisinesis  alone. 

In  1875  he  began  the  erection  of  a  liandsome 
and  commodious  hanking  house  on  Hampshire 
street,  fronting  on  the  public  square,  and  to  these 
new  quarters  he  transferred  his  business  in  the 
latter  part  of  October,  1876.  Here  he  contin- 
ued as  a  private  banker  until  July  i,  1881,  when 
he  organized  the  business  under  the  national 
banking  laws,  as  the  Ricker  National  Bank, 
with  a  capital  stock  of  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  The  same  success  crowned  this  new 
venture  as  had  followed  him  in  the  past,  and  the 
Ricker  National  Bank,  witli  a  surplus  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty-five  thousiand  dollars  and  an 
average  deposit  account  of  one  million  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  ranks  to-day  with  the 
soundest  of  the  country's  monetary  institutions. 
Mr.  Ricker  is  the  owner  of  a  very  large  majority 
of  the  entire  capital  stock,  and  holds  the  office  of 
vice-president.  Edward  Sohm  is  the  president, 
though  he  takes  no  part  in  the  management  of 
the  bank's  affairs;  and  Mr.  Ricker's  son,  George 
E.,  who  under  his  father's  tutelage  has  developed 
considerable  financial  ability,  is  the  cashier.  As 
an  evidence  how  ably  the  business  is  conducted, 
and  how  satisfactory  to  the  public,  it  may  be 
stated  that  the  deposits  of  a  million  and  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  are  larger  than  an)'  other 
bank  in  the  State,  national  or  private,  outside  of 
the  city  of  Chicago. 

For  years  IMr.  Ricker  devoted  his  entire  time 
and  concentrated  all  his  energies  toward  the  su- 
pervision of  the  active  details  of  the  business,  and 
his  was  the  heart  to  resolve,  the  understanding 
to  direct,  and  the  hand  to  execute,  all  of  its  vari- 
ous transactions.  For  the  past  two  years,  how- 
ever, he  has  delegated  to  his  son  George  many 
of  the  duties  formerly  performed  by  him,  and 
he  now  acts  more  in  an  advisory  capacity  than  as 
an  active  participant. 


In  addition  to  his  banking  interests  Mr.  Ricker 
is  one  of  the  largest  holders  of  real  estate  in  the 
city  of  Quincy,  his  holdings  consisting  princi- 
pally of  improved  business  and  residence  prop- 
erty. He  also  has  property  interests  outside  of 
the  State.  In  the  development  of  the  city  of  his 
home  he  has  been  an  important  factor,  and  is 
interested  as  a  stockholder  in  some  of  Quincy's 
leading  industrial  corporations,  among  which 
may  be  named  the  Quincy  Gas  Light  &  Coke 
Company,  of  which  he  is  a  director  and  the  vice- 
president;  and  the  Menke  &  Grimm  Planing 
Company,  of  which  he  is  also  a  director  and  the 
treasurer.  Since  its  organization  he  has  been 
identified  with  the  German  Insurance  Company 
of  Quincy,  as  a  stockholder  and  director,  and 
during  all  that  time  he  has  been  treasurer  of 
the  company,  with  the  exception  of  two  years, 
when  he  filled  the  office  of  president. 

In  political  faith  Mr.  Ricker  is  an  uncompro- 
mising Democrat,  and  was  his  party's  nominee 
for  State  treasurer  in  1886.  He  is  a  warm  sup- 
porter of  President  Cleveland,  and  a  believer  in 
"sound  money"  as  being  the  true  source  of  pros- 
perity to  the  nation,  even  though  he  appreciates 
the  fact  that  "free  coinage"  would  be  of  greater 
benefit  to  himself  personally,  in  enhancing  prices 
of  his  various  properties.  He  is,  however,  broad- 
minded  enough  to  look  beyond  mere  individual 
aggrandizement. 

While  making  no  ostentatious  parade  of  his 
religious  views  he  is  a  firm  believer  in  the  doc- 
trine of  Christianity  as  taught  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  of  which  he  is  a  consistent 
member. 

Mr.  Ricker  was  married  in  November,  1852, 
to  Miss  Gertrude  Tenk,  of  Quincy.  Five  chil- 
dren born  of  this  union  are  living:  Euphemia, 
the  wife  of  George  Fisher;  Frank,  who  married 
Miss  Katie  C.  Redmond;  Josephine,  now  Mrs. 
Henry  Doerr;  George  E.,  previously  mentioned 
as  cashier  of  the  Ricker  National  Bank,  whose 
wife  was  formerly  Miss  Josephine  Wahl;  and 
Frances,  who  resides  with  her  parents. 


>^/V^       "      ^c 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


191 


CHARLES  FARGO, 


THE  records  of  the  lives  of  our  forefathers 
are  of  interest  to  the  modern  citizen,  not 
alone  for  their  historical  value  but  also  for  the 
inspiration  and  example  they  afford;  yet  we  need 
not  look  to  the  past.  Although  surroundings 
may  dififer  the  essential  conditions  of  human  life 
are  ever  the  same,  and  a  man  can  learn  from  the 
success  of  those  around  him  if  he  will  heed  the 
obvious  lessons  contained  in  their  history. 

Turn  to  the  life  record  of  Charles  Fargo,  study 
carefully  the  plans  and  methods  he  has  followed, 
and  you  will  leam  of  a  managerial  ability  seldom 
equaled.  A  man  of  keen  perception,  of  great 
sagacity,  of  unbounded  enterprise,  his  power 
nevertheless  lies  to  a  great  extent  in  tliat  quality 
which  enables  him  to  successfully  control  men  and 
affairs.  The  great  American  Express  Company, 
scarcely  second  in  importance  to  the  postoffice  de- 
partment of  this  country,  embraces  a  volume  of 
busuiess  that  has  increased  until  its  proportions 
are  almost  astonishing  in  their  vastness.  At  the 
head  of  its  entire  Western  department,  which  in- 
cludes all  west  of  Buffalo,  stands  Mr.  Fargo,  one 
of  the  most  prominent  figures  in  the  world  of 
commerce. 

The  Fargo  name,  or  Ferigo,  as  it  is  sometimes 
spelled  in  the  original  tongue,  springs  from  the 
sunny  peninsula  washed  by  the  blue  waters  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Adriatic  seas.  While 
Italy  gave  us  the  great  discoverer  of  the  Western 
Continent,  she  has  given  us  comparatively  few  of 
our  colonists;  but  among  those  few  were  the  an- 
cestors of  Mr.  Fargo,  who  can  without  difficulty 
trace  his  lineage  to  the  ancient  seat  of  the  empire 
of  Rome,  the  land  of  Garibaldi  and  Cavour.  Tlic 
American  progenitors,  of  which  Air.  Fargo  is  a 
direct  descendant,  made  a  home  in  Connecticut, 
where  his  grandfather  lived,  and  his  father,  Will- 
iam C.  Fargo,  was  born.  When  William  grew  to 
manhood  he  became  a  corporal  in  the  army  of  the 
war  of  1812,  and  was  stationed  at  Mackinaw, 
Micliigan.  On  his  return  he  located  in  Onon- 
daga county.  New  York,  and  married  Miss  Tacey 
Strong. 
,     In  their  home  at  Watervale,  of  that  county,  was 


l)orn  their  son,  Charles,  on  the  15th  of  April,  1831. 
Spending  his  boyhood  at  home  and  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  town,  his  adventurous  spirit 
led  him  to  begin  an  independent  career  at  the  early 
age  of  fifteen  years.  Going  to  Buffalo  he  be- 
came a  clerk  in  a  book-store  and  held  the  position 
for  two  years.  In  June,  185 1,  when  he  was  twent>' 
years  of  age,  he  began  his  Western  career  at  De- 
troit, and  as  a  clerk  for  the  American  Express 
Company  entered  on  a  long  and  prosperous  ser- 
vice, which  as  extended  over  forty  years.  Tliose 
ante-bellum  days  of  service  in  the  clerkship  were 
the  days  of  small  things,  not  only  for  young  Fargo 
but  also  for  the  company  itself.  The  American 
Express  Company's  growth  has  been  like  that 
of  the  nation  itself,  so  that  this  long  service  must 
be  inteqjreted  by  that  fact.  In  the  course  of  the 
next  fifteen  years  Air.  Fargo's  genius  for  the  man- 
agement of  tlie  business  of  a  great  common  car- 
rier caused  his  rapid  promotion,  so  that  he  be- 
came the  superintendent  of  the  division  covered  by 
the  State  of  Michigan. 

In  January,  1865,  Mr.  Fargo's  brother  was 
promoted  to  the  great  general  management  of  the 
whole  company,  with  offices  at  New  York,  and 
Charles  was  sent  to  Chicago  to  replace  him  in 
the  assistant  management  of  the  department  of 
the  Northwest.  This  position  he  held  for  the 
next  sixteen  years,  and  during  all  that  period  of 
vast  extension  in  the  \\'est  keeping  pace  with  the 
railroad  development.  In  18S3  he  became  man- 
ager of  this  division,  which  was  now  called  the 
Western  Department  and  included  all  west  of  the 
city  of  Buffalo.  For  over  a  decade  of  his  manage- 
ment the  growth  of  the  country  has  led  to  a  four- 
fold development  of  their  business.  He  has  led 
all  the  manifold  ramifications  that  have  spread  it 
over  forty-five  thousand  miles  of  railway  all 
told,  and  added  to  its  force  until  this  department 
alone  employs  an  army  of  nine  thousand  men. 
The  power  to  keep  pace  with  the  stupendous 
growth  of  the  West,  the  most  marvelous  re- 
corded in  history,  was  in  itself  a  mighty  test  of  his 
generalsliip,  and  he  has  borne  the  test.  Since  1875 
he  has  also  been  a  director  of  the  company,  and 


192 


moanAPincAL  dwtiokart  and  PonrnAiT  gallery  of  the 


since  1882  the  second  vice-president  and  a  meni- 
l)er  of  the  executive  committee.  His  only  son, 
Livingston  Wells,  who  graduated  at  Williams  Col- 
lege and  spent  a  year  in  foreign  travel  as  a  pre- 
paration for  it,  has  now  become  his  father's  as- 
sistant general  manager  of  the  Western  Depart- 
ment of  this  great  company. 

Mr.  Fargo's  capacity  as  an  organizer  and  execu- 
tive have  by  no  means  been  exhausted  in  the 
marvelous  strides  that  the  American  Express 
Company  has  made  under  his  leadership  in  the 
West.  For  twelve  years  he  has  also  been  a  di- 
rector in  the  Elgin  National  Watch  Company  and 
also  in  the  Northwestern  Horse  Nail  Manufactur- 
ing Company  of  Chicago.  The  leaders  in  battle 
are  extolled  in  story  and  song,  yet  praise  is  no  less 
due  to  the  leader  in  commercial  circles,  and  the 
generalship  displayed  is  no  less  commendable  than 
that  of  him  who  leads  his  followers  forth,  per- 
chance to  victory,  perchance  to  death.  One  places 
before  those  whom  he  controls  the  means  of  death, 
the  other  the  means  of  life. 


During  a  period  of  nearly  twenty-eight  years' 
residence  in  the  metropolis  of  the  West,  Mr. 
Fargo  has  been  prominently  identified  with  its 
various  public  interests.  He  is  a  member  of  Christ 
Church,  Reformed  Episcopal,  of  which  Bishop 
Charles  Edward  Cheney  is  the  rector,  and  of  the 
social  clubs  he  has  been  an  old  member  of  the 
Commercial,  the  Chicago,  the  Calumet  and  the 
Washington  Park,  and  charter  member  of  some 
of  them. 

Mr.  Fargo  is  a  Republican  in  his  political  con- 
victions, and  is  one  of  the  broad-minded  business 
men,  organizers,  who  have  made  the  name  of 
Chicago  a  synonym  of  success. 

He  was  married  in  1854  to  Miss  Mary  J.  Brad- 
ford, the  daughter  of  Harvey  Bradford,  of  Coop- 
erstown,  Otsego  county,  New  York.  The  forty 
years  of  their  married  life  has  been  blessed  by  the 
presence  of  one  son,  who  has  already  been  referred 
to  as  a  prominent  official  of  the  American  Ex- 
press Company;  and  three  daughters, — Irene, 
Adelaide  P.  and  Florence  B. 


OBED  LEWIS, 


SPRINGFIELD. 


OBED  LEWIS  was  bom  in  Gallagherville, 
Chester  county,  Pennsylvania,  April  25, 
1812. .  His  father,  William  Lewis,  was  a  descend- 
ant in  the  sixth  generation  from  the  progenitor 
of  the  American  branch  of  the  family  who  emi- 
grated from  Wales  in  1692  and  settled  among 
the  followers  of  William  Penn  in  the  province 
(now  State)  of  Pennsylvania.  For  several  genera- 
tions his  descendants  have  lived  in  peace  and 
contentment  in  the  Quaker  settlement  in  Chester 
county;  and  the  old  homestead  in  which  William 
Lewis,  father  of  our  subject,  was  born  in  1776,  is 
still  standing.  Through  his  mother,  Margaret 
Lewis,  nee  Cunningham,  Lewis  is  connected  with 
individual  ancestors  who  ser\'ed  patriotically  in  the 
war  of  the  Revolution.  His  maternal  great- 
grandfather, Colonel  Robert  Smith,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  of  safety  and  for  a  long 
time  was  colonel  of  light  horse  dragoons 
which  he  organized  in  Chester  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania.    He  built   Fort   Billingsport,   and   had   a 


sword  presented  to  him  by  the  convention  for  de- 
fending the  fort  at  the  time  of  its  capture. 

The  early  life  of  Obed  was  uneventful.  He  at- 
tended country  school  for  two  winters  previous 
to  reaching  twelve  years  of  age,  when  his  father 
died;  from  that  time  until  he  was  sixteen  he 
worked  at  farm  work.  He  was  then  bound  as  an 
apprentice  to  a  carriage-maker  in  New  Holland, 
Lancaster  county,  Pennsylvania,  and  received 
as  a  remuneration  twenty  dollars  annually  in  ad- 
diton  to  his  board  and  washing.  He  then  worked 
as  a  journeyman  in  Philadelphia,  Camden  and 
Wilmington,  Delaware,  in  Danville,  \'irginia, 
and  Milton,  North  Carolina.  He  then  returned 
to  Philadelphia  and  for  three  years  worked  at 
his  trade. 

He  was  frugal  and  economical,  and  from  his 
meagre  earnings  had  accumulated  a  few  hundred 
dollars.  Being  informed  through  Dr.  Wallace, 
a  physician  of  New  Holland,  who  had  purchased 
a  drug  store  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  moved' 


^l^  /.>^.^^/^/^^'^2^$^ 


liEPRESEyVATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


193 


thither,  that  splendid  opportunities  were  offered 
to  practical  young  men,  he  determined  to  move 
westward.  With  eight  companions,  Mr.  Lewis 
arrived  in  Springfield,  in  May,  1838.  He  fovmd 
emplovnient  at  his  trade  in  the  service  of  Enos 
Hinkle.  Before  he  had  worked  a  year  Mr.  Hin- 
kle  became  financially  involved  and  Mr.  Lewis, 
associated  with  Henr\-  Van  Hoff,  purchased  the 
business.  The  partnership  thus  began  continued 
until  the  death  of  'Sh.  \'an  Hoff,  sixteen  years 
later. 

When  Mr.  Lewis  and  his  partner  purchased  the 
business  the  entire  amount  of  capital  invested  was 
$800,  and  the  output  was  comparatively  small. 
Mr.  Lewis  was  an  indefatigable  worker,  and  under 
his  care  and  supervision  the  business  rapidly  in- 
creased, and  in  1868  he  decided  to  discontinue. 
Since  then  Mr.  Lewis  has  given  his  time  and  atten- 
tion to  real  estate  and  banking  interests.  He  has 
erected  many  houses  in  Springfield  and  is  inter- 
ested in  real  estate.  For  eight  years  he  was 
treasurer  of  the  water-works  company  and  for 
twenty-three  years  was  a  member  of  the  board  of 
trustees  of  Oak  Ridge  cemetery.  He  is  now  and 
has  been  for  several  years  vice-president  of  the 
Marine  State  Bank. 

Politically  Mr.  Lewis  is  allied  with  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  and  since  the  time  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son, for  whom  he  cast  his  first  vote,  he  has  been 
a  devoted  adiierent  of  Democratic  principles.  He 
has  been  honored  by  his  fellow  citizens  with  posi- 
tions of  honor  and  trust,  and  in  all  capacities 
has  conducted  his  affairs  in  an  honorable  and 
worthy  manner.  In  1862  he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  common  council  and  served  in  that 


body  for  eight  years.  During  the  years  1874-5 
he  filled  the  mayor's  chair  and  conducted  the 
affairs  of  that  position  with  ability  and  dignity. 

Mr.  Lewis  was  united  in  marriage,  on  Septem- 
ber 23.  1851,  to  Aliss  Cordelia  M.  lies,  daughter 
of  Washmgton  lies.  Mrs.  Lewis'  family  is  num- 
bered among  the  early  settlers  of  Illinois.  She 
died  on  the  24th  of  December,  1889,  survived  by 
her  husband  and  three  children.  The  youngest, 
Mary,  resides  with  her  father;  the  eldest,  Will- 
iam T.,  is  engaged  in  banking;  and  Kate  is 
tlie  wife  of  R.  F.  Herndon,  a  merchant  of  Spring- 
field. 

Mr.  Lewis  has  now  reached  his  eighty-second 
year  and  can  look  backward  over  a  life  well  spent, 
and  in  his  ripe  old  age  he  can  truthfully  state  that 
what  he  has  done  he  has  done  well,  and  that 
his  life  has  been  a  success;  his  life  has  been  what 
he  has  made  it.  He  started  out  in  the  business 
world  as  poor  as  the  poorest  of  boys,  and  that  he 
has  succeeded  is  due  solely  to  ability,  steadfast 
purpose  and  indefatigable  industry. 

He  has  long  since  rounded  the  Psalmist's  span 
of  three-score  years  and  ten,  and  with  his  mental 
and  physical  vigor  unimpaired  overcoming  the 
customary  and  usual  infirmities  and  weaknesses  of 
age  by  active  participation  in  the  living  issues  and 
events  of  the  day.  Surrounded  at  his  home  by 
a  circle  of  friends  who  appreciate  his  true  worth, 
and  admired  and  esteemed  by  the  citizens  of  the 
community,  his  name  will  be  honored  for  many 
generations  as  that  of  one  of  the  most  enterprising 
of  the  early  settlers  of  Springfield — a  man  who 
has  acted  well  his  part  and  who  has  lived  a 
worthy  and  honorable  life. 


HENRY  T.  NOBLE, 


HENRY  THEOPHILUS  NOBLE  was 
born  May  3,  1829,  at  the  village  of  Otis, 
Alassachuscts,  and  among  the  beautiful  Berk- 
shire hills  he  grew  to  man's  estate.  His  family 
was  of  New  England  stock,  whose  first  Amer- 
ican ancestor,  Thomas  Noble,  emigrated  from 
England  and  settled  in  Boston  prior  to  1653, 
later    removing    to    Springfield    and    thence  to 


Westfield  in  the  same  State,  where  his  declining 
years  were  passed  and  where  his  death  occurred. 
To  one  of  our  subject's  temperament  and  am- 
bition the  drowsy  existence  afforded  in  a  small 
Massachusetts  village  was  far  from  congenial,  and 
he  resolved  to  follow  the  tide  of  emigration  that 
was  flowing  westward.  He  broached  the  suljject 
to  his  father,  and  offered,  as  he  was  not  yet  of  age, 


11)4 


lilOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUmAIT  GALLEUY  OF  THE 


to  buy  his  time,  a  ])rop()sition  to  which  liis  father 
finally  consented,  and  tiie  yoiuifj  man  sold  his  hfe 
insurance  and  with  the  proceeds  made  the  pur- 
chase. It  was  in  1S50  that  he  came'  to  Dixon, 
not  possessed  of  many  of  the  world's  goods, 
Ijiit  rich  in  those  rare  possessions  that  only  a 
hi£^h  character  can  give — integrity  and  industry. 
Tor  the  subsequent  two  years  his  time  was  fully 
employed  in  teaching  and  as  a  clerk  in  the  land 
office.  In  1852  he  went  South  and  purchased 
land  warrants  of  soldiers  who  had  fought  in  the 
Mexican  war,  and  in  carrying  out  this  enterprise 
he  visited  the  States  of  Missouri,  Texas,  Alabama 
and  Kentucky,  making  the  venture  very  profit- 
able. On  his  return  to  Illinois  he  engaged  with 
his  uncle,  Silas  Noble,  in  the  banking  and  real- 
estate  business,  a  connection  that  continued  until 

1857- 

From  bovhodil  he  had  always  been  greatly 
interested  in  national  affairs,  and  kept  himself 
well  informed  regarding  the  government  of  the 
country  and  the  living  issues  of  the  day.  As 
soon  as  old  enough  he  took  part  in  local  politics, 
throwing  the  weight  of  his  influence  on  the  side 
of  the  party  he  considered  in  the  right.  He 
watched  with  interest  and  anxiety  the  events  that 
led  up  to  the  civil  war;  and,  when  hostilities  were 
commenced  and  Lincoln  issued  his  call  for  vol- 
imtcers  to  aid  in  suppressing  the  rel^ellion,  Henry 
T.  Noble's  name  was  the  first  on  the  muster  roll 
in  Lee  county,  and  in  April  17,  1861,  five  days 
after  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  he  was  enlisted 
under  his  country's  flag.  Three  days  later  he  was 
chosen  lieutenant  of  Company  A,  Thirteenth 
Illinois  Infantry,  and  on  the  24th  of  the  following 
month  he  became  captain  of  his  company. 
Throughout  the  entire  period  of  the  war,  and 
until  the  fall  of  1S66  he  was  in  active  service. 
During  that  time  he  took  part  in  many  impor- 
tant engagements,  and  his  value  as  a  leader  was 
duly  recognized  by  his  promotion  from  the  rank 
of  captain  to  be  successively  major,  lieutenant- 
colonel  and  colonel  of  his  regiment.  His  ad- 
vancements in  rank  resulted  fromi  his  intrepid 
daring  and  coolness  in  the  face  of  the  enemy, 
and  his  skill  in  handling  his  troops  in  the  heat  of 
battle.  The  Thirteenth  Illinois  was  the  first  reg- 
iment to  cross  the  Mississippi  into  the  hostile 
regions  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  and  the  greater 


part  of  the  time  for  the  following  two  years  it 
was  on  duty  in  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  did 
great  execution  among  the  rebels.  Later  it  per- 
formed gallant  service  in  the  \'^icksburg  cam- 
]3aign,  participating  in  all  the  important  battles 
fought  in  the  vicinity  of  that  city,  and  in  its 
siege  and  capture.  Colonel  Noble  was  appointed 
a  member  of  General  J.  J.  Reynolds'  staff,  and 
subsequently  served  on  the  staff  of  General 
E.  O.  C.  Ord.  In  the  spring  of  1865  he  was 
appointed  to  the  important  office  of  chief  quar- 
termaster of  the  Department  of  Arkansas,  and 
continued  as  such  imtil  his  honorable  discharge 
from  the  army,  October  5,  1866.  Many  favorable 
comments  were  made  by  his  superior  officers 
upon  his  fitness  for  so  responsible  a  position 
and  upon  the  faithful  manner  in  wdiich  he  dis- 
charged the  duties  pertaining  thereto.  Quar- 
termaster-General M.  C.  Meiggs  said  of  him  in 
his  official  comnuinication  to  the  authorities  at 
Washington:  "Colonel  Xoble  has  performed 
Hie  duties  of  quartermaster  to  the  entire  satis- 
faction of  all  concerned,  and  has  won  the  confi- 
dence and  esteem  of  all  who  know  him."  Gen- 
eral J.  N.  Crittenden,  in  a  communication  to 
the  War  Department,  bearing  date  December  10, 
1866,  says:  "For  the  excellent  order  in  which 
all  books,  papers,  cash  accounts,  etc.,  have  been 
kept,  thanks  are  due  to  Colonel  Noble's  able  man- 
agement of  the  duties  devolving  upon  him,  and 
to  his  luitiring  devotion  to  his  work.  His  stand- 
ing as  a  man  of  pure  and  incorruptible  character 
is  high  with  all  who  know  him,  and  I  deem  him 
capable  of  carrying  out  any  and  all  plans  in  the 
quartermaster's  department." 

Upon  his  retirement  from  the  army  Colonel 
Noble  returned  to  his  home  in  Dixon,  and 
resumed  his  business  career.  He  purchased  an 
interest  in  the  Grand  Detour  Plow  Company, 
and  from  that  time  until  his  death  was  a  leading 
spirit  in  the  affairs  of  the  company. 

During  all  these  years  he  aided  every  prospect 
calculated  to  enhance  the  best  interests  of  the  city 
of  his  home,  and  labored  early  and  late  in  what- 
ever direction  he  could,  to  accomplish  wished-for 
results.  Some  of  the  city's  most  prominent  man- 
ufacturing establishments  owe  the  fact  of  their 
being  located  at  Dixon  to  the  indefatigable 
energy  displayed    by  Colonel    Noble.     No    task 


REPRESEy^TATIVE  .VE.X  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLISOIS  VOLUME. 


195 


was  too  difficult  for  him  to  undertake,  provid- 
ing its  satisfactory  completion  promised  another 
step  forward  for  the  city.  In  many  instances 
it  was  uphill  work,  yet  he  did  not  give  up, 
but  persevered  in  the  face  of  every  discourage- 
ment, and  never  relaxed  in  his  energv  and  his 
hope. 

In  the  affairs  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic Colonel  Xoble  took  a  deep  interest.  He  was 
a  member  of  Dixon  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  of  the  militan,^ 
order  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  and  March  31,  1873, 
he  joined  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee.  He  was  also 
a  member  of  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fel- 
lows. In  politics  he  was  ever  a  stanch  and  loyal 
Republican,  and  enjoyed  a  personal  acquaintance 
and  friendship  with  both  I^incoln  and  Grant.  He 
was  twice  a  presidential  elector  on  his  party's 
ticket  and  in  1880,  when  a  delegate  to  the  Repub- 
lican national  convention,  did  himself  and  his 
constituents  honor  as  one  of  the  immortal  "306" 
that  voted  for  Grant  on  ever>'  ballot.  He  was 
also  a  member  of  the  commission  appointed  to 
locate  the  State  Soldiers'  Home,  and  used  his 
influence,  though  ineffectually,  in  favor  of  Dixon. 
In  1890  he  was  chosen  mayor  of  Dixon,  and  it 
was  but  a  few  weeks  after  his  retirement  from 
that  office  that  his  final  illness  occurred.  An 
attack  of  pneumonia  was  intensified  by  a  pre- 
vious illness — with  la  grippe — and  in  spite  of  the 
best  of  medical  skill  he  passed  away  on  the  15th 
day  of  .April,  1891. 

Colonel  Noble  was  twice  married.  His  first 
wife,  whose  maiden  name  was  Jane  A.  Herrick, 
died  May  4,  1873.  His  second  wife,  who  survives 
him,  was  formerly  Miss  Mary  Augusta  Hampton, 
a  native  of  Xew  York.    The  fiillowing  estimate  of 


Colonel  Xoble's  character  is  from  the  pen  of 
Hon  B.  F.  Shaw,  of  Di.xon,  who  was  for  many 
years  his  trusted  and  devoted  friend: 

"As  an  enterprising  business  man  and  a  patri- 
otic citizen.  Colonel  Noble  was  too  well  known  to 
need  a  word  from  us.  He  but  a  few  days  since 
closed  a  term  as  mayor  of  our  city,  and  it  is  gen- 
erally conceded  that  Dixon  never  had  a  more 
painstaking  and  efficient  chief  magistrate.  So 
earnest  was  he  in  protecting  the  public  interest 
that  even  his  warm  friendships  would  not 
swerve  him  from  looking  after  the  interests  of 
the  city.  He  was  positive  and  decided  for  the 
right,  and  no  power  could  be  brought  to  change 
him  from  a  line  of  duty.  To  Colonel  Noble 
more  than  to  any  other  one  citizen  are  we 
indebted  for  the  prosperity  Dixon  now  enjoys. 
His  manifest  liberality,  executive  ability  and 
indomitable  energy  gave  this  people  what  they 
would  not  have  had  without  him,  and  now  that 
he  is  no  more  the  people  will  soon  learn  that  his 
loss  is  an  irreparable  one  for  this  connuunity. 
Having  worked  with  him  for  days  and  weeks, 
at  home  and  abroad,  on  behalf  of  Dixon,  we 
know  whereof  we  speak  when  we  say  Dixon 
never  had  a  more  loyal  friend. 

"Colonel  Noble's  patriotism  was  not  confined 
to  this  city  nor  the  State.  It  was  as  broad  and 
grand  as  the  vast  repul)lic,  and  it  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  State  lines.  Neitlier  was  his  kindly 
heart  bound  by  race  or  even  limits  of  a  love  for 
his  fellow  man,  now  that  we  recall  the  fact  that 
he  was  the  originator  in  our  city  of  a  society  for 
the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals,  and  was  one 
of  its  most  active  members  in  protecting  those 
who  could  not  protect  tlieniselves.'' 


CHARLES  RIDGELY, 


SPRIXUFIELD. 


ONE  of  the  busiest,  most  energetic  and  most 
enterprising  men  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  is 
Charles  Ridgely.  He  bears  in  his  veins  some  of 
the  best  blood  of  our  early  colonists,  and  is  in 
every  way  a  splendid  type  of  our  best  American 
citizenship. 
On  the  paternal  side   Mr.   Ridgely  traces  his 


lineage  in  an  unbroken  line  to  Colonel  Henry 
Ridgely,  "Major  of  the  Troop,"  who  came  to 
America  and  settled  in  Alaryland  about  1658.  He 
married  Elizal)eth  Howard.  Their  children  were 
Henry,  Charles  and  Sarah. 

Ilenn'  Ridgely  (2)  married   Katherine,  eldest 
<lausjhter     of      Colonel       Nicholas      Greenburv. 


H)('. 


nToauAPincAL  Drcrro.XAnr  and  portrait  gallery  of  the 


Their  cliililren  were  Huiry,  Xieholas,  Charles, 
Ann  and  Elizabeth. 

Henry  (3)  married  EHzalocth  Warfield,  and 
had  issue  as  follows:  Catherine,  Ann,  Green- 
berry,  Henry,  Nicholas,  Benjamin,  Joshua, 
Charles  Greenberry,  Elizabeth,  Thomas,  Nich- 
olas Greenberry  and  Sarah. 

Greenberry  (fourth  generation)  married  Jane 
Stringer.  Their  children  were:  Greenberry, 
Henry,  Richard,  Frederick,  Ann,  Lydia,  Henry 
(their  first  son  of  that  name  having  died),  Eliza- 
beth, Sarah  and  Nicholas. 

Greenberry  (fifth  generation)  married  Rachel 
Ryan  and  had  the  following  children:  Lloyd, 
Lot,  Noah,  Silas,  Mary,  Susan,  Rhoda,  Sarah, 
Ann,  Greenberry,  Isaiah,  James  and  Nicholas. 

Nicholas  (sixth  generation)  married  first  Jane 
O.  Vincent.  Their  children  were:  Mary  Jane, 
Sarah  E.  Vincent,  Sophia  Niles,  Redick  McKee 
and  Henry.  His  second  wife  was  Jane  Maria 
Huntington,  who  bore  him  issue  as  follows: 
Charles,  subject  of  this  article,  Julia  Pearson, 
William,  Anna,  Mary,  Jane  Maria,  Henderson, 
Octavia  and  Randolph. 

A  remarkable  fact  about  this  somewhat  numer- 
ous family  is  worthy  of  mention,  which  is  that 
for  the  long  period  of  thirty-six  years  after  the 
oldest  and  youngest  of  the  children  died,  there 
was  not  a  death  to  break  the  family  ranks.  Then 
(1893)  Henry  died,  and  the  other  twelve  children 
still  (1895)  survive. 

The  mother  of  Charles  Ridgely  was  Jane  Maria, 
fice  Huntington,  whose  father  was  a  nephew  of 
Hon.  Samuel  Huntington,  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  and  president  of  the  first 
American  Congress.  The  name  of  Huntington 
appears  prominently,  and  always  honorably,  on 
almost  every  page  of  our  American  history  from 
the  advent  of  the  pioneer  family  of  that  name  in 
1633  to  the  present  day.  They  have  been 
through  the  generations  noted  for  splendid 
physicjue,  courtly  and  gracious  bearing,  fine  men- 
tal equipoise  and  unswerving  integrity. 

Mr.  Ridgely's  mother  descended  in  the  mater- 
nal line  from  another  family,  which  has  for  many, 
generations  played  a  prominent  part  in  our  coun- 
try's history  and  development.  The  Lothrops 
or  Lathrops  (both  names  having  the  same 
common  origin)  are  all  descended  from  Rev.  John, 


the  pioneer  who  came  to  America  and  established 
a  church  in  Scituate,  Massachusetts,  as  early  as 
1634.  The  history  of  his  championship  of  the 
cause  of  religious  liberty,  the  persecution,  impris- 
onment, etc.,  which  he  suffered  in  England,  and 
which  finally  drove  him  to  our  Colonial  shores, 
are  matters  familiar  to  all  students  of  the  early 
history  of  our  country.  His  descendants  have 
spread  abroad  in  our  land,  and  wherever  found 
are  people  of  position  and  consequence  in  the 
community. 

Charles  Ridgely  was  Ijorn  in  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, January  17,  1836.  After  receiving  the  usual 
course  at  the  public  schools  of  his  native  town, 
he  attended  the  Illinois  College,  at  Jacksonville, 
but  left  the  institution  at  the  end  of  his  sophomore 
year  to  accept  a  place  in  Clark's  Exchange  Bank 
in  Springfield,  of  which  institution  his  father  was 
president.  He  entered  the  bank  in  March,  1852, 
as  messenger.  His  promotion  was  rapid  and  he 
became  cashier  of  the  bank  before  attaining  his 
majority.  In  1855  the  afifairs  of  Clark's  Ex- 
change Bank  were  wound  up,  and  N.  H.  Ridgely 
organized  a  private  bank,  of  which  Charles 
Ridgely  was  cashier. 

In  1859  the  private  bank  of  N.  H.  Ridgely  & 
Company  was  organized  by  N.  H.  and  Charles 
Ridgely.  In  1864  William  Ridgely  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  firm.  In  1866  the  Ridgely  Na- 
tional Bank  was  organized,  and  in  1891,  after  the 
expiration  of  the  original  charter,  it  was  re- 
organized. Mr.  Charles  Ridgely  has  been  vice- 
president  of  the  Ridgely  National  Bank  since  its 
organization. 

While  Mr.  Ridgely  has  thus  been  actively  en- 
gaged as  a  banker  for  more  than  forty  years,  this 
has  been  but  an  incident  in  his  business  career. 
In  1854  the  Springfield  Gas  Company  was  organ- 
ized by  his  father,  and  our  subject  was  for  a  time 
secretar}-,  succeeding  his  brother,  R.  M.  Ridgely, 
who  was  its  first  secretary;  at  the  present  time 
he  is  a  director  in  the  company.  He  is  president 
of  the  Springfield  Iron  Company,  which  he  or- 
ganized in  1871,  with  a  capital  of  $600,000.  He 
is  also  a  director  of  the  Springfield  Electric  Light 
and  Power  Company. 

He  was  a  director  in  the  Springfield  City  Rail- 
road Company  until  it  w-as  sold  out  and  organ- 
ized as  an  electric  road. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UXITKD  STATES;  ILLlSOrs  VOLCMK. 


197 


In  1848  his  father  and  Colonel  Thomas  Mather 
hati  bought  the  Northern  Cross  Railroad,  which 
they  rebuilt  between  Springfield  and  Naples.  This 
road  afterward  became  a  part  of  the  Wabash, 
and  in  the  winter  of  1877-8,  while  Charles  was 
abroad,  he  was  elected  a  director  of  the  Wabash 
system,  in  which  capacity  he  served  nine  years, 
during  the  most  interesting  period  of  the  history 
of  the  road,  under  the  presidency  of  such  men  as 
James  A.  Rooseveldt,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Solon 
Humphreys,  Conmiodore  Garrison  and  Jay 
Gould,  and  his  connection  with  the  road  brought 
him  into  personal  and  familiar  contact  with  this 
truly  remarkable  galaxy  of  men. 

Mr.  Ridgely  has  been,  and  now  is.  largely  inter- 
ested in  the  coal  trade.  Years  ago  he  became 
president  of  the  Ellsworth  Coal  Company,  and 
later  he  and  his  associates  bought  it,  increased 
its  capacity  and  afterward  merged  it  into  the  Con- 
solidated Coal  Company  of  St.  Louis,  with  a  cap- 
ital stock  of  $5,000,000.  He  has  been  president 
of  this  company  since  its  organization  in  1886. 
They  have  acquired  eighty-one  different  collieries, 
located  mainly  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis,  and  on 
nine  different  lines  of  railroad.  They  employ 
over  5,000  men  and  have  an  output  of  about 
3,000,000  tons  of  lump  coal  per  year. 

He  is  the  senior  member  of  the  firm  of  Charles 
and  Franklin  Ridgely,  w-ho  own  the  Sangamo 
Stock  Farm,  located  just  outside  the  city  limits  of 
Springfiekl,  and  devoted  mainly  to  breeding  and 
rearing  trotting  horses.  The  head  of  the  stud  is 
Conductor  by  Electioneer,  dam  Sontag  Mohawk. 
Seven  of  her  colts  are  in  the  list.  In  all  branches  of 
business  in  which  he  engages,  i\Ir.  Ridgely  becomes 
a  leader,  and  although  horse-raising  is  but  an  in- 
cident in  his  business  life,  the  prominent  position 
he  has  taken  in  that  industry  is  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that  he  has  recently  been  elected  president 
of  the  Illinois  Horse  Breeders"  Association. 

He  has  always  been  deeply  interested  in  the 
cause  of  education  and  was  one  of  the  organizers 
of  the  Public  Library  of  Springfield,  of  which  he 
is  a  director.  He  was  for  several  years  a  member 
of  the  City  School  Board.  He  is  a  trustee  of  the 
Illinois  College,  and  that  institution  has  con- 
ferred on  him  the  honorary  degree  of  A.  M., — an 
unusual  proceeding. 

Soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  it  was 


feared  the  Confederates  would  take  possession  of 
Cairo,  and  Swift's  brigade  of  Illinois  militia  was 
ordered  there  from  Chicago  to  prevent  its  cap- 
ture. One  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  fur- 
nished the  governor  by  the  banks  of  Springfield 
with  which  to  defray  the  expenses  of  this  expedi- 
tion. Mr.  Ridgely  took  an  active  part  in  raising 
these  funds  and  was  appointed  paymaster  general, 
of  the  State  of  Illinois, — virtually  treasurer, — of 
the  expedition,  as  the  following  document  will 
show; 

Order  No.   q. 

Gener.'\l  Headquarters, 
Office  of  Commander-in-chief, 
Springfield,   Ili,.,   Apr.    18,    i86r. 
Charles  RiJ^-ely, 

Dear  Sir: — You  are  hereby  appointed  Paymas- 
ter General  of  the  Illinois  \'olunteer  Militia'  until 
they  are  mustered  into  the  ser\-ice  of  the  United 
States.  Yours  respectfully 

Richard  Yates, 

Coinmaiidcr-in-chief. 

The  above  is  a  brief  enumeration  of  some  of 
the  more  important  events  in  the  career  of  Mr. 
Ridgely  during  his  forty-three  years  of  active 
business  life. 

Notwithstanding  this  remarkable  demand  upon 
his  energies,  he  finds  time  for  social  recreation 
and  pleasure.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Chicago 
Club,  :\Iercantile  Club  of  St.  Louis  and  Sangamo 
Club  of  Springfield. 

One  thing  which  we  find  in  Mr.  Ridgely's  es- 
thetic constitution,  and  which  for  so  busy  a  man 
may  be  accounted  unusual,  is  his  great  love  of 
art.  His  contact  with  the  busy  world  of  com- 
merce and  with  men  of  affairs  has  not  dulled  the 
art  instinct  in  his  nature,  which  was  largely  in- 
herited from  his  father;  but  his  extensive  travels 
over  the  \vorld  have  rather  tended  to  cultivate 
and  broaden  this  faculty  by  affording  observation 
of  the  world's  masterpieces.  Some  years  ago 
various  local  art  societies  in  the  State  of  Illinois 
formefl  an  association  and  organized  tiiomselves 
into  the  Central  Illinois  Art  Union.  Mr.  Ridgely 
was  the  first  president  of  the  society  and  held 
that  position  several  years.  The  Union  held  an- 
nual meetings,  and  its  object  was  the  discussion 
and  promotion  of  the  study  of  art.  He  has  been 
abroad  five  times  and  traveled  extensivedy  in 
most  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  and  has  spent 
many  of  the  happiest  hours  of  his  life  in  the  art 


198 


BIOaUAPinrAL  DICTIONARY  . WD  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


galleries  of  the  old  and  new  world.  He  states 
that  there  has  not  been  a  year  since  1870  in  which 
he  has  traveled  less  than  twenty  thousand  miles. 

The  stranger  in  walking  through  the  city  of 
Springfield  is  attracted  by  many  admirable  build- 
ings. One  structure  that  draws  the  attention  of 
those  who  admire  artistic  architecture  is  Christ 
church.  A  brief  mention  of  this  edifiice  is  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  biography  of  our  subject.  At 
the  suggestion  of  his  cousin,  George  Webster,  of 
Armour  &  Company  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Ridgely 
joined  with  him  in  a  plan  to  erect  a  memorial 
church  to  their  mothers,  who  were  sisters.  I'nr- 
suing  that  plan  they  built  Christ  church,  which 
in  every  respect  displays  the  refined  taste  of  its 
builders  and  is  a  fitting  memorial  to  two  noble 
women. 

Mr.  Ridgely  was  married  in  1857  to  Jane  INlaria 
Barret,  of  Springfield,  daughter  of  an  old  \ir- 
ginia  gentleman,  James  W.  Barret.  They  have 
four  children  viz.:  William  Barret  Ridgely,  vice- 
president  and  genera]  manager  of  the  Spring- 
field Iron  Company,  who  m.arried  Ella,  a  daughter 
of  Senator  Cullom.  Edward  Ridgely,  cashier  of 
The  Ridgely  National  Bank,  who  manned  Fannie 


Clark,  of  Springfield ;  Franklin  Ridgely,  manager 
of  the  Sangamo  Stock  Farm,  whose  wife  was 
Halls  Elliott,  of  Springfield ;  and  Mary  Lee,  wife 
of  Judge  William  A.  Vincent,  of  Chicago. 

Although  only  interested  in  politics  as  a  citizen 
anxious  for  good  government,  Mr.  Ridgely  has 
made  a  careful  study  of  political  matters  and  none 
of  the  citizens  of  Illinois  are  better  informed 
upon  national  affairs.  He  has  frecjuently  been 
called  upon  to  deliver  addresses  upon  various 
subjects  pertaining  to  politics,  labor,  society  and 
art,  and  he  has  in  all  instances  displayed  a  deep- 
seated  knowledge  of  the  subject  matter.  Being 
a  successful  man  of  business,  controlling,  as  la- 
does,  millions  of  dollars  of  capital,  his  ability  to 
advise  what  is  best  for  the  general  welfare  should 
be  and  is  greater  than  that  of  an  individual  whose 
scope  is  more  limited.  Mr.  Ridgely  has  made 
good  use  of  his  opportunities.  He  is  vigorous 
and  well  preserved,  with  a  remarkable  faculty  for 
the  conduct  and  dispatch  of  business. 

Courteous,  genial,  well  informed,  alert  and  en- 
terprising, he  stands  to-day  one  of  the  leading 
representative  men  of  his  State, — a  man  who  is 
a  power  in  his  community. 


ROBERT  K.  SWAN, 


ONE  of  the  most  straightforward,  energetic 
and  successful  business  men  who  ever  lived 
in  Moline  was  the  late  Robert  Kerr  Swan,  a 
native  of  Huntingdon  county,  Pennsylvania. 
He  was  born  July  19,  1825;  was  reared  on  a  farm 
and  received  an  ordinary  English  education. 
When  he  was  fourteen  years  old  the  family  moved 
to  Preble  county,  Ohio,  where  our  subject 
remained  until  March,  1852,  when  he  came  to 
Moline.  He  brought  empty  pockets,  but  a  large 
stock  of  pluck  and  perseverance,  sound  sense, 
and  industrious  habits.  He  commenced  work 
here  for  Alonzo  Nourse,  as  traveling  salesman 
for  fanning  mills,  meeting  with  success  from  the 
start  and  making  many  valuable  acquaintances. 
In  1854  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Henry 
W.  Candee,  and  they  commenced  the  manufacture 
of  chain  pumps  and  hay-rakes,   and   ^Ir.  Swan 


went  on  the  road  as  salesman  He  met  with 
unexpected  and  very  great  success,  and  the  firm 
found  themselves  on  the  road  to  fortune.  Andrew 
Friberg  joined  them  in  1865,  and  the  firm  of 
Candee,  Swan  &  Company  soon  became  broadly 
and  favorably  known.  In  1866  Mr.  Swan  sug- 
gested to  his  partners  the  propriety  of  starting 
a  shop  for  the  manufacture  of  steel  plows  and 
cultivators.  His  associates,  including  George 
Stephens,  who  had  joined  the  firm,  seconded  his 
plans,  and  in  a  short  time  the  great  manufactory 
at  the  corner  of  Main  street  and  Rodman  avenue 
was  erected  and  ready  for  use.  The  establish- 
ment has  since  been  enlarged  three  or  four  times, 
and  the  Moline  Plow  Company,  which  name  the 
firm  took  in  1870,  has  had  a  wonderful  success. 
I\Ir.  Swan  was  chosen  president  of  the  company 
and  held  that  position  at  the  time  of  his  death, 


y?^-^^. 


REPliESEXTATTVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


199 


May  25,  187(8,  his  disease  being  erysipelas.  No 
funeral  that  has  ever  occurred  in  Aloline  drew 
out  such  a  multitude  of  mourners.  All  the  busi- 
ness houses  were  closed  and  the  whole  city 
turned  out  to  bewail  their  great  loss.  At  the  time 
of  his  demise  a  Rock  Island  paper  thus  spoke  of 
him: 

"  Mr.  Swan  was  known  all  over  the  North- 
west, from  the  source  of  the  Ohio  river  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia,  and  could  count  his 
friends  by  the  thousand.  As  an  indication  of 
the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held,  and  of  the  inter- 
est that  was  taken  in  his  case  during  his  illness, 
it  may  be  stated  that  telegrams  inquiring  about 
his  condition  were  received  from  every  quarter 
of  the  Northwest,  and  many  a  man  on  his  way 
East  or  West  stopped  over  a  few  hours  in  Molinc 
to  learn  something  of  the  condition  of  Mr.  Swan. 
His  life  was  full  of  incidents  of  great  actions,  in 
which  he  was  the  principal.  The  soldiei*  boys 
who  fell  wounded  on  the  field  after  the  battle  of 
Stone  river  will  never  forget  his  kindness  to  them. 
He  was  sent  from  Moline  by  the  people  to  look 
after  the  dead  and  wounded  who  had  gone  from 
our  midst  to  fight  the  battles  of  freedom.  He 
arrived  at  the  enemy's  linies  and  was  told  that 
he  cnuld  not  go  any  farther,  and  probably  there 
were  few  men  in  the  country  who  would  have 
attempted  to  disobey;  but  Mr.  Swan  went  through 
the  lines  and  cared  for  the  wounded  Moline  boys 
who  were  lying  on  the  battle-field  waiting  for 
death  at  the  hands  of  a  brutal  rebel  soldiery.  He 
provided  for  their  wants,  and  saw  that  they  had 
as  good  treatment  as  could  be  obtained,  and  when 
he  returned  to  Moline  he  brought  home  with  him 
the  body  of  Lieutenant  Wellington  Wood,  one 
of  Moline's  favorite  sons,  who  fell  in  tliat  bloody 
battle.  There  was  nothing  too  hard  for  Mr. 
Swan  to  undertake,  or  too  difficult  for  him  to 
execute.  He  was  one  of  those  men  who  knew 
no  such  word  as  fail,  and  all  his  deeds  were  char- 
acterized by  Christian  virtue.  He  was  for  many 
years,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  a  member 
of  the  Congregational  Church,  and  gave  liberally 
o{  his  means  to  the  Lord's  cause-  In  politics 
he  was  a  Reiniblican  of  the  stanchest  kind,  whose 
faith  and  allegiance  never  wavered-  In  Mr. 
Swan's  death,  .Muline  h;is  been  deprived  nf  one 
of  its  l)rst,  most   useful   I'ml  i)ulilic-spiritc(l   citi- 


zens, and  the  Xorthwcst  has  lost  one  of  the  most 
energetic  business  men  it  ever  knew.  The  rich 
and  poor  alike  will  mourn  his  loss,  for  he  was 
beloved  by  men  of  every  walk  in  life." 

Rev.  E.  C.  Barnard,  his  pastor,  in  his  address 
at  th.e  funeral  of  Mr.  Swan,  after  refen-ing  at 
length  lo  his  home  life,  his  devotion  to  family, 
church,  city,  his  interest  in  the  men  he  employed, 
anfl  his  standing  as  a  neighbor,  said:  "  But  this 
scene  to-day  has  a  larger  and  an  invisible  audi- 
ence reaching  beyond  home,  factory,  church, 
city.  Scattered  all  over  this  land,  from  the 
Alleghanies  to  the  Golden  Gate  and  Pacific  ocean, 
from  the  pines  and  snows  of  Lake  Superior  all 
through  the  great  Mississippi  valley  to  Florida 
and  Texas,  are  thousands  of  men  who  knew  and 
loved  Mr.  Swan.  I'ew  men  have  traveled  so 
much  and  still  fewer  have  his  wonderful  habit 
of  becoming  acquainted  w  ith  strangers,  and  in  a 
day  or  night,  in  business,  or  on  a  train  or  steamer 
making  life-long  friends.  This  scattered  crowd 
would  be  a  strange  and  characteristic  one.  It 
would  have  many  of  the  first  business  men  of  the 
land,  it  would  have  scores  of  traveling  men, 
it  w'luld  have  agents  and  employees,  there 
would  be  hotel  men  and  railroad  men,  men  who 
conduct  fairs  and  expositions,  and  young 
men  who  have  had  a  kind  hand  given 
them,  and  a  word  of  heartfelt  and  thought- 
ful advice.  And  not  less  honoring  to  him 
would  be  the  mothers,  widows,  helpless  ones, 
he  has  found  in  any  way  or  anywhere  in  his  com- 
ings and  goings,  to  whom  he  has  given  sympathy 
and  help.  Human  trouble  or  appeal  never  found 
in  him  an  indiiiferent  spectator.  No  matter  who 
it  was,  or  what  it  was,  Mr.  Swan  knew  only  one 
way  to  do,  and  that  was  to  act  the  good  Samari- 
tan. A  helpless  woman  at  Salt  Lake  or  Sacra- 
mento, a  sorrowing  mother  at  Cairo  bringing  a 
dead  boy  home  from  the  war,  a  child  poor  or 
lost  in  fjuiaha,  a  man  in  the  Rocky  mountain 
region  who  had  in  business  fell  aniong  thieves 
and  been  stripped,  would  set  all  his  activities  at 
work  as  soon  as  scenes  of  trouble  would  in  his 
own  home  or  city. 

"  Mr.  -Swan  was  a  man  among  men.  No  man 
or  class  designation  was  broad  enough  to  char- 
acterize him.  He  knew  no  limitations  of  sect, 
race  or  condition.     He  was  always  helping  the 


200 


niOOHAl'lHCAL  lliariONART  AND  POUTIIAIT  (lAf.L/JIir  OF  THE 


needy,  and    always    turning-  up    just  when  and  was   Mercy  Parsons,   and   whom  he  married  at 

where  he  was  needed.  Woodstock,    IlHnois,    December    17,   1856,    and 

"If   a  'thing   was   to   be   done    he   talked    of  four  children,  whose  names   are   Lillie  E.,  Rob- 

nothin"-    but   doing  it.      He    did    what    others  ert   E.,  Clara   B.,  and   Edith   L.     In   addition  to 

only  think  about  doing;  he  was  pre-eminently  a  a   competency,   he   left   his   family  the   legacy  of 

man  of  action."  a    good    name,    which    is    better   than    silver   or 

Mr.    Swan    left    a  wife,  whose    maiden    name  gold. 


MOSES  DILLON, 


STERLING, 


MOSES  DILLON  was  born  at  Zanesville, 
Ohio,  on  the  19th  day  of  September,  1845, 
being  the  youngest  of  the  five  children  of  Lloyd 
and  Margaret  (Cnlbertson)  Dillon;  the  former 
was  of  Quaker  ancestry.  Lloyd  Dillon  and  his 
father  erected  and  operated  the  first  iron-rolling 
mill  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 

In  1854  the  family  removed  from  Zanesville  to 
Dixon,  Illinois,  where  they  resided  for  the  ensuing 
four  years,  and  where  Moses  obtained  the  rudi- 
ments of  his  education  at  the  local  schools.  In 
]86o  the  family  removed  to  Sterling,  and  our  sub- 
ject continued  his  studies  there,  supplementing  the 
instruction  thus  received  by  a  year's  course  at  the 
Rock  Island  high  school.  Returning  to  Sterling, 
he  entered  the  employ  of  D.  M.  Crawford,  a  dry- 
goods  merchant,  on  a  small  salary,  and  remained 
there  until  after  the  breaking  out  of  the  Rebellion, 
when  he  enlisted  in  Company  A  140th  Illinois 
Infantr)',  and  with  his  regiment  went  to  Dixon, 
where  for  a  short  time  they  were  in  camp,  and 
were  then  transferred  to  Camp  Butler,  at  Spring- 
field, where  several  weeks  were  spent  in  acquiring 
tactical  knowledge.  From  Springfield  the  regi- 
ment was  ordered  to  Memphis,  Tennessee,  where 
it  caanped  a  few  weeks,  and  was  then  sent  out  on 
the  line  of  the  INIemphis  &  Charleston  Railroad, 
where  the  summer  was  passed  in  guarding  the 
railroad.  Upon  being  relieved  of  this  duty  the 
regiment  returned  to  Memphis,  and  then  went  to 
Chicago,  where  it  remained  but  a  short  time,  go- 
ing thence  to  St.  Louis  and  out  into  Missouri  to 
tliwart  the  plans  of  General  Price,  who  was  f» 
route  to  capture  that  city.  Price  was  driven  from 
the  State,  and  by  the  work  of  the  troops  St.  Louis 
was  saved,  as  is  attested  by  General  Rosecrans. 


Returning  to  St.  Louis,  they  then  went  back  to 
Chicago  and  were  mustered  out  of  the  service. 

After  being  mustered  out  Mr.  Dillon  again  en- 
tered the  service,  and  was  detailed  on  special  duty 
under  Generals  Sheridan  and  Morrow,  in  Texas, 
with  the  army  of  observation  on  the  Rio  Grande. 
This  duty  being  performed  he  returned  to  Sterling 
and  resumed  civilian  life,  entering  into  a  partner- 
ship with  Charles  Smith,  and  conducting  a  mer- 
chandise business  under  the  firm  name  of  Smith 
&  Dillon,  which  was  continued  for  ten  years  with 
great  success.  In  1875  Mr.  Dillon  purchased  the 
interest  of  Judge  Golder  in  the  lumber  and  grain 
concern  of  Golder  &  Son,  and  has  since  devoted 
his  time  and  attention  to  that  business,  which  he 
has  greatly  enlarged  and  amplified.  He  has  no 
partners,  and  his  success  has  been  great.  His 
lumber  yard,  coal  yard  and  elevators  now  cover 
three  blocks  of  ground.  Mr.  Dillon  is  also  secre- 
tary of  the  Dillon  Milling  Compan)-  of  Rock  Falls, 
Illinois. 

]\Ir.  Dillon  is  one  of  the  prominent  members  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  in  1888 
was  commander  of  Will  Robinson  Post,  No.  174, 
of  Sterling.  During  his  incumbency  of  this  office 
he  originated  the  idea  of  erecting  at  Sterling  a 
monument  to  the  soldiers  who  fell  in  the  Civil 
war.  An  association  w-as  organized,  Mr.  Dillon 
being  elected  president,  and  the  sum  of  five  thou- 
sand dollars  was  raised  with  which  the  monument 
w-as  purchased.  The  dedication,  over  which  Mr. 
Dillon  presided,  was  one  of  the  events  in  the  city's 
history.  Mr.  Dillon  served  as  a  member  of  the 
stafT  of  the  commander-in-chief  when  General 
Warner  held  that  office. 

Our  subject  is  equally  active  in  the  affairs  of  the 


-^ 


REPRESEyTAriVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


201 


Odd  Fellows'  fraternity.  He  was  captain  of  Lin- 
coln Canton,  Xo.  22,  and  promoted  to  the  lieu- 
tenant-colonelcy of  the  Second  Regiment,  Patri- 
archs Alilitant.  He  is  at  the  present  time  colonel 
on  the  staff  of  Lieutenant  General  John  C.  Un- 
derwood. 

A  lover  of  travel  he  has  journeyed  over  much 
of  the  Union,  and  has  gathered  a  rare  and  valu- 
able collection  of  curios  during  his  various  travels. 

Mr.  Dillon  is  married  and  has  five  children,  two 
sons  and  three  daughters — two  of  the  latter  being 
married.    The  family  are  attendants  of  the  Presby- 


terian church,  of  which  ^Ir.  Dillon  has  for  seven- 
teen years  been  a  trustee.  The  family  residence, 
"Hawthomc  Villa,"  situated  on  the  western  out- 
skirts of  Sterling,  is  one  of  the  beautiful  homes 
of  the  city  and  a  truly  ideal  spot. 

ATr.  Dillon's  success  in  life  he  attributes  to 
the  influence  of  his  mother,  who  was  ever  in- 
stilling in  his  mind  the  principles  of  honor  and 
intcgrit)'.  To  this  may  be  added  his  own  in- 
domitable energy  and  the  close  and  assidu- 
ous attention  he  has  paid  to  the  minute  portions 
of  his  afifairs. 


ALLEN  WITHERS, 


I'.I.OOMINGTON. 


HISTORIC  Bloomington  has  been  the  home 
and  scene  of  labor  of  man\  men  who  have 
not  only  led  lives  that  should  serve  as  an  example 
to  those  who  come  after  them  but  have  also  been 
of  important  service  to  their  city  and  State 
through  various  avenues  of  usefulness.  Among 
them  must  be  named  Allen  Withers,  who  passed 
away  in  the  early  days  of  1864,  after  a  life  of 
industry,  and  rich  in  those  rare  possessions 
which  only  a  high  character  can  give.  For 
many  years  he  labored  with  all  the  strength  of 
a  great  nature  and  all  the  earnestness  of  a  tnie 
heart  for  the  bettering  of  the  world  about  him; 
and  when  he  was  called  to  the  rest  and  reward 
of  the  higher  world  his  best  monument  was  found 
in  the  love  and  respect  of  the  community  in  which 
he  lived  for  so  many  years. 

Mr.  Withers  was  bom  January  21,  1807,  on 
a  farm  in  Jessamine  county,  Kentucky,  about 
seven  miles  from  the  city  of  Nicholasville.  He 
came  of  Welsh-Irish  ancestry^  and  his  life-work 
shows  that  he  inherited  all  of  the  best  qualities 
of  those  strong  and  hardy  races.  His  early  life 
was  uneventful,  being  in  no  respect  different  from 
that  of  the  average  boy  of  that  day,  and  his  op- 
portunities for  education  were  very  meager.  Such 
as  they  were,  however,  he  improved  them;  and, 
bemg  naturally  of  a  studious  disixisition,  he  ac- 
quired a  substantial  education  in  the  English 
branches  of  study. 

.At  an  early  age  he  showed  a  marked  inclina- 


tion for  commercial  pursuits  and  a  great  love 
for  travel :  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  he  journeyed 
tlirough  the  .*^tatcs  of  Missouri  and  Indiana, — no 
small  undertaking  at  that  day.  On  this  trip  he 
transacted  some  business,  but  not  a  great 
deal,  as  his  object  was  to  obtain  amusement  and 
information  and  to  visit  friends  who  resided  in 
those  States.  During  the  journey  he  acquired  a 
large  fund  of  information  respecting  men  and  af- 
fairs, and  familiarized  himself  with  the  methods 
of  the  commercial  world. 

Entering  then  upon  his  business  career,  he  pur- 
chased horses  and  mules  in  Missouri  and  took 
them  to  Mexico,  where  he  sold  them;  and  yet  at 
this  time  he  was  but  a  youth !  For  two  years  he  re- 
mained in  that  country,  trading  with  the  Mexi- 
cans and  Indians,  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  both 
rhe  Spanish  and  Indian  dialects  that  enabled  him 
to  converse  fluently  in  either.  He  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  Indian  character  and  mode  of 
life,  becoming  a  great  favorite  with  them;  and 
it  is  to  be  regretted  that  his  experiences  in  that 
distant  land  have  not  been  preserved  in  perma- 
nent form,  for  they  would  undoubtedly  prove  a 
most  interesting  and  valuable  addition  to  our 
knowledge  of  that  people.  He  suffered  many 
hardships  and  privations,  being  frequently  obliged 
to  subsist  for  weeks  on  sugar!  Notwithstanding 
all  this,  he  made  but  little  money,  as  many  of  his 
horses  and  mules  went  astray  in  the  wild  Mexi- 
can  country. 


202 


BWanAPITirAL  nTCTWNAUY  AND  roRTRATT  CrALLKRY  OF  THE 


In  August,  1834,  he  came  to  Illirioij-',  to  which 
State  his  fatlier  had  removed  two  years  previ- 
ously, and  located  in  McLean  county.  During; 
the  ensuing  spring  he  entered  the  dry  goods  store 
of  M.  L.  Covel  as  a  clerk.  .Shortly  afterward  his 
father  bought  out  this  establishment,  and  with 
his  sons"  assistance  conducted  the  business. 

(As  a  matter  of  historic  interest  it  may  here  be 
mentioned  that  in  1837  our  subject  took  the  cen- 
sus of  Bloomington,  at  which  time  the  popula- 
licin  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  eighty 
persons.) 

In  the  fall  of  1837  Mr.  Withers'  brother-in-law 
paid  him  a  visit;  and  the  former,  desiring  to  make 
his  sojourn  pleasant,  endeavored  to  furnish  some 
of  the  luxuries  of  civilization,  and  hunted  over 
the  country  for  two  days  tn,'ing  to  find  some  but- 
ter, succeeded  in  obtaining  one  pound  of  the 
precious  substance!  It  is  impossible  to  realize 
at  the  present  time  what  discomforts  were  under- 
gone by  the  pioneer  settlers  of  the  great  West; 
and  the  above  is  but  an  instance  of  one  in  many. 

In  1837-8  Mr.  Withers  was  unfortunate  in 
business,  that  period  being  the  noted  "hard 
times"  consequent  upon  the  projection  of  so 
many  public  improvemets  beyond  the  financial 
ability  of  the  people,  and  in  the  spring  of  1839 
moved  to  Waterloo,  Clark  county,  Missouri,  and 
a  short  time  thereafter  to  Alexandria,  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi river,  a  village  that  was  laid  out  by  IMr. 
Withers'  brother  and  his  brother-in-law.  Dr. 
Mitchell.  Here  the  Doctor  conducted  a  store, 
in  which  Mr.  Withers  was  received  as  a  clerk. 
He  built  a  two-story  log  house  on  some  land 
given  him  by  his  brother-in-law,  and  his  wife 
kept  boarders,— at  times  as  many  as  ten, — in  or- 
der to  keep  his  head  above  water  in  his  struggle 
for  success.  After  eighteen  months  of  working 
and  saving  in  Alexandria  Mr.  Withers  was  ena- 
bled to  purchase  eighty  acres  of  land  in  Waterloo, 
at  twenty  cents  an  acre,  and  there  he  built  for 
himself  a  home,  which  he  afterward  sold  for  six 
hundred  dollars. 

In  1847,  ^t  his  father's  earnest  request,  he  re- 
turned to  Pdoomington  and  entered  the  dry  goods 
business  with  William  H.  Temple;  but  he  did 
not  continue  in  this  line  very  long.  Selling  out, 
he  engaged  in  the  hardware  trade  for  three  years. 
Later  he  disposed  of  that  business  and  rejoined 


Mr.  Temple  in  the  dry  goods  trade ;  but  not  long 
afterward  he  again  gave  up  this  vocation  and  be- 
gan trading  in  stock  and  cultivating  a  fine  farm 
of  three  hundred  acres  which  he  owned,  situated 
about  three  miles  from  Bloomington.  Here  he 
was  successful,  and  had  just  purchased  a  charm- 
ing home  in  the  city  of  Bloomington  when  he 
was  seized  with  a  congestive  chill;  and  in  spite 
of  the  best  medical  skill  obtainable,  and  the  ten- 
der ministrations  of  a  loving  and  devoted  wife, 
he  passed  away,  on  the  3d  of  March,  1864, 
mourned  by  all  who  knew  him,  honored  by  all 
who  love  justice  and  integrity,  and  secure  in  a 
fame  that  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  city  of 
Bloomington. 

Tile  suddenness  of  the  blow  to  Mrs.  Withers — 
whose  maiden  name  was  Sarah  B.  Rice  and  whom 
he  man"ied  May2, 1835 — \vas  a  most  severe  shock. 
For  nearly  thirty  years  she  had  been  the  sharer 
of  his  joys  and  sorrows,  his  successes  and  his 
trials.  He  had  known  her  in  early  youth,  and 
after  their  marriage  she  had,  with  all  the  fidelity 
of  a  true  woman,  accepted  with  her  husband  the 
liardships  of  a  Western  home.  During  all  this 
time  she  had  been  his  close  companion;  her 
sympathy  nerved  his  arm  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties;  her  smile  brightened  his  future  prospects. 
It  was  no  common  loss  she  was  called  upon  to 
bear.  The  home  he  had  purchased  she  still  oc- 
cupies, and  here,  surrounded  by  the  hallowed 
recollections  of  him  who  has  preceded  her  across 
the  dark  river,  she  cherishes  and  reveres  his  mem- 
ory with  a  love  that  time  cannot  efiface. 

Airs.  Withers  donated  the  lot,  and  was  a  large 
money  contributor,  toward  the  erection  of  the 
Withers  library  in  Bloomington,  which  stands  as 
a  memorial  to  her  husband. 

In  personal  appearance  Mr.  Withers  was  a 
man  of  fine  physique,  six  feet  two  inches  in  height 
and  possessing  more  than  an  ordinary  intellect. 
He  was  domestic  in  his  tastes  and  habits  and  loved 
his  home  with  a  loyal  devotion.  A  great  reader 
and  a  close  student,  he  was  thouroughly  familiar 
with  all  the  branches  of  study  and  was  a  man  of 
V.  ide  and  varied  information. 

In  his  political  principles  he  was  a  warm  par- 
tisan, but  his  dignity,  kindness  and  good  feeling 
preserved  for  him  the  friendship  of  all  parties. 
His  popularity  was  shown  very  clearly  when  he 


REPIiESEXTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATE-'^:  U.LIXOIS  VOLUME. 


203 


was  nominated,  against  liis  will,  as  a  candidate 
for  the  legislature.  The  county  ordinarily  gave 
a  Republican  majority  of  six  hundred  votes,  and 
Mr.  Withers,  as  a  Democrat,  was  defeated  by 
the  small  majority  of  seven! 

He  was  a  thoroughly  self-made  man,  and  at 
his  death  left  large  possessions,  all  of  which  he 
had  acquired  by  his  own  exertions.  Though  he 
had  met  with  misfortunes,  he  did  not  allow  them 
to  break  him  down,  for  he  believed  that  defeat 
was  but  the  step  to  something  better. 

To  the  city  of  Bloomington  he  was  a  loyal 
friend  and  one  of  her  foremost  citizens.  Modest 
in  disposition,  his  influence  was  never  inspired 
by  a  sense  of  personal  ambition.  There  is  noth- 
ing in  the  story  of  his  life  to  show  that  he 
ever  for  a  moment  sought  to  compass  a  given 
end  for  the  purpose  of  exalting  or  advancing 
Iiimself.  He  championed  measures  and  aided 
men,  and  accepted  as  his  reward  that  thrill  of 
deligiit  which  always  accomjiany  victories 
achieved. 

In  daily  life  and  action  he  was  ever  genial  and 
affable.  He  never  courted  w-ealth.  Intelligence 
and  goodness,  and  these  alone,  were  his  tests  of 
merit.  Neither  wealth  nor  power  could  make 
him  oblivious  to  principles  of  right  or  duty.  In 
the  highest  and  best  sense  of  the  term  he  was 
ever  and  essentially  a  gentleman,  and  those  of 
.lis  old  friends  who  survive  bear  witness  to  his 
more  than  ordinary  kindness.  He  enjoyed  the 
pi)l)ularity  which  comes  to  those  generous  spirits 
who  have  a  hearty  shake  of  the  hand  for  all  those 
witii  whom  tbey  come  in  contact  from  day  to 
day,  and  who  seem  to  throw  around  them  in  con- 
sequence so  much  of  the  sunshine  of  life. 


It  is  but  just  and  merited  praise  tn  sav  of  Mr. 
Withers  that  in  the  business  world  he  ranked 
with  the  ablest;  as  a  citizen  he  was  honorable, 
]irompt  and  true  to  every  engagement;  as  a  man 
he  held  the  honor  and  esteem  of  all  classes  of 
citizens,  of  all  creeds  and  political  proclivities; 
as  a  husband  he  was  a  model  worthy  of  all  imi- 
tation. Hewasamanof  the  times,  broad-minded, 
public-spirited  and  progressive.  His  influence 
was  great  and  always  for  the  good.  His  sym- 
pathy, his  benevolence,  his  kindly  greetings,  will 
long  be  remembered.  His  duties  were  performed 
with  the  greatest  care,  and  throughout  his  life 
his  personal  honor  and  integrity  were  without 
blemish.  His  home  was  beautiful  and  exemplary. 
Ardent  and  constant  in  his  affections,  he  was  a 
most  tenderly  devoted  husband.  To  him  there 
was  truly  "no  place  like  home,"  and  he  found  his 
greatest  enjoyment  in  the  companionship  of  his 
wife. 

Allen  Withers  was  one  of  Nature's  no1)lemen, 
and  the  world  is  better  for  his  having  lived. 
Standing  under  the  light  and  life  of  a  character 
like  this,  and  viewing  the  ground  in  which  they 
had  germinated  and  on  which  they  grcw%  one 
cannot  but  feel  that  the  best  type  of  manhood  are 
created  and  developed  on  this  American  soil,  and 
that  what  one  has  done  worthily  another  may 
attempt. 

Viewed  thus,  the  work  of  Allen  Withers  is  not 
yet  done,  but  out  of  the  past  his  memory  arises 
in  grand  proportions  and  stands  as  an  example 
and  incentive  to  the  youth  of  the  generation?  that 
are  to  come. 

"Ihere  was,  there  is,  no  gentler,  kinder,  man- 
lier man." 


DR.  VINCENT  C.  PRICE, 


CHICAGO. 


IN  studying  the  lives  and  character  of  prominent 
men,  we  are  naturally  led  to  inquire  into  the 
secret  of  their  success  and  the  motives  that 
prompted  their  action.  Success  is  a  question  of 
genius,  as  held  by  many;  but  is  it  not  rather  a 
matter  of  experience  and  sound  judgment?  for 
w  hen  we  trace  the  career  of  those  who  stand  high- 
est in  public  esteem,  we  find  in  nearly  every  case 


that  there  are  those  who  have  risen  gradually, 
fighting  their  way  in  the  face  of  all  opposition. 
Self-reliance,  conscientiousness,  energy,  honesty 
— these  are  the  traits  of  character  that  insure  the 
highest  emoluments  and  greatest  success.  To 
these  may  we  attribute  the  success  that  has 
crowned  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Price. 

Dr.  Price  began  his  education  in  Trov,  New 


204 


BIOORAPIflCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


York,  and  afterward  attended  a  leading  eastern 
medical  college,  at  which  he  was  graduated  in 
1856,  with  the  degree  of  M.  D.  He  then  took  a 
course  in  phamiacy  and  chemistry  and  received 
the  degree  of  Pharmaceutical  Chemist.  Wishing 
for  the  broader  fields  of  the  West  with  its  unlim- 
ited opportunities,  in  1861  he  moved  to  Wauke- 
gan,  Illinois,  and  began  the  practice  of  medicine, 
which  he  successfully  followed,  his  patronage  be- 
ing verv  extensive.  He  is  a  born  student  and 
everything  he  comes  in  contact  with  he  investi- 
gates. He  is  a  man  of  deep  research,  seeking 
for  the  essence  and  cause  of  things,  and  from  early 
life  the  science  of  chemistry  greatly  attracted  him, 
and  the  laborator\-  of  his  alma  mater  was  one  of 
his  chief  sources  of  delight.  There  he  would 
experiment,  delving  deeply  into  the  mysteries  and 
ferreting  out  the  secrets  of  nature. 

Dr.  Price  is  probably  best  known  as  the  pioneer 
liianufacturer  of  baking  powder,  and  through  his 
invention  of  what  is  called  Dr.  Price's  Cream  Bak- 
ing Powder.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  desire 
to  secure  something  edible  for  his  mother,  who 
was  an  invalid,  led  to  his  discovery.  She 
was  a  dyspeptic  and  being  unable  to  eat  all  kinds 
of  food  the  Doctor  began  experimenting  in  order 
to  secure  something  which  would  not  be  injurious 
to  her,  and  his  baking  powder  is  the  result.  It 
was  in  1853  that  the  first  cream-of-tartar  powder 
was  ever  made,  but  some  years  had  elapsed  be- 
fore he  placed  it  on  the  market.  He  had  no 
capital  with  which  to  manufacture  his  goods  and 
in  consequence  went  to  Waukegan,  Illinois, 
where  during  the  five  years  of  successful  practice 
he  accumulated  sufficient  capital  with  which  to 
manufacture  his  powder.  It  was  first  made  and 
sold  by  ounces,  but  to-day  it  is  manufactured  by 
tons,  and  in  these  few  words  lives  the  histor)'  of 
the  success  of  what  is  now  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant industries  in  the  world. 

Dr.  Price  began  manufacturing  baking  powder 
on  Lake  street  in  Chicago,  near  Market  street, 
and  there  continued  for  two  years,  when  the  great 
fire  of  1871  destroyed  his  plant.  Not  discour- 
aged by  this  loss  he  again  started  in  business  at 
Nos.  47  and  49  Lake  street,  where  he  remained 
for  two  years,  when  the  constantly  increasing 
volume  of  his  trade  demanded  more  commodious 
quarters    and     he    removed     to     South     Water 


street,  occupying  a  very  large  building  there, 
with  commodious  offices  and  a  large  labo- 
ratory and  shipping  rooms.  The  Price  Bak- 
ing Powder  Company  became  a  landmark 
in  the  manufacturing  district,  just  north  of  the 
river.  In  the  meantime  the  Doctor  was  asso- 
ciated with  a  partner,  but  in  February,  1884,  he 
bought  his  partner's  interests  and  formed  a  joint 
stock  company  with  a  capital  of  $500,000,  of 
which  he  was  made  president  and  treasurer  and 
his  son,  R.  C.  Price,  secretary.  Thus  from  a 
small  and  insignificant  beginning  steadily  grew 
and  developed  an  industry  that  ranks  among  the 
first  in  size  and  importance  in  this  country.  In 
order  to  better  facilitate  his  interests  and  furnish 
more  direct  communication  with  quarters  from 
which  his  patronage  cajne — and  it  came  from  all 
parts  of  the  country — he  established  a  branch  of- 
fice for  the  East  in  New  York  city,  in  the  West 
at  San  Francisco,  and  in  the  southern  central 
portion  at  St.  Louis,  while  the  Chicago  office  sup- 
plies the  Northern  trade.  In  1891  the  sale  of  the 
baking  powder  alone  amounted  to  more  than 
$1,000,000.  In  addition  to  its  manufacture  Dr. 
Price  had  also  begun  the  manufacture  of  flavoring 
extracts.  Chemical  investigation  and  experience 
and  deep  research  along  this  line  had  given  to  the 
Avorld  in  flavoring  extracts  that  which  is  equal  in 
quality  to  his  baking  powder,  and  this  feature  of 
his  business  has  gradually  assumed  great  promi- 
nence and  added  to  his  name  new  fame  commen- 
surate with  that  conferred  upon  him  when  his  first 
discovery  became  known.  His  manufactures  are 
in  millions  of  homes  throughout  the  land. 

At  length  the  Doctor  concluded  to  sell  the 
baking  powder  business  and  give  more  of  his  at- 
tention to  the  manufacture  of  the  extracts.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  1 89 1,  he  sold  his  business,  realizing 
the  sum  of  $1,500,000,  and  the  Price  Flavoring 
Extract  Company  was  organized,  with  Dr.  Price 
as  president,  R.  C.  Price  vice-president,  and  A.  C. 
Fischer  secretary.  The  fine  offices  and  labora- 
tory of  his  company  are  located  at  the  south- 
west corner  of  Illinois  and  Cass  streets. 

Though  the  Doctor  has  now  become  a  million- 
aire, ht  is  yet  a  busy  man  and  gives  much  of  his 
personal  attention  to  his  manufacturing  interests. 
LTntiring  in  whatever  he  undertakes  he  has  been 
ceaseless  in  his  efforts  to  succeed,  and  in  his  spe- 


REPnESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


205 


cial  lines  he  has  led  the  manufacturers  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  and  both  his  baking  powder  and  ex- 
tracts are  known  wherever  such  commodities  are 
used.  In  addition  to  his  business  along  this  line 
he  is  president  of  the  Lincoln  National  Bank  and 
the  Pan-Confection  Company. 

Dr.  Price  was  married  in  March,  1855,  to  Miss 
Harriet  White,  the  beautiful  and  estimable  daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  R.  J.  \Miite,  of  Buffalo,  New  York. 
They  have  five  children.  R.  C,  born  January 
13,  1856,  was  educated  in  Beloit  College  and  Har- 
vard University  and  is  now  vice-president  of  the 
Price  Flavoring  and  Extract  Company.  Guerdon, 
who  graduated  from  the  Racine  College  and  was 
his  father's  assistant  in  business,  was  accidentalls* 
shot  and  killed  by  a  guide  while  on  a  hunting  trip 
in  November,  1891.  Vincent  L.,  born  in  1872, 
is  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  and  secretary  of  tht 
Pan-Confection  Company.  Ida,  who  graduated 
from  Kemper  Hall  and  is  now  one  of  the  literary 
writers  of  the  Woman's  Club,  married  A.  C. 
Fischer,  secretar\^  of  the  Price  Flavoring  Com- 
pany. Emma,  who  graduated  from  a  young 
ladies'  seminary  in  Buffalo,  New  York,  is  the  wife 
Oi  J.  F.  Hollingsworth.  Mrs.  Price  is  a  promi- 
nent and  influential  member  of  the  Art  Institute 
and  possesses  artistic  ability  of  a  high  order.  The 
home  of  the   Doctor  and   his   estimable   wife   is 


marked  by  evidences  of  cultured  and  refined  taste, 
and  that  the  family  find  great  pleasure  in  the 
world  of  literature  is  shown  by  the  fine  library, 
containing  three  thousand  standard  w'orks.  Both 
the  Doctor  and  Mrs.  Price  are  liberal  supporters 
of  the  Episcopal  Church.  He  is  also  an  es- 
teemed member  of  Washington  Park  Cub  and 
the  Union  League  Club. 

In  manner  Dr.  Price  is  social  and  genial.  He  is 
the  center  of  a  circle  of  friends  who  honor  and  es- 
teem him  for  his  many  manly  virtues  and  genuine 
worth.  He  is  generous  almost  to  a  fault  and  is 
ever  willing  to  assist  and  aid  those  less  fortunate 
in  life,  and  to  the  poor  and  needy  he  lends  a  help- 
ing hand.  His  prosperity  cannot  be  attributed 
to  a  combination  of  lucky  circumstances,  but  has 
risen  from  energy,  enterprise,  integrity  and  intel- 
lectual effort  well  directed.  His  business  has 
ever  been  conducted  on  the  strictest  principles  of 
honesty.  The  business  of  the  world  is  becoming 
more  and  more  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the 
master  minds  of  commerce,  and  a  business  now- 
adays is  nothing  if  not  gigantic.  Among  the  ex- 
tensive industries  of  the  world  is  that  which  was 
established  by  Dr.  Price,  and  the  owner  is  a  worthy 
representative  of  that  type  of  American  character, 
that  progressive  spirit,  which  promote  public 
good  in  advancing  mdividual  prosperit)'. 


REUBEN  MOORE  BENJAMIN, 


BLOOMINGTON. 


REUBEN  MOORE  BENJAMIN,  the  young- 
est son  of  Darius  and  Martha  (Rogers)  Ben- 
jamin, was  born  at  Chatham  Centre,  Columbia 
county.  New  York,  June  29,  1833.  His  father  was 
a  private  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  his  grandfather, 
Fbenezer  Benjamin,  was  a  captain  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary war.  His  father  and  his  maternal  grand- 
father, Timothy  Rogers,  were  of  English,  while 
his  maternal  grandmother,  Sarah  (Moore)  Rogers, 
was  of  Welsh  extraction.  His  ancestors  on  both 
sides  lived  in  Connecticut  in  the  Colonial  times. 
Reuben  worked  on  his  father's  farm  until  he  was 
fourteen  years  old,  attended  Kinderhook  Acad- 
emy, New  York,  two  years,  and  then  entered 
Amherst  College,  Massachusetts,  and  was  gradu- 


ated in  1853  with  the  third  honor  of  his  class.  He 
was  principal  of  Hopkins  .Academy,  at  Hadley, 
Massachusetts,  one  year,  attended  the  law  school 
of  Harvard  University  one  year,  and  was  tutor  in 
Amherst  College  in  1855-6.  In  April,  1856,  he 
came  to  Bloomington,  Illincis,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing September,  upon  the  examination  certificate 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  licensed  to  practice  law-. 
Shortly  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  became 
a  partner  with  General  A.  Gridley  and  Colonel 
J.  H.  Wickizer,  and  remained  with  them  as  long 
as  they  continued  to  practice  law.  In  1863  he 
formed  a  ])artnership  with  Thomas  F.  Tipton, 
afterward  circuit  judge  and  member  of  Congress; 
and  since  then,  at  different  times,  he  has  been 


206 


lUOnPiAPIITaAL  niCTTONARY  AND  POIlTRArT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


associated  as  partner  with  Jonatlian  TT.  Rowell, 
member  of  Congress  for  several  terms,  and  Law- 
rence Weldon,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  United 
States  court  of  claims.  In  I'iGg  he  was  elected  a 
delegate  to  the  convention  that  framed  the  State 
constitution  of  1870,  and  served  on  the  important 
committees  of  bill  of  rights,  municipal  corpora- 
tions, State  institutions,  and  schedule.  The  bill 
of  rights  (Article  II),  as  drafted  by  him,  was 
adopted  by  the  full  committee  and  the  conven- 
tion with  but  a  single  change.  He  introduced 
and  caused  to  be  incorporated  into  that  article 
the  far-reaching  provision  that  "no  law  *  *  * 
making  any  irrevocable  grant  of  special  privileges 
or  immunities  shall  be  passed."  His  remarks  in 
the  convention  in  support  of  a  provision  for  the 
legislative  regulation  of  the  charges  of  railroad 
corporations  and  the  prevention  of  unjust  dis- 
crimination and  extortion  were  highly  compli- 
mented by  his  co-laborers,  and  copied  in  full  by 
the  leadng  papers  of  the  State.  (Debates  of  Con- 
stitutional Convention  Vol.  2,  p.  1641.) 

He  was  one  of  the  counsel  for  the  people  in 
the  celebrated  Lexington  case  (Chicago  &  Alton 
Railroad  company  v.  People,  67  111.,  11),  a  case  in- 
volving the  question  as  to  the  right  of  railroad 
corporations  to  charge  more  for  a  less  than  for  a 
greater  distance  on  the  same  line  and  in  the  same 
direction.  He  was  subsequently  employed  as 
special  counsel  for  the  State  board  of  railroad  and 
warehouse  commissioners,  and  assisted  the  at- 
torney general  in  the  prosecution  of  the  warehouse 
case  (Munn  v.  People,  69  111.,  80),  which  was  taken 
to  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  and, 
being  there  affirmed  (Munn  v.  Illinois  94  U.  S., 
113),  became  the  leading  case  in  the  series  fa- 
miliarly known  in  1876  as  the  "Granger  Cases." 
These  cases  established  the  constitutional  power 
of  the  legislature  to  regulate  railroad  and  ware- 
house charges  and  thereby  protect  the  public 
against  imposition.  In  a  later  case  (Ruggles  v. 
People,  91  111.,  256),  decided  in  1878,  the  supreme 
court  of  this  State  declared  broadly  that  the  legis- 
lature has  the  power  to  fix  the  maximum  rates  of 
charges  by  corporations  or  individuals  exercising 
a  calling  or  business  public  in  its  character,  or  in 
which  the  public  have  an  interest  to  be  protected 
against  extortion  or  oppression.  In  commenting 
on  this  case  the  Western  Jurist  says:  "It  is  prob- 


able that  the  people  of  the  State  are  indebted  for 
the  results  of  this  agitation  as  given  in  the  above 
decision  to  Hon.  R.  M.  Benjamin,  of  Blooming- 
ton  in  a  greater  degree  than  to  any  other  single 
indivitlual.  As  a  member  of  the  constitutional 
convention,  he  made  the  clearest  and  most  con- 
vincing argument  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  the 
people  which  was  delivered  in  that  body,  and  as 
special  counsel  for  the  people  in  the  cases  of  the 
Chicago  &  Alton  Railroad  Company  v.  People, 
and  Munn  v.  People,  has  very  materially  con- 
tributed in  establishing  the  principle  contended 
for  by  him  before  the  convention  and  established 
in  the  above  cases." 

The  "Granger  Cases"  have  been  repeatedly 
followed  b}'  the  supreme  covul  of  the  L'nited 
States:  Budd  v.  New  York  (1891),  143  V.  S.,  517; 
Brass  v.  North  Dakota  (1893),  153  U.  S.,  391. 

In  1873  Mr.  Benjamin  was  elected  without  op- 
position to  the  ofSce  of  county  judge  of  McLean 
county.  He  was  re-elected  in  1877  and  also  in 
1882.  His  judicial  aptitude,  the  soundness  of  his 
decisions  and  the  quiet  ease  with  which  he  dis- 
patched business  won  and  held  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  the  bar  and  of  the  people.  He  pre- 
ferred not  to  be  a  candidate  again  for  the  office 
and  accordingly  retired  from  the  bench  at  the 
close  of  his  third  term,  in  December,  1886. 
.Shortly  afterward  he  resumed  his  law  practice  in 
partnership  with  Mr.  John  J.  Morrissey. 

LTpon  the  organization  of  the  few  department 
of  the  Illinois  Wesleyan  University  (known  as  the 
Bloomington  Law  School),  in  1874,  Judge  Ben- 
jamin was  appointed  dean  of  the  law  faculty.  He 
is  still  connected  with  the  law  school,  having 
charge  of  the  subjects  of  real  property  and  crim- 
inal law.  He  has  published  the  following  works: 
"Students'  Guide  to  Elementary  Law,"  "Principles 
of  the  Law  of  Contract"  and  "Principles  of  the 
Law  of  Sale,"  which  are  used  in  several  of  the 
leading  law  schools  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Benjamin  was  married  at  Chatham,  New 
York,  September  15,  1856,  to  Miss  Laura,  daugh- 
ter of  Mr.  David  G.  Woodin,  who  for  many  years 
was  county  superintendent  of  schools  of  Colum- 
bia county,  New  York. 

Probably  the  part  that  Judge  Benjamin  took 
in  the  constitutional  convention  had  a  more  di- 
rectly beneficial  effect  upon  the  citizens  of  Illinois 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME 


201 


than  anv  other  of  his  acts;  and  tlie  arguments  he 
brought  to  bear  before  that  body,  in  behalf  of  the 
people  to  prevent  railroad  corporations  from  un- 
justly discriminating  against  any  section  of  the 
State  or  against  any  citizen,  displayed  such  a 
deep  knowledge  of  corporation  law,  and  have 
had  such  an  important  bearing  upon  the  con- 
struction of  law  affecting  corporations  through- 
cut  the  nation,  that  we  herewith  reproduce  in  full 
tlie  speech  to  which  reference  has  previously  been 
made  (Debates  of  Constitutional  Convention,  \'ol. 
2,  p.  1641): 

Mr.  Chairman: — Corporations,  and  especially 
railroad  corporations,  have  within  the  last  few 
Years  assumed  and  exercised  poweis  incompatible 
with  the  public  welfare;  and  perhaps  there  is 
no  danger  so  much  to  be  apprehended,  and  if 
possible  guarded  against  by  the  people  of  this 
State  as  that  which  has  its  source  in  the  construc- 
tion placed  by  the  courts  upon  what  are  called 
legislative,  or  charter,  contracts.  In  theory,  rail- 
road corporations  are  created  for  the  public  good. 
In  practice,  they  become  oppressive  by  being 
allowed,  under  the  claim  of  charter  contracts,  to 
ti.K  their  rates  of  toll  for  the  transportation  of  per- 
sons and  property. 

Whenever  the  public  interests  demand  the  con- 
struction of  a  railroad,  the  legislature,  without  any 
hesitancy,  authorizes  the  corporation  to  take 
private  property — the  very  homestead —  for  that 
pur])ose.  Whenever  the  same  public  interests  re- 
c|uire  a  limitation  of  the  rates  of  railroad  charges 
the  plea  is  set  up  that  the  legislature  has  no  power, 
wliatever,  to  act  upon  the  matter.  Tlie  ])rinciple 
of  public  benefit,  when  invoked  in  aid  of  a  railroad, 
is  all-powerful.  The  same  principle,  when  ap- 
pealed to  for  the  protection  of  the  people  against 
imposition  and  extortion,  has  hitherto  been  held 
to  be  utterly  powerless.  The  interest  of  individu- 
als must  yield  to  that  of  the  public.  The  interest 
(if  tlie  public  has  been  declared  to  be  subordinate 
to  that  of  railroad  corporations.  And  when  we 
ask  for  the  reason  of  this  distinction  between  in- 
dividual rights  and  corporate  rights — when  we  ask 
why  it  is  that  public  interests,  although  paramount 
to  individual  interests,  must  succumb  to  coqiorate 
interests —  we  are  told  that  the  legislature  has 
made  contracts  whereby  it  has  abdicated  in  favor 
of  corporations  the  governmental  powers  in- 
trusted to  it  by  the  sovereign  people.  I  say  gov- 
ernmental powers,  because  in  the  absence  of  a 
charter  contract,  the  power  of  the  legislature  to 
regulate  and  limit  the  tolls  which  the  owners  of 
a  railroad  may  lawfully  take,  is  unquestionable. 

The  statutes  of  the  several  States  afford  num- 
berless instances  of  legislative  limitation  of  the 


tolls  of  ferry,  bridge,  plank-road,  and  turnpike 
companies.  The  ordinances  of  the  larger  cities  of 
this  country  limit  the  charges  of  hack,  omnibus 
and  dray  lines.  The  statutes  of  our  own  State 
not  only  provide  for  the  condemnation  of  private 
property  for  the  sites  of  gristmills  but  also  limit 
the  amount  of  tolls  to  be  taken  for  grinding  at 
these  mills.  In  some  of  the  States,  the  charges  of 
innkeepers  and  the  fees  of  professional  men,  and 
in  nearly  all  of  the  States  the  rates  of  interest 
which  money-lenders  and  bank  coiporations  may 
lawfully  take,  are  regulated  and  limited  by  legis- 
lative enactment.  The  power  to  make  these  laws, 
and  a  multitude  of  others  of  like  character,  rests 
on  the  right  and  duty  of  the  legislature  to  protect 
tlie  people  by  statutory  regulations  against  impo- 
sition and  extortion. 

Upon  authority  and  principle  it  may  be  safely 
asserted  that,  in  the  alasence  of  charter  contracts 
to  the  contrary,  the  legislature  may  from  time  to 
time  regulate  and  limit  the  tolls  which  railroad 
companies  may  lawfully  take,  in  the  same  manner 
as  tlie  legislature  may  limit  the  tolls  to  be  taken  by 
fcrr>',  bridge,  plank-road  and  turnpike  companies; 
in  the  same  manner  as  municipal  authorities  may 
regulate  and  limit  the  charges  of  hack,  omnibus 
and  drav  lines;  in  the  same  manner  as  the  tolls  at 
gristmills,  the  charges  of  innkeepers,  the  fees  of 
professional  men,  and  interest  on  loaned  money 
may  be  regulated  and  limited.  These  are  govern- 
mental powers;  and  by  the  term  "governmental," 
I  here  mean  not  judicial  but  legislative  pow-ers. 
To  declare  what  the  law  is,  or  has  been,  is  a  ju- 
dicial power;  to  declare  whaf  the  law  shall  be,  is 
legislative.  The  law  is  applied  by  the  judicial  de- 
partment, and  made  by  the  legislative.  It  is  both 
the  right  and  the  duty  of  the  legislature  not  to 
await  the  action  of  the  judiciary,  where  the  com- 
mon law  has  furnished  no  adequate  remedies  for 
existing  evils,  but  to  take  the  initiative  and  place 
limitations  upon  tolls  and  charges,  and  fees  and 
interest,  whenever  such  limitations  are  essential 
to  the  public  good;  provided,  always,  that  the  leg- 
islature has  not  bartered  away,  absolutely  beyond 
recall,  to  extortioners,  the  governmental  powers 
whereby  it  might  otherwise  jsrotect  the  people 
against  their  impositions.  And  this  brings  us  di- 
rectlv  to  the  question,  whether  or  not  the  govem- 
mental  powers  entrusted  to  the  legislature,  to  be 
exercised  for  the  public  good,  as  occasion  may 
require,  are  the  subject  matter  of  contract,  of  mere 
bargain  and  sale. 

The  following  provision  was  incorporated  in 
the  constitution  of  1818,  and  retained  in  that  of 
1848: 

The  powers  of  the  government  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  shall  be  divided  into  three  distinct  depart- 
ments, and  each  of  them  be  confided  to  a  separate 


208 


nrocnAi'iiicAL  nif'TrnN.\nr  and  ponrrtAir  (iai.leuy  of  the 


body  of  magistracy,  to-wit:  those  which  are  legis- 
lative to  one;  those  which  are  executive  to  an- 
other; and  those  which  are  judicial  to  another. — 
Constitution  of  1848,  article  2,  section  i. 

I  maintain  that  under  this  constitutional  pro- 
vision, which  has  Ijcen  in  force  ever  since  this  State 
was  org-anized,  the  legislature  has  had  no  power 
as  a  party  to  make  a  contract,  the  effect  of  which 
would  be  to  control  or  embarrass  its  govern- 
mental powers  and  duties.  To  hold  otherwise  is 
to  affirm  that  the  legislature  may  abdicate  the 
authority  and  relieve  itself  of  the  responsibility 
conferred  and  imposed  upon  this  department  of 
the  government  by  the  sovereign  people  of  the 
State. 

"The  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  grateful  to 
Almighty  God  for  civil,  political  and  religious 
liberty  confided" — that  is  the  word —  confided  to 
the  general  assembly  those  powers  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  State,  which  are  legislative — for 
what  purpose?  "In  order  to  promote  the  general 
welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
themselves  and  their  posterity."  At  the  same  time 
they  declared  in  the  bill  of  rights  that  "all  power 
is  inherent  in  the  people,  and  all  free  governments 
are  founded  on  their  authority  and  instituted  for 
their  peace,  safety  and  happiness."  The  legisla- 
ture of  a  State  is  in  no  just  sense  the  sovereign  of 
the  State,  for  sovereignty  is  the  parent,  not  the 
offspring,  of  government.  The  sovereignty  be- 
longs to  the  people  of  the  State  in  their  original 
character  as  an  independent  community.  All  po- 
litical power  is  inherent — remains  in  the  people. 
In  the  language  of  Chief  Justice  Taney : 

"The  powers  of  sovereignty  confided  to  the  leg- 
islative body  of  a  State  are  undoubtedly  a  trust 
conmiitted  to  them,  to  be  executed  to  the  best  of 
their  judgment  for  the  public  good;  and  no  one 
legislature  can,  by  its  own  act,  disarm  their  suc- 
cessors of  any  of  the  powers  or  rights  of  sov- 
ereignty confided  by  the  people  to  the  legislative 
body  unless  they  are  authorized  to  do  so  by  the 
constitution  under  which  they  are  elected.  *  *  * 
And  in  every  controversy  on  this  subject,  the 
question  must  depend  on  the  constitution  of  the 
State,  and  the  extent  of  the  power  thereby  con- 
ferred on  the  legislative  body." — Ohio  Life  Insur- 
ance and  Trust  Company  v.  Debolt,  16  Howard, 

431- 

The  power  to  regulate  the  reciprocal  rights  and 
duties  of  common  carriers  and  private  citizens 
who  may  desire  to  travel  upon  highways  con- 
structed for  the  public  use,  is,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
governmental  power — one  of  the  attributes  of 
sovereignty  confided  to  the  legislature  to  be  ex- 
ercised for  the  public  good.  And  where  is  the 
provision  of  our  State  constitution  which  author- 
izes one  legislature  to  disarm  a  succeeding  legis- 


lature of  this  power,  the  proper  exercise  of  which 
we  have  been  taught  by  sad  experience  is  so  es- 
sential to  the  protection  of  the  traveling  public? 

In  another  case.  Justice  Woodbury  says: 

"One  of  the  highest  attributes  and  duties  of  a 
legislature  is  to  regulate  puljlic  matters  with  all 
public  bodies,  no  less  than  the  community,  from 
time  to  time,  in  the  manner  which  the  public  wel- 
fare may  appear  to  demand.  It  can  neither  de- 
volve these  duties  permanently  on  other  public 
bodies,  nor  permanently  suspend  or  abandon  them 
itself,  without  being  usually  regarded  as  unfaith- 
ful, and,  indeed,  attempting  what  is  wholly  beyond 
its  constitutional  competency." — East  Hartford  v. 
Hartford  Bridge  Company,  10  Howard,  534. 

Now,  whether  railroad  corporations  are  to  be 
regarded  as  quasi-public  bodies,  or  as  private 
bodies,  forming  a  portion  of  the  community,  I 
maintain  that  the  regulation  of  rates  of  toll  for 
the  conveyance  of  persons  and  property  upon  rail- 
roads— the  public  highways — as  the  public  wel- 
fare may  demand,  is  a  legislative  duty,  the  per- 
manent suspension  or  abandonment  of  which  is 
wholly  beyond  the  constitutional  competency  of 
the  legislature.  Moreover,  a  grant  by  a  public 
agent  bound  in  the  most  solemn  manner  not  to 
throw  away  the  governmental  interest  confided 
to  it,  is  different  from  a  grant  by  an  individual  who 
is  master  of  the  subject.  The  corporation  which 
accepts  from  the  legislature  exemption  from  gov- 
ernmental control,  knowing  that  it  is  dealing  with 
an  agent  bound  by  duty  not  to  impair  a  public 
right,  does  so  at  its  peril.  Nay,  more;  the  cor- 
poration which  accepts  from  the  legislature  a 
grant  of  any  essential  attril)ute  of  sovereignty, 
should  be  treated  both  in  morals  and  in  law  as  a 
party  to  a  fraud  upon  the  inherent  rights  of  the 
people. 

The  same  constitutional  provision  confides  leg- 
islative powers  to  one  body,  executive  powers  to 
another,  and  judicial  powers  to  another.  If  leg- 
islative powers  may  be  disposed  of  by  contract, 
why  may  not  executive  and  judicial  powers  be 
sold?  We  all  recognize  the  principle  that  execu- 
tive and  judicial  powers  are  entrusted  to  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  judges  to  be  exercised  by  them 
while  in  office,  and  then  turned  over  unimpaired 
to  their  successors.  I  believe  that  the  day  is  not 
far  distant  when  the  courts  of  this  country  will 
settle  down  on  the  firm  fundamental  principle  that 
no  department  of  government,  be  it  legislative,  ex- 
ecutive, or  judicial,  can  abandon,  diminish  or  bar- 
gain away,  for  any  consideration,  or  upon  any 
pretense  whatever,  the  governmental  powers  en- 
trusted to  it  by  the  sovereign  people,  to  be  ex- 
ercised for  the  promotion  of  the  general  welfare. 

When  the  people  of  this  State,  in  1818,  and 
again  in  1848,  confided  to  the  general  assembly 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


209 


the  legislative  powers  of  this  State,  was  it  contem- 
plated that  the  agents  entrusted  with  these  gov- 
ernmental powers  should  sell  any  portion  of  them 
to  other  organizations,  or  parcel  them  out  by  con- 
tract to  private  coqiorations?  It  is  a  well-settled 
principle  that  where  a  trust  is  confided  to  any 
class  of  persons,  the  trustees  cannot  transfer  that 
trust  to  others.  "What  trust,  what  confidence  is 
more  sacred,  more  responsible  than  the  power  to 
make  the  laws  of  a  free  people?  The  power  is  not 
only  delegated  to  the  two  branches  of  tiie  legisla- 
ture, but  there  is  an  obligation — a  duty  imposed 
upon  them  to  make  all  such  laws  as  are  necessary 
and  proper  for  the  interests  of  the  people,  and 
good  order  of  the  body  politic." 

The  language  of  our  State  Constitution,  reason, 
and  sound  policy,  all  concur  in  bringing  us  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  law-making  power  being  en- 
trusted to  the  legislature  by  the  constitution,  to 
be  exercised  as  occasion  may  require,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  general  welfare,  camiot  be  per- 
manently transferred  to  any  other  body.  If  the 
citurts  will  fall  back  upon  this  principle,  we  need 
not  feel  alarmed  at  the  growth  and  power  of  cor- 
l)iirations.  They  are  dangeri ms  to  the  people  only 
as  they  are  allowed,  under  tlie  pretense  of  a  bar- 
gain, to  appropriate  to  their  own  purposes  the 
governmental  powers  confided  to  the  legislature. 

"The  great  object  of  an  incorporation,"  says 
Cliief  Justice  Marshall,  "is  to  bestow  the  char- 
acter and  properties  of  individuality  on  a  col- 
lective and  changing  body  of  men." — Providence 
liank  V.  Hillings,  4  Peters,  562. 

The  creation  of  private  corporations — the  be- 
stowal of  the  attributes  of  individuality  upon  these 
ideal  creatures, — the  placing  them,  as  to  legal 
rights,  on  the  same  footingwith  natural  persons, — 
are  proper  sul)jects  of  legislative  action.  And  we 
readily  concede  that  these  ideal  creatures — private 
corporations — cannot  be  arbitrarily  destroyed  by 
the  legislature,  and  that  the  rights  which  they  may 
possess  by  virtue  of  their  individuality  or  exist- 
ence are  protected  by  the  same  constitution,  which 
is  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  whole  people.  Puit  in 
the  language  of  Justice  Daniel: 

"The  opinion  seems  to  have  obtained  that  the 
right  of  property  in  a  chartered  corporation  was 
more  sacred  and  intangible  than  the  same  right 
could  possibly  be  in  the  person  of  the  citizen ;  an 
opinion  which  must  be  without  any  grounds  to 
rest  upon  until  it  can  be  demonstrated  either  that 
the  ideal  creature  is  more  than  a  person,  or  the 
corporeal  being  is  less." — West  River  Bridge 
Company  v.  Dix,  6  Howard,  533. 

The  legislature  may  irrevocably  dispose  of  the 
lands  and  pul)lic  buildings  and  other  j)roperty  of 
the  .State.  Tliese  are  the  proper  subjects  of  con- 
tract and  sale.     But  a  legislative  contract  to  sur- 


render forever  to  a  private  corporation  any  por- 
tion of  the  governmental  powers  of  this  State  is, 
in  my  opinion,  unconstitutional  and  void.  It  is 
imconstitutional,  because  the  constitutional  pro- 
vision, which  has  been  in  force  here  ever  since  we 
have  had  a  State  organization,  confides — intrusts 
— these  powers  to  the  legislature  to  be  exercised 
for  the  promotion  of  the  general  welfare,  not  to 
be  bartered  away.  It  is  void,  because  it  is  a  con- 
tract in  violation  of  public  duty,  and  without  a 
competent  subject  matter.  The  legislature  can- 
not deal — cannot  traffic — with  a  sovereign  right 
as  private  property.     Says  Justice  Daniel: 

"I  never  can  believe  in  that,  to  myminil  suicidal, 
doctrine,  which  confers  upon  one  legislature,  the 
creatures  and  limited  agents  of  the  sovereign 
])eople,  the  power,  by  a  breach  of  duty  and  by 
transcentling  the  commission  with  which  they  are 
clothed,  to  bind  forever  and  irrevocably  their  crea- 
tor, for  whose  benefit  and  by  whose  authority 
alone  they  are  delegated  to  act,  to  conseciuences 
however  mischievous  or  destructive." — Ohio  Life 
Insurance  and  Trust  Company  v.  Debolt,  16  How- 
ard, 443. 

And,  right  here  let  me  ask.  From  what  one 
source  have  the  people  of  this  State  sufTered  more 
mischievous  consequences  than  from  the  free  ex- 
ercise of  the  assumed  right,  on  the  part  of  the  leg- 
islature, to  sell  out  to  railroad  cor[)orations  the 
power  of  fixing  and  exacting  from  the  com- 
munity rates  of  toll  without  Umitation?  In  resist- 
ing the  usurpations  of  tliese  wealthy  and  powerful 
corporations,  we  have  turned  our  attention  too 
nuich  to  that  clause  of  the  constitution  of  the 
United  Slates  which  provides  that  no  State  shall 
pass  any  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts, 
and  have  not  paid  sufiicient  attention  to  that  sec- 
tion of  our  State  constitution  which  confides,  and 
only  confides,  the  legislative  powers  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  the  general  assembly,  and  to  that  sec- 
tion of  the  bill  of  rights  which  declares  that  "all 
power  is  inherent  in  the  people."  We  must  not 
forget  that  a  legislative  act  or  charter  may  con- 
tain unconstitutional  provisions.  The  real  ques- 
tion is  not  one  of  vested  rights  under  a  contract, 
but  one  of  constitutional  power  to  make  the  con- 
tract. The  legislature  cannot  change  the  consti- 
tution, or  make  a  new  constitution,  and  yet  it 
woidd  be  doing  just  this  if  it  could  limit  the  gov- 
ernmental powers  of  a  future  legislature.  And, 
therefore,  I  maintain  that  corporations  are  sub- 
ject to  governmental  powers  the  same  as  individu- 
als— that  tiie  charges  of  railway  corporations  can 
be  regulated  and  limited  by  legislative  enactment, 
the  same  as  the  tolls  of  ferry,  bridge,  plank-road 
and  turnpike  companies;  the  same  as  the  charges 
of  hack,  onniibus  and  dray  lines;  the  same  as  the 
tolls  of  millers,  the  charges  of  innkeepers,  the  fees 


210 


TiioauAPincM.  DfrridXAny  AXT)  poimiArr  nALiEUY  of  the 


of  professional  men,  and  interest  on  loaned  money. 
The  powers  to  make  these  regulations  and  limita- 
tions are,  unquestionably,  legislative,  governmen- 
tal powers,  and  neither  these  nor  any  other  leg- 
islative powers  of  a  governmental  nature  can  be 
irrevocably  disposed  of  by  contract  to  any  in- 
dividual or  coqjoration.  There  are  and  can  be 
no  vested  rights  of  governmental  power  in  any 
individual  or  corporation  except  those  conferred 
bv  the  constitution. 

'  Will  any  gentleman  take  the  position  that  the 
legislature  can  endow  any  individual  or  corpora- 
tion with  a  vested  right  to  commit  crime,  or  per- 
petrate fraud,  or  practice  imposition  upon  the 
public?  I  think  not.  One  legislature  cannot,  by 
contract  or  otherwise,  prohibit  succeeding  legis- 
latures from  enacting  laws  for  the  prevention  and 
punishment  of  crime,  fraud  and  imposition.  But 
railroad  corporations  declare  that  they  have 
bought  from  the  legislature  the  power  to  estab- 
lish and  exact  the  exorbitant  charges  they  are  now 
every  day  extorting  from  the  people.  Under  the 
claim  of  vested  rights  they  bid  defiance  to — I  was 
about  to  say — the  government;  but  according  to 
the  conceit  of  these  corporations,  there  is  no  gov- 
ernment that  can  control  and  regulate  and 
limit  their  demands.  Each  claims  to  be,  in  this 
respect,  a  government  unto  itself — a  sovereignty 
within  a  sovereignty. 

The  people  sooner  or  later  will  break  away  from 
the  theory  that  a  railroad,  or  any  private  corpora- 
tion, can  have  a  vested  right  in  any  governmental 
power.  Let  the  next  legislature  enact  substan- 
tially the  railway  laws  of  England,  regulating  and 
limiting  the  rates  of  freight  and  passenger  tarififs, 
and  I  firmly  believe  that  the  courts  would  hold 
that  such  re-assertion  of  governmental  control 
over  railroad  rates  is  not  an  interference  with 
vested  rights. 

The  time  was  when  city  and  other  municipal 
corporations  claimed  that,  by  virtue  of  their  char- 
ters, they  held  vested  rights  in  governmental  pow- 
ers. Even  now,  the  legislature  cannot  confiscate 
the  private  property  of  a  municipal  corporation, 
or  change  the  uses  of  its  private  funds  acquired 
under  the  public  faith.     I'ut  the  courts  have  long 


since  held  that  the  legislature  cannot  transfer  to  a 
municipal  corporation  irrevocable,  vested  rights 
in  governmental  powers.  And,  for  one,  I  am 
ready  to  take  the  broad  position  that  it  is  not,  and 
never  has  been,  in  the  power  of  the  legislature  of 
this  State  to  bind  its  governmental  capacities,  by 
any  arrangements  or  stipulations,  with  either  pub- 
lic or  private  corporations,  so  as  to  disable  itself 
from  enacting  any  laws  that  may  be  deemed  es- 
sential for  the  public  good.  The  sovereign  people, 
and  the  sovereign  people  alone,  by  the  adoption 
of  constitutional  provisions,  can  restrict  and  bind 
the  governmental  capacities  of  the  legislature. 

After  Judge  Benjamin  had  ceased  speaking,  it 
was  apparent  that  his  argument  pleased  the  ma- 
jority of  his  colleagues,  several  of  whom  rose  to 
their  feet  and  sanctioned  what  he  said  in  no  un- 
certain terms.  The  following  endorsements  are 
copied  from  the  reports: 

(Mr.  Ross) — Mr.  Chairman:  I  cheerfully  sub- 
scribe to  the  views  of  the  gentleman  from  McLean 
(Mr.  Benjamin).  I  think  the  convention  and  the 
people  of  the  State  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude. 
It  has  the  true  ring  of  the  doctrine  that  should  be 
inculcated  by  all  our  statesmen. 

(Mr.  Bromwell) — Mr.  Chairman:  I  am  very 
much  gratified  to  see  the  manner  in  which  this  dis- 
cussion starts  in  this  convention.  There  have 
been  doubts  expressed  whether  this  convention, 
upon  coming  to  this  subject,  would  take  the 
proper  stand  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  people 
which  have  been  so  long  trifled  with,  and  trampled 
under  foot,  by  the  interi^retations  of  the  law  in 
this  State;  and  I  agree  with  the  gentleman  from 
Fulton  (Mr.  Ross),  that  the  community  at  large 
owe  the  gentleman  from  ?\IcLean  (Mr.  Benjamin) 
thanks  for  the  masterly  manner  in  which  he  has 
demonstrated  the  right  and  the  power  of  the 
people,  inhering  in,  ever  living,  and  ever  present, 
to  command  in  the  name  of  and  for  the  people, 
the  creatures  which  they  have  put  on  foot,  the 
corporations  which  they  have  organized,  in  re- 
spect to  the  terms  upon  which  they  shall  enjoy 
those  invaluable  franchises  which  they  are  law- 
fully permitted  to  enjoy. 


IlEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


211 


CHARLES  BECKER, 


BELLEVILLE. 


THERE  is  no  clement  which  has  entered  into 
OUT  composite  national  fabric  that  has 
been  of  more  practical  strength,  value  and  utility 
than  that  furnished  by  the  sturdy,  persevering  and 
honorable  sons  of  Germany;  and  in  the  progress 
of  our  Union  this  element  has  played  an  im- 
portant part.  Intensely  practical,  and  ever  hav- 
ing a  clear  comprehension  of  the  ethics  of  life, 
the  German  contingent  has  wielded  a  powerful 
influence,  and  this  service  can  not  be  held  in 
light  estimation  by  those  who  appreciate  true  civ- 
ilization and  true  advancement. 

The  subject  of  this  review  comes  from  staunch 
German  stock,  and  he  was  born  in  Rockenhausen, 
Rhenish  Bavaria,  Germany,  on  the  24th  of  June, 
1840,  being  the  son  of  I'rban  and  Mary  (Spross) 
Becker.  His  father  was  a  man  of  strong  men- 
tality, and  in  the  line  of  his  profession,  that  of  an 
architect  and  builder,  was  possessed  of  more  than 
ordinary  ability.  Urban  and  Mary  Becker  be- 
came the  parents  of  twelve  children,  of  whom 
three  are  now  living. 

In  1851,  when  our  subject  was  a  lad  of  eleven 
years,  his  parents  emigrated  from  their  native  land 
to  America,  and  soon  after  their  arrival  came  to 
Belleville,  where  they  remained  until  death  sum- 
moned them  into  eternal  rest.  They  were  peo- 
ple of  such  sterling  worth  of  character  that  they 
gained  the  esteem  and  friendship  of  all  with  whom 
they  came  in  contact,  and  they  were  people  of 
prominence  in  the  community  where  they  passed 
so  many  years  and  where  they  contributed  in  no 
small  measure  to  the  progress  and  substantial 
prosperity  of  the  locality.  The  father  died  in 
1874,  his  widow  surviving  him  until  1881. 

(Jur  subject  received  his  preliminary  educa- 
tional discipline  in  the  common  schools,  and  at 
the  age  of  fifteen  years  he  entered  the  Harrison 
^^aclline  Works,  in  Belleville,  for  the  purpose  of 
learning  the  trade  of  molder.  He  became  an  ex- 
pert workman  in  this  line  and  continued  to  de- 
vote his  attention  thereto  until  he  attained  his 
majority.  At  this  time  his  nature,  which  was 
essentially  loyal  and  patriotic,  was  roused  to  ac- 
tive protest  as  the  Union  was  threatened  by  foes 


from  within  its  borders  and  the  cloud  of  civil  war 
obscured  the  national  horizon.  Accordingly  he 
enlisted  for  service  in  the  Federal  army,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  Company  B,  Twelfth  Missouri  Infantry. 
On  the  8th  of  March,  1862,  he  received  a  severe 
wound  in  the  right  thigh,  and  this  injury  eventu- 
ally necessitated  the  amputation  of  his  leg  at  a 
point  above  the  knee.  Thus  maimed  for  life  as 
a  result  of  his  zealous  and  unflinching  patriotism, 
there  remained  nothing  for  him  to  do  on  the 
stirring  field  of  battle,  and  he  accordingly  re- 
turned to  his  home.  For  a  short  time  he  at- 
tended school,  and  then  accepted  once  more  a 
position  with  the  Harrison  Machine  Works,  be- 
coming a  member  of  the  office  corps,  inasmuch 
as  his  infirmity  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to 
resume  his  former  line  of  work.  He  retained  this 
position  for  some  time,  but  he  was  destined  for 
higher  honors,  as  his  capabilities  and  unswerving 
honesty  of  purpose  became  known.  Prior  to  the 
beginning  of  his  official  career  he  liad  conducted 
a  hotel  in  West  Belleville,  severing  his  connection 
therewith  in  1866.  He  was  then  elected  sheriff 
and  collector  of  taxes  of  the  county  for  a  term  of 
two  years,  and  proved  a  most  capable  incumbent 
in  that  important  and  exacting  office.  After  his 
term  as  sheriff  and  collector  had  expired  he  be- 
came associated  with  Mr.  Erhardt  in  the  brewing 
business  and  sold  his  interest  to  Mr.  Erhardt  in 
1872. 

In  1872  Mr.  Becker  was  elected  circuit  clerk 
and  recorder  of  deeds,  being  the  only  successful 
candidate  on  the  Republican  ticket  at  that  elec- 
tion,— a  fact  which  conclusively  gave  evidence  of 
his  popularity  and  of  the  confidence  reposed  in 
him  by  his  fellow  townsmen.  Again  in  1876  was 
he  elected  to  this  double  office,  as  his  own  suc- 
cessor, and  on  this  occasion  his  party  was  de- 
feated by  1,187  votes,  while  he  ran  up  to  his  credit 
at  the  polls  the  notable  majority  of  800  votes, — 
a  circumstance  whose  significance  is  evident.  He 
has  been  a  most  active  and  effective  worker  in 
the  behalf  of  the  Republican  party,  and  has  held 
marked  precedence  in  the  councils  of  its  leaders 
in  the  State,  having  been  for  six  years  the  in- 


212 


niOailAflllCAI.  DICTIONAIIY  A^n  I'OUTUAIT  OALLEHY  OF  TUB 


ouiiiljciit  as  chairnian  (if  tliu  Ripuhlican  county 
central  committee.  In  1888  there  came  to  Mr. 
Becker  a  disting-iiished  recognition,  in  his  elec- 
tion to  the  responsible  office  as  State  treasurer. 
In  this  capacity  he  served  with  such  signal  ability 
and  efficiency  that  his  administration  of  the  finan- 
cial affairs  of  the  State  conserved  public  interests 
and  reflected  to  his  credit. 

Mr.  Becker  has  maintained  a  lively  interest  in 
the  advancement  of  the  industrial  and  popular 
interests  of  the  city  of  his  home,  and  has  con- 
tributed largely  to  its  progress  and  substantial 
upbuilding.  He  is  president  of  the  Pump  and 
Skein  Works,  and  the  Belleville  Stove  Works,  and 
has  other  financial  interests  of  importance. 

A  man  of  genial  and  social  nature  and  one  who 
is  most  appreciative  of  the  amenities  which  go  to 
make  up  the  sum  of  human  happiness,  he  has 
identified  himself  with  several  German  social  and 
musical  societies,  of  which  he  is  an  honored  mem- 


ber. For  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  he  has 
been  one  of  the  prominent  members  of  the  Phil- 
harmonic Society,  whose  influence  in  arousing 
and  maintaining  an  interest  in  the  study  of  the 
higher  forms  of  musical  composition  has  been 
very  potent. 

On  the  23d  of  January,  1864,  was  consum- 
mated the  marriage  of  Mr.  Becker  to  Miss  Louisa 
Fleischbein,  of  Belleville,  and  they  became  the 
parents  of  six  children,  all  of  whom  are  living 
except  one,  Fred.  The  surviving  children  are  by 
name  as  follows:  Bertha,  Casimir,  Gustave,  Ar- 
thur and  Ray. 

A  man  of  strong  individuality  and  indubitable 
probity,  one  who  has  attained  to  a  due  measure 
of  success  in  the  affairs  of  life,  and  whose  influ- 
ence has  ever  been  exerted  in  the  direction  of  the 
good,  the  true  and  the  beautiful,  this  honored  vet- 
eran of  our  late  war  assuredly  demands  represen- 
tation in  this  volume. 


JOHN  M.  GOULD, 


AS  the  river  whose  deep  and  steady  current, 
winding  among  fair  landscapes,  past  blos- 
soming fields  and  through  busy  towns,  blessing 
millions  of  people,  and  enhancing  the  wealth  of 
nations,  affords  little  of  that  wild  and  romantic 
scenery  which  startles  the  traveler  or  delights  the 
artist;  so  those  lives  which  contribute  most  toward 
the  improvement  of  a  State  and  the  well-being  of 
a  people  are  seldom  the  ones  which  furnish  the 
most  brilliant  passages  for  the  pen  of  the  historian 
or  biographer. 

There  is,  in  the  anxious  and  laborious  struggle 
for  an  hcwiorable  competence  and  a  solid  career 
of  the  business  or  professional  man  fighting  the 
every-day  battle  of  life,  but  little  to  attract  the 
idle  reader  in  search  of  a  sensational  chapter;  but 
for  a  mind  thoroughly  awake  to  the  reality  and 
ireaning  of  human  existence,  there  are  noble  and 
immortal  lessons  in  the  life  of  the  man,  who,  with- 
out other  means  than  a  clear  head,  a  strong  arm, 
and  a  true  heart,  conquers  adversity,  and  toiling 
on  through  the  work-a-day  years  of  a  long  career 
finds  that  he  has  won  not  only  wealth  but  also 


something  far  greater  and  higher, — the  deserved 
respect  and  esteem  of  those  with  whom  his  years 
of  active  life  placed  him  in  contact. 

Such  a  man,  and  one  of  the  leading  citizens  of 
Moline,  is  John  Maxfield  Gould,  who  was  bom  at 
Piermont,  New  Hampshire,  February  24,  1822, 
being  the  eldest  of  nine  children  of  Amos  and 
Nancy  (Bartlett)  Gould,  the  former  a  native  of 
Massachusetts,  the  latter  of  New  Hampshire. 

Amos  Gould  was  by  trade  a  tanner,  but  later  be- 
came a  farmer.  Our  subject  passed  his  early  boy- 
hood at  his  native  town,  attending  the  district 
school  in  the  winter  seasons,  and  assisting  on  the 
farm  summers.  The  knowledge  he  obtained  was 
later  supplemented  by  a  one  year's  course  at  each 
of  the  academies  of  Canaan  and  Lyme.  Upon 
leaving  the  latter  institution  he  taught  for  three 
winters  in  the  district  school,  and  continued  to 
help  on  the  farm  the  remainder  of  the  year.  For 
a  short  time  he  clerked  in  a  general  store,  where 
he  gained  a  practical  knoavledge  of  business  that 
was  destined  to  prove  of  great  benefit  in  later 
vears. 


nKPRESENTATlVK  MICX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


•ZVA 


The  monotony  of  life  in  a  New  England  village 
became  irksome  to  young  Gould,  and  he  longed 
to  go  to  that  Western  country  of  which  he  had 
heard  so  much,  and  where  he  beheved  the  possi- 
bilities of  success  were  so  much  greater  than 
where  he  then  was.  Capital  he  had  none,  with  the 
exception  of  sixty-four  dollars  saved  from  his 
salary,  but  lie  was  young,  full  of  energy,  and  am- 
bitious, and  felt  that  the  West  was  the  field  where- 
in he  should  labor.  He  accordingly  set  out,  in 
1844,  for  the  country  whose  praises  he  had  heard 
extolled,  but  he  had  no  fixed  purpose  as  to  his 
destination,  except  that  he  would  stop  at  Chicago, 
the  <-iitr,-pct  for  that  section.  For  four  weeks  he 
remained  in  Chicago,  eagerly  searching  for  em- 
ployment, but  obtaining  none,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  he  had  excellent  recommendations. 
P«y  chance  he  learned  that  the  finii  of  Dana  & 
Throop  had  purchased  a  stock  of  goods  in  New 
York,  which  were  to  be  disposed  of  at  Grand  De- 
tour, and  he  solicited  and  obtained  a  clerkship 
with  this  firm,  at  a  salary  of  twelve  and  one-half 
dollars  a  month  and  board,  for  the  first  year.  He 
continued  with  Dana  &  Throop  as  a  clerk  for 
three  years,  his  compensation  being  raised  the 
second  year  to  one  hundred  and  seventy  -five  dol- 
lars and  board  per  annum,  and  to  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  and  board  the  third.  The  fourth  year 
he  was  made  a  member  of  the  firm,  and  drew  one 
fourth  of  the  profits.  About  this  time  the  plow 
manufactory  concern  of  Andrus  &  Deere,  of 
Grand  Detour,  was  dissolved,  and  one  of  its  mem- 
bers, Mr.  John  Deere,  in  company  with  a  Mr. 
Tate — both  practical  mechanics — came  to  Mo- 
line  and  organized  the  fimi  of  Deere  &  Tate,  for 
the  manufacture  of  plows.  Mr.  Deere's  family  re- 
mained at  Grand  Detour,  where  he  frequently 
came  to  visit  them.  On  these  occasions  he  nearly 
always  met  Mr.  Gould,  to  whom  he  talked  freely 
regarding  this  new  venture,  and  from  whom  he 
received  many  hints  of  practical  value.  Upon 
one  of  these  visits  he  sent  especially  for  Mr.  Gould 
and  told  him  that  Mr.  Tate  and  himself  wished 
him  to  become  a  member  of  their  firm  and  look 
after  its  financial  matters.  Mr.  Gould  replied  that 
he  had  no  money  with  which  to  purchase  an  in- 
terest; whereupon  Mr.  Deere  said  he  would  fur- 
nish the  ca])ital — Mr.  Gould  to  pay  interest  there- 
on, with  which  a  third  interest  could  be  obtained. 


Taking  time  to  consider  this  propositnn  he  sought 
Mr.  Throop,  and  frankly  told  him  of  Mr.  Deere's 
offer,  and  asked  his  advice.  ]\Iuch  as  he  disliked 
the  idea  of  parting  with  one  who  had  been  so  sat- 
isfactory a  partner,  Mr.  Throop  nevertheless  re- 
plied that  he  thought  it  was  a  better  opportunity 
than  would  ever  present  itself  at  Grand  Detour, 
and  that  he  ought  to  embrace  it.  Mr.  Gould  ac- 
cordingly came  to  Moline,  and,  after  looking  the 
ground  over,  entered  into  an  agreement  which  re- 
sulted in  the  formation  of  the  firm  of  Deere,  Tate 
&  Gould,  and  which  has  since  become  the  great 
Deere  Plow  Company. 

Mr.  Gould  entered  at  once  upon  his  new  ven- 
ture, and  opened  and  kept  the  first  set  of  double- 
entry  books  in  Rock  Island  county.  These  books 
were  a  source  of  much  curiosity  to  merchants  of 
Moline  and  adjacent  towns.  The  connection 
with  Messrs.  Deere  &  Tate  continued  for  four 
years,  when  Mr.  Deere  purchased  the  interests  of 
the  others,  who  retired  from  the  firm. 

Our  subject  had  frequently  urged  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  woodenware  factory  at  Moline,  but 
it  did  not  meet  with  a  favorable  reception  until 
he  talked  with  a  Connecticut  Yankee  named  D. 
C.  Dimock,  who  had  for  several  years  been  en- 
gaged in  the  furniture-manufacturing  business. 
That  gentleman  became  quite  interested  in  the 
idea,  and  made  a  trip  to  the  East,  where  he  secured 
information,  and  arranged  with  a  practical  wood- 
enware man  who  was  to  come  to  Moline  if  wanted. 

Upon  his  return  to  Moline,  he  reported  the  re- 
sult of  his  observations  to  Mr.  Gould,  with  the  re- 
sult that  a  partnership  was  formed  in  1852  under 
the  firm  name  of  Dimock  &  Gould.  Land  on 
the  island  was  leased  from  the  Government  and 
a  factory  erected,  which  was  operated  with  great 
profit.  On  the  6th  of  October,  1856,  the  plant 
was  destroyed  by  fire,  with  no  insurance,  but  in 
its  place  a  new  factory  was  at  once  built,  and 
was  in  operation  by  January  i,  1857. 

The  business  was  continued  most  successfully 
until  1867,  at  which  time  the  Government  desired 
to  use  the  land  Dimock  &  Gould  occupied,  and 
the  firm  was  obliged  to  move,  which  it  did. 
Their  sawing  had  previously  been  done  at  a  saw- 
mill adjacent  to  their  factory  on  the  island,  and 
their  removal  necessitated  the  making  of  new  ar- 
rangements.    They   accordingly  built  a  sawmill 


214 


niiXIHAl'IIICAL  DICTloyAnr  AND  PORTItATT  (lALLKHY  OF  THE 


of  their  own,  and  thus  entored  the  lumber  busi- 
ness, as  they  were  obliged  to  manufacture  lumber 
in  addition  to  that  used  for  woodenware.  In 
Innc,  1875,  their  sawmill  was  struck  by  lightning 
and  destroyed.  This  time,  however,  it  was  well 
insured,  and  they  at  once  rebuilt,  the  plant  being 
larger  and  more  complete  than  ever. 

In  1868  the  firm  was  incorporated,  I\Ir.  Dimock 
being  president  and  Mr.  Gould  vice-president. 
On  the  death  of  Mr.  Dimock,  in  1886,  l\Ir.  Gould 
became  president,  which  oflfice  he  still  holds.  In 
1890  the  woodenware  branch  of  the  business  was 
sold  to  a  syndicate  of  woodenware  men,  who  re- 
moved the  machinery,  and  since  then  Dimock, 
Gould  &  Company's  entire  business  has  been 
that  of  lumbering  and  manufacturing  of  paper 
pails.  The  company  owns  extensive  tracts  of 
pine  land  in  Wisconsin,  and  the  output  of  their 
mill  averages  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
ihousand  feet  a  day.  The  concern  is  one  of  the 
strong  lumber  companies  of  the  Mississippi  val- 
ley. 

In  1857,  when  there  were  no  banking  facilities 
in  Moline,  our  subject,  in  company  with  Mr. 
Dimock  and  Mr.  C.  P.  Ryder,  of  Connecticut, 
organized  the  banking  house  of  Gould,  Dimock 
&  Company,  which  Mr.  Gould  managed  entirely 
until  1863,  when  it  was  incorporated  under  the 
national  banking  act  as  the  First  National  Bank 
of  Moline.  For  four  years,  or  until  1867,  Mr. 
Gould  was  cashier  of  this  institution,  and  then 
the  increased  business  at  the  mill,  which  had  just 
been  moved  from  the  island,  made  it  necessary 
for  him  to  devote  his  time  to  its  afifairs.  He  there- 
upon resigned  as  cashier,  and  was  elected  presi- 
dent, in  which  executive  capacity  he  has  con- 
tinued both  successively  and  successfully  ever 
since.  The  bank's  capital  stock  is  $150,000,  with 
a  surplus  of  $33,500,  and  an  average  deposit  ac- 


count of  $200,000, — less  now  than  formerly  on 
account  of  the  organization  of  the  People's  Sav- 
ings Bank,  which  naturally  drew  a  considerable 
amount  of  the  deposits.  Of  the  latter  named 
institution  Mr.  Gould  is  a  stockholder.  He  is 
also  secretary  of  the  Moline  Water  Power  Com- 
])any. 

Mr.  Gould  is  a  strong  Reiniblican,  but  lias  held 
but  one  elective  office, — that  of  county  judge 
from  1853  to  1857, — and  he  in  no  wise  sought  for 
that,  nor  did  he  work  to  be  elected.  At  that  time 
the  county  judges,  in  addition  to  the  probate  busi- 
ness, performed  the  duties  now  performed  by  the 
supervisors,  and  it  is  a  well  attested  fact  that  when 
our  subject  entered  upon  his  judicial  duties,  county 
orders  were  worth  but  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar. 
\Mien  he  left  the  office  they  were  worth  par,  and 
have  remained  so  ever  since.  For  thirty-three 
years  continuously  he  has  been  township  trustee 
of  the  Moline  school  district,  succeeding  himself 
at  each  successive  election. 

From  1857  to  1861  our  subject  was  postmaster 
of  the  city  of  Moline,  and  from  1876  to  1892  he 
was  a  commissioner  of  the  State  board  of  chari- 
ties by  appointment  of  the  governor.  In  1876  he 
was  a  director  and  the  treasurer  of  the  St.  Louis, 
Rock  Island  &  Chicago  Railroad  Company, 
now  a  part  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Ouincy 
system. 

On  the  9th  day  of  August,  1850,  ]Mr.  Gould 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Hannah  M. 
Dimock,  a  native  of  Willington,  Connecticut,  and 
sister  of  Mr.  D.  C.  Dimock.  Of  this  union  have 
been  born  five  children,  three  of  whom  are  now 
living,  Frank  W.,  treasurer  of  Dimock,  Gould  & 
Company;  Fred  G.,  of  the  office  corps  of  that  com- 
pany; and  Grace  E.,  the  wife  of  Sullivan  M.  Hill, 
treasurer  of  the  Moline  Plow  Company.  Mr. 
Gould  and  his  wife  attend  the  Baptist  Church. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.-  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


215 


HENRY  A.  AINSWORTH, 


HENRY  ALBIJEXCE  AIXSWORTH  is  of 
New  England  origin,  and  comes  of  a  long- 
lived  race, both  of  his  grandfathcrshavinglivcdto 
be  over  eighty  years  of  age,  while  his  father  was  a 
most  active  man  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
which  resulteil  from  an  attack  of  pneumonia,  when 
he  was  in  his  seventy-eighth  year. 

Calvin  Ainsworth,  the  father  of  our  subject, 
was  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  and  his  wife, 
who,  prior  to  her  marriage,  was  ]\Iiss  Laura 
Lynde,  was  a  member  of  an  old  Massachusetts 
family.  The  former  was  for  fifty  years  a  gen- 
eral merchant  in  Williamstown,  \'ermont,  and 
was  a  man  who,  for  those  days,  was  quite  well  ofT 
in  this  world's  goods.  He  was  a  man  of  much 
prominence,  and  for  a  number  of  years  was  pres- 
ident of  a  bank  at  Northfield,  Vermont. 

Henry  A.  Ainsworth  was  born  in  Williamstown, 
on  the  28th  day  of  September,  1833.  and  passed 
his  boyhood  in  that  village.  He  attended  the 
local  district  school  and  two  of  the  neighboring 
academies.  He  left  school  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
and  in  1853  started  out  for  himself,  going  west- 
ward and  locating  at  Gcneseo,  Illinois,  where  he 
et'gaged  in  general  merchandising  on  his  own  ac- 
count. His  business  prospered,  and  after  con- 
tinuing until  late  in  the  '60s  he  disposed  of  it. 
But  he  was  of  too  active  a  temperament  to  remain 
long  idle,  and  when  an  opportunit\'  presented 
itself  of  obtaining  an  interest  in  the  manufactur- 
ing establishment  of  ^^'i^iams  &  White,  of  Mo- 
line,  he  accepted  it  and  moved  to  the  latter  city 
in  July,  1870.  According  to  an  agreement  en- 
tered into  with  Mr.  Ainsworth  by  Williams  & 
White,  the  business  was  incorporated  at  the  be- 
ginning of  1871,  Mr.  Ainsworth  being  elected  sec- 
retary of  the  company,  whose  capital  stock  was 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  He  continued  as  secre- 
tary until  seven  years  ago,  when  having  pur- 
chased the  interests  of  other  stockholders,  he  be- 
came the  owner  of  over  three-quarters  of  tlie 
entire  capital  stock.  He  then  became  president 
of  the  corporation,  and  has  since  continued  as 
such. 

Williams,  White  &  Company  are  manufacturers 


of  special  tools,  such  as  steam  hanniicrs  and  the 
like,  and  their  product  finds  a  market  in  every 
State  in  the  Union,  while  several  shipments  have 
been  made  to  foreign  countries.  The  business 
has  developed  under  the  personal  supervision  of 
Mr.  Ainsworth  during  the  quarter  of  a  century 
that  he  has  been  connected  with  it,  and  it  has 
grown  to  its  present  magnitude  as  much  through 
his  efforts  as  from  any  other  cause,  if  not  more. 
Every  day  finds  him  at  his  desk,  where  he  labors 
with  a  zeal  that  knows  no  cessation. 

Eor  several  years  Mr.  Ainsworth  has  been  a 
stockholder  in  the  Moline  National  and  Moline 
State  Savings  Banks,  and  served  at  the  same  time 
as  vice  president  of  both  of  those  sound  financial 
institutions.  The  stockholders  of  the  National 
Bank,  however,  appreciating  his  ability  as  a  finan- 
cier, and  his  general  conservatism,  elected  him  a 
year  or  so  ago  to  the  presidency  of  that  bank,  a 
position  he  fills  with  an  ability  that  has  won  un- 
c|ualified  commendation.  Upon  his  election  to 
the  presidency  of  the  National  Bank,  he  resigned 
the  vice  presidency  of  the  savings  bank,  of  which, 
however,  he  still  has  a  voice  in  the  management 
as  a  director.  The  capital  stock  of  the  Jiloline 
National  Bank  is  one  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
w  ith  a  surplus  of  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  has 
an  average  deposit  account  of  about  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Ains- 
worth is  also  a  stockholder  in  the  well  known 
lumber  firm  of  Dimock.  Could  &  Company,  of 
Moline. 

In  politics  Mr.  Ainsworth  is  a  Republican,  and 
has  filled  a  number  of  offices  of  honor  and  trtist. 
He  was  a  trustee  of  the  village  of  Geneseo  during 
his  residence  there,  and  was  for  six  years  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Board  of  Equalization.  From 
1882  until  1886  he  was  State  senator  from  ^loline, 
and  later  was  appointed  by  Governor  Fifer  as 
president  of  the  State  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
which  office  he  resigned  when  Mr.  Altgeld  be- 
came Governor. 

He  is  a  prominent  memljer  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church,  and  has  always  been  one  of  the 
largest  contributors  toward  its  support.      Though 


216 


jiioaiiM'incAh  DicTioyAUY  Ayn  poiitrait  OALfJciir  of  the 


essciitiall\'  a  1iusy  man,  he  has  nevertheless  found 
time  to  travel  and  has  been  in  nearly  all  sections 
of  this  countPi'. 

On  the  28th  day  of  July,  1858,  he  married  Miss 
Sarah  Andrews,  of  Ashland,  Ohio,  sister  of  Mr. 
Andrews  who  was  then  president  of  Kenyon  Col- 


let::e.  lier  death  occurre<l  on  the  26th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1891.  She  is  survived  by  two  children,  Harrj', 
who  is  secretary  of  Williams  &  White  Company 
and  a  young  man  of  more  than  average  ability; 
and  a  daughter,  Mary,  who  now  presides  over  her 
father's  home. 


JOSEPH  G.  ENGLISH, 


DANVILLE. 


THE  history  of  a  State,  as  well  as  that  of  a 
nation,  is  chiefly  the  chronicles  of  the  lives 
and  deeds  of  those  who  have  conferred  honor  and 
dignity  upon  society. 

The  world  judges  the  character  of  a  conmiunity 
by  tliose  of  its  representative  citizens,  and  yields 
its  tributes  of  admiration  and  respect  for  the 
genius  or  learning  or  virtues  of  those  whose 
works  :md  actions  constitute  the  record  of  a 
State's  prosperity  and  pride ;  and  it  is  this  record 
that  offers  for  our  consideration  the  history  of 
men,  who  in  their  characters  for  probity  and  be^ 
nevolence,  and  the  kindly  virtues,  as  well  as  for 
integrity  in  the  affairs  of  life,  are  ever  affording 
to  the  young  worthy  examples  for  their  regard 
and  emulation.  Tlierefore  it  is  proper  that  a  just 
celebrity  should  be  given  to  those  men  who  are 
distinguished  in  their  day  and  generation,  that 
the  living  may  enjoy  the  approbation  of  their 
contemporaries,  as  well  as  that  of  a  grateful  pos- 
terity. 

Joseph  Gibson  English,  president  of  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Danville,  is  one  of  the  oldest, 
if  not  the  oldest,  banker  in  the  State.  He  was 
born  in  Ohio  county,  Indiana,  near  the  village  of 
The  Rising  Sun,  December  17,  1820.  Through 
his  father,  Charles  English,  a  native  of  New 
Haven,  he  traces  his  ancestry  through  several 
generations  to  the  early  settlement  of  Connecti- 
cut. His  mother,  who  prior  to  her  mamage  was 
Miss  Ann  Wright,  was  of  English  nativity.  The 
father  of  Charles  English  moved  to  Nova  Scotia, 
and  from  tliere  his  children  returned  to  the  Unite  1 
States  and  settled  in  various  localities.  Charles 
located  in  Ohio  county,  Indiana,  where  he  pur- 
sued the  combined  occupations  of  blacksmith- 
ing  and  carpentering.    In  1829  he  removed  with 


his  family  to  the  Wabash  valley  and  made  his 
home  at  Perrysville.  The  early  life  of  Joseph 
was  the  usual  quiet,  uneventful  one  which  the 
people  of  that  locality  led  at  that  period,  and  his 
early  education  only  such  as  could  be  obtained 
at  the  puncheon-floored  log  schoolhouse  of  the 
neighborhood.  His  parents  were  poor,  and  from 
the  time  he  was  fourteen  years  of  age  he  earned 
his  own  livelihood.  At  that  time  he  became  an 
employee  of  the  firm  of  Taylor  &  Linton,  gen- 
eral merchants  of  Lafayette,  Indiana.  For  five 
years  he  served  a  sort  of  an  apprenticeship  with 
that  firm,  receiving  for  his  labor  his  board  and 
clothing.  In  those  days  the  duties  of  a  boy  in 
a  general  store  were  onerous,  and  the  proper 
fulfillment  of  the  labor  incident  to  his  position 
necessitated  his  close  attention  from  daybreak 
until  bedtime.  On  market  days,  which  occurred 
thrice  weekly,  he  arose  between  three  and  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  to  sweep  the  store  and 
prepare  it  for  the  reception  of  the  Dunkard  cus- 
tomers, who  utilized  the  early  morning  hours  to 
make  their  purchases.  As  the  boy  grew  in  age 
and  experience  he  made  himself  more  and  more 
useful  to  his  emploj'ers,  and  incidentally  obtained 
a  knowledge  of  the  mercantile  business,  which 
has  been  of  incalculable  benefit  to  him  through- 
out his  career. 

Upon  the  expiration  of  five  years  his  employ- 
ers failed  and  he  then  obtained  a  position  as  clerk 
in  a  general  store  at  his  home  in  Perr)sville,  at 
a  salary  of  forty  dollars  per  month.  His  early 
experience  had  instilled  in  his  mind  the  value 
of  economy,  and  from  the  outset  he  annually 
saved  a  portion  of  his  earnings.  At  the  expira- 
tion of  three  years  he  had  accumulated  about  four 
hundred  dollars,  and  he  then  married  Miss  Mary 


v-^>' 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


217 


Hicks,  a  native  of  Perrysville,  and  a  descendant 
of  New  England  ancestors.  In  1844  Mr.  English 
entered  the  mercantile  business  as  a  partner  of 
his  father-in-law,  George  Hicks.  The  firm  of  Hicks 
&  English  conducted  a  profitable  business  in 
dry  goods,  groceries,  produce,  grain,  etc.  Mer- 
chandise was  then  purchased  and  sold  on  a  credit 
of  twelve  months,  and,  before  railroads  became 
the  highways  to  the  seaboard,  produce  found  its 
way  by  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  and  their 
tributaries  to  New  Orleans,  where  it  was  exported. 
Hicks  &  English  shipped  their  wheat,  corn,  pork, 
etc.,  on  flathoats  to  New  Orleans,  and  Mr.  English 
pulled  an  oar  on  sevcr;d  of  these  journeys. 

In  1S53  he  disi)iisc(l  nf  his  interest  in  Perrys- 
ville and  located  in  Oanville,  Tllimiis,  where  he 
farmed  a  ]iartnership  with  julni  I..  Tincher,  and 
under  the  name  of  'rincher  i&  English  oper- 
ated a  general  store  with  marked  success  until 
1S36,  when  the  firm  became  the  assignees  of  the 
Stock  Security  Ba;nk,  a  "wild-cat"  institution, 
which  was  forced  into  bankruptcy  in  the  early 
days  of  the  panic  of  1856-7.  They  then  sold  their 
mercantile  business  and  devoted  themselves  en- 
tirely to  the  duties  that  devolved  upon  them  by 
virtue  of  the  assignment.  Through  their  ccwi- 
niction  therewith  they  gradually  began  transact- 
ing a  brokerage  and  exchange  business,  and 
virtually  conducted  a  private  banking  establish- 
tnent.  In  February-,  1863,  immediately  after  the 
passage  of  the  bill  that  authorized  the  establish- 
ment of  national  banks,  they  were  one  of  the 
earliest  applicants  for  a  charter  to  organize  such 
an  institution.  The  bank  was  organized  with  a 
capitalization  of  fifty  thousand  dollars;  Mr.  Eng- 
lish was  at  that  time  chosen  president  and  has 
served  in  that  capacity  continuously  since.  In 
1872,  after  the  death  of  M.  Tincher,  the  capital 
stock  was  increased  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  and  at  the  present  time  (May, 
1805)  its  surplus  is  one  hundred  and  forty  thou- 
sand dollars.  The  bank's  deposits  average  over 
six  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  its  officers  arc: 
President,  Joseph  G.  English;  cashier,  Charles 
L.  English;  assistant  cashier,  L.  D.  Gass;  and 
second  assistant  cashier,  J.  C.  English. 

As  a  financier  Mr.  English  ranks  with  the 
ablest,  and  for  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  has 
been  an  earnest  and  constructive  force  in  admin- 


istering the  affairs  of  the  strong  and  widely- 
known  institution  of  which  he  is  tlic  head  and 
over  whose  destinies  he  has  presided. 

During  all  the  troublous  times  and  through 
all  the  financial  w^hirlwinds  the  First  National 
Bank  of  Danville  was  unscathed,  for  its  founda- 
tions were  laid  upon  the  rocks  of  integrity  and 
the  principles  of  sound  and  conservative  bank- 
ing. While  Mr.  English  has  made  banking  the 
main  feature  of  his  life  work,  he  has  also  been 
one  of  the  heaviest  dealers  in  real  estate  in  his 
section.  He  has  dealt  largely  in  farm  lands  and 
has  platted  several  additions  to  the  city  of  Dan- 
ville. He  has  also  been  interested  in  many  en- 
terprises which  were  organized  for  the  purpose 
of  adding  to  the  importance  of  Danville  as  a 
commercial  center,  and  has  devoted  much  of  his 
time  and  means  toward  aiding  all  sound  projects 
calculated  to  enhance  the  pro.sperity  of  the  city 
of  his  home.  For  the  past  twenty  years  he  has 
been  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the 
Chicago  &  Eastern  Illinois  Railroad. 

Although  Mr.  English  has  twice  been  elected 
mayor  of  his  jcity,  and  in  1872  was  chosen  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  board  of  equalization  of  the 
State,  yet  it  nuist  not  be  assumed  that  he  is 
in  any  sense  a  politician, — political  condi- 
tionship  or  conquest  are  for  him  without  charm. 
The  peaceful,  quiet  walks  of  business  life,  un- 
disturbed by  outside  causes,  are  far  more  to  his 
liking,  and  here  has  been  the  true  sphere  of  his 
usefulness.  Nevertheless  he  has  always  taken 
a  deep  interest  as  a  citizen  in  political  affairs. 
From  the  time  of  his  majority  until  1862  he  af- 
filiated with  the  Democratic  party,  but  when  the 
Democratic  State  convention,  in  the  latter  year, 
inserted  a  "peace"  plank  in  its  platform,  he  re- 
nounced his  allegiance  thereto  and  joined  the 
ranks  of  the  Republicans.  He  was  a  strong  Union 
man  during  the  Rebellion,  and  in  1863  had  charge 
of  the  suliscription  list  for  filling  the  ciuota  of 
men  for  the  army  from  Danville  township. 

Since  1856  Mr.  English  has  been  a  member  «f 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  has  been 
active  in  the  various  departments  of  church  work. 
He  is  at  present  a  member  of  the  board  of  trus- 
tees, and  for  fifteen  years  occupied  the  position 
of  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school.  In  1872 
he  was  selected  by  the  lay  delegates  of  the  llli- 


218 


BIOdnAl'IUCM.  DlCriONAHY  AND  POUTUAIT  (lALI.KRY  OF  THE 


iiois  conference  as  a  delegate  to  the  general  con- 
ference of  the  church,  which  was  held  in  Brook- 
lyn in  that  year,  and  has  served  once  since  that 
time  in  a  similar  capacity.  He  was  also  for 
many  years  a  trustee  of  the  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity at  Bloomington. 

In  1864  Mr.  English's  wife,  to  whom  he  was 
married  in  1844,  as  previously  mentioned,  passed 
away.  She  was  the  mother  of  seven  children. 
Their  names  in  order  of  birth  are:  George;  Charles 
L. ;  Harriet,  who  died  in  July,  1893,  was  the  wife 
of  William  D.  Lindsey ;  Irene  J.,  now  Mrs.  George 
W.  Partlow,  of  Danville;  John  T.;  Annie  Martha, 
the  deceased  v/ife  of  Tabor  Mathews,  of  Jack- 
sonville; and  Edvv-ard. 

In  1865  Mr.  English  married  Maria  L.  Part- 
low.  She  died  in  August,  1886.  They  were  the 
parents  of  two  children:  J.  C,  and  Otis  Hardy, 
who  died  in  infancy. 

Mr.  English  is  a  man  to  whom  the  most  en- 
vious can  scarcely  grudge  success,  so  well  has 
he  earned  it,  so  admirably  does  he  use  it,  so  en- 
tirely does  he  lack  pride  of  purse.  He  is  kind, 
unafifected  and  approachable,  and  every  comer 
has  a  claim  upon  his  courteous  attention.  Tliere 
has  been  nothing  sensational  in  his  career,  every 
step  has  been  thoughtfully  and  deliberately  made, 
and  every  advance  has  been  at  the  cost  of  hard 
and  self-denying  labor.     Born  to  lead,  his  great 


expLTicnce  makes  him  a  safe  counselor  and  guide. 
He  stands  to-day  in  his  mature  years  a  strong 
man,  strong  in  the  consciousness  of  well-spent 
years,  strong  to  plan  and  perform,  strong  in  his 
credit  and  good  name,  and  a  worthy  example  for 
young  men  to  pattern  after. 

The  institution  that  he  founded,  and  at  whose 
head  he  has  been  for  so  many  years,  will  stand 
long  after  he  has  passed  from  the  scene  of  his 
earthly  labors, — a  monument  to  his  energy  and 
a  visible  proof  of  what  he  was  able  to  accomplish 
in  a  long  and  active  career.  Mr.  English  has 
rounded  the  psalmist's  span  of  three-score  years 
and  ten  with  mental  and  physical  vigor  unim- 
paired, overcoming  the  ordinary  and  usual  cares 
and  weaknesses  of  age  by  active  interest  and  par- 
ticipation in  the  living  issues  and  affairs  of  the 
day.  Surrounded  at  his  home  by  those  who 
without  regard  to  party  affiliations  are  his 
warm  personal  friends,  and  favorably  known  to 
hosts  of  men  who  h.ave  transacted  business  with 
him  during  the  past  half  century,  his  career  is 
one  that  he  can  look  back  upon  with  just  and 
pardonable  pride.  And  in  the  years  to  come  his 
name  will  be  found  enrolled  foremost  and  lus- 
trous on  the  annals  of  Danville, — a  city  wherein 
he  has  labored  so  long,  so  faitlifully  and  so 
well,  a  city  that  has  been  enriched  by  that  la- 
bor as  well  as  by  his  character  and  his  example. 


THOMAS  A.  GALT, 


STERLING. 


THOMAS  ALEXANDER  GALT,  the  most 
prominent  citizen  of  Sterling,  was  born  in 
the  eastern  part  of  Lancaster  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, on  the  13th  day  of  January,  1828.  He  is 
of  Scotch-Irish  descent.'  His  first  ancestor  on 
his  fathers  side  in  this  country  emigrated  to  Lan- 
caster, Pennsylvania,  in  17 10,  and  the  entire  fam- 
ily with  the  exception  of  our  subject  have  since 
been  farmers.  Thomas  A.  is  the  eldest  son  of  the 
six  sons  and  four  daughters  of  William  and  Mary 
Ann  (Thomas)  Gait,  both  natives  of  the  Keystone 
State.  Our  subject's  maternal  grandfather  was 
a  distinguished  citizen  of  that  commonwealth,  and 
at  one  time  was  president  of  the  Bank  of  Mont- 


gomery County,  who  lived  to  the  ripe  age  of 
ninety-six  years. 

After  Thomas  was  ten  years  of  age  he  assisted 
on  the  farm  during  the  summer  months  and  at- 
tended school  during  the  winters.  Thus  his  life 
was  occupied  until  he  was  fourteen  years  of  age, 
at  which  time  his  father  died  and  he  was  forced 
cut  into  the  world  to  make  his  own  living.  As 
tlie  eldest  son  he  had  the  responsibility  of  caring 
for  the  younger  children,  and  so  well  did  he  look 
after  their  welfare  that  he  was  enabled  to  give 
them  all  the  blessing  he  denied  himself, — a  good 
sound  education.  He  was  rich  in  a  stout  heart 
and  willing  hands,  and  in  an  ambition  that  perse- 


REPRESENTATIVK  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


219 


vcred  in  the  face  of  every  discourag;eiiicnt  and 
never  permitted  the  flagging  of  his  energy  or  his 
hfipe. 

When  seventeen  years  of  age  he  walked  into 
the  village  of  Strasburg,  with  no  other  earthly 
jKJSsession  than  the  clothes  he  wore  and  a  few 
small  articles  of  necessity  tied  in  a  handkerchief 
wliich  he  carried  in  his  hand.  Applying  at  the 
village  store  he  obtained  a  situation  that  paid  the 
(to him) the  magnificent  sum  of  fifty  dollars  a  year. 
He  now  had  the  opportunity  to  show  his  ability, 
and  he  improved  it.  He  soon  made  himself  so 
useful  that  he  became  almost  indispensable  to  his 
employer,  and  was  so  courteous  and  obliging 
that  the  majority  of  the  customers  insisted  that 
he  should  wait  upon  them.  The  result  was  that 
he  soon  acquired  an  interest  in  the  business,  and 
ultimately  became  its  sole  proprietor. 

While  thus  engaged  his  brother-in-law,  who 
was  in  business  in  Philadelphia,  urged  him  to 
come  to  that  city  and  locate;  but  he  refused  to  do 
so.  Later  he  visited  his  sister  in  Sterling,  Illinois, 
and  became  so  impressed  with  the  possibilities  of 
success  in  that  section  of  the  country  that  he  de- 
cided to  make  that  city  his  home.  He  accord- 
ingly disposed  of  his  store  at  Strasburg  and  re- 
moved to  Sterling,  which  at  that  time  was  only  a 
small  but  promising  village. 

Owing  to  his  push  and  energy  he  prospered  in 
Sterling  from  the  start,  and  soon  became  a  leading 
spirit  in  a  number  of  enterprises  which  aided 
greatly  in  developing  that  part  of  the  country, 
and  at  the  same  time  brought  wealth  to  t!ie  pro- 
jectors. 

Perhaps  the  one  venture  in  which  Air.  Gait  took 
the  greatest  interest  was  in  a  manufactory  of  ag- 
ricultural implements,  which  he  drifted  into  in 
1855,  employing  then  but  two  workmen.  Since 
that  time  it  has  increased  in  size  until  now  it  is 
the  Keystone  Manufacturing  Company  of  Ster- 
ling and  Rock  Falls,  one  of  the  largest  agricul- 
tural implement  factories  in  the  United  States, 
with  a  capital  stock  of  half  a  million  dollars  and 
a  pay-roll  that  has  reached  as  high  as  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars  a  month!  Ever  since  its  humble 
beginning  Mr.  Gait  has  been  the  chief  owner  of 
the  concern,  and  since  its  incorporation  has  been 
president  of  the  companv.  His  son,  E.  Le  Rov 
Gait,  who  has  inherited  from  his  father  a  high 


degree  of  business  sagacity,  is  treasurer  of  the 
corporation.  During  all  the  years  of  its  exist- 
ence Mr.  Gait  has  been  active  in  promoting  its 
welfare,  and  for  forty  years  his  has  been  the  heart 
to  resolve,  the  brain  to  direct,  and  the  hand  to 
execute  all  of  the  varied  and  detailed  minutiae 
of  its  affairs.  To  his  vigorous  will  and  splendid 
ability  its  prosperity  may  be  ascribed. 

Mr.  Gait  is  also  connected  with  a  number  of 
other  manufacturing  establishments  in  this  lo- 
cality, being  a  stockholder  and  director  of  the 
Sterling  Manufacturing  Company,  manufactur- 
ers of  farm  machinery;  of  the  Charter  Gas  En- 
gine Company,  makers  of  the  well-known  gas 
engine  of  that  name,  and  of  the  Rock  Falls  Man- 
ufacturing Company,  manufacturers  of  burial 
caskets.  He  is  also  the  sole  (hmu'v  in  the  Eu- 
reka Company,  which  turns  out  a  tine  line  of 
carriages  and  other  vehicles,  and  in  the  Eureka 
T'"urniture  Company.  The  private  bank  of  Thomas 
A.  Gait  &  Son,  at  Sterling,  with  a  branch  at  Rock 
Falls,  known  as  Gait's  bank,  and  a  strong  and 
safe  institution,  ably  and  conser%'atively  managed, 
belongs  to  jNIr.  Gait,  and  in  the  field  of  finance, 
•as  well  as  in  that  of  commerce,  he  has  shown 
more  than  ordinary  ability.  Most  men,  with  the 
multiplicity  of  business  cares  that  Mr.  Gait  has, 
would  be  unable  to  give  each  and  all  of  them 
proper  attention,  and  yet  Mr.  Gait  not  only  docs 
that,  but  carries  in  his  head  the  most  minute  de- 
tails of  their  affairs,  while  his  knowledge  of  the 
business  of  each  is  such  that  he  directs  their  op- 
erations with  seemingly  less  annoyance  than 
many  men  show  in  managing  the  affairs  of 
one  company  of  less  magnitude  than  any  one  of 
these. 

To  give  an  idea  of  Mr.  Gait's  wonderful  mem- 
ory we  relate  an  instance  that  occurred  a  ?hort 
time  ago.  While  speaking  of  the  village  of  Stras- 
burg with  a  gentleman,  Mr.  Gait  made  a  rough 
draft  to  represent  its  main  streets,  and  then  with 
his  pencil  marked  off  and  named  the  occupant 
of  each  dwelling  thereon  as  it  was  when  he  left 
there  fifty  years  before.  The  gentleman  who  saw 
him  do  this  was  so  amazed  that  he  wrote  to  Stras- 
burg to  see  w-hether  it  were  correct,  and  found 
that  it  was  not  only  a  correct  list  of  those  who 
occupied  the  buildings  at  the  time,  but  also  that 
not  a  person  named,  with  but  one  exception,  was 


220 


BIOORAPirrCAL  DICTFONART  AKD  PORTRAIT  CALLEHY  OF  THE 


now  living, — thus  showing  that  Mr.  Gait's  mem- 
orj'  alone  made  the  feat  possible. 

While  Mr.  Gait  has  made  for  himself  a  vast 
fortune,  he  has  at  the  same  time  added  wonder- 
fully to  the  wealth  of  Sterling  and  Rock  Falls, 
and  has  always  been  mindful  of  their  interests. 
He  has  done  a  great  deal  of  building,  and  some 
of  the  best  and  finest  business  blocks  in  Sterling 
give  evidence  of  his  public  spirit. 

In  political  belief  Mr.  Gait  is  a  strong  Repub- 
lican. He  ser\-ed  as  mayor  of  his  city  for  one 
term,  but  though  repeatedly  urged  to  allow  the 
use  of  his  name  in  conection  with  other  offices, 
he  has  invariably  refused,  preferring  to  attend  to 
his  own  affairs  and  leave  the  self-seeking  to  oth- 
ers. During  President  Harrison's  administra- 
tion he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  commis- 
sion who  were  to  treat  with  certain  tribes  of  In- 
dians in  California.  The  tender  of  the  appoint- 
ment came  by  telegraph,  but  Mr.  Gait  refused 
to  accept  it,  feeling  that  he  had  too  many  of  his 
own  pnvate  matters  on  hand  to  give  it  the  at- 


tention it  properly  required.  He  takes  a  citi- 
zen's interest  in  good  government,  but  political 
conductorship  or  conquest  are  for  him  without 
charm.  The  peaceful,  quiet  walks  of  business  life 
are  more  to  his  liking,  and  here  he  has  ever  been 
successful,  and  here  has  been  the  true  sphere  of 
his  usefulness. 

Mr.  Gait  has  been  twice  married.  His  first 
wife,  to  whom  he  was  united  in  Connecticut  in 
1850,  was  Miss  Sallie  Julina  Jones.  Of  this  union 
were  bom  two  children,  both  of  whom  died  in 
infancy.  Mrs.  Gait  died  at  Strasburg  in  1853. 
In  1856  I\Ir.  Gait  married  Miss  Catherine  An- 
thony, a  sister  of  Judge  Elliott  Anthony,  of  Chi- 
cago. Three  children  of  this  marriage  are  dead. 
One  son,  Elliott  Le  Roy,  and  four  daughters  are 
living.  ISIr.  Gait's  son  was  married  to  j\Iiss  An- 
nie Carter,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts.  Her 
death  occurred  in  December,  1894,  and  came 
as  a  personal  sorrow  to  a  large  circle  of  friends 
and  acquaintances.  She  is  survived  by  four 
children. 


THOMAS  F.  TIPTON, 


BLOOMINGTON. 


THE  glor}'  of  our  republic  is  in  the  perpetua- 
tion of  individuality  and  in  the  according  of 
the  utmost  scope  for  individual  accomplishment. 
Fostered  under  the  most  auspicious  of  surround- 
ings tliat  can  encompass  one  who  has  the  will  to 
dare  and  to  do,  our  nation  has  almost  spontane- 
ously produced  men  of  finest  mental  calibre,  of 
true  virile  strength  and  vigorous  purpose.  The 
cradle  has  not  ever  been  one  of  pampered  luxury, 
but  tlie  modest  couch  of  infancy  has  often  rocked 
future  greatness.  American  biography  thus  be- 
comes, perhaps,  one  of  more  perfect  individuality, 
in  the  general  as  well  as  the  specific  case,  than 
does  that  of  any  other  nation  of  the  globe.  Of 
America  is  the  self-made  man  a  product,  and  the 
record  of  accomplishments  in  this  individual  sense 
is  the  record  which  the  true  and  loyal  American 
holds  in  deepest  regard  and  highest  honor.  In 
tracing  the  career  of  the  subject  of  this  review  we 
are  enabled  to  gain  a  recognition  of  this  sort  of  a 
record,  for  he  is  a  man  of  broadest  intellectuality 
and  one  who  has  attained  to  distinguished  honors. 


P'or  this  reason  there  is  particular  interest  attach- 
ing to  the  points  which  mark  his  progress  in  life, 
and  this  sketch  is  amply  justified. 

Thomas  F.  Tipton,  the  present  incumbent  as 
circuit  judge  of  the  eleventh  judicial  circuit  of  Illi- 
nois, was  born  near  Harrisburg,  Franklin  county, 
Ohio,  on  the  29th  of  August,  1833.  The  Tiptons 
have  been  residents  of  America  since  the  pre- 
Revolutionary  period,  and  the  representatives  of 
the  family  as  disseminated  throughout  the  Union 
all  trace  their  genealogical  record  back  to  the 
State  of  Maryland.  The  grandfather  of  our  sub- 
ject, Sylvester  Tipton,  removed  from  ^Maryland  to 
what  is  now  central  Ohio,  about  the  year  1790, 
this  section  being  at  that  time  part  of  the  North- 
western Territor}'.  Here  he  followed  the  vocation 
of  schoolteaching  until  he  was  nearly  eighty  years 
of  age.  He  reared  a  family  of  eight  children — 
four  sons  and  four  daughters.  His  youngest  son, 
Hiram,  was  the  father  of  the  immediate  subject  of 
this  review. 

Hiram  Tipton  was  born  in  1802,  and  devoted  his 


^  r)\ 


IlEPRESENTAriVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


221 


life  to  agricultural  pursuits.  In  1827  he  was  united 
in  marriage  to  Deborah  Ogden,  a  daughter  of  Al- 
bert Ogden,  of  Fayette  county,  Ohio.  After  his 
marriage  he  remained  in  Franklin  county  until 
1837,  when  he  removed  to  Pickaway  county, 
Ohio,  and  tliere  remained  until  the  fall  of  1844, 
when  he  left  the  Buckeye  State  and  took  up  his 
abode  in  McLean  county,  Illinois,  where  he  died 
on  the  20th  of  March,  1845,  leaving  his  widow 
and  three  small  children,  namely:  Thomas  F., 
subject  of  tliis  sketch;  John,  now  a  resident  of 
Saybrook,  Illinois;  and  Jane,  who  is  the  wife  of 
William  S.  Tuttle,  who  died  September,  26,  1885, 
He  also  was  a  resident  of  Saybrook,  where  his 
widow  still  resides. 

Thomas  F.  Tipton  began  his  individual  eflforts 
in  life  at  the  early  age  of  twelve  years,  living  with 
his  uncle,  John  Ogden,  and  devoting  his  time  dur- 
ing the  summer  months  to  work  on  the  fann, 
while  in  the  winters  he  w-as  enabled  to  attend  the 
district  schools.  He  continued  in  this  routine  un- 
til he  had  attained  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  after 
which  he  attended  school  for  two  years  at  Lex- 
ington, where  he  pursued  his  studies  under  the 
effective  tutorage  of  Colonel  William  N.  Color. 
After  putting  his  acquirements  to  practical  test  by 
teaching  school  for  a  year,  be  made  ready  to  pre- 
pare himself  for  that  profession  which  his  ambition 
had  led  him  to  adopt  as  his  vocation  in  life.  He 
entered  the  law  ofifice  of  H.  N.  Keightley,  a  promi- 
nent attorney  of  Knoxville,  Illinois,  and  \\'as 
licensed  to  practice  law  on  the  6th  of  June,  1854, 
being  then  in  his  twenty-first  year.  He  opened 
an  office  in  Lexington,  this  State,  and  at  once  en- 
tered vigorously  upon  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion, retaining  his  residence  in  Lexington  for  a 
period  of  seven  years  and  gaining  no  little  pres- 
tige by  reason  of  his  ability  and  determined  efforts. 
In  January,  1862,  he  removed  to  Bloomington, 
and  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year  he  here 
fiTined  a  professional  association  with  Judge 
R.  M.  Benjamin,  one  of  the  framers  of  the  State 
constitution  of  1870.  In  1868  Hon.  Lawrence  Wel- 
don,  now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  United  States 
court  of  claims,  became  a  meniljer  of  the  firm, 
which  gained  recognition  as  one  of  the  ablest  le- 
gal associations  in  central  Illinois. 

In   3866  Mr.  Tipton  was  appointed  by  Gov- 
ernor Oglcsby  as  State's  attorney  of  the  old  eighth 


judicial  district,  which  incumbency  he  retained  for 
two  \ears.  The  firm  of  Weldon,  Tipton  &  Ben- 
jamin continued  until  August,  1870,  at  w^hich 
time  our  subject  was  elected  circuit  judge  of  the 
eighth  circuit,  which  then  comprised  the  counties 
of  McLean,  Logan  and  DeWitt,  and  he  accord- 
ingly retired  from  the  finn.  In  1873  the  circuit 
was  changed,  and  the  new  eighth  comprised  the 
counties  of  McLean  and  Ford.  He  was  elected 
judge  of  the  new  circuit,  and  his  tenure  in  that 
office  continued  until  1877.  In  the  fall  of  the  pre- 
ceding year  he  had  been  elected,  as  a  Republican, 
to  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  and  his  resignation 
of  the  office  of  circuit  judge  was  tendered  on  the 
1st  of  March,  1877.  His  service  in  the  halls  of 
Congress  was  characterized  by  that  sterling  wis- 
dom and  practical  judgment  wdiich  he  had  shown 
so  perfectly  in  his  professional  career,  and  was  of 
that  discriminating  and  faithful  order  which  not 
only  gained  to  him  the  endorsement  of  his  con- 
stituents, but  which  gained  him  recognition  as 
an  honest  representative  and  a  true  statesman. 

Soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  State  constitu- 
tion, in  1870,  a  case  was  brought  before  Judge 
Tipton  which  involved  the  question  as  to  the  right 
of  railroad  corporations  to  discriminate  against 
localities  in  the  charging  more  for  a  less  than  a 
greater  distance  for  transportation  on  tlie  same 
line  and  in  the  same  division.  His  decision  in 
that  case  fully  sustained  the  position  of  the  people 
and  asserted  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  leg- 
islature to  control  the  charges  of  railroad  corpora- 
tions and  to  prevent  extortions  and  unjust  dis- 
criminations. This  was  the  first  of  a  series  of 
cases  that  came  before  the  courts  of  Illinois,  and 
all  were  watched  with  absorbing  interest,  not  only 
by  the  people  of  the  State  but  by  the  whole 
country,  until  the  constitutional  powers  of  the 
legislature  to  regulate  railroad  and  warehouse 
charges,  and  to  thereby  protect  the  public  against 
imposition,  were  finally  established  by  the  su- 
preme court  of  tlie  United  States,  in  what  are 
known  as  the  Granger  cases. 

After  Judge  Tipton  returned  from  Congress  he 
was  again  actively  concerned  in  the  practice  of 
his  profession  until  1891,  when  he  was  agam 
elected  one  of  the  circuit  judges  for  what  is  now 
the  eleventh  judicial  circuit,  composed  of  the  coun- 
ties of  McLean,  Livingston,  Kankakee,  Iroquois 


222 


nroaiiAP/rroAL  nrcrroyARY  and  portrait  gallery  of  the 


and  Ford,  and  he  is  still  serving  in  this  important 
office,  for  which  he  is  so  eminently  qualified  by 
both  natural  ability  and  long  experienci-  in  the 
judicial  functions. 

Judge  Tipton  is  a  man  of  broad  intellectual  cul- 
ture, and  has  ever  maintained  a  lively  interest  in 
the  higher  forms  of  literature,  his  private  liljrary 
being  one  of  exceptionally  comprehensive  and  se- 
lect order,  as  touching  the  purely  literary  pro- 
ductions, while  his  law  library  is  considered  as 
one  of  the  best  private  collections  in  the  State. 
While  practicing  at  the  bar  he  proposed  and  se- 
cured the  organization  of  the  Bloomington  Law 
Library  Association,  which  has  full  sets  of  all  the 
State  and  Federal  reports,  besides  most  of  the 
English  reports.  His  services  in  this  regard  are 
not  to  be  held  in  light  estimation,  for  they  have  se- 
cured to  Bloomington  an  accession  which  will  be 
'  of  lasting  value  and  constant  benefit. 

The   marriage   of  Judge   Tipton   to    Mary   J. 


Strayer  was  consummated  in  Bloomington,  in  the 
year  1856.  Mrs.  Tipton  is  a  native  of  Logan 
county,  Ohio,  being  the  daughter  of  Nicholas 
Strayer,  whose  demise  occurred  prior  to  her  mar- 
riage. 

To  Judge  and  Mrs.  Tipton  seven  children 
have  been  bom,  two  of  which  number  died  in  in- 
fancy. Harry  V.  died  March  31,  1887,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-seven  years.     Belle  E.  is  the  wife  of 

E.  E.  Van  Schoick,  of  Hastings,  Nebraska.  Helen 

F.  is  the  wife  of  William  R.  Bair,  of  Blooming- 
ton; and  Laura  B.  and  Thomas  W.  still  abide 
beneath  the  parental  roof. 

Judge  Tipton  is  a  man  of  distuictive  ability  and 
his  character  is  one  which  is  above  a  shadow  of 
reproach.  He  has  been  faithful  to  the  high  offices 
in  which  he  has  been  called  to  serve,  and  is 
widely  known  and  respected  by  all  who  have 
been  at  all  familiar  with  his  honorable  and  useful 
career. 


ALBERT  L.  COE, 


AMONG  the  earnest  men  whose  depth  of 
character  and  strict  adherence  to  principle 
excite  the  admiration  of  his  contemporaries  Mr. 
Coe  is  prominent.  Banking  institutions  are  the 
heart  of  the  commercial  body  indicating  the 
hcalthfulness  of  trade,  and  the  bank  that  follows 
a  safe,  conservative  business  policy  does  more 
to  establish  public  confidence  in  times  of  wide- 
spread financial  depression  than  anything  else. 
Such  a  course  has  the  Royal  Trust  Company 
Bank  followed  under  the  able  management  of 
its  president,  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

For  forty-two  years  has  he  been  one  of  the  most 
active  business  men  of  the  West.  Chicago  has  be- 
come the  commercial  center  of  the  New  World, — ■ 
a  result  produced  by  the  united  efforts  of  many 
able  men,  but  probably  no  single  individual  has 
done  more  for  the  development  of  the  city  than 
Mr.  Coe,  yet  in  a  quiet,  unostentatious  way. 

Albert  I^.  Coe  was  bom  in  Talmage,  Ohio, 
about  thirty-five  miles  southeast  of  the  city  of 
Cleveland,  and  is  a  son  of  Rev.  David  Lyman 
and  Polly  (Hayes)  Coe.    The  latter  was  a  daugh- 


ter of  Colonel  Richard  Hayes,  who  with  his  fam- 
ily left  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  the  spring  of 
1804  and  led  a  colony  of  emigrants  to  Ohio, 
where  in  the  then  far  West  they  secured  homes. 
They  settled  in  Hartford,  Trumbull  'county, 
naming  that  town,  together  with  a  number  of 
surrounding  villages,  after  the  various  places  in 
New  England  whence  they  had  come.  When 
the  war  of  1812  broke  out  that  neighborhood 
was  then  but  sparsely  settled,  yet  Colonel  H^yes 
managed  to  recruit  a  regiment  of  infantry  for 
service.  When  the  war  was  over  he  returned 
home  and  became  a  prosperous  merchant,  own- 
ing a  large  store,  mills,  stage  line  and  other  in- 
dustries, so  that  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1840, 
he  left  quite  a  large  fortune.  Rev.  David  Lyman 
Coe  was  a  graduate  of  Williams  College,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  soon  after  completing  that  course 
he  removed  to  the  Western  Reserve,  the  date  of 
his  settlement  there  being  1818.  His  death  oc- 
curred in  1837,  and  in  1839  Mrs.  Coe  became 
the  wife  of  Dr.  Orestes  Kent  Hawley. 

Albert  L.  Coe  acquired  his  early  education  in 


^^H^^yUf   iZi 


^"^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


223 


the  district  schools,  then  spent  two  years  in  an 
academy  at  Painesville,  Ohio,  and  further  pur- 
sued his  studies  in  Grand  River  Institute,  at  Aus- 
tinburg,  Ashtabula  county,  leaving  there  at  the 
age  of  seventeen  to  enter  upon  an  active  business 
care<?r.  There  were  some  exciting  days  in  his 
early  boyhood, — the  years  which  preceded  the 
Civil  war, — for  his  stepfather.  Dr.  Hawley,  was 
a  noted  abolitionist,  and  their  home  was  one  of 
the  stations  on  the  famous  Underground  Rail- 
road. Many  a  load  of  runaway  slaves  has  Mr. 
Coe  driven  to  various  points  on  Lake  Erie,  that 
they  might  secure  further  transportation  on  their 
way  to  the  North,  to  Canada  and  to  freedom. 
These  trips  often  had  to  be  made  in  the  night, 
for  the  pro-slavery  men  were  not  reserved  in 
threatening  how  violence  should  be  inflicted  on 
those  who  aided  the  oppressed  negro.  Mr.  Coe 
was  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  fourteen  years 
when  he  engaged  in  this  humane  work,  but 
though  so  young  he  was  a  good  horseman  and 
possessed  unusual  energy  and  fearlessness  for  a 
boy  of  his  age.  Near  his  home  lived  Joshua  R. 
Giddings  and  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  two  prominent 
abolition  workers  who  were  friends  of  the  fam- 
ily; and  it  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  young 
man  imbibed  a  love  of  liberty  and  hatred  of  per- 
secution which  have  colored  his  whole  life. 

When  about  eighteen  years  of  age  Mr.  Coe 
determined  to  leave  his  old  home,  and  in  1853 
became  a  resident  of  Chicago,  since  which  time 
he  has  been  prominently  connected  with  the 
business  interests  of  the  city.  In  Febraary,  1854, 
he  engaged  in  the  coal  business,  under  the  firm 
name  of  T.  R.  Clarke  &  Company,  the  firm  con- 
sisting of  Thomas  R.  Clarke,  Benjamin  Carpen- 
ter (the  father  of  George  B.  Caqjenter,  of  this 
city)  and  Albert  L.  Coe.  Three  years  later  Mr. 
Clarke  retired  and  the  firm  name  was  changed  to 
Coe  &  Carpenter,  which  was  continued  until 
after  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  war. 

Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon  and  the  months 
went  by  until  September,  1861,  during  which 
time  it  was  proven  that  the  war  was  to  be  no  holi- 
day affair.  Roused  by  a  spirit  of  patriotism  that 
he  never  thought  of  resisting,  even  though  his 
business  suflered,  Mr.  Coe  offered  his  services 
to  the  government  and  became  a  private  of  the 
Fifty-first  Illinois  Infantrv,  which  was  raised  in 


Chicago.  Before  leaving  the  recruiting  camp, 
however,  he  was  commissioned  second  lieuten- 
ant, and  soon  afterward  entered  the  field  as  first 
lieutenant,  serving  most  of  the  time  with  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland.  He  was  with  the 
commands  of  Generals  Pope,  Rosecrans,  Sheri- 
dan, Thomas,  Grant  and  Sherman,  and  did  de- 
tached service  at  the  headquarters  of  the  First 
Brigade,  Fourteenth  Army  Corps,  and  also  of 
the  Second  Division  of  the  same  corps.  He  par- 
ticipated in  the  capture  of  Island  No.  10,  took 
part  in  the  battles  of  Pittsburg  Landing,  Mission 
Ridge  and  the  Atlanta  campaign,  and  with 
Sherman  went  on  that  ever  memorable  "march 
to  the  sea";  then  with  the  victorious  amiy  from 
Savannah  through  the  Carolinas  to  Washing- 
ton, where  he  took  part  in  the  grand  review, 
while  "wave  after  wave  of  bayonet-crested  blue" 
swept  through  the  streets  of  the  city  that  they 
had  preserved  as  the  capital  of  an  undivided  na- 
tion. Mr.  Coe  left  the  service  with  a  captain's 
commission.  After  four  years  of  faithful  and 
meritorious  service  he  was  mustered  out,  in  No- 
vember, 1865,  at  Springfield,  Illinois. 

When  Mr.  Coe  was  again  at  liberty  to  take  up 
the  pursuits  of  peace  he  entered  the  real  estate 
business,  and  in  January,  1868,  the  well-known 
firm  of  Mead  &  Coe  was  established  and  has 
since  carried  on  operations.  No  real  estate  firm 
is  better  known  or  has  a  higher  reputation,  and 
the  volume  of  business  which  they  now  do  is 
very  large,  having  embraced  some  of  the  most 
extensive  transactions  in  realty  in  the  city.  Mr. 
Coe  aided  in  the  organization  of  the  Royal  Trust 
Companv  Bank,  which  is  capitalized  at  $500,000, 
and  of  which  he  has  been  president  from  the  be- 
ginning. James  B.  Wilbur  is  now  vice-president 
and  Charles  S.  Dickinson  cashier,  and  its  board 
of  directors  embraces  some  of  the  most  promi- 
nent and  substantial  business  men  of  the  city. 

While  a  member  of  the  army  Mr.  Coe  was 
united  in  marriage,  in  March,  1864,  with  Miss 
Charlotte  E.  (Woodward,  daughter  of  Joseph. 
Woodward,  a  prominent  merchant  of  Mansfield, 
Connecticut.  For  a  number  of  years  he  has 
been  a  member  and  a  trustee  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  of  Chicago,  and  served 
as  vice-president  of  the  board.  He  was  for  five 
years  treasurer  of  the  City  Missionary  Society, 


224 


BlOdRAPinCAL  DICrrONAnY  AND  PORTIiArT  GALLKRY  OP  THE 


and  is  still  a  member  of  its  directorate.  He  is 
also  a  director  and  active  member  of  the  Citi- 
zens' League,  and  has  been  a  director  of  the 
Auditorium  Association  since  the  year  of  its  es- 
tablishment. One  of  the  organizers  of  tlie  Union 
League  Club,  he  has  been  one  of  its  most  active 
and  efftcient  members,  serving  as  director  or 
officer  for  ten  years,  and  previous  to  1891  he  was 
vice-president  for  a  number  of  years.  As  an  in- 
terest in  military  affairs  has  been  maintained  since 
leaving  the  army,  he  aided  in  tlie  organization 
and  became  a  member  of  the  Illinois  National 
Guards,  while  from  1875  until  1880  he  served  as 
major  on  the  staff  of  General  A.  C.  Ducat,  and 
was  on  duty  during  the  riots  in  this  city  in  1877. 


He  also  belongs  to  George  H.  Thomas  Post,  G. 
A.  R.,  and  to  the  Loyal  Legion.  His  soldierly 
bearing  is  still  noticeable,  and  in  manner  he  is 
courteous  and  pleasant,  winning  friends  by  his 
genial  disposition  and  honorable  character,  which 
conmiands  the  respect  of  all.  He  is  public-spir- 
ited in  an  eminent  degree,  and  through  forty-two 
years  has  given  his  support  to  whatever  is  calcu- 
lated to  promote  the  general  welfare.  In  all  the 
relations  of  life,  whether  as  banker,  real  estate 
man,  soldier,  society  official  or  private  citizen, 
he  has  always  been  faithful  and  true,  and  in  his 
life  work,  eventful  and  varied  as  it  has  been,  no 
shadow  of  wrong  or  suspicion  of  evil  doing  dark- 
ens his  honored  pathway. 


THOMAS  DAVID  RANDALL, 


THOMAS  D.  RANDALL  is  the  pioneer 
commission  merchant  of  Chicago,  and  prob- 
ably no  man  is  more  familiar  with  the  history 
of  this  city  during  almost  half  a  century.  He 
established  a  business  here  that  has  passed 
through  financial  panics  and  fire  and  yet  has 
steadily  grown  and  increased  until  it  to-day  is 
one  of  the  most  extensive  of  the  West.  His 
history  is  largely  that  of  the  development  of  the 
commission  business  in  Chicago.  He  began 
operations  in  this  line  in  1852. 

Mr.  Randall  was  born  on  the  14th  of  August, 
1834,  near  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  and  is  a 
son  of  Richard  and  Betsy  (Wilcox)  Randall.  His 
father  was  bom  in  the  same  city,  January  9,  1802, 
was  a  machinist  by  trade  and  died  in  Chicago  in 
1878.  His  wife  was  boni  in  the  town  of  West 
Greenwich,  Rhode  Island,  in  181 1,  and  died  in 
her  native  State  in  1848.  The  Randalls  were 
among  the  first  settlers  of  New  England. 

The  gentleman  whose  name  heads  this  review 
spent  his  early  childhood  days  in  the  East,  but 
failing  health  caused  him  to  seek  the  more  in- 
vigorating climate  of  the  West  in  1850,  and  he 
came  to  Chicago,  then  a  little  town  bearing  no 
resemblance  to  the  metropolis  of  to-day.  It  had 
much  the  appearance  of  any  Western  town  that 
has  grown  with  rapidity,  the  improvements  which 


had  hitherto  been  made  having  been  designed 
more  for  utility  than  for  ornament.  The  place 
was  not  altogether  prepossessing,  and  during  his 
visit  to  his  xmcle  here  he  did  not  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  he  wished  to  make  Chicago  his  future 
home  and  returned  to  Rhode  Island.  His  taste 
of  Western  life,  however,  with  its  freedom,  its 
enterprise  and  progressiveness  unfitted  him  for 
a  residence  in  his  native  State,  and  in  1851  he 
again  came  to  Chicago,  where  he  engaged  in  the 
cigar  business.  The  following  year  he  did  the 
first  commission  business  transacted  in  the  city, 
and  disposing  of  his  cigar  store  embarked  in  the 
produce  business  in  the  old  State  street  market, 
a  structure  that  stood  in  the  middle  of  State  street 
between  Randolph  and  Lake.  His  first  sale  was 
con'lucted  on  the  following  method:  A  farmer 
from  Kankakee  came  to  the  city  to  sell  a  wagon 
load  of  tomatoes;  not  wishing  to  spend  his  time 
in  going  about  the  streets  and  disposing  of  them 
to  any  chance  customer,  Mr.  Randall  agreed  to 
sell  the  vegetable  for  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the 
gross  sales,  and  for  two  years  handled  the  fanner's 
tomatoes  on  that  basis,  when  a  reduction  in  com- 
mission was  made  and  eventually  the  margin  was 
reduced  to  ten  per  cent.  Tims  was  established 
the  pioneer  commission  business  which  has  grown 
to  such  extensive  and  important  proportions. 


m\    y 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


Mr.  Randall  continued  to  carry  on  operations 
in  the  old  quarters  of  the  market  until  it  was  torn 
down,  when  he  removed  to  the  Garrett 
block,  which  occupied  the  present  site  of 
Central  Music  Hall.  Chicago  was  then  be- 
comincf  a  commercial  center,  but  bore  little 
resemblance  to  the  city  of  to-day.  The  center  of 
the  conmiission  ti'ade — South  Water  street — was 
improved  with  a  few  shaky  wooden  elevators, 
bordering  on  the  river,  while  on  the  south  side 
were  saloons  and  boarding-houses.  Some  years 
elapsed  before  it  was  transformed  into  the  busy 
center  of  trade  known  at  the  present  time.  In 
the  meantime  a  commission  business  district  was 
established  on  Kinzie  street  near  the  Northwest- 
ern depot,  whence  the  first  railroad  was  built  about 
icS^o  out  toward  Galena,  thus  affording  railroad 
facilities.  Early  in  the  '60s  i\Ir.  Randall  removed  to 
South  Water  street,  being  among  the  first  to  locate 
there,  and  his  business  was  continued  with  good 
success  until  the  fire  of  1871,  which  is  almost  un- 
paralleled in  the  historj'  of  the  world.  Undeterred 
by  his  loss  he  soon  again  began  business  in 
temporary  quarters,  which  he  found  at  the  corner 
of  Twenty-second  and  State  streets  in  the  Broad- 
way market.  He  remained  there  until  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  after  which  he  spent  about  a  year 
on  Michigan  avenue,  south  of  Hubbard  court, 
and  the  next  spring  removed  to  118  South  Water 
street. 

About  1875  considerable  dissatisfaction  was 
expressed  among  commission  merchants  in  that 
locality  who  believed  that  the  rents  charged  them 
were  too  exorbitant.  Accordingly,  about  twenty- 
five  removed  to  Jackson  street  near  Fifth  avenue, 
Mr.  Randall  among  the  number.  Althaagh  he 
did  a  good  business  there  the  location  was  not  as 
advantageous  as  the  other  had  been,  and  he  re- 
turned to  South  Water  street,  where  he  has  since 
continued.  Business  is  now  conducted  under  the 
firm  name  of  T.  D.  Randall  &  Company,  and  the 
building  now  occupied  is  30x160  feet,  four  stories 
in  height  and  a  basement  under  the  whole.  He 
at  first  paid  a  rent  of  $1,200,  which  has  been  in- 
creased to  $4,500,  but  the  increase  in  his  business 
has  also  been  proportionate  and  they  are  enjoying 
a  very  extensive  trade.  The  firm  does  not  confine 
its  business  alone  to  South  Water  street,  but  has 
a  grain  and  hay  department,  which  furnishes  em- 

1.-. 


ploymcnt  to  a  dozen  men,  and  also  has  two  Board 
of  Trade  memberships.  The  business  on  South 
Water  street  is  now  largely  conducted  by  Mr. 
Randall's  sons,  thus  enabling  him  to  lay  aside 
business  cares  to  a  considerable  extent.  Since 
establishing  the  business,  Mr.  Randall  has  re- 
ceived shipment  continually  from  one  shipper  in 
Michigan  and  another  in  Illinois.  The  former 
has  supplied  game  for  the  past  forty  years.  Com- 
ing to  the  West  as  he  did  a  young  man  without 
capital,  Mr.  Randall  deserves  great  credit  for  his 
success  in  life.  He  has  made  the  most  of  his 
opportunities  and  by  carefully  watching  the 
markets  and  by  straightforward,  honorable  deal- 
ing has  secured  the  public  confidence  and  the 
public  patronage.  He  has  accumulated  a  hand- 
some property,  and  his  life  illustrates  what  can  be 
accomplished  through  industry,  perseverance, 
good  management  and  a  determination  to  suc- 
ceed. 

In  185s  Afr.  Randall  wedded  Miss  Ann  Lith- 
gow,  of  Chicago,  daughter  of  George  and 
Charlotte  Lithgow.  Her  father  died  in  Chicago 
about  1849,  'i''"^  licr  mother,  now  having  reached 
the  advanced  age  of  eighty-two  years,  finds  a 
pleasant  home  with  Mrs.  Randall.  To  our  sub- 
ject and  his  wife  have  been  born  eleven  children, 
nine  of  whom  are  living,  namely:  Bessie  A.,  now 
the  wife  of  George  S.  Bridge,  who  is  manager 
of  the  hay  and  grain  business  of  the  firm  of 
Randall  &  Company;  George  W.,  who  manages 
the  store  on  South  Water  street,  and  gives  his 
personal  attention  to  the  disposition  of  the  prod- 
uce; A.  L. ;  Ida  C,  now  Mrs.  FerreJl;  Charles 
H.,  who  attends  to  the  correspondence  of  the 
large  house  of  Randall  &  Company;  Clarence 
A.,  who  is  the  efficient  cashier  for  this  firm; 
Hector  L.,  in  the  hay  and  grain  department;  Eli 
',r.,  in  the  produce  department;  and  Truman  D., 
who  is  attending  school;  John  R.  and  Thomas  W. 
are  deceased.  The  family  has  a  very  pleasant 
home  at  2624  Calumet  avenue,  where  hospitality 
reigns  supreme  and  good  cheer  abounds. 

In  the  primary  organization  of  the  World's 
Fair  Association  he  was  a  member  of  the  finance 
committee  until  the  directors  were  elected. 

In  his  political  connections,  Mr.  Randall  is 
a  Republican,  warmly  advocating  the  principles 
of  his  party;  and  socially  he  is  a  Mason,  having 


226 


nronnAPuiCAL  dwttonauy  and  ronruAjr  qallert  of  the 


attained  to  the  Kiiiglit  Templar  degree  as  a  mem- 
ber of  Apollo  Commandery.  He  is  also  a  valued 
and  esteemed  meml^er  of  the  Washington  Park- 
Club,  of  the  Citizens'  Association  and  of  the  Citi- 
zens' League,  and  also  holds  a  membership  in  the 
Art  Institute  and  the  Field  Columbian  Museum. 
He  is  a  pleasant,  genial  gentleman,  who 
through  the  long  years  of  his  residence  in  Chi- 
cago has  made  a  host  of  warm  friends.  He  finds 
in  travel  a  source  of  recreation  and  pleasure,  and 
his  business  trips  have  made  him  particularly 
familiar  with  his  own  country.  He  has  vjsited 
every  fruit-growing  or  produce-shipping  locality 
of  note  in  the  United  States,  and  has  also   made 


tours  through  portions  of  South  America  and 
Alexico.  His  trade  extends  over  all  parts  of 
the  country.  As  the  founder  of  what  has  become 
one  of  the  most  important  lines  of  trade  in  the 
West  he  deserves  special  credit.  His  success  has 
beei".  the  result  of  honest,  persistent  efifort  in  the 
line  of  honorable  and  manly  dealing.  His  aims 
liave  ahvays  been  to  attain  to  the  best  and  he  has 
carried  forward  to  successful  completion  whatever 
he  has  undertaken.  His  life  has  marked  a  steady 
growth,  and  now  he  is  in  possession  of  an  ample 
competence,  and  more  than  all  has  that  content- 
ment that  comes  from  a  consciousness  of  having 
lived  for  a  noble  purpose. 


MERTON  Y.  CADY, 


MOLTNE. 


MERTON  YALE  CADY  was  born  in  New- 
])ort,  Herkimer  county.  New  York,  May 
20,  1840.  His  father,  Ira  L.  Cady,  who  was  by 
profession  a  bank-lock  expert,  was  a  native  of 
Connecticut,  and  married  Clotilda,  daughter  of 
Linus  Yale,  the  inventor  of  the  famous  Yale  lock. 
From  his  mother's  family  our  subject  gets  the 
name  of  Yale. 

Merton  passed  his  youth  in  the  village  of  New- 
port, receiving  there  such  rudiments  of  education 
as  were  obtainable  at  the  time,  and  later  became  a 
student  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  Cooperstown, 
New  York.  Leaving  that  institution  at  the  age 
of  seventeen  he  went  to  New  York  city,  where 
he  passed  the  subsequent  five  years  in  learning 
a  trade, — that  of  iron  architecture.  Being  pos- 
sessed of  a  natural  genius  for  mechanics, — a 
characteristic  which  was  undoubtedly  inherited 
from  his  grandfather, — he  spent  a  number  of 
years  in  various  pursuits,  finally  becoming  as  his 
father  had  been,  a  bank-lock  expert,  dififering, 
however,  from  his  parent,  in  that  he  thoroughly 
understood  all  the  mechanical  details  of  his 
calling,  while  his  father  had  but  a  supervisory 
knowledge.  For  five  years  he  followed  his  pro- 
fession in  New  York  city,  or  until  the  great  fire 
in  Chicago  in  1871,  at  which  time  he  removed  to 
the  latter  city  and  continued  in  the  same  occupa- 
tion until  1877,  when  he  moved  to  Moline,  and 


took  up  his  profession  of  architecture.  Later  he 
added  interior  decorating  to  his  business,  and  has 
continued  in  such  lines  ever  since.  He  has  done 
work  upon  the  principal  buildings  of  Moline, 
notably  the  John  Deere  and  postofiice  buidings, 
and  has,  by  talking  and  working  for  innovations 
and  improvements  in  various  directions,  been  the 
means  of  giving  employment  to  more  artisans 
than  any  other  man  in  the  city, — excepting  of 
course  the  great  manufacturing  establishments. 
Thoroughly  a  lover  of  art,  as  it  relates  to  his  pro- 
fession, he  has  done  a  great  deal  of  work  for 
which  no  recompense  was  obtained,  it  being  to 
him  a  labor  of  love.  His  reward  being  in  the  frui- 
tion of  his  plans,  rather  than  in  any  pecuniary 
benefit  arisingtherefrom.  Mr.  Cady  was  oneof  the 
board  of  judges  of  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position in  1893,  a  position  for  which  he  was  well 
qualified. 

In  politics  Mr.  Cady  is  a  Republican,  but  polit- 
ical conditionship  or  conquest  for  him  are  with- 
out chami. 

Personally,  he  is  of  a  genial  and  urbane  disposi- 
tion, and  for  his  friends  and  intimates  has  a  frank, 
warm  and  loyal  attachment,  as  warmly  and  loyally 
reciprocated.  His  life  has  been  spent  in  doing 
practical  good  rather  than  in  pursuit  of  name  and 
fame,  and  the  peaceful,  quiet  walks  of  life,  un- 
ilistmbed  h\  outside  causes,  are  more  to  his  liking 


^,^.^J^;^j^zx^^^,.^L^^m 


REPRESEJSTTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


227 


than  public  position  of  any  sort.  In  tlie  liigliest 
and  best  sense  of  the  term  he  is  ever  and  essen- 
tially a  gentleman,  while  at  his  own  home 
he  is  especially  considerate  and  hospitable,  and 
all  who  meet  him  there  will  bear  witness  to 
his  much  more  than  ordinary  courtesy  and 
kindness. 

In  1865  Mr.  Cady  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Alice  Deere,  daughter  of  the  late  Hon.  John 
Deere,  of  IMoline.  Mr.  and  i\Irs.  Cady  have  two 
children,— John  D.and  Miss  Alice  M.  Their  home, 
the  former  residence  of  Hon.  John   Deere  and 


the  outgrowth  of  his  various  ideas,  which  became 
the  property  of  Mrs.  Cady  upon  the  death  of  her 
father  in  1887 — is  one  of  the  handsomest  in 
Moline  or  the  adjacent  cities  of  Rock  Island  and 
Davenport.  Situated  as  it  is  upon  the  summit 
of  the  blufif  overlooking  the  Mississippi,  it  com- 
mands a  view  of  unsuq^assed  beauty  of  scenery 
that  one  is  loth  to  leave.  As  a  hostess  and  enter- 
tainer Mrs.  Cady  enjoys  a  reputation  that  ex- 
tends far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  city  of  her  home, 
and  her  name  is  a  synonym  for  kindness  and  hos- 
pitality. 


JOHN  B.  HAMILTON,  M.  D.,  LL.D., 


THE  world  instinctively  pays  deference  to  the 
man  whose  success  has  been  worthily 
achieved,  who  has  attained  wealth  by  honorable 
business  methods,  acquired  the  highest  reputation 
in  his  chosen  calling  by  merit,  and  whose  social 
prominence  is  not  the  less  the  result  of  an  irre- 
proachable life  than  of  recognized  natural  gifts. 
We  pay  the  highest  tribute  to  the  heroes  who  on 
bloody  battle-fields  win  victories  and  display  a 
valor  that  is  the  admiration  of  the  world.  Why 
should  the  tribute  be  withheld  from  those  who 
wage  the  bloodless  battles  of  civil  life,  who  are 
conquerors  in  the  world  of  business?  Greater 
than  in  almost  any  line  of  work  is  the  responsi- 
bility that  rests  upon  the  physician.  The  issues 
of  life  and  death  are  in  his  hands.  A  false  pre- 
scription, an  unskilled  operation  may  take  from 
man  that  which  he  prizes  above  all  else — life. 
The  physician's  power  must  be  his  own:  not  by 
purchase,  by  gift  or  by  influence  can  he  gaui  it. 
He  must  commence  at  the  very  beginning,  leam 
the  very  rudiments  of  medicine  anid  surgery,  con- 
tinually add  to  his  knowledge  by  close  study  and 
earnest  application  and  gain  reputation  by  merit. 
If  he  would  gain  the  highest  prominence  it  must 
come  as  the  result  of  superior  skill,  knowledge  and 
ability,  and  these  qualifications  are  possessed  in 
an  eminent  degree  by  Dr.  Hamilton.  He  is  known 
throughout  the  country  as  one  of  the  most  emi- 
nent members  of  the  profession  in  the  United 
States,  and  his  opinions  are  recognized  as  au- 


thiirity  throughout  a  great  portion  of  America. 

The  life  history  of  such  a  man  is  always  of 
profit  as  well  as  interest.  He  was  born  in  Jersey 
county,  Illinois,  December  i,  1847,  ^"'1  's  the  eld- 
est in  a  family  of  nine  children,  whose  parents 
were  Benjamin  B.  and  Mary  (Chandler)  Hamil- 
ton. He  descends  from  an  ancient  an  honored 
Scottish  family,  whose  memoirs  and  deeds  are  re- 
corded on  numerous  pages  of  Scotch  history. 
The  original  American  ancestor,  James  Hamil- 
ton, with  other  members  of  the  family,  was  taken 
prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  Scotland,  and 
sent  in  captivity  to  America  on  the  brig  John  and 
Sarah,  which  sailed  for  this  country  in  1652. 
James  Hamilton  located  in  Worcester,  Massachu- 
setts, and  his  descendants  are  now  quite  widely 
scattered  over  the  States  of  the  Union. 

The  great-grandfather  of  the  Doctor,  Nathaniel 
Hamilton,  was  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, serving  under  the  daring  Ethan  Allen.  When 
the  war  was  over  he  settled  at  Point  Harmer,  in 
Ohio,  now  the  city  of  Marietta.  His  son,  Thomas 
McCluer,  was  drafted  for  service  in  the  Indian 
wars,  but  in  his  stead  the  father  went.  After  the 
battle  of  Tippecanoe  he  sen'ed  in  the  Ohio  legis- 
lature and  was  a  very  prominent  and  influential 
citizen. 

Thomas  M.  Hamilton's  early  years  were  largely 
passed  in  Ohio,  and  in  1818  he  removed  with  his 
family  to  Monroe  county,  Illinois — the  year  of  the 
admission  of  the  State  into  the  Union.     He  mar- 


38 


IlIOCItAPllJrM,  DICTIOXARY  AKI)  PORTIiA/T  OALLEUV  OF  THE 


ried  a  daughter  of  Captain  llcnjaniin  Brown, 
who  served  ihroujilunit  the  Revolutionary  war 
and  was  captain  in  Waslii'ngton's  body  guards. 
He  was  a  descendant  of  William  Brown,  one  of 
the  original  proprietors  of  the  town  of  Leicester, 
Massachusetts.  Tlie  Brown  family  was  also  well 
represented  by  valiant  soldiers  battling  for  their 
country's  freedom,  four  brothers  participating  in 
thebattleof  Bunker  Hill,  where  one  was  wounded. 
Captain  John  Brown,  father  of  Benjamin  Brown, 
had  also  participated  in  the  French  and  Indian 
war  and  commanded  a  company  at  Lewisburg. 
Thus  from  sturdy,  honored  ancestry  is  the  Doctor 
spnmg,  and  in  the  affairs  of  a  nation  which  his 
ancestors  helped  to  found  he  has  been  alike  promi- 
nent in  the  line  of  his  profession. 

The  Hamilton  family  removed  from  Monroe 
county,  Illinois,  to  Greene  county,  this  State,  in 
1830,  there  joining  Dr.  Silas  Hamilton,  a  younger 
brother  of  Nathaniel,  who  founded  the  first  free 
school  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  He  had  formerly 
lived  in  Mississippi,  where  he  practiced  medicine 
for  a  few  years.  He  had  owned  a  number  of  ne- 
groes and  gave  to  all  of  them  their  freedom  ex- 
cept one  boy,  George  Washington,  who  had  come 
with  him  to  Illinois,  where  he  was  reared  and  at- 
tended the  free  school  which  the  Doctor  founded. 
After  the  Doctor's  death  he  lived  with  the  latter's 
brother.  Subsequently  he  became  well-to-do,  and 
in  his  will  he  left  money  for  the  erection  of  a  mon- 
ument to  the  memory  of  his  benefactor  and  also 
to  educate  negroes.  At  this  writing,  in  1895,  there 
is  now  a  student  in  Rush  Medical  College  whose 
tuition  is  paid  from  this  fund. 

Benjamin  B.  Hamilton,  father  of  the  Doctor, 
acquired  his  elementary  education  in  that  school, 
and  later  at  Shurtlefif  College.  He  became  one  of 
the  leaders  in  the  anti-slavery  movement,  and  in 
1835  was  the  secretary  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society 
of  which  William  Palmer,  father  of  Senator 
Palmer,  was  president,  and  of  which  Elihu 
Palmer  was  also  a  member.  The  organiza- 
tion was  known  as  tlie  Lofton's  Prairie  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  and  held  regular  meetings 
until  long  after  the  death  of  Elijah  Lovejoy.  The 
old  records — papers  of  great  interest  and  value — 
are  now  in  possession  of  the  Doctor.  Tluis,  like 
his  ancestors,  Benjamin  Hamilton  worked  for  the 
good  of  his  country,  and  by  all  who  knew  him 


he  was  held  in  the  highest  respect  for  his  fidelity  to 
principle.  He  wedded  Mary  Chandler,whose  great- 
grandfather was  also  in  the  army  of  Ethan  Allen, 
and  was  descended  from  Captain  John  Chandler, 
who  was  a  Colonial  sheriff  of  Worcester 
county,  Massachusetts,  receiving  his  commis- 
sion from  the  town.  Benjamin  Hamilton  died 
in  October,  1894,  at  the  age  of  seventy-two  years, 
but  his  wife  is  still  living,  and  now  makes  her 
home  in  Upper  Alton,  Illinois.  He  was  licensed 
as  a  minister  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  1839,  was 
regularly  ordained  in  1844,  and  preached  in  Jer- 
sey, Greene  and  Scott  counties  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death.  He  had  a  remarkable  memory  for  per- 
sons and  events,  and  wrote  much  on  church  and 
historical  matters.  He  also  served  with  distinction 
in  the  late  Civil  war,  as  chaplain  of  the  Sixty- 
first  Regiment  of  Illinois  Infantrv,  from  1862  until 
1865. 

In  the  State  which  is  yet  his  home  Dr.  Hamil- 
ton was  reared,  acquiring  his  early  education  in 
the  Hamilton  school,  after  which  he  ob- 
tained a  classical  education  under  the  instruc- 
tion of  Professor  John  Grant,  a  famous  Latin 
teacher  of  Edinburg,  Scotland.  A  man  of  his 
mental  caliber  naturally  prepared  himself  for  pro- 
fessional life,  and  his  choice  led  him  to  take  up 
the  study  of  medicine,  which  he  began  in  1863, 
in  the  office  of  Dr.  Joseph  O.  Hamilton.  In  1864 
he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  Company  G,  Sixty-first 
Illinois  Infantry,  but  being  a  minor  was  never 
mustered  in.  In  1867  he  entered  Rush  Medical 
College,  of  Chicago,  at  which  he  was  graduated 
in  February,  1869,  and  from  March  of  that  year 
until  1874  he  engaged  in  general  practice.  At 
the  latter  date,  having  passed  the  army  examining 
board,  he  received  the  appointment  of  assistant 
surgeon  and  first  lieutenant  of  the  United  States 
Army,  and  served  at  the  barracks  in  St.  Louis, 
and  in  the  department  of  the  Columbia  at  Fort 
Colville,  Washington,  which  position  he  resigned 
in  1876.  In  September  of  that  year  he  entered 
the  United  States  marine  hospital  service,  as 
assistant  surgeon,  and  was  ordered  to  Boston, 
where,  in  June,  1877,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  surgeon.  His  fitness  for  responsible  position, 
his  superior  merit  and  skill  were  thus  recognized, 
and  in  April,  1879,  he  was  again  promoted,  being 
then  made  supervising  surgeon-general  to  succeed 


RKPRESENTATH^E  men  op  TUE  united  STATES;  ILLINOIS  V^.VME. 


229 


General  John  I\I.  Woodworth,  who  (hcd  on  the 
loth  of  March  of  that  year.  General  Hamilton 
immediately  began  the  reorganization  of  the 
service,  and  Congress  finally  passed  a  law  placing 
the  corps  upon  practically  the  same  footing  as  the 
medical  corps  of  the  army  and  navy.  During  his 
incumbency  of  the  office  he  succeeded  in  having 
the  national  quarantine  acts  passed,  and  success- 
fully managed  the  campaign  against  two  epi- 
demics of  yellow  fever.  In  1888  he  personally 
took  charge  of  the  construction  and  establishment 
of  the  first  camp  for  the  reception  of  yellow  fever 
refugees  ever  established.  This  was  known  as 
Camp  Perry  and  was  located  on  St.  Mary's  river. 
In  June,  1891,  the  house  of  representatives  hav- 
ing for  the  second  time  failed  to  pass  the  senate 
bill  providing  for  the  equalization  of  the  salary 
of  the  office  with  that  of  the  surgeon-general  of 
the  army  and  the  surgeon-general  of  the  navy, 
Dr.  Hamilton  resigned  his  commission  of  surgeon- 
general  and  once  more  returned  to  the  ranks  of 
the  service. 

In  connection  with  his  other  work  the  Doctor 
has  served  as  professor  of  surgery  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Georgetown,  which  conferred  upon  him 
the  degree  of  LL.D.  in  1889,  and  was  also  surgeon 
of  the  Providence  Hospital,  where  he  attended  the 
charity  surgical  ward  for  eight  years.  On  return- 
ing to  Chicago  he  was  made  professor  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  surgery  and  clinical  surgery  in  Rush 
Medical  College  and  surgeon  in  the  Presbyterian 
Hospital;  also  professor  of  surgery  in  the  Chicago 
Polyclinic.  He  holds  a  weekly  surgical  clinic  at  the 
college  and  one  at  the  polyclinic.  In  1887  he  was 
secretary  general  of  the  Ninth  International  Medi- 
cal Congress,  which  convened  in  Washington, 
and  in  1890  was  sent  as  delegate  by  this  Govern- 
ment to  the  International  Medical  Congress  held 
in  Berlin,  where  he  made  the  response  on  behalf 
of  the  American  delegates  to  the  address  of  wel- 
come. He  was  also  detailed  by  Secretary  Win- 
dom  to  inspect  and  report  upon  European  hos- 
pitals, and  the  immigration  service.  In  1892  he 
was  ordered  to  New  York  on  account  of  the 
threatened  introduction  of  cholera,  and  estab- 
lished the  large  quarantine  on  Sandy  Hook  known 
as  Camp  Low.  The  Doctor  is  the  editor  of  the 
Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  a 
paper  that  is  regarded  as  authority  on  all  matters 


connected  with  the  .science  and  practice  of  med- 
icine and  surgery.  Its  high  standing  made  it 
necessary  to  have  one  of  the  most  able  men  of 
the  medical  fraternity  at  its  head,  and  the  wide 
acquaintance  and  past  experience  of  Dr.  Ham- 
ilton at  once  recommended  him  to  the  position 
which  he  now  so  ably  fills.  The  standard  of  the 
paper  has  been  raised  still  higher  under  his  man- 
agement until  it  is  now  without  a  superior  in  that 
line  of  literature  in  this  country.  The  Doctor's 
researches  have  been  extensive,  and  he  is 
the  possessor  of  a  very  fine  library  of  over 
ten  thousand  volumes,  the  greater  part  of 
which  are  works  on  surgery,  some  being  exceed- 
ingly rare  and  of  great  value,  probably  the  largest 
private  library  on  surgical  subjects  in  the  United 
States.  This  library  now  includes  not  only  his 
own  collection  but  also  the  entire  library  of  the 
late  Dr.  Frank  Hastings  Hamilton,  of  New  York, 
who  died  in  1885,  one  of  the  most  noted  surgeons 
of  his  time. 

With  general  literature  in  English  and  French, 
Dr.  Hamilton  is  also  familiar — an  accomplish- 
ment which  he  finds  exceedingly  valuable  and 
utilizes  on  the  lecture  stand. 

With  various  societies,  professional  and  social, 
Dr.  Hamilton  is  coinnected — a  valued  and  highly 
esteemed  member.  In  1869  he  joined  Jerseyville 
Lodge,  No.  394,  F.  &  A.  M.,  and  in  1872  became  a 
chapter  ]\Iason,  but  is  now  dimitted  from  both. 
He  was  also  a  member  of  Carrollton  Command- 
ery  from  1874  until  1888,  when  he  joined  Wash- 
ington Commandery,  No.  i,  and  in  1891  joined 
Albert  Pike  Consistory,  Scottish  rite,  of  Washing- 
ton, District  of  Columbia.  He  took  quite  an  act- 
ive part  in  Masonic  affairs,  and  was  also  an  act- 
ive worker  in  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd 
Fellows  until  business  cares  became  too  press- 
ing to  permit  of  further  attention  to  them.  He 
also  belongs  to  the  Loyal  Legion  and  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Army  and  Navy  Club  of  Washington, 
the  Capitol  Press  Club  of  the  same  city,  the  Chi- 
cago Press  Club,  the  Chicago  Club,  the  Union 
League  Club  and  the  Marquette  Club.  Since  1870 
he  has  been  a  member  of  the  Illinois  State  Medical 
Society,  and  is  now  its  secretary:  is  also  a 
member  of  the  American  Medical  Association; 
the  District  of  Columbia  Medical  Society,  the 
Medical  Association  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 


230 


BionnAi'iiK'AL  mcrioNARr  AND  roiiTTiArr  aALLKiiT  of  the 


the  National  Association  of  Military  Surgeons, 
the  British  Medical  Association;  is  an  honor- 
ary nieniber  of  tiic  Kentucky  and  West  \'ir- 
ginia  State  I\Iedical  Societies,  the  Medico-Le- 
gal Society  of  Chicago,  and  an  honorary  mem- 
ber of  Societe  Fraiucaise  d' Hygiene,  of  Paris, 
France. 

Doctor  Hamilton  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Mary  L.  Frost,  and  they  have  two  children — 
Ralph  Alexander  and  Blanche.  Mrs.  Hamilton 
is  a  lady  of  rare  intelligence,  of  culture  and  refine- 
ment, and  a  most  charming  hostess  in  their  pleas- 
ant  Washington   home,   which   is   noted   for  its 


hospitality.  She  is  a  granddaughter  of  Judge 
Richard  R.  Lowe.  The  Doctor  is  a  social, 
genial  gentleman,  interested  in  all  that  pertains 
to  the  welfare  of  the  metropolis  of  his  native  State, 
is  charitable  and  benevolent,  and  worthy  deniands 
of  the  needy  are  seldom  made  in  vain.  He  has  a 
large  circle  of  warm  friends,  and  his  friendship  is 
best  prized  by  those  who  know  him  best.  In  his 
professional  capacity  Dr.  Hamilton  is  known 
throughout  the  country,  his  reputation  extending 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  his  State,  an  honor  to  the 
profession  by  which  he  has  been  especially  dis- 
tinguished. 


RALPH  PLUMB, 


STKEATOK. 


IT  is  pleasing  indulgence  to  write  the  biography 
of  a  man  who  has  been  so  prominent  in  the 
civil  and  military  affairs  of  the  nation  as  has  the 
subject  of  this  sketch.  This  country  has  brought 
forth  many  heroes,  statesmen,  financiers,  and  bril- 
liant men  in  all  spheres  of  life.  Its  annals  teem 
with  the  records  of  good  lives  and  noble  deeds. 
Most  of  our  noblest  and  best  men  are  "self-made," 
and  among  the  histories  of  the  prominent,  self- 
made  and  brilliantly  successful  men,  that  of 
Colonel  Plumb  deserves  a  high  place,  by  reason 
of  his  broad  sympathies,  charities,  and  public 
spirit.  He  has  left  the  imprint  of  his  individuality 
on  each  place  in  which,  for  any  length  of  time, 
he  ever  resided,  and  he  has  almost  made  the  busy, 
prosperous  city  of  Streator  what  it  is  to-day.  His 
patriotism  is  clearly  shown  by  his  quick  response 
to  the  call  to  arms,  when  his  country  was  in 
need. 

He  is  a  brilliant  financier,  and  somewhat  of  a 
pioneer  as  well,  having  seen  the  West  grow  from 
its  sparsely  settled  infancy  into  a  populous  and 
prosperous  middle  age;  for  when  Colonel  Plumb 
came  to  Illinois,  Streator  and  adjacent  towns  were 
but  barren  hamlets  just  beginning  to  struggle  into 
life  and  prominence.  He  is  a  man  of  strong  will 
and  steadfast  nature,  whose  life  is  characterized 
by  many  benevolent  deeds ;  he  has  ever  shown  his 
detestation  of  wrong  and  oppression,  and  he  has 
fdlcd  the  public  offices  to  which  he  has  been  called 


with  credit  to  himself  and  to  the  entire  satisfac- 
tion of  his  party  and  friends. 

The  Plumb  genealogy  is  one  of  the  most  com- 
plete of  all  works  of  the  kind  in  this  country,  tlie 
tinic  covered  by  it  in  America  extending  from 
1635  to  1800;  and  in  England — five  generations 
in  regular  line  from  father  to  son — from  about 
1500  down  to  the  first  representative  of  the  family 
who  came  to  America  in  1635,  and  to  the  second 
who  came  and  left  descendants  in  1660.  Back  of 
these  records  Plumbs  are  found — mostly  through 
their  wills — through  all  the  centuries  to  1180  A. 
D.  in  the  great  rolls  of  Normandy.  Thus  show- 
ing Norman  ancestry  in  the  time  of  Henry  II,  the 
great  grandson  of  William  the  Conqueror.  Thus 
this  family  can  be  traced  back  in  Normandy  to 
the  year  1180  at  least  and  in  England  to  1240. 

John  Plumb,  the  first  known  in  America,  came 
to  Wethersfield  Connecticut,  from  England,  in 
1635.  He  was  one  of  the  men  in  Captain  Mason's 
little  army  during  the  Pequot  war,  and  received 
a  grant  of  land  for  his  services.  Only  one  of  his 
children  was  born  in  America  and  no  record  of 
any  exists  except  that  his  son,  Samuel,  lived  with 
him  in  Branford  when  he  died,  in  1648.  It  was 
fnjm  this  John  Plumb  and  another  who  came  in 
1660  and  left  descendants,  that  the  American 
branch  of  the  Plumb  family  sprang,  and  they 
have  been  prominent  in  the  civil  and  military 
life  of  this  covmtry  ever  since.     They  have  been  a 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


231 


race  of  warriors  and  statesmen,  and  have  been 
notable  and  forceful  in  all  the  emergencies  of 
their  several  generations.  There  were  forty 
Plumbs  in  naval  and  military  service  during  the 
war  of  the  Revolution.  This  family  was  also 
worthily  representetl  in  the  war  of  the  Rebellion, 
and  in  times  of  peace  has  served  its  country  no 
less  worthily.  Its  records  are  filled  with  the  lives 
of  great  men  and  pure  women,  and  of  such  stock 
the  subject  of  this  biography  is  an  able  and 
wortliy  representative. 

Ralph  Plumb  was  born  March  29,  1816,  in 
Busti,  Chautauqua  county,  New  York.  In  1820 
his  parents  moved  to  Hartford,  Ohio,  where  he 
attended  the  common  schools  until  he  attained 
the  age  of  fourteen  years,  when  he  was  obliged  to 
begin  earning  his  own  livelihood.  He  obtained 
work  as  a  gardener,  earning  18J  cents  a  day. 
He  filled  this  humble  position  so  well,  and  made 
himself  so  generally  useful,  that  his  employer, 
Seth  Hayes,  of  the  firm  of  Seth  Hayes  &  Com- 
pany, appreciating  the  industry  of  the  boy,  gave 
him  a  position  in  his  store.  He  remained  in  the 
employ  of  Seth  Hayes  &  Company  until  he  was 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  In  the  meantime  he 
was  taking  ever}-  means  to  acquire  an  education, 
and  spent  most  of  his  spare  time  in  study.  After 
spending  four  years  in  the  mercantile  business, 
he  formed  a  partnership  with  his  old  employer, 
under  the  name  of  Hayes  &  Plumb,  and  built  up 
an  extensive  country  business. 

He  was  a  very  energetic  young  man  and  looked 
out  for  all  business  done,  three  stores  being  under 
his  personal  supervision. 

In  1854  Mr.  Pluml)  was  elected  to  the  Ohio 
legislature,  and  after  serving  three  tenns  he  dis- 
posed of  his  business  interests  in  Hartford  and 
went  to  reside  in  Oberlin,  Ohio,  where  his  chil- 
dren were  at  college. 

October  15,  1838,  Mr.  Plumb  married  Alarrilla 
E.  Borden,  whose  father  was  a  farmer,  captain  in 
the  army,  and  postmaster  at  Hartford,  Ohio. 
Ralph  and  Marrilla  were  children  together. 

In  1858  there  occiu-red  one  of  the  historic 
rescues  of  a  fugitive  slave.  His  name  was  John 
Price,  and  he  came  to  Oberlin  and  secured  work. 
Learning  that  he  was  there,  his  master  sent  a 
slave  catcher  to  capture  him  and  take  him  back 
to  Wellington,  a  place  nine  miles  away,  where 
they  ostensibly  wanted  to  hire  him. 


For  fear  that  he  might  recognize  the  slave 
catchers,  two  strange  men  were  sent  to  see  Price, 
who  was  at  work  two  miles  away  in  the  woods; 
they  told  him  a  gentleman  in  Wellington  wanted 
to  hire  him  to  do  some  work  for  him,  and  being 
unsuspicious  of  danger,  he  accompanied  them 
there.  Upon  his  arrival  there  he  was  immediately 
arrested  by  officers  who  had  a  warrant  for  him. 
Tiiis  caused  the  greatest  excitement  in  Oberlin; 
the  citizens  were  up  in  arms  at  the  outrage  and 
went  five  hundred  strong  and  rescued  the  slave, 
and  sent  him  to  Canada.  Mr.  Plumb  with  thirty- 
six  others  of  the  party  was  arrested  and  thrown 
into  jail.  They  were  kept  in  jail  for  eighty-four 
days,  during  which  time  Mr.  Plumb  established 
and  edited,  with  the  assistance  of  his  fellow 
prisoners,  an  anti-slaver>'  paper,  even  printing  the 
same  in  the  jail,  where  there  happened  to  be  print- 
ing facilities.  This  paper  had  a  wide  circulation, 
and  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  these  thirty- 
seven  men  caused  the  wildest  excitement  in  the 
county  and  State.  They  were  anxious  for  and 
demanded  a  trial.  The  town,  county,  State  and 
even  tlie  Federal  Government  did  not  know  what 
to  do  with  them:  they  were  a  veritable  white 
elephant  on  the  hands  of  the  authorities.  During 
his  legislative  career  Mr.  Plumb  had  introduced 
and  secured  the  passage  of  a  bill  defining  the 
crime  of  kidnaping,  and  of  this  the  citizens  of 
Oberlin  took  advantage  at  this  time  and  had 
the  two  men  who  inveigled  the  slave  into  the 
hands  of  the  officers  arrested  for  kidnaping  him. 
This  was  like  a  thunder-clap  out  of  a  clear  sky 
to  the  authorities  and  brought  them  to  time;  and 
they  opened  negotiations  with  the  prisoners  for 
their  release,  being  secretly  glad  to  get  rid  of 
them.  They  were  released  in  consideration  of 
the  kidnapers  not  being  prosecuted.  During 
these  eighty-four  days  of  incarceration  the  thirty- 
seven  prisoners  were  the  heroes  of  the  hour. 
Their  imprisonment  was  one  series  of  receptions, 
people  coming  from  all  parts  of  the  countrj'  by 
the  thousands  to  visit  them  and  encourage  them 
in  the  stand  they  had  taken  against  oppression 
and  injustice.  At  last  the  prison  doors  were 
opened  with  tr/at  and  the  prisoners  welcomed 
with  a  band  of  music  and  the  salute  of  one  hun- 
dred guns. 

On  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion 
Mr.  Plumb  received  the  appointment  of  assistant 


232 


nroanAPincAL  nrcTroNAnr  and  portratt  gallery  of  the 


quartermaster  of  division  with  the  rank  of  captain. 
He  was  ((uartermaster  on  the  staff  of  James  A. 
Garfield,  and'was  one  of  Garfield's  closest  friends 
and  warmest  admirers  and  served  with  him 
throug-h  the  war.  During  the  last  part  of  the 
war  he  was  quartermaster  of  Camp  Dennison, 
and  was  brevetted  colonel  for  bravery  and  meri- 
torious service. 

During  his  service  as  quartermaster  he  handled 
immense  sums  of  money  without  the  loss  of  a 
dollar  to  the  Government.  He  returned  home  to 
Oberlin  with  full  honors. 

In  1866  a  large  syndicate  of  capitalists  selected 
Colouel  Plumb  as  resident  manager  to  go  to 
Streator,  Illinois,  and  purchase  four  thousand 
acres  of  coal  lands.  These  mines  he  developed, 
and  also  built  four  hundred  miles  of  railroad  to 
handle  the  coal  output,  the  venture  proving  ex- 
tremely profitable  to  the  syndicate  and  himself. 
This  territory  was  in  those  days  nearly  a  wilder- 
ness; to-day  it  is  one  of  the  most  thriving  loca- 
tions in  Illinois.  Colonel  Plumb  founded  and 
laid  out  what  is  now  the  city  of  Streator,  person- 
ally giving  every  street  its  title.  The  city  was 
named  after  Dr.  Streator,  who  was  president  of  the 
syndicate  of  which  Colonel  Plumb  was  manager. 

Col.  Plumb  was  Streator's  first  mayor,  holding 
that  office  for  two  terms,  and  to  him  more  than 
any  other  citizen  Streator  owes  her  present  pros- 
perity and  importance.  In  his  elections  to  the 
mayoralty  Colonel  Plumb  was  the  vmanimous 
choice  of  the  citizens,  having  no  opposition. 

In  politics  he  was  and  is  a  strong  partisan  Re- 
publican, and  was  elected  to  represent  his  district 
in  Congress  in  1884,  being  re-elected  in  1886. 
After  serving  his  second  term  he  retired  to  private 
life. 

Colonel  Plumb  has  been  identified  with  the 
entire  and  consecutive  growth  and  prosperity  of 
Streator,  and  the  opera  house  and  best  hotel  bear 
his  name.  At  his  own  expense  he  built  one  of 
the  finest  of  high-school  buildings,  furnished  with 
all  modern  conveniences  for  educational  pur- 
poses, and  presented  it  to  the  city.  This  building 
cost  over  forty  thousand  dollars  and  is  a  model 
in  its  line. 

Mrs.  Plumb  is  as  popular  in  Streator  as  is  her 


honorable  husband.  She  is  a  lady  of  beautiful 
character,  in  which  the  twin  virtues  of  charity  and 
benevolence  shine  with  a  light  which  has  made 
life  easier  and  happier  for  numbers  of  people. 
She  is  a  patron  of  the  Ladies'  Library  at  Streator 
and  for  fourteen  years  has  furnished  it  a  home 
rent  free  in  the  Plumb  opera-house  block.  She 
is  in  sympathy  with  her  husband's  anti-slavery 
principles  and  has  done  much  for  the  colored 
race,  donating  liberally  to  Southern  colleges, 
among  which  is  the  Frealmen's  College  and  the 
Fisk  University,  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  and 
various  other  institutions  of  learning. 

So  broad  is  the  charity  of  this  noble  woman 
that  she  seeks  to  help  the  deserving  poor  even  to 
the  extent  of  giving  pleasure  as  well  as  assistance. 
She  has  donated  liberally  to  the  college  at  Ober- 
lin, Ohio,  where  her  daughters  were  educated, 
and  is  a  staunch  supporter  of  the  Good  Will 
Church  of  Streator,  as  its  treasury  will  show.  She 
is  a  member  of  no  one  church  but  a  firm  believer 
in  all  religions  regardless  of  creeds.  She  is  a 
womanly  woman  and  much  beloved  by  her  own 
sex,  and  has  hosts  of  friends  among  whom  there 
are  many  who  owe  her  a  boundless  debt  of  grati- 
tude for  help  and  sympathy  as  well  as  financial 
aid  given  in  times  of  trouble  and  distress. 

At  the  time  of  this  writing  (1895),  notwith- 
standing that  Colonel  Plumb  is  seventy-nine 
years  old,  he  has  the  habits  and  appearance  of  a 
nian  not  over  sixty-five.  He  still  takes  an  active 
and  deep  interest  in  all  pertaining  to  the  city  he 
has  helped  to  make,  and  though  he  has  prac- 
tically retired  from  active  business  his  time  is 
largely  employed  in  looking  after  and  taking  care 
of  his  property  and  investments,  so  that  he  leads 
a  life  by  no  means  idle.  Colonel  Plumb  is  a  genial 
and  affable  gentleman  and  a  very  entertaining 
conversationalist.  He  has  a  great  fund  of  in- 
teresting anecdotes  and  relates  many  interesting 
episodes  of  early  days  in  the  West. 

He  is  a  man  of  wide  experiences  and  broad 
mind  who  has  many  friends  all  over  the  State, 
being  one  who  is  clearly  entitled  to  be  classed  as 
one  of  nature's  noblemen — a  man  whose  strong 
mdividuality  is  the  strength  of  integrity,  virtue 
and  deep  human  sympathy. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


233 


THOMAS  B.  BRYAN, 


^T  niEX  tlie  histon-  cf  the  World's  Colum- 
V  V  bian  Exposition  shall  have  been  written 
for  the  gratification  of  succeeding  generations, 
there  is  no  name  amongst  the  many  prominent 
ones  so  closely  connected  with  it  that  will  stand 
cut  more  brilliantly,  or  command  greater  ad- 
miration, than  will  that  of  the  Hon.  Thomas  B. 
riryan. 

1  he  citizens  of  Chicago  arc  deeply  indebted  to 
Mr.  Bryan  for  the  magnificent  services  he  ren- 
dered, for  his  ceaseless  and  tireless  work,  and  the 
great  energy  and  devotion  he  displayed  in  ob- 
taining for  this  city  the  nuich-coveted  prize — tlie 
Columbian  Exposition.  Mr.  Bryan  has  been  a 
leading  spirit  in  the  matter  from  the  commence- 
ment. In  fact,  it  was  he  who  framed  the  resolu- 
tions presented  at  the  first  citizens'  meeting, 
held  in  the  common  council  chamber,  the 
result  of  which  was  that  Chicago  became 
a  candidate,  and  ultimately  the  victor,  in 
one  of  the  keenest  competitions,  probably,  ever 
entered  into  by  American  cities.  Mr.  Brj-an's 
ardent  championship  of  Chicago's  claims,  his 
eloquent  appeals  throughout  the  country,  and  his 
masterly  and  unanswerable  reply  to  New  York's 
advocate  and  champion,  the  great  and  only 
Chaunccy  Depew,  before  the  senate  committee 
at  W'ashington,  will  be  long  remembered,  and  un- 
doubtedly did  more  than  anything  else  to  secure 
the  prize.  His  presentation  of  Chicago's  claims 
was  so  effective  and  so  adroitly  put  that  the  re- 
sult was  electrical,  and  even  New  York,  with  all 
her  boasted  superiority  of  social  distinction  and 
commercial  enterprise,  was  forced  to  yield,  and  to 
Mr.  Bryan,  beyond  a  doubt,  is  due  the  credit. 

He  was  bom  at  Alexandria,  Mrginia,  December 
22,  1828;  he  is  the  son  of  Daniel  and  Alary  (Bar- 
bour) Br)  an.  His  parents,  both  on  his  father's  and 
mother's  side,  were  people  of  considerable  cul- 
ture and  influence.  His  father  sei"ved  in  the 
senate  of  Virginia,  and  two  of  his  mother's  broth- 
ers, James  and  Philip  Barbour,  held  the  highest 
official  positions  under  the  government  of  that 
day  as  cabinet  minister,  speaker  of  the  national 
house  of   representatives,    judge  of    the  United 


Slates  supreme  court,  minister  to  England,  and 
as  governor  of  Virginia. 

Our  subject  graduated  at  the  law  school  of 
Harvard  University  in  1848,  and  shortly  after- 
ward entered  upon  the  practice  of  law  in  Cincin- 
nati, Ohio,  forming  a  partnership  with  Judge 
Hart  of  that  city  in  1849.  In  1852  Mr.  Bryan 
came  West,  settling  in  Chicago  when  the  citv 
was  little  more  than  an  overgrown  village, 
and  shortly  afterward  forming  the  law  firm 
of  Mather,  Taft  &  Bryan,  subsequently  changed 
to  Bryan  &  Borden,  and  still  later  to  that 
cif  Bryan  &  Hatch.  He  has  made  office  coun- 
seling his  specialty,  and  for  forty  years,  more 
or  less,  Mr.  Bryan  has  resided  tlie  greater  part 
of  his  time  in  Chicago,  with  the  exception  of  sev- 
eral years  spent  in  Washington,  Colorado  and  in 
European  travel.  He  succeeded  Governor  Shep- 
herd as  one  of  the  commissioners  (together  with 
Governor  Denison),  as  executive  of  the  District 
of  Columbia.  Elis  administration  was  marked  bv 
the  same  ability,  honesty  and  prudence  in  expen- 
diture that  has  always  governed  his  actions.  His 
withdrawal,  voluntarily,  from  this  office  was  made 
the  signal  for  a  spontaneous  memorial  from  the 
citizens,  headed  by  the  philanthropist  Corcoran, 
and  signed  by  all  the  bankers  and  prominent 
business  men  of  the  capital,  and  this  was  pre- 
sented to  him  on  his  vacation  of  the  office  to  re- 
sume his  duties  in  his  adopted  city.  The  founder 
and  promoter  of  many  public  enterprises,  Mr. 
Bryan's  work  has  always  been  crowned  with  suc- 
cess. A  detailed  list,  even  of  his  public  enter- 
prises, would  fill  more  space  than  we  could  devote 
to  what  is  but,  at  the  best,  a  general  sketch.  But 
while  this  is  so,  there  are  one  or  two  which  de- 
serve and  require  more  than  a  mere  passing 
notice. 

The  originator  and  sole  ]iroprietor  (formerly)  of 
Graceland  cemetery,  Mr.  Bryan  purchased  this 
tract  of  land,  having  found  that  the  population  of 
the  North  Side  was  inevitably  encroaching  on  the 
old  cemetery  (which  now  forms  a  part  of  Lincoln 
Park),  and,  if  only  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view, 
this  was  extremely  undesirable.    Graceland  alone 


234 


BIOGRAPinCAL  DICTIONART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


(with  its  hcat'.tifully  laid-mit  and  well-kept  walks 
and  sluubs,  etc.)  would  be  a  worthy  memorial 
of  his  public  enterprise  and  regard  for  the  pros- 
perity and  health  of  the  community  at  large.  He 
also  built  Bryan  Hall,  the  site  of  which  is  now 
occupied  by  the  Grand  Opera  House,  and  here 
many  a  memorable  war  meeting  was  held,  and 
innumerable  entertainments  for  patriotic  objects. 
Mr.  Bryan  was  president  of  the  great  North- 
western fair  for  the  relief  of  soldiers  of  the  Union 
ill  1S65,  for,  though  a  Southerner  by  birth,  nil 
his  affiliations  and  sympathies  had  ever  been  with 
the  cause  of  the  Union.  As  the  direct  result  of 
his  presidency,  the  fair  yielded  over  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  to  the  invalid  soldiers'  fund 
— such  was  the  repose  placed  in  his  integrity, 
and  in  his  faculty  of  harmonizing  the  conflict- 
ing interests  of  the  various  officers  and  commit- 
tees. If  still  yet  another  monument  to  his  patri- 
otism and  loyalty  were  required,  the  Soldiers' 
Home,  built  under  his  direction  and  with  money 
advanced  by  him,  is  that  monument,  and  for 
many  years  its  president,  his  work  on  its  behalf 
was,  and  is,  unflagging.  In  fact,  his  distinguished 
and  arduous  service  during  the  war  was  such  that 
no  honors  were  esteemed  too  great;  and  amongst 
others  accorded  him  was  that  of  being  elected 
a  member  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  etc.  It  was  to 
Mr.  Bryati's  forethought  and  enterprise  that  Chi- 
cago owed  the  Fidelity  Safe  Depository,  which 


passed,  unscathed,  through  tlu'  llaines  of  1871, 
and  was  the  means  of  saving  many  millions  to 
the  citizens. 

As  a  speaker,  I\Ir.  Bryan  is  vigorous,  eloquent 
and  convincing,  one  who  controls  his  audience, 
and  rarely  fails  to  carry  his  point;  and,  in  addi- 
tion, one  who  seldom  speaks  unless  he  has  some- 
thing to  say  well  worth  the  hearing.  His  ban- 
quet and  other  public  speeches — unpremeditated 
as  many  of  them  are — bristle  with  eloquent 
l)hrases  and  happy  allusions,  while  they  are 
marked  with  that  good  sense  and  general  culture 
which  is,  and  always  has  been,  so  characteristic 
of  Thomas  B.  Bryan. 

As  first  vice-president  of  the  World's  Colum- 
bian Exposition,  unanimously  elected  to  that 
office,  he  was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place, 
and  with  him  in  this  position,  there  was  no  fear 
for  the  success  of  such  a  fair;  and  to  Thomas  B. 
Bryan  must  be  given  the  great  credit,  for  in  him 
Chicago  has  a  citizen  who  is,  and  always  has 
been,  devoted  to  her  welfare,  and  no  man  has 
worked  more  assiduously  for  her  good,  or  with 
greater  results,  than  has  the  subject  of  our  sketch. 

Mr.  Bryan  married  in  1850  Miss  Byrd  Page,  of 
Mrginia,  and  they  had  a  son,  Charles  P.  Bryan, 
recently  a  member  of  the  Illinois  legislature,  and 
formerly  of  that  of  Colorado,  who  by  profession 
is  a  journalist  and  magazine  writer  of  consider- 
able repute ;  and  a  daughter. 


JAMES  H.  HOES, 

CHICAGO. 


JAMES  H.  HOES  is  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the 
jewelry  trade  in  the  West,  having  for  more 
than  half  a  century  been  connected  with  this 
undertaking.  A  country  has  but  one  chief  ruler, 
be  he  king,  emperor  or  president.  Comparatively 
few  men  can  attain  to  the  highest  offices  in  civil 
or  military  life,  but  commerce  offers  a  broad  and 
almost  limitless  field  in  which  one  may  exercise 
his  powers  unrestrained  and  gain  a  leadership  as 
the  head  of  a  chosen  calling.  Drawing  the  les- 
sons which  we  do  from  the  life  of  jNIr.  Hoes,  we 
learn  that  the  qualifications  necessary  for  success 
arc  a  high  ambition  and  a  resolute,  honorable 


purpose  to  reach  the  exalted  standard  that  has 
been  set  up.  From  the  age  of  fourteen  the  gen- 
tleman whose  name  begins  this  review  has  de- 
pended upon  his  own  resources. 

He  was  born  at  Kinderhook,  Columbia  county, 
New  York,  June  30,  1821,  and  descends  on  the 
paternal  side  from  Holland  ancestors.  The  fam- 
ily was  founded  in  America  during  Colonial  days, 
and  the  grandfather  was  an  unwavering  patriot 
who  aided  the  colonies  in  their  struggle  to  secure 
separation  from  the  British  crown,  sacrificing  his 
estate  to  the  interests  of  American  liberty. 

The  father  uf  Tames  H.  Hoes  was  a  farmer  in 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


235 


comfortable  circumstances  who  owned  and  oper- 
ated a  small  tract  of  land  at  Stuyvesant  Landing 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  river.  His  mother 
was  a  representative  of  an  old,  wealthy  and  prom- 
inent family  of  Connecticut.  She  was  a  careful 
and  considerate  mother  who  early  instilled  into 
the  minds  of  her  four  children  lessons  of  industry, 
honesty  and  morality. 

James  H.  Hoes  was  fortunate  in  his  early  sur- 
roundings of  a  cultured  Christian  home.  In  his 
youth  he  attended  the  common  schools  until  four- 
teen years  of  age,  when,  wishing  to  earn  his  own 
living,  he  left  the  school-room  and  obtained  a 
situation  with  a  neighboring  farmer,  for  whom 
he  labored  earnestly  and  conscientiously.  Many 
of  his  friends  thought  him  specially  fitted  for  the 
ministr}'  and  urged  him  to  go  to  New  York  and 
prepare  tor  that  work ;  but  he  did  not  wish  to  go 
far  from  home  and  parents,  and  in  conseciuence 
always  refused.  In  1837  his  father  sold  the  little 
homestead  on  the  Hudson  to  Martin  \'an  Burcn, 
who  married  a  cousin  of  the  former,  and  removed 
to  Bradford  county,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  pur- 
chased a  large  tract  of  land  in  order  to  give  his 
children  better  opportunities.  James  was  not 
physically  very  strong,  but  his  mental  powers 
were  keen  and  comprehensive  and  he  would 
readily  see  the  best  way  of  managing  business 
interests,  and  would  make  and  execute  many 
plans  for  improving  the  farm,  which  made  it  the 
model  home  of  the  neighborhood;  but  his 
strength  was  not  equal  to  the  labors  that  fall  to 
the  lot  of  the  agriculturist,  and  while  working  in 
tlie  hay-field  one  day  he  suddenly  came  to  the 
determination  that  he  would  enter  some  other 
calling.  Communicating  his  views  to  his  parents 
he  met  with  some  opposition,  as  they  did  not 
wish  him  to  leave  home;  but  they  at  length  con- 
sented, and  he  left  the  parental  roof.  Like 
Franklin,  he  started  oflf  with  his  wardrobe  in  a 
handkerchief  and  on  foot  made  his  way  to  To- 
wanda,  Pennsylvania.  The  long  journey  gave 
him  ample  time  for  thought,  and  on  the  way  he 
determined  to  make  the  jewelry  business  his  life 
work,  a  determination  to  which  he  strictly  ad- 
hered. 

Arriving  at  his  destination,  Mr.  Hoes  sought 
a  situation  with  the  leading  jeweler,  l)ut  was  told 
his  services  were  not  needed.     With  a  resolute 


purpose  which  could  not  be  conquered  by  dis- 
appointment, he  sought  the  proprietor  and  in  a 
few  simple  words  told  him  how  he  was  dependent 
upon  his  own  efforts,  and  that  he  had  decided  to 
follow  the  jeweler's  trade.  His  straightforward, 
manly  bearing  impressed  Mr.  Langford,  the  jew- 
eler, who  consented  to  give  him  a  place  on  the 
terms  that  he  was  not  to  have  any  wages  until  he 
earned  it.  The  young  apprentice  applied  himself 
diligently  to  his  task  and  was  rapidly  promoted, 
working  his  way  upward  by  steady  advances, 
until  after  a  year  he  was  ofifered  an  interest  in 
the  business,  but  this  he  declined  until  he  should 
still  further  perfect  himself  in  the  trade.  In  the 
summer  of  1840  Mr.  Langford  sold  out,  remov- 
ing to  New  York,  where  he  proposed  establishing 
a  store,  with  Mr.  Hoes  as  partner;  but  the  latter 
then  entered  upon  what  proved  to  be  a  long  and 
serious  illness.  Before  he  had  recovered  Mr. 
Langford  removed  to  New  Jersey,  and  Mr.  Hoes 
then  obtained  a  situation  with  a  watchmaker  in 
Owego,  New  York,  who  soon  recognized  the 
abilitv  of  his  employe  and  made  him  superinten- 
dent of  the  works.  Two  years  later,  Mr.  Hoes 
began  business  on  his  own  account  in  Bingham- 
ton,  meeting  with  good  success  from  the  start, 
but  after  a  short  time  he  bought  out  his  old  em- 
ployer, Mr.  Wilson,  and  entered  into  possession 
of  the  finest  establishment  in  that  section  of 
the  country.  The  business  prospered,  and  Mr. 
Hoes  soon  became  the  possesor  of  a  hand- 
some competence.  About  the  same  time  he 
was  most  happily  married,  and  the  lady  who 
thus  early  started  out  on  life's  journey  with 
him  has  since  been  his  faithful  companion  and 
helpmeet. 

Leaving  Owego,  New  York,  Mr.  Hoes  re- 
moved with  his  family  to  Danville,  Livingston 
countv,  where  for  eight  years  he  again  carried  on 
his  business,  with  a  success  that  equaled  his  for- 
mer prosperity,  and  added  still  more  to  his  ac- 
cumulated possessions;  but  now  the  West 
attracted  him,  and  he  became  a  resident  of  Mil- 
waukee, Wisconsin,  where  he  built  up  one  of  the 
largest  jewelry-  establishments  in  the  city;  but  he 
desired  a  still  broader  field  of  usefulness  and 
labor  and  the  rapidly  developing  city  of  Chicago 
became  his  home.  Here  he  purchased  the  busi- 
ness of  Hoard  &  Avery,  the  establishment  being 


236 


BIOaiiAPHICM,  DICTinNARY  AND  rORTRATT  GALLKRY  OF  THE 


located  at  No.  117  Lake  street,  which  was  then 
the  center  of  trade.  After  a  time  he  admitted 
Hon.  Samuel  Hoard  to  a  partnership  in  the  busi- 
ness and  the  connection  continued  for  four  years, 
or  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  Rebellion. 
About  this  time  there  was  an  immense  impetus 
given  to  business  throughout  the  North  which 
was  felt  by  all  lines  of  trade,  and  Mr.  Hoes  shared 
in  the  general  prosperity.  His  patronage  largely 
increased,  and,  needing  the  aid  of  an  efficient 
person  in  the  management  of  his  business,  Mr. 
Hoes  formed  a  partnership  with  N.  iMatson,  his 
old  partner  in  Milwaukee,  under  the  firm  name 
of  Matson  &  Hoes,  the  business  relation  exist- 
ing between  them  until  January,  1867,  when  Mr. 
Hoes  retired.  For  thirty  years  he  had  been  con- 
nected with  the  jewelry  trade,  and  it  now  seemed 
impossible  for  him  to  entirely  separate  himself 
from  business  interests.  Indolence  formed  no 
part  of  his  character,  and  after  a  few  months'  rest 
he  joined  the  Northwestern  Silverware  Company 
on  its  organization,  and  ke  was  made  manager 
and  superintendent  of  the  establishment,  in 
which  capacity  he  continued  until  1869. 

Long  and  continued  application  to  business 
now  made  Mr.  Hoes  desirous  of  seeking  rest  and 
better  health  in  the  outdoor  life  of  the  farm.  He 
therefore  purchased  a  large  tract  of  land  in  Win- 
nebago county,  Illinois,  near  Rockford,  and  made 
the  place  one  of  the  model  farms  of  the  county, 
for  he  had  not  forgotten  the  lessons  he  had 
learned  in  his  youth.  He  soon  again  realized, 
however,  that  farming  was  an  arduous  task  and 
that  such  a  life  deprived  his  family  of  some  of  the 
privileges  which  the  city  affords;  so  again  he 
changed  his  place  of  residence,  purchasing  the 
leading  jewelrj'  store  of  Milwaukee,  where  he 
carried  on  business  for  several  years,  when  the 
great  financial  panic  of  1873  brought  to  him,  as 
it  did  to  many  others,  heavy  losses.  Mr.  Hoes 
then  paid  his  debts  and  returned  to  Chicago, 
accepting  a  position  with  N.  Matson  &  Com- 
pany. He  has  been  connected  with  the  large 
jewelry  house  of  Spaulding  &  Company  since  its 
incorporation,  and  no  one  is  better  known  to  the 
jewelry  trade  of  the  West  than  James  H.  Hoes. 
The  thoroughness  and  persistency  which  he  ap- 
plied himself  while  learning  the  trade  has  char- 
acterized his  entire  business  career,  and  has  been 


supplemented  by  careful  attention  to  details  and 
by  honorable,  straightfonvard  effort,  that  has 
gained  him  a  most  excellent  and  enviable  reputa- 
tion. 

Besides  commercial  interests,  the  life  of  Mr. 
Hoes  has  also  been  exemplary  in  many  other 
respects.  During  the  Civil  war  he  was  a  stal- 
wart advocate  of  the  Union  cause  and  made  many 
and  liberal  contributions  for  its  support.  At  the 
time  when  the  Sanitary  Fair  was  held  in  Chicago, 
he  made  liberal  donations  to  it  and  also  offered 
to  give  through  the  managers  a  gold  watch  to 
the  person  making  the  most  valuable  donation 
to  the  fair.  It  happened  that  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  presented  by  President  Lincoln, 
realized  $3,000,  and  was  decided  to  be  the  most 
valuable  donation  received.  When  this  was  de- 
cided Mr.  Hoes  selected  an  elegant  gold  watch 
and  forwarded  it  to  the  president  through  Hon. 
I.  N.  Arnold,  then  member  of  Congress  from 
this  district.  Mr.  Lincoln  returned  his  thanks 
to  the  donor  in  a  characteristic  letter,  which  is 
preser\'ed  as  a  precious  memento  of  the  martyred 
President.  Mr.  Hoes  has  ever  been  a  loyal  citi- 
zen, co-operating  in  all  that  is  calculated  to  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  city.  State  or  countn'.  His 
political  support  has  been  given  to  the  Repub- 
lican party  since  its  organization,  and  he  has  al- 
ways kept  well  informed  on  the  issues  and  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  but  has  never  sought  political 
preferment  though  often  solicited  to  become  a 
candidate  for  office. 

Mr.  Hoes  is  a  charitable  and  benevolent  man, 
and  from  the  poor  and  needy  never  withholds  a 
helping  hand.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  was  at  one  time  a  member  of  the 
Diocesan  Convention  of  Wisconsin,  was  warden 
of  St.  Paul's  Church  of  Milwaukee,  treasurer  of 
the  Diocesan  Council  of  Wisconsin,  president  of 
St.  John's  Home,  of  Milwaukee,  and  since  lo- 
cating in  Chicago  has  been  a  member  of  the 
vestry  of  St.  James'  Church,  and  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Diocesan  Convention,  was  appointed  a  mem- 
ber of  the  missionary  board  of  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois. Mr.  Hoes  is  a  life  member  of  the  Amer- 
ican Bible  Society,  and  also  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  Chicago.  He  was  one  of  th-j  incor- 
porators of,  and  assisted  in  organizing  and  es- 
tablishing  upon   a   sure   foundation,    St.    Luke's 


.#•"' 


^'■^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


237 


(free)  Hospital,  now  one  of  the  largest  in  the  city, 
of  which  he  was  the  first  treasurer. 

In  1845  ^^^-  Hoes  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Betsy  Ann  Abbott,  of  Binghamton,  New 
York,  and  on  the  loth  of  July,  1895,  ^^'''s  cele- 
lirated  their  golden  wedding.  For  half  a  century 
they  had  traveled  life's  journey  together,  sharing 
in  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  adversities  and  pros- 
perities of  life,  their  mutual  love  and  confidence 
increasing  as  the  years  have  gone  by,  until  to-day 
they  stand  rich  in  each  other's  trust  and  the  warm 
regard  of  many  friends.  They  have  two  chil- 
dren living, — Julia  A.  and  Armenia  A., — four 
grandchildren,  and  one  great-grandchild.  Theirs 


is  a  l)eautiful  home  in  Austin,  and  they  are  hon- 
oieil  and  esteemed  members  of  the  community, 
whose  lives  have  been  filled  with  good  works, 
worthy  the  emulation  of  all.  Endowed  by  nature 
with  a  strong  character,  Mr.  Hoes  was  so  sur- 
rounded in  his  childhood  that  his  latent  powers 
were  developed  and  strengthened  and  he  became 
a  successful  business  man,  also  possessed  of  a 
broad  sympathy  and  charity.  To-day  he  is  not 
more  honored  on  account  of  the  enviable  posi- 
tion which  he  occupies  in  business  circles  than  on 
account  of  the  many  kindly  deeds  of  his  life, 
which  have  ever  been  quietly  and  unostenta- 
tiously performed. 


THOMAS  J.  ROBINSON, 


ROCK  ISLAND. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  ROBINSON  was 
born  in  Appleton,  Maine,  July  28,  1818, 
being  the  son  of  John  and  Mary  (Dillaway) 
Robinson.  John  Robinson  was  a  farmer,  and 
our  subject's  early  life  was  passed  in  attending 
school  and  aiding  on  the  farm.  Later  he  for  a 
time  attended  the  Maine  Wesleyan.  University,  at 
Kcnts'  Hill,  but  left  that  institution  when  he  was 
eighteen  and  engaged  in  teaching  school  tlie  fol- 
lowing winter.  During  this  time  he  heard  much 
of  the  Western  country  and  the  chances  of  suc- 
cess oft'ered  there,  and  decided  to  cast  his  lot  in 
that  section.  He  accordingly  set  out  the  follow- 
ing spring  and  journeyed  to  Illinois,  locating  in 
Greene  county,  where  he  taught  school  for  the 
subsequent  two  years.  During  the  next  year  he 
was  clerk  on  a  Mississippi  river  steamboat,  re- 
turning afterward  to  Greene  county^  where  for 
three  years  he  filled  clerkships  in  the  county  treas- 
urer's and  clerk's  offices. 

When  he  arrived  in  Illinois  from  his  New  Eng- 
land home  young  Robinson  had  but  two  dollars, 
but  his  habits  of  economy  were  such  that  when 
he  relinquished  his  position  in  the  county  clerk's 
office  he  had  saved  a  considerable  sum  of  money, 
with  which  he  purchased  a  farm  in  Rock  Island 
county,  where  he  made  his  home  for  two  seasons. 
In  1849  lie  sold  his  farm  and  removed  to  Port 
Byron,  where  he  engaged  in  milling  and  merchan- 


dising for  the  next  four  years,  his  efforts  being 
attendetl  with  fair  success.  He  then  removed  to 
the  city  of  Rock  Island  and  assumed  control  of 
the  ferry  plying  between  that  city  and  Davenport, 
Iowa.  In  this  enterprise  he  was  associated  with 
Judge  Spencer,  of  Rock  Island,  and  Judge  Grant, 
of  Davenport.  This  venture  has  been  eminently 
successful,  and  the  Rock  Island  and  Davenport 
Ferry  Company  still  operates  between  the  two 
cities,  our  sul)ject  being  the  president  of  this  com- 
pany. 

Judge  Grant's  connection  with  the  company 
was  comparatively  brief.  He  was  by  birth  a  North 
Carolinian,  and  during  the  war,  when  sectional 
animosities  were  most  bitter,  was  outspoken  in  his 
friendship  for  the  South  and  its  cause.  One  day 
he  came  to  Mr.  Robinson,  or  Captain  Robinson, 
as  he  is  called,  and  told  him  he  wished  to  sell  to 
him  his  interest  in  the  ferry  company,  giving  as 
his  reason  therefor  that  his  friends  were  in,  and 
his  sympathies  with,  the  South,  and  he  was  liable 
to  be  arrested  and  his  property  confiscated. 
Captain  Robinson  replied  that  he  had  no  money 
with  which  to  make  the  purchase;  whereupon 
Judge  Grant  replied  that  it  would  be  satisfactory 
to  him  if  Captain  Robinson  gave  his  notes  for 
the  amount  to  Mrs.  Grant,  so  that  in  case  Judge 
Grant  was  arrested  she  would  have  a  means  of 
support.     This  proposition  was  accepted,  and  the 


238 


niOORAPIIICAL  DWTrOXART  AND  POnTIlAIT  GALLEIiY  OF  THE 


notes  duly  executed,  and  made  payable  in  gold — 
a  stipulation  which  afforded  the  interesting  part 
of  the  transaction.  Gold  soon  commanded  a 
high  premium,  and  wlien  one  of  the  notes  became 
due.  Captain  Robinson  had  to  pay  280  for  gold 
wherewith  to  meet  it ! 

Our  subject  had  not  long  been  a  resident  of 
Rock  Island  before  he  was  active  in  many  enter- 
prises that  were  calcvdated  to  advance  the  city. 
He  was  active  in  the  organization  of  the  Rock 
Island  Stove  company;  organized  and  was  vice- 
president  of  the  Rock  Island  Glass  company;  and 
was  one  of  the  prime  movers  in  the  establishment 
of  the  Moline  &  Rock  Island  Street  railway,  of 
which  he  was  secretary  and  treasurer  for  several 
years.  In  fact  he  has  always  lent  his  aid  and  in- 
fluence to  everything  designed  to  build  up  Rock 
Island.  When  the  Rock  Island  Watch  company 
was  formed,  although  he  was  firmly  convinced 
that  it  would  not  be  a  success,  and  therefore  dis- 
couraged the  project:  nevertheless  he  took  a 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  the  stock,  just  to  help 
it  along.  He  was  also  interested,  with  other  Rock 
Island  capitalists,  in  a  quilting  factory,  that  manu- 
factured quilts  under  the  superintendency  of  a 
Massachusetts  man  named  Little.  There  was  no 
sale  for  their  product,  and  Mr.  Robinson  went 
East  to  endeavor  to  raise  money  upon  the  stock 
of  quilts  on  hand.  In  this  he  was  not  successful. 
The  stockholders  became  dissatisfied  with  Mr. 
Little's  management,  and  an  investigation  was 
made.  It  was  discovered  that  thirty-five  looms 
which  he  had  bought  for  the  company,  at  $1,150 
each,  could  have  been  purchased  for  three  hun- 
dred dollars  each;  a  fraud  upon  the  company  had 
been  committed,  amounting  to  almost  thirty 
thousand  dollars.  When  this  discovery  was 
made  the  company  ceased  operations,   and  its 


building  is  now  occupied  as  a  corn-planter  fac- 
tory. This  incident  only  goes  to  show  that 
Captain  Robinson  is  always  ready  to  do  his  share 
even  though  his  judgment  tells  him  a  project  will 
prove  unprofitable. 

In  1871  he  organized  tlie  Rock  Island  National 
Bank, — one  of  the  sound  financial  institutions  of 
Illinois, — with  a  capital  stock  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.  Its  surplus  is  now  eighty  thousand 
dollars,  while  its  deposits  average  about  two  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  Of  this  bank  our  subject 
is,  and  has  always  been,  the  president,  and  to  his 
able  management,  and  that  of  his  son,  who  is 
cashier,  may  be  ascribed  its  success.  Captain 
Robinson  is  also  a  stockholder  and  director  of 
the  North  Wisconsin  Lumber  company,  of  Hay- 
ward,  Wisconsin,  one  of  the  well  known  concerns 
in  its  line  in  that  section. 

In  political  adherency  he  is  identified  with  the 
Republican  party,  but  with  the  exception  of  serv- 
ing, many  years  ago,  as  county  associate  justice  of 
Rock  Island  county  for  a  term  of  four  years,  he 
has  never  held  a  public  ofifice. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  order,  and  has 
advanced  to  the  Knights  Templar  degree,  but 
is  not  active  in  the  fraternity.  On  the  fifteenth  day 
of  January,  1846,  J\Ir.  Robinson  was  tmited  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Amy  Ann  Henderson,  of  Greene 
county,  whose  father  settled  in  Illinois  in  1818, 
wdien  there  w-ere  but  five  other  persons  in  Greene 
county  and  when  the  nearest  postoffice  and  depot 
for  supplies  was  St.  Louis.  Of  the  two  children 
of  Captain  and  Mrs.  Robinson  but  one  is  living: 
J-  Frank, — previously  mentioned  as  cashier  of  the 
Rock  Island  National  Bank, — who  is  married  to 
Miss  Rhoads,  formerly  of  Pekin.  Captain  Robin- 
son and  his  son  attend  the  Methodist  church. 
Mrs.  Robinson  died  June  18,  1895. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


239 


JAMES  PEASE, 


CHICAGO  is  rapidly  l^ccoming  the  center  of 
the  commercial,  the  art,  the  scientific  and 
the  political  world,  and  each  class  furnishes  rep- 
resentatives that  take  their  place  in  the  foremost 
ranks.  When  such  is  the  case  ability  must  win 
promotion  and  merit  nuist  gain  advancement. 
One  cannot  depend  upon  outside  aid  or  influence, 
l)ut  must  work  his  way  upward,  and  if  he  attains 
the  height  of  prominence  it  is  because  he  is  de- 
serving. In  reviewing  the  record  of  Mr.  Pease 
we  notice  the  course  he  has  followed  and  must 
give  him  our  respect  and  admiration,  for  in  com- 
parative obscurity  he  started  out  on  life's  journey 
for  himself.  Dominated  by  the  progressive  and 
enterprising  spirit  of  the  West,  energy  and  in- 
dustry stood  him  instead  of  capital  and  crowned 
his  efforts  with  prosperity. 

Mr.  Pease  has  spent  his  entire  life  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi valley.  He  was  born  in  Kenosha  county, 
Wisconsin,  on  the  12th  of  July,  1851,  and  is  the 
fifth  in  a  family  of  six  children,  whose  parents 
were  Anson  and  Julia  (Curtis  W^ellington)  Pease.  He 
descends  from  an  old  New  England  family  which 
was  founded  in  America  in  1634  by  progenitors 
who  settled  in  Connecticut.  When  the  Colonies 
endeavored  to  throw  ofif  the  yoke  of  British 
tyranny,  its  representatives  aided  in  the  struggle 
for  independence,  and  in  the  Civil  war  a  brother 
of  our  subject  went  to  the  defense  of  the  Union 
which  his  ancestors  had  assisted  in  establishing 
almost  a  century  before.  In  commercial  life  the 
members  of  the  Pease  family  have  been  prom- 
inent ami  have  furnished  to  the  country  citizens 
of  worth.  John  Pease,  1694,  built  the  first  sail- 
ing vessel  constructed  in  America;  all  the  pegs 
were  of  wood,  instead  of  iron ;  and  the  first  church 
built  in  the  Eastern  colonies  was  by  money  sub- 
scribed by  Marguerite  Pease. 

James  Pease  acquired  his  education  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  his  native  State,  after  which  he  was 
employed  as  a  fami  hand  until  1865;  but,  not 
caring  to  devote  his  life  to  agricultural  pursuits, 
he  obtained  a  position  as  bookkeeper  for  the  firm 
of  McGlauchlin  &  Dean,  wholesale  dealers  in 
Hour  in  Chicago.     That  position  he  acceptably 


filled  until  the  fall  of  1871,  when  in  the  great  fire 
A\]iich  swept  over  the  city  his  employers  were 
burned  out  and  in  consequence  he  was  thrown 
out  of  employment.  With  no  capital  and  de- 
pendent upon  his  own  resources,  he  grasped  the 
first  opportunity  which  presented  itself  for  earn- 
ing a  livelihood,  and  began  serving  an  apprentice- 
ship to  the  painter's  trade,  which  he  followed  as 
a  journeyman  until  1876.  lie  had  by  this  time, 
through  his  industry  and  economy,  acquired 
some  capital  and  resolved  to  embark  in  business 
for  himself.  He  established  a  painting  estab- 
lishment in  Lake  View,  and  as  his  trade  increased 
and  his  facilities  were  enlarged  he  became  the 
proprietor  of  the  leading  wall-paper  and  painting 
houses  on  the  North  Side.  Conscientious  in  the 
discharge  of  the  contracts  which  were  awarded 
him,  performing  his  work  in  a  most  able  man- 
ner and  putting  forth  every  effort  to  please  his 
customers,  he  was  soon  at  the  head  of  a  paying 
business,  and  the  penniless  young  man  who  came 
to  Chicago  in  search  of  fortune  found  himself  the 
possessor  of  a  handsome  competence.  His  sys- 
tematic business  methods  and  his  discrimination 
and  enteqirise  have  been  the  factors  in  his  suc- 
cess, and  are  characteristics  which  all  might  at- 
tain. His  life  is  an  example  which  should  serve 
to  encourage  others,  and  he  may  truly  be  called 
a  self-made  man.  He  continued  at  the  head  of 
the  business  which  he  established  until  the  1st  of 
January,  1895,  when  on  accotmt  of  his  pressing 
official  duties  he  sold  out. 

The  principles  of  Republicanism  receive  the 
support  of  Ml'.  Pease,  for  his  judgment  declares 
them  to  be  the  best  calculated  to  advance  the 
welfare  of  the  country,  and  the  best  interests  of 
his  native  land  lie  close  to  his  heart.  He  is  em- 
inently public-spirited  and  delights  to  give  his  aid 
to  any  enterprise  calculated  to  benefit  city.  State 
or  nation.  For  four  years  he  served  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board  of  education,  and  was  assessor 
of  I^akeview  for  nine  years.  In  1894  he  was 
elected  to  the  office  of  sheriff  of  Cook  county  by 
a  majority  of  35,000,  and  in  the  discharge  of  the 
arduous  duties  devolving  upon  him  has  won  the 


240 


BWCnAPIIICAL  DfCTION^Anr  AND  POUTUAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


commendation  of  all  concerned.  His  political 
career  is  without  a  blemish,  and,  though  opposed 
on  account  of  his  political  affiliations,  those  of 
the  opposite  party  recognize  his  worth  and  fidel- 
ity. Fraternally  he  is  connected  with  the  Royal 
League,  Royal  Arcanum  and  the  Knights  of 
Pythias  societies,  also  the  National  Union  and 
the  Independent  order  of  Foresters.  He  is  also 
a  member  of  two  social  clubs,  the  Marquette  and 
the  Chicago  Athletic,  and  is  also  a  popular  and 
esteemed  member. 

Mr.  Pease  is  a  man  of  domestic  tastes  and 
haljits,  and  takes  great  delight  in  his  family  and 
home.  He  was  happily  married  in  1884  to  Miss 
Theresa  Houlihan,  of  Chicago,  and  their  union 
has  been  blessed  with  two  children:  George  A., 
deceased,  and  Marguerite.  On  returning  to  his 
home  he  throws  aside  all  business  cares  and  finds 


in  the  midst  of  his  little  family  the  comfort  and 
joy  which  is  one  of  the  best  means  of  recreation 
that  can  be  employed.  Various  lines  of  sport 
administer  to  his  pleasure,  and  he  is  much  inter- 
ested in  hunting,  fishing  and  yachting.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  Columbian  Yachting  Club  and 
the  Evanston  Shooting  Club,  and  is  president  of 
the  Lake  Poygan  Gun  Club. 

In  manner  he  is  free  from  all  ostentation  and 
display,  but  his  intrinsic  worth  is  recognized  and 
his  friendship  is  most  prized  by  those  who  know 
him  best,  showing  that  his  character  will  bear  the 
scrutiny  of  close  acquaintance.  He  is  a  gener- 
ous-spirited, broad-minded  man,  a  true  type  of 
the  American  spirit  and  an  embodiment  of  that 
progress  which  in  the  last  few  years  has  drawn  to 
this  country  the  admiring  gaze  of  the  nations  of 
the  world. 


LORENZO  DOW  BRADY, 


No  State  in  the  Union  can  boast  of  a  more 
heroic  band  of  pioneers  than  Illinois.  In 
their  intelligence,  capability  and  genius  they  were 
far  above  the  pioneers  of  the  Eastern  States  and 
in  their  daring  and  heroism  they  were  equal  to 
the  Missouri  and  California  argonauts.  Their 
privations,  hardships  and  earnest  labors  have  re- 
sulted in  establishing  one  of  the  foremost  com- 
monwealths in  America,  the  possiliilities  of  which 
are  far  greater  than  those  possessed  by  any  of  her 
sister  States.  The  material  advancement  of  the 
Prairie  State  is  the  wonder  of  the  world,  and 
it  has  been  largely  secured  through  the  sturdy 
and  intelligent  manhood  of  descendants  of  Puri- 
tans with  their  moral,  intellectual  and  physical 
stamina;  but  their  work  is  nearly  complete,  and 
every  year  sees  more  new  graves  filled  by  those 
who  helped  to  build  an  empire,  and  soon,  too 
soon,  will  the  last  of  those  sturdy  pioneers  be 
laid  away;  but  their  memory  will  forever  remain 
green  among  those  who  loved  them  and  appre- 
ciated their  efforts. 

The  name  of  the  late  Lorenzo  Dow  Brady  was 
perhaps  more  closely  associated  with  the  earlier 
history  of  Aurora  and  Illinois  than  any  other,  and 
iiis  valuable  counsel  and  the  activities  of  his  use- 


ful manhood  of  greater  moment  to  the  material 
advancement  of  his  city  and  State.  It  is  some- 
times believed  that  the  name  of  Brady  is  of  Irish 
origin,  but  in  the  ancestry  of  our  subject  any  Irish 
connection  is  difficult  to  find.  Scotch  blood  aiid 
characteristics  are  more  prominent  in  the  family, 
and  their  long  residence  in  America  and  their 
intermarriage  with  the  Dutch  have  obliterated  all 
trace  of  the  Celtic  race.  On  his  mother's  side  the 
connection  is  distinct  and  easily  traced.  Tlie 
name  of  Kipp  was  originally  De  Kype.  The  De 
Kype  family  lived  for  a  long  period  near  Alencon, 
in  Bretagne,  France.  The  first  of  whom  there  is 
any  mention  in  history  is  Ruloff  (or  Roeloff)  De 
Kype,  born  in  Bretagne,  France,  in  15 10  or  1520. 
He  was  a  wami  adherent  of  the  Guises  in  France, 
and  took  a  prominent  part  in  public  matters  in 
that  section  of  the  country,  especially  in  the  civil 
war  between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants.  On 
the  triumph  of  the  Protestants,  under  Conde,  in 
the  year  1562,  his  chateau  was  burned  and  he 
was  forced  to>  leave  the  countr)-.  With  his  three 
sons  he  sought  refuge  in  the  low  countries  of 
Holland,  where  they  lived  for  several  years  under 
an  assumed  name.  In  the  year  1569,  with  his 
son  Henry,  he  re-entered  France  and  joined  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


241 


arm_v  of  the  Duke  of  Aiijou,  and  on  !\rarch  13, 
1569,  fell  in  the  fight  on  the  banks  of  La  Cha- 
rante,  near  Jarnac.  (Dnyckinck's  Encyclopedia 
of  American  Literature,  volume  II,  page  551.) 
Dy  the  care  of  his  son,  Jean  Baptiste,  who  was  a 
priest,  he  was  buried  in  a  small  church  in  the 
neighborliood  of  Jarnac,  where  was  erected  to 
iiis  memory  an  altar  tomb,  which  was  destroyed 
with  the  church  during  the  French  Revolution  at 
the  close  of  the  last  century.  The  inscription  on 
the  tomb  mentions  him  as  "Rulofif  De  Kype, 
Ecyer  (the  title  designates  a  gentleman  who  has 
the  right  to  a  coat  of  amis),  and  was  surrounded 
by  his  coat  of  arms  (Lossing's  Eield  Book  of 
the  Revolution,  volume  I,  page  803),  which  was 
characterized  by  two  crests, — one  a  game  cock 
and  the  other  a  denii-grif?in  holding  a  cross, — 
both  of  which  crests  have  been  used  by  different 
branches  of  the  family  in  this  country. 

He  left  three  sons,  namely:  Henri  De  Kype, 
born  about  1540;  Jean  Baptiste,  bom  about  1542; 
RiilcfT  (spelled  variously,  as  also  RolofT,  Roelofif, 
or  Rucloff),  born  about  1544, — all  of  them  mov- 
ing to  Holland  with  their  father  in  1562.  Henry 
died  unmarried  while  serving  in  the  army  of  an 
Italian  jirince;  Jean  Baptiste  was  a  priest  of  the 
clinrch  of  Rome;  and  Rulofif  died  at  Amsterdam 
in  the  year  1596.  He  became  a  Protestant  in 
I  folland  and  seemed  to  have  dropped  the  French 
prefix  ''de."  lie  there  married  and  left  one  son, 
llendrick  Kype,  bom  in  Amsterdam,  Holland, 
in  1576.  On  arriving  at  manhood  he  took  an 
active  part  in  the  Company  of  Foreign  Countries, 
an  association  formed  in  the  Netherlands,  in  1588, 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  access  to  the  Indies 
t'y  a  route  different  from  that  pursued  by  Spain 
and  Portugal.  They  first  attempted  to  sail 
through  the  North  sea  between  Europe  and  Asia 
in  1594,  but  were  obliged  to  return  home  on  ac- 
count of  ice.  In  1609  they  employed  Hcndrick 
(or  Henry)  Hudson  to  sail  westward,  with  a  hap- 
pier result  (Duyckinck's  Encyclopedia).  Henry 
Ivype  came  to  New  Amsterdam  in  1635  and  in 
1642  obtained  a  tract  of  land  on  the  north  side 
of  Bridge  street,  New  York.  It  was  well  known 
that  in  many  cases  members  of  distinguished 
families  sought  in  America  a  field  of  enterprise 
and  action  denied  them  at  home.  Hcndrick 
Kype  was  one  of  these,  and  his  coat  of  arms, 
10 


ci'Tved  upon  stone,  was  used  by  his  son  Jacobus, 
who  built  it  firmly  in  the  wall  over  the  front  door 
of  the  house  at  Kip's  Bay  in  1655,  where  it  re- 
mained until  it  was  torn  down  in  1851.  (Lamb's 
History  of  New  York  City,  volume  I,  page  137.) 
The  arms  of  the  Kip  family,  as  now  in  use,  are 
found  in  the  windows  of  the  First  Dutch  Church, 
(iarden  street,  now  Exchange  Place.  It  consists 
of  a  chevron  in  azure  and  gold.  In  chief,  it  con- 
tains two  griffins,  sejante  in  silver;  in  base,  a 
sinister  male  hand  displayed  in  gold.  The  crest 
is  a  dcmi-griffin,  silver,  holding  in  paws  a  red 
cross.  Alotto,  Vestigia  nulla  retrorsum  (there  is 
no  going  back). 

Hendrick's  name  was  frequently  mentioned  in 
the  early  records  of  the  colony  as  a  proniiiient 
person.  He  was  appointed  by  Governor  Stuy- 
vesant's  council,  Se]5tembcr  25,  ^C^/.  one  nf  the 
board  of  "nine  men''  selected  from  the  most 
notable,  honest  and  respectable  of  the  citizens 
of  the  commonalty  to  assist  the  director  appointed 
by  the  governor  and  coinicil.  This  office  he  held 
in  1649  and  1650.  (O'Callahan's  History  of  New 
Nolherlands,  volume  II,  page  37.)  The  first  ap- 
plication for  a  municipal  form  of  government, 
made  to  the  Lords  of  the  States  General  of  the 
United  Netherlands,  July  26,  1649,  i"  the  name 
and  behalf  of  the  commonalty  of  the  New  Nether- 
lands, was  signed  by  eleven  leading  citizens, 
among  which  was  Hendrick  Kype  (Broadhead's 
History  of  the  State  of  New  York,  volume  I,  page 
505).  In  1657,  "in  conformity  to  the  laudable 
custom  of  the  city  of  Amsterdam  in  Europe,"  the 
"Great  Bourgeoisie"  was  introduced  into  New 
Amsterdam  to  govern  it.  It  was  the  selection  of 
aljout  twenty  families,  who  formed  the  great 
citizenship,  the  members  of  which  alone  were 
eligible  to  public  office,  while  the  other  citizens 
were  in  inferior  citizenship.  Hendrick  Kype  was 
enrolled  as  a  Great  Burgher,  April  11,  1657. 
These  twenty  names  constituted  the  aristocracy 
of  New  York  two  hundred  and  nine  years  ago. 
(W.  L.  Stone's  History  of  New  York  City,  page 
31.)  In  1656  Hcndrick  Kype  was  appointed 
"Schepen"  (or  alderman).  His  name  appears 
April  19,  1665,  in  the  list  of  citizens  who  were 
assessed  to  pay  for  the  support  of  the  city  garri- 
son. Upon  the  surrender  of  New  Amsterdam  to 
the  English  in  1664  he  took  the  oath  of  allegiance, 


242 


nmaiiAPiiWAL  DTcrroyAnr  A\n  poutrait  gallery  of  riiK 


in  October  of  tliat  year.  The  last  mention  of  his 
name  is  in  the  "Register  of  the  Members  of  the 
Dutch  Church  since  1649,"  where  opposite  to  it 
is  written  in  the  writing  of  Dominie  Selyus,  "Obyt 
op  Kippcnburg  on  the  Hudson;"' but  the  date  of 
his  death  is  not  given.  (Calender's  Dutch  Histor- 
ical Manuscripts,  page  263.)  He  was  married  in 
1620,  in  Amsterdam,  to  Margaret  de  Marneil,  and 
had  three  sons,  all  born  in  Amsterdam,  Holland, 
namely:  Hendric,  born  in  1625;  Jacobus,  bom 
May  15,  1631;  and  Isaac,  born  in  1633. 

Jacobus,  the  second  son,  came  with  his  father 
and  brothers  to  New  Amsterdam  in  1635.  In 
December,  1649,  he  was  acting  clerk  of  Governor 
Stu_vvesant's  council  (O'Callaghan's  Register  of 
New  Netherlands).  On  the  27th  of  Januan,-, 
1653,  he  was  appointed  first  secretary  to  the 
Council  of  New  Netherlands,  resigning  June  12, 
1657,  and  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  schepens 
in  1659,  1662,  1663,  1665  and  1673,  and  was  presi- 
dent of  the  board  in  1674.  (Holgate's  Genealo- 
gies, page  III.)  He  was  thus  described  in  con- 
temporary letters:  "The  newly  appointed  secre- 
tary of  the  province  is  a  young  man  of  spirit  and 
intelligence,  handsome  and  extremely  popular." 
(Lamb's  History  of  New  York  City,  volume  I, 
page  159.)  He  obtained  from  the  Government  a 
grant  on  the  East  river,  which  was  known 
as  Kip's  ,  Bay  Farm,  where  he  erected  in 
1665  what  was  for  the  next  two  centuries  the 
family  residence  and  where  five  generations 
of  the  family  were  born.  The  house  was 
destroyed  in  1840,  at  which  time  it  was  the 
oldest  on  Manhattan  island.  In  1700  one  of  the 
ladies  of  the  family  planted  near  a  rock  in  the  rear 
of  the  house  a  pear-tree,  which  was  still  living 
in  1858  and  bearing  fruit.  His  house  in  the  city 
was  built  in  1657,  being  situated  on  Garden 
street,  the  present  Exchange  Place,  and  he  is  re- 
corded as  living  in  the  present  Broad  street  as 
late  as  1684  (Paulding's  Affairs  and  Men  of  New 
Amsterdam,  page  III).  In  1686  he  was  residing 
"beyond  the  Fresh  Waters," — the  Kip's  Bay  Farm 
being  the  place  alluded  to.  (Collections  of  the 
New  York  Historical  Society,  second  series, 
volume  I,  page  398.)  He  was  married  to  Marie 
de  La  Montaigne,  a  daughter  of  Hon.  Johannes 
de  La  Montaigne,  Huguenot,  who  was  associated 
with  Governor  Keift  in  the  government  of    the 


colony.  She  was  born  at  sea  off  the  island  of 
Madeira,  Jainiary  26,  1637,  and  was  mairied  in 
the  fort  at  New  Amsterdam,  February  24,  1654, 
in  her  seventeenth  year.  Her  father  died  in  1690, 
and  the  last  notice  found  of  his  widow  in  the 
books  of  the  Dutch  Church  where  record  is  given 
as  her  acting  as  sponsor  at  a  baptism,  May  22, 
1 70 1.  Dr.  Johannes  de  La  Montaigne  was  a 
learned  and  highly  bred  Huguenot,  who  escaped 
from  the  rage  of  religious  persecution  and  found 
his  "Canaan"  in  the  Dutch  settlement  on  Man- 
liattan  island.  His  parents  belonged  to  the  "An- 
cicnne  Noblesse"  of  France,  a  fact  which  he  took 
pains  neither  to  promulgate  nor  conceal  but 
which  might  have  revealed  itself  in  a  thousand 
ways  if  his  superior  accomplishments  and  elegant 
manners  had  not  won  universal  admiration.  He 
was  a  widower  with  four  children,  upon  whom  he 
bestowed  great  care  and  attention.  He  gave 
them  lessons  daily  and  perfected  their  education 
in  such  a  manner  that  his  three  daughters  grew 
up  to  be  the  most  attractive  women  of  their  day 
and  province,  and  his  son  became  a  man  of  for- 
tune and  position. 

His  youngest  daughter,  Jvlarie,  became  the  wife 
of  Jacobus  Kip  (Lamb's  History  of  New  York, 
volume  I,  page  83),  who  left  thirteen  children, 
the  eldest  of  whom  was  Johannes  (John),  so 
named  for  the  maternal  grandfather,  Johannes  de 
La  Montaigne.  He  was  bom  February  3,  1655, 
and  baptized  on  the  21st  day  of  the  same  month. 
He  was  married  September  4,  1681,  to  Catherine, 
daughter  of  Dr.  William  Hans  Kierstedt,  who 
was  from  ]\Iagdeburg,  the  capital  of  Saxony.  He 
was  one  of  the  earliest  physicians  and  surgeons 
who  settled  in  New  Amsterdam,  and  came  with 
Governor  William  Keift  in  March,  1638.  He 
was  married  June  29,  1642,  to  Sara  Roelofs,  who 
was  born  in  New  Amsterdam,  and  was  a  daughter 
of  Anneke  Jans  (Bogardus),  from  whom  Trinity 
Church  in  New  York  city  derives  its  immense 
property.  His  wife  attained  a  greater  proficiency 
in  the  Indian  languages  than  any  other  person  in 
the  colony,  so  that  in  May,  1664,  she  acted  as  in- 
t(.'ii')reter  for  Governor  Stuyvesant  at  the  great 
treaty  made  by  him  with  the  neighboring  Indian 
tribes.  She  was  presented  with  a  large  tract  of 
land  on  the  west  side  of  Hudson  river  by  Oritany, 
chief  of  the   Hackensack   and  Tappan    Indians. 


REPRESEXTATIVI-:  .VEX  oF  THE  CXITED  STATES;  ILLTXOfS  VOLUME. 


!-18 


(Broadhead's  Ifistory  of  New  York,  volume  I, 
page  731.)  He  took  a  leading  part  in  public  af- 
fairs and  was  common-councilman  in  1684,  and  a 
member  of  the  board  of  aldermen  in  1685,  1687, 
1691,  1692,  1693,  1696  and  i6c)7.  In  1699  and 
1700  he  was  a  member  of  the  province  assembly. 
The  Earl  of  Belmont  was  then  governor  of  New 
'S'ork.  Among  the  candidates  was  Johannes  Kip, 
who  was  opposed  to  the  governor,  and  in  spite  of 
the  most  determined  eflfort  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  he  was  elected  as  one  of  the  members 
from  the  city.  When  some  one  said  to  Belmont, 
"The  new  members  all  seem  to  be  Englishmen," 
he  replied  with  a  sarcastic  smile,  "There  is 
Johannes  Kip,  Rip  \zn  Dam  and  Jacobus  Van 
Cortland;  their  names  speak  Dutch  and  the  men 
scarcely  English."  (Lamb's  History  of  New 
York,  volume  I,  page  731.)  Benjamin  and  Blen- 
dina  were  twin  children  of  Johannes  Kip  and  wore 
born  March  21,  1703.  Benjamin  moved  to  West- 
chester county  in  1732,  where  he  purchased  a 
four-hundred-acre  fami  and  was  justice  of  the 
peace  under  the  Colonial  government.  He  mar- 
ried Dorothy  Davenport,  who  died  September 
3,  1807.  He  died  at  Westchester,  May  24,  18  . 
Their  son  Samuel  was  born  December  16,  1753, 
n;arried  Freelove  Totten  (or  Tattan)  and  left  one 
(laughter,  Lydia,  who  became  the  wife  of  John 
B.  ];rady,  and  the  mother  of  our  subject,  Lorenzo 
Dmv  Brady. 

John  B.  Brady  removed  to  New  York  in  1822 
when  his  eldest  son,  Lorenzo  D.,  was  twelve 
}'cars  of  age  and  where  for  many  years  he  was  em- 
ployed in  banking  institutions  of  that  city.  In 
1842  he  moved  West  and  died  at  Marseilles,  Illi- 
nois, February  8,  1859,  aged  seventy-six  years. 
Lorenzo  secured  a  common  school  education, 
partly  in  New  Castle,  Westchester  county,  New 
York,  where  he  was  born,  January  19,  1810,  and 
partly  after  he  removed  with  his  parents  to  New 
York.  He  soon  entered  a  life  of  activity,  how- 
ever, and  obtained  a  situation  as  clerk  in  a  store. 
At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  began  business  on  his 
own  account,  and  successfully  conducted  a 
grocery  store  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Delancy 
and  Cannon  streets, — now  Sixth  avenue  and 
Washington  Place, — for  a  period  of  five  years, 
lie  then  sold  out  and  entered  the  wholesale  busi- 
ness in  paints  and  oils  at  No.  40  West  street,  and 


continued  there  until  1837,  when  he  disposed  of 
his  Inisiness  in  order  to  come  West  to  see  for  him- 
self whether  the  rose-colored  reports  of  this  region 
could  be  substantiated.  L^^pon  coming  to  Illinois 
I\rr.  Brady  located  upon  a  seven-hundred-acre 
tract  of  land  in  Big  Rock  township,  Kane  county, 
and  engaged  in  farming.  His  commercial  incli- 
nation did  not  allow  him  to  remain  satisfied  with 
the  comparatively  cpiiet  life  of  a  farmer,  and  in 
t840  he  formed  a  partnership  with  George  E. 
Peck,  and  they  together  went  to  Little  Rock,  Ken- 
dall county.  The  general  store  conducted  by  the 
firm  of  Peck  &  Brady  was  highly  profitable  and 
was  continued  by  them  until  1842,  when  Mr.  Peck 
died.  The  business  was  then  carried  on  by  Mr. 
lirady  alone  until  1848,  when  he  removed  to 
Aurora.  Here  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
Edward  R.  Allen,  under  the  firm  name  of  Brady 
&  Allen,  in  the  general  mercantile  business,  and 
now  began  an  activity  which  came  to  be  of  ex- 
ceeding value  to  the  entire  community. 

In  the  fall  of  1848  Mr.  Brady  was  elected  repre- 
sentative and  sent  to  the  Illinois  legislature,  where 
his  services  were  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
Aurora  and  Illinois.  He  was  the  author  and  se- 
cured the  passage  of  what  was  called  the  Aurora 
Branch  Railroad  act,  and  was  largely  instrumental 
in  the  building  of  the  road  thus  chartered  from 
Turner  Junction  to  Aurora,  a  distance  of  twelve 
and  three-fourths  miles.  Money  in  those  days 
was  exceedingly  scarce,  but  the  subscriptions  to 
the  railroad  were  made  promptly  when  the  books 
were  opened,  $25,000  being  subscribed  in  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  $40,000  was  secured  before 
spring  opened  in  1849.  '^^'^^  promoters  found  it 
necessary,  however,  to  cheapen  the  construction 
of  the  railroad  and  decided  to  use  strap  rails. 
These  they  secured  on  credit  from  the  old  Bufifalo 
&  Niagara  Falls  Railroad  company,  which  was 
then  improving  its  road,  and  the  ties  were  cut 
from  the  timber  around  Aurora  and  along  the 
right  of  way  of  the  road.  Thus  was  built  what  was 
to  become  a  section  of  the  foundation  of  the  great 
Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  railroad. 

Seeing  that  railroad  connection  with  Chicago 
v,as  an  assured  fact  and  that  warehouse  facilities 
\\ould  be  in  demand  as  long  as  Aurora  remained 
the  western  terminus  of  the  railroad  running  from 
Chicago,  Messrs.  Brady  &  Allen,  in  addition  to 


244 


BIOGUM'IHCAL  DICTIOXAUY  AND  POIlTIlArT  (lALLEUT  (iF  Till': 


tlicir  store,  wliich  they  h:ul  erected  on  the  iKirlh- 
east  corner  of  Broad  way  and  Main  streets,  buiU 
a  large  warehouse  on  La  Salle  street,  near  Main, 
which  was  destroyed  in  1887.  The  warehouse 
business  was  very  profitable  as  was  also  the  gen- 
eral store.  In  1854  the  firm  dissolved  partner- 
ship, Mr.  Brady  retaining  the  store  and  Mr.  Allen 
the  warehouse.  Mr.  Brady  remained  in  mercantile 
business  until  1871,  in  which  year  he  sold  out. 
He  was  the  promoter  and  one  of  the  organizers 
of  the  Aurora  Fire  Insurance  company,  which 
was  formed  in  1865  with  a  capital  of  $200,000. 
The  company  did  an  exceedingly  successful  and 
profitable  business,  but  was  driven  into  bank- 
ruptcy by  the-  greait  Chicago  fire  in  1871, 
paying,  however,  forty-seven  per  cent,  of  its 
liabilities. 

When  the  banking  firm  of  Albert  Jeiiks  &  Com- 
pany failed  in  1861  the  banking  firm  of  Brady, 
Hawkins  &  Allen  was  established,  with  sufificient 
capital  and  an  excellent  reputation.  They  did  a 
very  profitable  business  until  the  national  banking 
system  came  into  vogue.  The  firm  organized 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Aurora,  of  which  Mr. 
Brady  became  a  heavy  stockholder  and  a  director, 
and  with  which  he  continued  until  he  transferred 
his  interests  to  the  Aurora  National  Bank,  which 
to-day  is  probably  the  most  popular  bank  in  the 
city. 

J\Ir.  Brady  was  the  first  to  suggest  the  erection 
of  the  handsome  Memorial  Building  in  Aurora, 
and  was  president  of  the  Memorial  association. 
He  served  for  many  years  as  school  trustee,  and 
on  account  of  his  active  interest  in  educational 
afifairs  one  of  the  largest  edifices  in  the  city,  the 
Brady  school,  was  named  in  his  honor.  In  recog- 
nition of  this  he  afterward  contributed  largely  to 
perfect  its  equipment  for  educational  instruction. 
He  was  largely  instrumental  in  founding  Spring 
Lake  cemetery,  gave  much  of  his  time  and  means 
toward  beautifying  its  ground,  and  acted  for 
many  years  as  treasurer  of  the  company.  He 
was  mayor  of  the  city  in  1880.  At  the  time  of 
his  death  Mr.  Brady  was  an  ardent  and  loyal 
Republican.  He  was  formerly  a  free-soil  Demo- 
crat, but  at  the  birth  of  the  new  party  he  associ- 
ated himself  with  it.  He  was  chairman  of  the 
first  Congressional  Republican  convention  ever 
held  in  Illinois,  which  convened  in  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  at  Aurora  in  September,  1854,  when 


it  was  claimed  that  the  Republican  party  of  the 
nation  received  its  name.  In  religious  matters, 
Mr.  Brady  was  a  Unitarian,  was  actively  identified 
with  the  People's  Church  and  contributed  largely 
to  the  erection  of  its  edifice.  He  was  ever  one  of 
its  chief  promoters  and  was  the  largest  contributor 
to  the  fund  which  was  raised  for  its  redecoration 
and  remodeling.  He  retired  to  private  life  some 
year.s  previous  to  his  death,  but  his  interests  were 
constantly  alive  on  all  questions  relating  to  the 
welfare  of  his  adopted  city. 

Mr.  Brady  was  married  in  1836  to  Miss 
Susanna  Fowler,  wdio  died  in  1844.  On  the  20th 
of  February,  1845,  he  was  married,  in  Cincinnati, 
to  ]\Iiss  Caroline  Kennon,  a  daughter  of  David 
and  Sophia  (Towsley)  Kennon,  of  Plattsburg, 
New  York.  She  died  July  21,  1883.  By  the  lat- 
ter marriage  he  had  four  daughters  and  one  son : 
Sue,  wife  of  J.  J.  Fishburn,  of  Aurora,  Illinois; 
Julia,  wife  of  W.  S.  Beaupre,  who  is  vice-president 
of  the  Aurora  National  Bank;  John  L.,  of  Port- 
land, Oregon;  Lydia,  wife  of  Dr.  C.  C.  Smith, 
of  Aurora;  and  Marion,  wife  of  C.  H.  Haring,  also 
of  Aurora. 

]\Ir.  Brady's  death  occurred  on  Saturday,  Feb- 
ruary 27,  1892,  after  he  had  been  for  a.  few  days 
prostrated  with  a  stroke  of  paralysis,  from  which 
he  was  unable  to  recover  owing  to  his  advanced 
age.  His  demise  closed  the  life  record  of  one  who 
honored  the  community  in  which  he  lived  and 
who  was  universally  honored  and  respected  by  all 
who  knew  him.  Aurora  mourned  the  death 
of  this  prominent  man;  flags  were  at  half 
mast  and  the  stores  were  closed  during  the 
funeral  service.  Expressions  of  regret  were 
heard  on  every  hand,  for  all  felt  that  they  had 
sustained  a  personal  bereavement  and  the  city  an 
irreparable  loss.  He  possessed  to  a  full  measure 
all  the  fine  and  ennobling  qualities  for  which  his 
ancestors  were  so  noted,  and  his  honesty,  in- 
tegrity, gentleness  and  purity  were  a  constant 
source  of  inspiration  to  his  loving  family  and 
friends.  Few  men  have  left  an  example  more  to 
be  desired  than  he,  and  his  progressiveness,  busi- 
ness ability  and  the  part  he  took  in  public  afTairs 
will  long  be  felt  in  municipal  business  circles  in 
Aurora;  for  without  him  that  city  could  scarcely 
have  hoped  to  attain  to  the  position  she  now  holds 
as  one  of  the  most  important  and  progressive 
cities  in  Illinois. 


REPRESEyTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  TLLIXOIS   VOLUME. 


245 


JOHN  L.  TINCHER, 


So  long  as  there  are  dwellers  in  this  broad  land 
of  "Tlie  Illinois,"  so  long  will  the  history  of 
such  men  as  John  L.  Tincher  be  read  with  inter- 
est. He  belonged  to  that  class,  limited  in 
numbers  Init  prodigious  in  strength,  who 
were  the  leaders  in  s[)irit,  thought  and 
action  in  the  formative  period  of  our  State's 
history.  Perhaps  every  gathering  or  com- 
munity of  men  has  in  its  midst  some  one  who, 
when  occasion  requires,  or  the  exigencies  of  the 
case  demand,  is  looked  to  by  the  rest  as  a  leader. 
These  men  possess  that  indescribable  ciuality 
which  commands  respect,  confidence  and  obedi- 
ence from  others.  Mr.  Tincher  possessed  much 
of  this  inherent  quality.  He  figured  in  a  period 
when  it  took  strong  men  to  get  to  the  front  and  re- 
main there;  he  helped  to  develop  this  section  almost 
from  the  wilderness  to  the  city  he  helped  formulate 
the  constitution  and  laws  under  which  we  live; 
and  he  helped  build  up  and  establish  the  strongest 
financial  institution  of  which  Danville  can  boast 
to-day.  He  was  at  various  periods  teacher,  mer- 
chant, banker,  statesman,  preacher.  His  life, 
though  spanning  but  half  a  century,  was  full  of  ac- 
tion: he  was  always  a  busy  man.  Though  of  large 
stature  he  was  never  a  robust  man  physically,  and 
his  wonderful  and  incessant  mental  activity  un- 
doubtedly shortened  his  life;  the  engine  was  too 
powerful  for  the  craft ;  but  his  life  work  was  of  that 
character  that,  though  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury has  elapsed  since  his  untimely  decease,  his 
memory  is  as  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people, 
and  dierished  as  fondly,  as  though  months  in- 
stead of  years  marked  the  interval  since  his  de- 
parture. It  is  well  to  perpetuate  and  preserve  in 
the  libraries  of  our  land  the  life  records  of  such 
men. 

John  L.  Tincher  was  bom  in  Kentucky,  Octo- 
ber 1 8,  1 82 1.  Eight  years  later  he  with  his  parents 
came  to  \'ermilion  county,  Indiana.  His  mother 
died  when  he  was  very  young,  and  his  father  be- 
fore he  had  attained  his  majority.  What  school- 
ing he  obtained  was  mainly  through  his  own 
efforts.  He  qualified  himself  to  teach  in  the  dis- 
trict schools,  and  by  teaching  and  attending  school 


alternately  he  managed  to  secure  a  fair  education. 
When  he  began  casting  about  for  some  occupa- 
tion in  life,  the  business  of  merchandising  sug- 
gested itself  to  him.  He  was  without  capital  and 
had  to  begin  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder.  He  went  to 
Lafayette,  Indiana,  and  obtained  a  clerkship  in 
a  dry-goods  store;  later  he  was  employed  in  a 
like  capacity  at  Newport,  Indiana,  in  the  store  of 
Jones  &  Culbertson,  and  in  1843  'le  came  with 
J.  At.  Culbertson  to  Danville,  Illinois,  and  clerked 
in  his  store  till  1833. 

In  the  meantime  he  had  met,  wooed  and  won 
the  lady  who  became  his  wife,  and  who  still  lives 
to  cherish  and  honor  his  memory.  On  the  iSth 
of  April,  1850,  he  married  Miss  Caroline  R.  Hicks, 
a  native  of  Indiana,  whose  mother  and  father  were 
natives  of  New  York  State  and  Massachusetts,  re- 
spectively. 

In  1853  he  engaged  in  the  dry-goods  trade  on 
his  own  account,  in  company  with  J.  G.  English. 
They  prospered  in  their  business  venture  and  the 
ass'jciation  proved  congenial;  so  they  de- 
temiined  to  engage  in  the  banking  and  brokerage 
business,  and  the  banking  house  of  Tincher  & 
English  was  established,  afterward  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Danville,  and  which  is  still  con- 
ducted by  Mr.  English,  the  surviving  partner. 

Although  Mr.  Tincher  came  to  Danville  in  the 
humble  capacity  of  clerk,  it  was  not  long  until  the 
strong  qualities  of  the  man  compelled  recognition, 
and  from  that  time  till  his  decease  there  was 
scarcely  an  enterprise  of  importance  inaugurated 
in  the  city  with  which  he  was  not  prominently 
identified.  He  held  many  local  positions  of  honor 
and  trust,  such  as  supervisor  of  the  town,  member 
of  the  school  board,  etc.  He  was  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  gas  company;  and  early  recognizing  the 
important  part  railroads  play  in  the  development 
of  a  country  he  became  an  earnest  advocate  and 
promoter  in  that  direction. 

He  was  one  of  the  promoters  and  stockholders 
of  the  Chicago,  Danville  &  Vincennes,  now  Chi- 
cago &  Eastern  Illinois,  Railroad;  also  of  the  In- 
dianapolis, Urbana,  Bloomington  &  Peoria,  now 
Peoria  I'v  Eastern — a  part  of  the  "Big  Four"  sys- 


•incM.  D'.cTwyMiy  AM)  runruMT  callkut  of  the 


tein,  and  was  one  of  the  incoq)orators  of  the  Paris 
&  Danville,  now  Cairo  branch  of  the  "Big  Four." 
In  company  with  his  partner,  Mr.  Enghsh,  he 
owned  and  platted  perhaps  the  major  part  of  the 
present  beautiful  little  city  of  Danville. 

It  was  not,  however,  as  a  business  man  alone 
that  Mr.  Tincher  was  prominent.  He  took  an 
active  part  in  political  matters.  He  was  a  pleas- 
ant, forceful  and  effective  public  speaker,  and  his 
services  were  in  constant  demand  in  this  field  of 
action.  In  1864  he  was  elected  to  the  lower  house 
of  the  general  assembly  of  Illinois;  in  1867  he 
was  elected  to  the  senate,  and  re-elected  to  the 
same  important  position  in  1870.  He  was  also  in 
the  latter  year  chosen  as  a  member  of  the  con- 
stitutional convention  to  revise  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  State,  and  was  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential members  of  this  distinguished  body. 

In  1845  he  united  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  was  soon  afterward  ordained  as  a 
local  preacher  in  that  denomination;  and,  not- 
withstanding the  demands  upon  his  time  of  con- 
stantly increasing  business  and  official  responsi- 
bilities, he,  especially  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life, 
often  occupied  the  pulpit,  and  always  with  an  ear- 
nestness, eloquence  and  zeal  that  carried  convic- 
tion ;  and  was  productive  of  much  good.  In  what- 
ever field  of  labor  he  put  forth  effort,  success  at- 
tended him.  Possessed  of  splendid  presence,  more 
than  ordinary  ability,  a  genial  courtesy  of  man- 
ner which  readily  won  and  retained  confi- 
dence and  friendship,  he  used  his  remarkable 
powers  wisely  and  well;  and  of  him  it  may  be 
truly  said  that  he  left  the  world  better  for  his 
having  lived  in  it. 

We  find  in  his  composition  a  rare  combination 
of  man's  best  qualities.  He  possessed  in  a  high 
degree  practical  business  sagacity,  charity  for  the 
shortcomings  of  others,  generosity  to  those  less. 


favored  than  himself,  and  was  withal  the  very  soul 
of  honor  and  honesty.  He  knew  but  one  method 
in  business  or  politics —  straightforwardness  ajid 
open  dealing.  He  had  no  patience  with  subter- 
fuge or  double  dealing,  and  probably  no  man  who 
knew-  him  had  nenx  enough  to  approach  him 
with  a  dishonest  proposition. 

He  died  in  harness,  and  the  action  taken  by 
his  fellow  legislators  on  the  occasion  of  his  death, 
the  resolutions  passed,  the  individual  expressions 
of  all  the  members  of  both  houses,  attested  in  the 
most  unmistakable  manner  the  high  esteem  in 
which  he  was  held  by  both  his  political  coadjutors 
and  opponents.  Some  of  the  eulogiums  seem  ex- 
travagant, as  though  words  were  meaningless  to 
express  their  grief  at  his  loss;  but  there  can  be  no 
question  of  their  sincerity. 

His  death  was  quite  sudden,  and  occurred  at  the 
Revere  House  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  December 
17,  1871.  He  died  of  pleuro-pneumonia  and  was 
ill  but  a  few  days  prior  to  his  decease. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  his  residence  in  Danville 
he  gave  considerable  attention  to  society  matters. 
He  was  a  member  of  Olive  Branch  Lodge,  No. 
38,  F.  &  A.  M.,  and  w'as  a  charter  member  of  Dan- 
ville Lodge,  No.  69, 1.  O.  O.  F. 

During  the  exciting  period  of  our  Civil  war  he 
was  a  strong  Union  man  and  took  an  acti^•e  part 
in  enlisting  troops,  and  in  the  work  of  the  relief 
committees,  etc.  The  condition  of  his  health  for- 
bade his  giving  his  own  services  in  the  field.  In 
all  matters  of  general  or  public  interest  Mr. 
Tincher  was  recognized  as  the  controlling  spirit 
in  this  commmiitv'.  He  Mt  no  one  to  charge  him 
with  circumvention,  he  left  no  taint  upon  his 
memory;  but  instead  he  left  the  results  of  a  suc- 
cessful and  well-spent  life,  and  a  record  which 
must  forever  be  a  source  of  pride  and  satisfaction 
to  his  descendants. 


^. 


f^.   oVl^c.,r^^(. 


Lewis /hiiisJimf  Co. 


REPRESENTATIVh:  MEX  OF  THE  CXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


247 


GEORGE  \V.  NEWCOMB, 

CHICAGO. 


MORE  than  forty-three  )ears  have  passed 
since  this  gentleman  arrived  in  Chicago, 
and  lie  is  justly  numbered  among  her  honored 
pioneers  and  leading  citizens.  He  has  been  prom- 
inently identified  with  her  business  interests  as 
a  member  of  the  legal  profession.  His  is  an  hon- 
orable record  of  a  conscientious  man,  who  by 
his  upright  life  has  won  the  confidence  of  all 
with  whom  he  has  come  in  contact.  He  has 
rounded  the  psalmist's  span  of  three-score  years 
and  ten,  and  although  the  snows  of  several  win- 
ters have  whitened  his  hair,  he  has  the  vigor  of 
a  much  younger  man,  and  in  spirit  and  interests 
seems  yet  in  his  prime.  Old  age  is  not  necessarily 
a  synonym  of  weakness  or  inactivity.  It  needs 
not  suggest,  as  a  matter  of  course,  want  of  oc- 
cupation or  helplessness.  There  is  an  old  age 
that  is  a  benediction  to  all  that  comes  in  con- 
tact with  it,  that  gives  out  of  its  rich  stores  of 
learning  and  experience,  and  grows  stronger  in- 
tellectually and  spiritually  as  the  years  pass.  Such 
is  the  life  of  Mr.  Xewcomb,  an  encouragement  to 
his  associates  and  an  example  well  worthy  of 
emulation  to  the  young. 

George  \\'hitfield  Xewcomb  was  born  in  the 
little  village  of  Putney,  Windham  county,  Ver- 
mont, April  12,  1825,  and  is  the  youngest  of  the 
ten  children  of  Asahel  and  Lucinda  (Sykes)  New- 
ccmb.  In  the  sketch  of  his  life  printed  in  the 
Evening  Post  the  following  was  written:  "  If 
America  has  an  aristocracy  of  birth,  George  W. 
Newcomb  may  certainly  lay  claim  to  being  an 
American  of  Americans,  for  his  ancestry  is  di- 
rectly traceable  to  the  historic  William  Bradford, 
first  governor  of  IMassachusetts  and  a  member 
of  the  Mayflower  band  of  Pilgrims.  His  hue  in- 
cludes many  of  the  founders  of  this  country  and 
particularly  of  New  England.  The  grandfather, 
William  Ne\\comb,  was  a  private  soldier  in  the 
war  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  was  with 
the  army  of  Washington  in  Pennsylvania  when 
several  times  it  waded  the  Schuylkill  river  during 
a  winter's  night.  He  was  with  the  party  that 
rowed  General  Washington's  boat  through  the 
icy  waters  of  the  Delaware  river  on  the  terrible 


night  preceding  the  battle  of  Trenton.  One  of 
his  early  ancestors.  Lieutenant  Andrew  Newcomb, 
was  in  command  of  the  fortifications  for  a  period 
during  King  William's  war  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century ;  another  of  his  ancestors, 
John  Ctmnabell,  was  a  soldier  in  Captain  Tur- 
ner's company  atthePallsfight,  which  took  place 
near  the  present  to\\'n  of  Bernardston,  Massachu- 
setts, in  1676;  still  another  ancestor,  whose  name 
is  not  known  to  the  writer,  was  engaged  in  the 
Falls  fight;  and  one  of  the  descendants  received 
a  grant  of  a  lot  in  the  Falls  Fight  township,  above 
Deerfield,  j\Iassachusetts,  in  consideration  of  his 
ser\'ices.  The  distinguished  military  services  of 
Major  \\'illiam  Bradford,  son  of  Governor  Brad- 
ford, Mr.  Xewcomb's  ancestor,  in  the  Colonial 
wars,  are  a  matter  of  history.  The  family  has 
ever  been  noted  for  loyalty  and  fidelity  to  any 
trust  reposed  in  them,  and  these  characteristics 
are  among  the  most  marked  of  the  gentleman 
whose  name  introduces  this  sketch. 

When  three  years  of  age  Mr.  Newcomb  removed 
with  his  parents  to  Whitestown,  Oneida  county. 
New  York,  where  his  boyhood  days  were  passed 
and  his  education  was  begun.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  entered  Whitestown  Academy,  and 
the  principal,  Rev.  Abner  W.  Henderson,  taking 
an  interest  in  his  young  pupil,  awakened  in 
the  latter's  mind  an  ambition  to  obtain  a  college 
education.  With  this  end  in  view  he  attended 
\N'hitestown  Seminar)-,  a  preparator}'  school, 
which  he  left  to  enter  the  sophomore  year  of 
Hamilton  College  in  1846.  He  had  scarcely 
n-.atriculated  when  he  accepted  an  ofifer  of  twenty 
dollars  per  month  and  board  to  teach  school  at 
Sherburne,  Chenango  county,  New  York,  as  he 
was  entirely  dependent  upon  his  own  resources 
for  the  means  of  attending  college.  He  had  pre- 
viously taught  in  tliree  of  the  district  schools  of 
Whitestown.  He  re-entered  college  at  the  third 
term  of  the  sophomore  year,  having  meanwhile 
kept  pace  with  the  studies  of  his  class,  and  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  June, 
1849.  He  then  served  as  principal  of  Ames 
Academy,   of  Montgomery  county.   New   York, 


2-48 


BIOdRM'inCAL  niVTinXART  AND  PO/lTh'A/T  (lALLEHY  OF  THE 


and  it  was  soon  scc-n  that  he  possessed  ability  of 
a  liigh  order  as  an  educator,  and  he  was  elected 
to  the  principalship  of  the  Utica  Academy,  of 
Utica,  New  York,  but  after  serving  in  that  po- 
sition for  a  few  weeks  his  health  failed  and  he 
was  obliged  to  resign.  After  an  illness  of  sev- 
eral months  he  regained  his  strength  sufficiently 
to  contemplate  a  change  of  climate.  Two  courses 
seemed  open  to  him :  one  \vas  to  go  into  the  South- 
ern States  and  accept  an  appointment  as  teacher, 
there  being  at  that  time  considerable  demand  in 
the  South  for  instructors;  the  other  was  to  go 
into  the  new  territory  being  developed  in  the 
West.  The  latter  proved  the  more  attractive 
and  he  resolved  to  seek  a  broader  field  of  labor 
in  the  Mississippi  valley. 

According! v,  Mr.  'Newconib  proceeded  by 
rail  to  Bufifalo,  where  he  took  passage  on  a 
steamer  for  Detroit,  Michigan,  thence  traveled 
over  the  new  ]\Iichigan  Central  Railroad  to  Chi- 
cago, and  arrived  at  the  terminus  of  the  line  at 
the  foot  of  Twelfth  street  on  the  lake  shore  in 
Julv,  1852.  The  first  object  which  met  his  gaze 
on  alighting  from  the  train  was  a  large  frame 
building  on  which  were  letters  about  six  feet  long 
indicating  that  it  was  the  "Southern  Hotel,"  and 
to  this  led  wagon  tracks  from  difTerent  directions 
over  the  unmown  prairie  grass  and  sand.  j\Ir. 
Newcomb  spent  the  night  there,  and  the  next 
morning  started  by  rail  for  Elgin,  where  for  a  few- 
days  he  visited  his  cousin,  John  B.  Newcomb, 
one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Kane  county.  He 
afterward  visited  friends  in  Waukesha,  Wiscon- 
sin, and  upon  his  return  to  Chicago  found  that 
he  had  exactly  twenty  dollars  and  fifty  cents  in 
his  pocket.  He  saw  a  sign  in  an  employment 
office,  saying  that  a  clerk  who  could  speak  Ger- 
man was  wanted  in  a  law  office;  but  on  entering 
he  was  told  that  the  information  as  to  the  position 
would  cost  him  fifty  cents.  At  that  time  fifty 
cents  seemed  to  him  a  large  capital,  but  he  finally 
paid  it  and  was  told  that  the  law  office  was  just 
across  the  street,  and  though  a  German-speaking 
clerk  was  preferred,  one  who  could  not  speak  that 
language  would  not  be  declined.  Thus  he  be- 
came an  employee  in  the  office  of  Skinner  & 
Hoyne,  entering  upon  his  duties  as  clerk  and 
student  at  a  salary  of  two  dollars  per  week.  It 
would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to  meet  his 


expenses  had  not  Mr.  Hoyne  gone  on  a  vacation 
about  that  time  and  asked  the  young  clerk  to 
room  at  his  residence  and  protect  his  family. 

Chicago  at  that  time  was  a  small  city  just  com- 
ing into  prominence,  but  it  was  located  advan- 
tageously for  water  communication  and  gave 
signs  of  future  greatness.  It  accordingly  was 
the  choice  of  Mr.  Newcomb  for  a  home,  and  he 
began  life  here  as  stated  above.  The  following 
year  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  his  license  be- 
ing dated  February  7,  1853.  After  practicing 
for  a  short  time  he  was  oflfered  and  accepted  the 
position  of  cashier  in  a  private  bank  estab- 
lished in  Chicago  by  a  Pennsylvania  gentleman, 
and  remained  there  for  two  years,  when  he  en- 
tered upon  an  independent  business  career.  He 
has  given  his  time  and  attention  mostly  to  pro- 
bate court  work  and  to  the  real-estate  branch 
of  the  law,  such  as  examining  titles,  conveyanc- 
ing, settlement  of  estates,  etc.;  while  the  busi- 
ness of  loaning  money  on  real  estate  security 
gradually  increased  so  that  it  occupied  the  greater 
portion  of  his  time.  The  acquaintances  which  he 
made  while  in  the  bank  placed  money  in  his 
hands  to  loan  after  he  had  severed  his  connec- 
tion with  the  bank,  and  friends  of  theirs  in  the 
East  also  trusted  Mr.  Newcomb  with  large 
amounts  of  money  to  invest  in  mortgages.  It 
was  at  this  period  that  he  formed  friendships  and 
gained  the  confidence  of  persons  which  endured 
throughout  their  lifetime  and  which  prompted 
them  to  trust  their  estates  for  settlement  after 
their  decease  to  the  hands  of  him  whom  they 
had  trusted  in  life  and  had  not  found  wanting. 

While  thus  engaged  he  formed  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Dr.  Swayne  Wickersham,  from  which  a 
friendship  sprang  that  was  of  an  ideal  character 
and  was  terminated  only  by  death.  No  one  w-as 
better  able  to  judge  of  the  character  and  life  of 
]\Ir.  Newcoml)  than  the  Doctor,  who  knew  him 
so  long  and  intimately.  The  Doctor  left  a  char- 
acteristically short  and  concise  will,  consisting  of 
seventy-four  words,  divided  into  four  clauses, 
the  fourth  clause  reading  as  follows:  'T  appoint 
my  old  friend,  George  W.  Newcomb,  of  Chicago, 
my  executor,  and  I  direct  that  no  bond  be  required 
of  him;  he  is  an  honest  man."  Much  that  was 
laudatory  might  be  justly  written  of  I\Ir.  New- 
comb. but  what  is  more  eloquent  than  this  simple 


REPRESEXTArn'E  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


249 


tribute  cf  one  who  knew  almost  liis  every  thougcht 
and  action?  It  expresses  the  general  opinion,  for 
all  who  know  him  have  for  him  the  utmost  con- 
fidence and  highest  regard. 

The  domestic  relations  of  Mr.  Xcwcomb  have 
I)een  most  pleasant.  On  the  i.st  of  February, 
i860,  he  wedded  Man,-  Eliza,  eldest  child  of  Aza- 
riah  Eddy  and  Harriet  M.  (Hooker)  Eddy,  a  di- 
rect descendant  of  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  one  of  the  founders  of 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  the  first  pastor  of  the 
first  Congregational  Church  of  that  place.  She 
also  was  descended  from  Thomas  Hart  Hooker, 
a  soldier  of  the  Revolution,  who  before  leaving 
for  the  war  freed  his  only  slave,  saying,  "I  can- 
not fight  for  liberty  and  leave  a  sfavc  behind." 
Mrs.  Newcomb  was  a  woman  of  great  force  of 
character,  brilliant  in  conversation,  energetic, 
vigorous,  full  of  resources,  and,  as  has  been 
said  of  her,  "a  large  woman,"  large  in  her 
capabilities,  her  thoughts  and  her  aspirations, 
and  withal  kind  and  gentle,  a  devout  Christian 
and  perfectly  devoted  to  her  husband  and  chil- 
dren; she  was  a  great  sufferer  for  many  years, 
and  during  the  last  years  of  her  life  she  was  an 
invalid,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  con- 
fined to  her  home,  which  she  brightened  by  the 
cheer  and  happiness  which  she  spread  about  her. 
"Perfected  through  suffering,"  she  passed  to  the 
other  side  September  11.  1892,  leaving  her  hus- 
band and  six  children  to  mourn  her  loss  and  to 
take  encouragement  and  inspiration  from  the 
example  of  her  devoted  life.  Since  i860  Mr. 
Newcomb  has  occupied  his  comfortable  resi- 
dence at  No.  236  Warren  avenue,  and  there  his 
children  have  all  been  bom.     The  eldest,  Mary 


Harriette,  is  the  wife  of  Edward  J-  \'aughan,  of 
Chicago,  a  nephew  of  Canon  J.  H.  Knowles; 
George  Edd\-  is  a  well-known  lawyer  of  Chi- 
cago; William  Henderson  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  June,  1895;  Helen  Maria  and  Bes- 
sie Jeannette  are  at  home;  and  Francis  Herbert 
is  a  student  in  the  Northwestern  L'niversity  at 
Evanston. 

IMr.  Newcomli  is  an  esteemed  member  of  the 
old  Tippecanoe  Club,  the  Sons  of  Vermont,  the 
Illinois  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution,  and 
in  1895  was  made  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Colonial  Wars.  In  the  days  preceding  the  Civil 
war  he  was  an  ardent  abolitionist,  and  when  the 
Republican  party  was  formed  to  prevent  the  fur- 
ther extension  of  slavery  he  joined  its  ranks  and 
has  since  fought  under  its  banner.  He  served 
as  supervisor  of  Cook  county  under  the  early 
township  organization,  and  in  1876  led  the  Re- 
publican ticket  as  the  candidate  for  Cook  county 
commissioners.  How  many  a  man  would  be  wise 
if  wisdom  could  be  purchased,  but  it  can  only 
be  obtained  through  hard  labor  and  earnest  ap- 
plication, and  the  man  who  wins  prominence  in 
any  of  the  learned  professions  has  secured  it 
through  merit.  Mr.  Newcomb  is  a  man  of  broad 
general  iniformation  laaid  ripe  scholarship,  and 
to  this  he  has  added  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
his  branch  of  the  law.  Working  earnestly  for 
his  clients'  interests  he  has  advanced  his  own; 
but  whether  it  will  be  beneficial  to  him  or  other- 
wise, no  trust  reposed  in  him  is  ever  slighted.  A 
ripe  old  age,  crowned  with  the  fruits  of  his  former 
toil  and  honored  with  the  esteem  of  his  fellow- 
men, — this,  in  brief,  is  the  record  of  George  W. 
Newcomb. 


JOHN  T.  BROWNING 


THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  Hon.  John  Tillot- 
son  Browning,  is  a  native  of  the  Empire 
State,  having  been  born  at  Darien.  Genesee 
county.  New  York,  June  11,  1830.  His  parents 
were  John  L.  and  Lucy  (Tillotson)  Browning, 
the  former  being  a  farmer  and  stock  dealer  of  that 
town.       Young  Browning  passed  his  early  boy- 


hood in  his  native  town,  where  he  attended  the 
common  schools,  and  later  studied  at  Alexander 
Academy,  in  Genesee  county.  After  leaving  this 
institution  he  was  employed  as  a  teacher  in  the 
district  schools  in  Wyoming  and  Livingston  coun- 
ties, and  then  entered  the  academy  at  Charlottes- 
ville, Schoharie  county,  where  he  spent  the  sub- 


250 


lilOORAPIIlCAL  niVTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


sequent  year,  leaving  there  in  the  spring  of  1855. 

His  resources  being  meager  he  necessarily  was 
desirous  of  finding  employment,  and  did  so  with 
a  New  York  publishing  house,  in  whose  interest 
he  canvassed  Montreal  and  Quebec,  selling  books 
and  maps.  The  following  winter  he  entered  the 
law  office  of  Angle  &  Trimmer,  at  Rochester, 
as  a  student,  and  spent  the  ensuing  three  years 
in  this  capacity,  part  of  which  time  he  taught  a 
select  school  at  Moscow,  in  Livingston  county. 
In  the  fall  of  1S58,  having  passed  the  necessary 
examination,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  at  Roch- 
ester, and  in  December  of  that  year  started  for 
the  West  to  enter  upon  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession. A  former  schoolmate,  Robert  H.  Gra- 
ham, was  living  at  Moline,  where  he  published  a 
paper,  and  to  that  city  Mr.  Browning  went,  after 
debating  with  himself  whether  he  should  go  there 
or  to  Wisconsin,  having  been  urged  to  locate  in 
the  latter  State  by  another  old  friend,  Charles  G. 
Williams,  afterward  member  of  Congress  from 
the  Janesville  district. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  at  Moline  a  law  partner- 
ship was  formed  between  himself  and  Mr.  Gra- 
ham, which  lasted  for  about  two  years,  or  until 
the  outbreak  of  the  great  Rebellion,  when  Mr. 
Graham  entered  the  army.  From  that  time  till 
1876  Mr.  Browning  practiced  alone  and  rose 
rapidly  in  his  profession.  In  the  latter  year  he 
took  a  former  student,  W.  J.  Entrikin,  into  part- 
nership, and  the  firm  of  Browning  &  Entrikin 
became  the  leading  law  firm  of  Moline. 


In  1884,  owing  to  poor  health,  our  subject  was 
obliged  to  retire  from  active  practice,  although 
the  firm  name  was  and  still  is  unchanged.  Since 
that  time  he  has  devoted  himself  to  caring  for 
his  property  interests,  spending  part  of  his  time 
on  one  of  his  farms  near  Moline,  where  he  in- 
dulges himself  in  what  was  so  familiar  to  him  as 
a  boy, — the  raising  of  horses.  He  is  also  the 
owner  of  other  valuable  real  estate,  and  is  a  di-  < 
rector  anid  vice-president  of  Moline's  leading 
financial  institution,  the  First  National  Bank, 
and  a  stockholder  and  director  of  the  People's 
Savings  Bank,  also  of  the  extensive  lumber  con- 
cern of  Dimock,  Gould  &  Company,  of  the  same 
city. 

Mr.  Browning  has  been  a  member  of  the  Re- 
publican party  since  its  organization,  and  active 
in  its  affairs.  For  many  years  he  was  attorney 
for  the  village  of  Moline,  prior  to  its  incorpora- 
tion as  a  city,  and  was  afterward  appointed  its  first 
city  attorney.  In  1874-6  he  served  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  lower  house  of  the  Illinois  legis- 
lature and  ably  represented  his  constituents  in 
a  body  where  personal  influence  counts  for  so 
much  more  than  forensic  display.  He  has  also 
served  as  member  of  the  Republican  State  cen- 
tral committee. 

In  local  affairs  he  is  prominent  and  active  and 
has  done  much  toward  the  advancement  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  city  of  his  home,  and  for  some 
time  was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  ]\Ioline  Public 
Library. 


J.  O.  CUNNINGHAM, 


FORTY-TWO  years  ago  Judge  J.  O.  Cun- 
ningham, then  a  young  man,  first  came  to 
Urbana.  Since  then,  as  journalist,  attorney,  jurist 
and  citizen,  he  has  been  an  important  factor  in 
tlie  development  of  the  town,  and  no  man  who 
has  ever  lived  there  has  been  or  is  more  highly 
esteemed,  or  sincerely  respected. 

He  traces  his  ancestry  back  to  our  early  colo- 
nists in  New  England.  He  was  the  eldest  son 
and  child  of  Hiram  W.  and  Eunice  (Brown)  Cun- 
ningham, and  was  bom  in  Lancaster,  Erie  county. 


New  York,  December  12,  1830.  His  mothers 
people  were  from  the  Green  Mountain  State,  and 
his  maternal  grandfather  built  and  carried  on 
the  first  carding  and  fulling  mill  in  the  then  Col- 
ony of  Vermont,  before  the  Revolutionary  war. 
His  paternal  ancestors  were  Connecticut  people, 
where  they  first  settled  in  America  some  time  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
Judge's  father,  Hiram  W.,  came  with  his  parents 
in  181 1  to  what  was  known  as  the  Holland  Pur- 
chase, Erie  county,  New  York.     In  1833  he  re- 


HEPRESENTATirE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


-•51 


moved  to  Huron  county,  Ohio,  where  he  resided 
till  his  decease  in  1866. 

Judge  Cunningham  obtained  his  education  at 
the  district  schools,  at  the  Baldwin  Institute, 
Berea,  Ohio,  and  at  Oberlin  College.  Like  most 
young  men  of  that  period  just  out  of  school  and 
not  yet  fully  decided  on  a  vocation  in  life,  he 
took  up  teaching  as  the  best  pursuit  for  the  time 
being,  and  was  soon  in  charge  of  a  school  at 
Eugene,  \'crmilion  county,  Indiana.  In  the  mean- 
time, in  1852,  he  began  also  the  study  of  law. 
About  this  time  his  attention  was  attracted  to 
Urbana,  largely  tlirougli  the  medium  of  a  bright 
and  rather  superior  newspaper  of  its  class  pub- 
lished here.  He  came  to  Urbana,  arriving  June 
18,  1853.  He  was  practically  without  capital, 
but,  entering  into  negotiations  with  the  owner. 
Colonel  W.  L  Coler,  he  purchased  the  news- 
pa])er  which  had  attracted  his  notice  on  credit, 
and  became  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  Urbana 
Union.  He  associated  with  him  a  practical  printer 
named  Benjamin  A.  Roney.  Later  on  his  part- 
ners were  G.  N.  Richards  and  G.  W.  Flynn,  both 
of  wiiom  were  also  printers.  In  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1856  he  strongly  supported  Fremont 
and  the  Republican  ticket. 

To  be  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  a  country 
■newspaper,  however,  was  not  the  ultima  Tliule 
of  Judge  Cunningham's  ambition.  He  had  pros- 
ecuted his  law  studies  while  conducting  his  paper, 
and  in  1858  disposed  of  his  newspaper  interests 
and  attended  the  Union  Law  College  at  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  where  he  graduated  the  following 
year.  Returning  to  Urbana,  he  formed  a  law 
partnership  with  J.  \V.  Sim,  which  continued 
about  five  years.  As  a  writer  he  was  \ngorous 
and  versatile,  and  notwithstanding  the  demands 
of  his  law  practice  he  felt  attracted  to  newspaper 
work,  and  when  Rev.  William  Munhall  conducted 
the  Patriot  at  Urbana  he  did  more  or  less  edito- 
rial work  on  that  sheet;  and  when  Flynn  and 
Richards  bought  the  Union  and  Gazette  in  1864 
he  assumed  editorial  charge  until  1866,  when 
liis  constantly  increasing  law  practice  forced  him 
to  abandon  further  work  in  the  ncw-spaper  field 
and  devote  himself  exclusively  to  his  profession. 

In  1861  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  county 
court,  which  office  he  held  with  dignity  and  dis- 
tinction four  years.     While  occupying  this  posi- 


tion he  saw  the  necessity  for  some  well  consid- 
ered and  carefully  prepared  treatise  on  probate 
law,  and  a  few  years  later  he  aided  in  editing  and 
publishing  the  well-known  work  entitled,  Prac- 
tice in  the  County  Court,  by  Jones  and  Cun- 
ningham. 

From  1867  to  1873  he  was  a  member  of  the 
board  of  trustees  of  the  State  University,  in  the 
location  of  which  at  Urbana  he  had  taken  a  prom- 
inent and  active  part.  From  1869  to  1876  his 
law  partner  was  Hon.  William  B.  Webber.  His 
practice  was  then  conducted  alone  till  1893,  when 
he  associated  with  him  F.  H.  Boggs,  of  Urbana. 
He  has  devoted  himself  closely  to  his  profes- 
sional work  and  never  been  a  seeker  for  polit- 
ical honors.  During  the  slavery  agitation  and 
war  period  he  was  a  strong  advocate  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Republican  party,  but  he  is  too  in- 
dependent in  his  methods  of  thought  to  accept 
as  a  dictum  the  dogmas  of  any  political  party 
further  than  they  are  endorsed  by  his  own  con- 
victions of  right  and  wrong,  and  for  many  years 
he  has  been  what  might  be  termed  independent 
in  i)olitical  matters.  Twice  he  has  been  induced 
to  lead  the  opposition  in  this  county  as  an  inde- 
pendent candidate  for  State  senator,  both  times 
running  ahead  of  his  ticket  and  polling  more 
than  the  full  strength  of  the  two  opposing  can- 
didates. These  honors  have  come  to  him  un- 
sought, as  he  has  no  aspirations  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  has  been  content  to  give  his  best  ef- 
forts undivided  to  his  chosen  profession. 

He  was  for  many  years  a  director  and  is  still 
a  stockholder  in  the  Illinois  Printing  Company, 
of  Danville,  a  large  concern  which  does  most  of 
the  county  printing  throughout  the  State. 

He  was  married  at  Bainbridge,  Ohio,  October 
13-  1853,  to  Miss  Mary  McConoughey,  a  most  es- 
timable lady,  who  still  survives;  and  while 
their  ovvn  hearthstone  has  not  been  gladdened 
by  the  presence  of  their  own  children,  yet  in  the 
years  to  come  many  generations  of  children  may 
have  cause  to  cherish  and  bless  their  memory. 

Both  Judge  and  Mrs.  Cunningham  have  for 
many  years  been  devoted  members  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  when  in  1894  the 
session  of  the  Illinois  conference  was  held  at 
Champaign  a  board  of  nine  persons  was  appointed 
charged  with  the  duty  of  securing  property  suit- 


252 


BIoaitAl'tllCAL  DlCTIONAnT  AND  POUTRAIT  OALLEIiY  OF  TIIK 


able  for  a  deacoiusscs'  home,  Judge  and  .Mrs.  Cun- 
ningham went  before  the  board  antl  tendered  as 
a  gift  for  that  purpose  their  beautiful  and  commo- 
dioais  home.  The  nature,  intent  and  purpose  of 
the  gift  is  best  set  forth  in  the  proposition  which 
they  made  to  the  board  in  the  following  language: 
To  the  Conference  Board  of  the  Illinois  Annual 

Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

charged   with  the  work  of  the   establishment 

of  a  deaconess'  home: 

Dear  Brethren  and  Sisters:— We  are  the  own- 
ers, in  fee  simple,  free  of  incumbrance,  of  our 
home  near  Urbana,  which  consists  of  fifteen  acres 
of  land,  upon  which  are  situated  a  two-story  brick 
house,  with  mansard  story,  the  house  having  in 
all  fourteen  rooms,  three  halls,  a  bath  room,  sup- 
plied with  hot  and  cold  water,  ample  closets, 
with  cellar  and  ice-house:  also  a  brick  gardener's 
cottage  of  three  rooms  and  a  cellar;  both  of  which 
houses  are  under  metal  roofs,  and  have  contigu- 
ous thereto  ample  barns  with  carriage  room;  also 
three  wells,  three  cisterns,  a  steel  windmill,  pump 
and  elevated  tank  from  which  the  lawn  and  build- 
ings are  supplied  with  water.  This  property  we 
desire  to  give  as  a  free  gift  to  some  benevolent 
purpose,  where  God's  poor  shall  be  the  bene- 
ficiaries ;  our  preference  favoring  orphan  and  de- 
pendent children. 

In  canvassing  the  question,  who  shall  be  the 
almoner  of  our  humble  bounty,  our  minds  first 
turn  to  the  church  which  bears  our  names  upon 
its  record  as  the  most  suitable  agency  to  be  se- 
lected. The  purpose  which  called  into  existence 
your  board  also  highly  commends  itself  to  our 
minds  and  judgment,  and  we  see  no  reason  why 
that  devoted  sisterhood  which  has  lately  been 
organized  to  meet  the  later  needs  of  our  civiliza- 
tion may  not  appropriately  share  a  home  with 
the  poor  waifs  who  by  death  or  other  casualty 
are  cast  upon  the  care  of  the  church. 

We  therefore  first  make  you  the  offer  to  convey 
this  property,  our  beloved  home  for  a  quarter  of 


a  century,  as  a  free  gift  to  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  h^piscopal 
Church,  to  receive  the  title  and  administer  the 
trust,  without  other  conditions  than  these:  That 
it  shall  forever  be  kept  as  a  deaconess'  and 
children's  home;  hoping  and  praying  that  it  shall 
not  only  most  abundantly  meet  these  needs  of 
the  church,  but  that  it  shall  in  some  degree  turn 
the  attention  of  the  church  and  its  members  to 
the  pressing  demands  made  upon  it  in  our  day 
and  in  our  midst,  for  the  care  and  nurture  of 
our  own  poor. 

J.  O.  Cunningham, 

Mary  M.  Cunningham. 

Thanksgiving  Day,    1894. 

The  interest  of  the  charity  itself,  and  the  mo- 
tives that  inspired  the  noble  act,  are  too  plainly 
evident  to  need  comment.  Many  successful  men 
and  women  have  given  bountifully  of  their  sur- 
plus to  others  less  fortunate;  but  how  many  have 
been  willing  to  give  up  forever,  without  recom- 
pense other  than  the  satisfaction  of  doing  good; 
their  home,  around  which  cluster  all  the  sacred 
memories  belonging  to  that  hallowed  spot  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century!  Surely  such  people  deserve 
a  record  on  the  pages  of  their  country's  history. 

Judge  Cunningham  has  ahvays  been  a  student 
of  books  and  of  human  nature.  He  is  broad  in 
his  views  and  liberal  in  his  judgments,  strong  in 
his  convictions  and  earnest  in  his  views.  He  is 
a  law3er  of  recognized  ability,  a  citizen  of  unim- 
pugned  morals  and  integrity.  Self-willed  but  not 
obstinate,  a  strong,  stalwart  character  whose  life 
record  will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny  without  suf- 
fering criticism,  such  men  leave  a  lasting  impress 
for  good,  and  the  story  of  their  lives  cannot  fail 
to  exert  a  beneficial  influence  on  the  youth  of 
succeeding  generations. 


GILPIN  MOORE, 


ROCK  ISLAND. 


GILPIN  MOORE  w^as  born  in  Chester 
county,  Pennsylvania,  October  27,  1831,  and 
is  the  son  of  Hibbard  and  Jane  (Ganthrop)  Moore, 
who  were  Quakers  and  of  English  and  Scotch 
descent  respectively.  Our  subject  passed  his  early 
boyhood    in    his    native    state,    where    he    at- 


tended the  local  school  until  he  was  fourteen  years 
of  age,  when  he  removed  to  Rock  Island,  where 
his  father,  who  was  by  occupation  a  blacksmith, 
had  been  for  seven  years.  Here  the  young  man 
continued  hi^  schooling,  and  then  entered  his 
father's  shop,  where  he  remained   until  he  was 


^A:. 


^^#^^^-L^ 


:/-^-^_^, 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  CNITED  STATES;  ILLlynlS  VOLUME. 


258 


eighteen  years  old.  At  this  time  it  became  evi- 
dent that  he  was  possessed  of  mnch  more  than 
ordinar}-  mechanical  ability,  and  he  therefore  ap- 
prenticed himself  for  a  term  of  three  years  to 
a  machinist  in  Rock  Island.  When  his  term  of 
apprenticeship  expired  he  was  in  entire  charge 
of  the  shop  as  superintendent,  a  position  he  con- 
tinued to  fill  most  acceptably  until  1864,  estab- 
lishing in  the  meantime  a  reputation  as  an  in- 
ventor of  ability. 

In  the  latter  named  year  he  became  associated 
with  the  great  plow  factory  of  Deere  &  Company, 
with  which  he  has  been  closely  identified  ever 
since.  In  1868,  when  the  concern  was  incorpo- 
rated, he  became  interested  as  a  stockholder,  and 
later  one  of  the  company's  directors,  an  office  he 
still  holds.  During  this  period  he  for  some  time 
was  vice-president  of  the  company.  His  duties 
are  the  general  superintendency  of  the  mechan- 
ical department  of  the  works,  and  as  such  he  has 
been  an  important  factor  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
establishment.  His  early  training  under  his 
father,  and  the  opportunities  since  afiforded  him 
at  the  practical  working  of  machiner}',  his  school- 
ing in  mechanism,  drafting  and  designing,  all 
tended  toward  the  development  of  the  inventive 
genius  which  he  possessed,  and  he  has  taken  out 
a  large  mmiber  of  patents,  one  of  the  most  noted 
of  which  is  the  Gilpin  Sulky  Plow,  which  is  known 
in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Improvements  in  ex- 
isting agricultural  implements  have  also  been 
made  by  him,  and  his  value  to  the  great  con- 
cern with  which  he  has  been  identified  cannot 
be  overestimated.  The  scope  of  his  genius  ex- 
tends beyond  the  invention  of  plows  and  culti- 


vators, and  he  has  given  to  the  world  en- 
gine improvements  of  all  descriptions,  and 
he  also  designs  almost  all  of  the  machinery 
used  by  Deere  &  Company.  He  is  a  thor- 
ough worker  and  applies  himself  closely  to 
his  business. 

Politically  Mr.  Moore  is  a  Republican.  He 
has  found  time  to  travel  extensively,  and  has  been 
in  even,-  State  in  the  Union  excepting  Maine  and 
Oregon,  and  has  spent  some  time  in  the  various 
European  countries.  In  religious  belief  he  is  a 
Presbyterian. 

Mr.  Moore  was  married  at  Rock  Island,  March 
3,  1853,  to  Miss  Ludica  Crisswell,  a  native  of  In- 
diana, and  they  have  had  four  children,  viz.:  Trues- 
dale  L.,  of  Kansas  City;  Charles  E.,  now  on  an 
extended  tour  abroad;  Adah,  now  Mrs.  W.  H. 
Martin,  of  Davenport;  and  Anna,  who  resides 
at  home.  Mrs.  Moore  died  on  the  i  ith  day  of 
March.  1894,  and  her  loss  was  a  most  severe 
blow  to  her  husband,  for  she  had  been 
a  helpmeet  in  all  that  the  term  implies.  During 
their  long  and  happy  married  life  her  sympathy 
ner\'ed  his  arm  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties,  her 
smiles  brightened  his  future  prospects.  Her  in- 
telligence, refinement  and  accomplishments  won 
for  her  loyal  and  devoted  friends  to  whom  her 
death  came  as  a  personal  sorrow.  Mr.  Moore's 
residence  is  one  of  the  handsomest  in  the  tri- 
cities,  and  was  erected  in  1884.  It  is  located  in 
Rock  Island,  about  midway  Iietween  the  busi- 
ness centers  of  that  city  and  Moline,  situated  well 
back  from  the  avenue  and  surrounded  by  spacious 
and  well-kept  lawiis  that  add  materially  to  its 
beauty. 


DANIEL  HEENAN, 


CAXAD.\  has  furnished  to  the  United  States 
many  bright,  enterprising  young  men  who 
have  left  the  Dominion  to  enter  the  business 
circles  of  this  country  with  its  more  progressive 
methods,  livelier  competition  and  advancement 
more  quickly  secured.  Among  this  number  is 
Mr.  Heenan.  He  inherited  somewhat  of  the 
strong,  rugged,  persevering  and  plodding  cliar- 


actcristics  developed  by  his  earlier  environment, 
which  coupled  with  the  livelier  impulses  of  his 
Celtic  blood  made  him  at  an  early  day  seek  wider 
fields  in  which  to  give  full  scope  to  his  ambition 
and  industPi- — his  dominate  qualities.  He  found 
the  opportunity  he  sought  in  the  freedom  and 
appreciation  of  the  growing  western  portion  of 
the  country.     Though   bom   across  the  border, 


254 


nfOGRAP/fWAJ.  DTCTroXART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  'HIE 


lie  is  a  thorough  American  in  thought  and  feel- 
ing, and  is  patriotic  and  sincere  in  his  love  for  the 
stars  and  stripes.  His  career  is  identifie<l  with 
the  prosperous  city  of  Streator,  where  he  has  ac- 
quired fortune  and  where  he  is  an  honored  and 
respected  citizen. 

Daniel  Heenan  was  born  in  the  town  of  Indi- 
ana, Haldiniand  county,  Canada,  December  i6, 
1839,  and  is  a  son  of  James  and  Ann  (Byrnes) 
Heenan.  He  was  reared  in  the  place  of  his  na- 
tivity and  acquired  a  common-school  education, 
which  was  supplemented  by  a  course  in  the  To- 
ronto high  school.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he 
entered  upon  his  business  career  as  a  clerk  in  a 
general  store  in  his  native  town.  As  a  boy  he  was 
bright  and  industrious  and  early  showed  special 
aptitude  for  business.  By  the  time  he  was  twenty- 
two  years  of  age  he  had  saved  from  his  earnings 
enough  money  to  embark  in  business  for  himself, 
and  in  1862  opened  a  general  mercantile  store 
in  the  town  of  Indiana,  and  was  soon  at  the  head 
of  a  successful  and  constantly  growing  business. 

In  the  same  year  Mr.  Heenan  w-as  married  to 
Miss  Jane  White,  of  Canada,  the  wedding  being 
celebrated  in  Buffalo,  New  York.  In  the  year 
1866,  believing  that  he  could  win  success  much 
more  rapidly  in  the  United  States,  he  crossed  the 
border  into  this  country  and  took  up  his  residence 
in  Ottawa,  Illinois,  where  he  formed  a  partner- 
ship for  the  sale  of  general  merchandise  wdth 
P.T.Burke,  under  the  firm  name  of  Burke  &  Hee- 
nan, the  connection  continuing  until  1872.  With- 
in that  time  they  had  established  a  branch  house 
fully  conducted.  In  1872  the  firm  became  D. 
Heenan  &  Company,  and  the  business  w-as  re- 
moved to  that  place.  The  success  which  has  at- 
tended this  enterprise  seems  almost  phenomenal, 
for  Mr.  Heenan  has  built  up  the  largest  retail  mer- 
cantile business  in  the  State  outside  of  Chicago.his 
sales  amounting  to  at  least  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  annually.  His  patronage  comes  from  a 
territory  many  miles  in  extent.  The  establish- 
ment would  do  credit  to  a  city  many  times  the  size 
of  Streator,  as  it  is  complete  in  all  its  departments 


and  up  with  the  times  in  every  particular.  The 
l)usiness  policy  which  Mr.  Heenan  has  main- 
tained has  brought  him  his  prosperity.  He  is 
methodical  and  systematic  and  the  plans  which 
he  has  pursued  commend  themselves  to  the  judg- 
ment and  respect  of  all. 

Since  his  arrival  in  Streator  its  growth  has  been 
largely  promoted  by  him  and  he  has  been  an  im- 
portant factor  in  its  prosperity  and  advancement. 
The  man  who  establishes  on  a  finn  basis  and 
conducts  a  large  and  paying  enterprise  does  more 
for  a  city  than  he  who  gives  large  sums  of  money 
for  its  embellishment,  for  the  former  furnishes  the 
means  of  livelihood  to  many  and  promotes  com- 
mercial activity,  which  is  essential  to  the  welfare 
of  any  community.  In  connection  with  his  mer- 
cantile interests,  Mr.  Heenan  is  the  president  of 
the  Streator  Hotel  Company,  and  a  director  of 
the  City  National  Bank. 

In  his  political  views  I\Ir.  Heenan  is  a  Demo- 
crat, and  has  been  active  in  promoting  the  best 
interests  of  his  party.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Democratic  State  central  committee,  and  is  serv- 
ing as  a  member  of  the  State  prison  commission 
by  appointment  of  Governor  Altgeld.  He  holds 
membership  in  the  Immaculate  Conception  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church.  He  lost  his  wife  in  1890, 
and  has  no  children.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  appear- 
ance, of  genial  disposition  and  affable  manners, 
and  is  a  keen  and  sagacious  business  man. 

In  everything  pertaining  to  the  upbuilding  of 
Streator  ]\Ir.  Heenan  takes  an  active  part  and  is 
a  liberal  contributor  to  the  enterprises  which 
insure  its  progress.  He  is  a  self-made  man  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  that  oft-misused  term,  his  pros- 
perity in  life  being  due  to  his  industry  and  integ- 
rity. Fortune  has  certainly  dealt  kindly  with 
Daniel  Heenan,  for  all  the  blessings  that  fall  to 
man  on  earth  seem  to  be  his.  His  life  is  a  living 
illustration  of  what  ability,  energy,  force  of  char- 
acter can  accomplish,  and  the  city  and  State  have 
been  enriched  by  his  example.  It  is  to  such  men 
that  the  West  owes  its  prosperity,  its  rapid  prog- 
ress and  its  advancement. 


'tfc-urJ^l^nrcC,..: 


REPRESENTAVrVE  MEN  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


255 


GILBERT  WOODRUFF, 


KOCKKORD. 


THE  financial  and  commercial  history  of  Illi- 
nois would  be  very  incomplete  and  unsatis- 
factory without  a  personal  and  somewhat  ex- 
tended mention  of  those  whose  lives  are  inter- 
woven so  closely  with  the  industrial  and  financial 
development  of  the  State. 

When  a  man,  or  a  select  number  of  meii, 
have  set  in  motion  the  occult  machinery  of  busi- 
ness, which  materializes  into  a  thousand  forms 
of  practical  utilits%  or  where  they  have  carved  out 
a  fortune  or  a  name  from  the  common  possibili- 
ties, open  for  competition  to  all,  there  is  a  public 
desire,  which  should  be  gratified,  to  see  the  men, 
so  nearly  as  a  portrait  and  a  word  artist  can  paint 
them,  and  examine  the  elements  of  mind  and  the 
circumstances  by  which  such  results  have  been 
achiexed. 

'Hie  subject  of  this  sketch  finds  an  appropriate 
place  in  the  history  of  those  men  of  business  and 
enterprise  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  whose  force  of 
character,  whose  sterling  integrity,  whose  forti- 
tude amid  discouragements,  whose  good  sense 
in  the  management  of  complicated  affairs  and 
marked  success  in  establishing  large  industries 
and  bringing  to  completion  great  schemes  of 
trade  and  profit,  have  contributed  in  an  eminent 
tlegree  to  tiie  development  of  the  vast  resources 
of  this  noble  commonwealth.  His  career  has  not 
been  helped  by  accident  or  luck,  or  wealth  or 
family  or  powerful  friends.  He  is,  in  its  broadest 
sense,  a  self-made  man,  being  both  the  architect 
and  builder  of  his  own  fortune. 

Gilbert  Woodrufif  was  bom  in  Watertown, 
New  York,  November  20,  181 7,  the  son  of  Fred- 
erick and  Lodema  (Andrus)  Woodrufif.  His  early 
life  was  the  usual  quiet,  uneventful  one  which  the 
people  of  that  locality  led  at  that  period,  and  his 
early  etlucation  only  such  as  could  be  obtained 
at  the  neighboring  district  school,  which  he  at- 
tended in  the  winter  season,  while  in  the  summer 
months  he  assisted  his  father  in  the  cultivation  of 
his  farm.  I  lis  school  days  terminated  while  he 
was  very  young,  and  he  then  engaged  in  busi- 
ness for  himself,  opening  a  grocer)^  at  Watertown, 
with  small  capital.    Six  months  later  he  sold  out 


and  opened  a  larger  store,  which  he  conducted 
with  success  for  the  subsequent  two  years  and  a 
half.  Knowing  that  the  foundation  of  all  wealth 
is  land,  he  carefully  invested  the  profits  of  his 
business  in  real  estate,  and  as  time  rolled  on 
erected  buildings  on  his  properties.  Among  other 
structures  erected  by  him  was  the  Washington 
Hal!  block,  in  W'atertown.  \\'hile  a  resident  of 
Watertown  Mr.  Woodruff  had  loaned  money 
to  parties  in  Iowa  and  Wisconsin,  and  had  in- 
vested in  lands  in  those  States.  In  1857  he  left 
his  native  town  and  removed  to  Dubuque,  Iowa, 
at  that  time  the  busiest  and  most  important  place 
on  the  upper  ^lississippi.  He  remained  at  Du- 
buque but  a  year,  and  in  1858  went  to  Rockford, 
where  for  three  years  he  was  engaged  in  the  real 
estate  business. 

He  changed  his  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  lands 
for  property  in  and  around  Rockford,  and  within 
a  very  short  time  he  was  the  owner  of  forty  farms 
in  Winnebago  and  Ogle  counties. 

In  1871  he  became  active  in  the  organization 
of  the  Rockford  National  Bank,  and  was  elected 
its  president,  an  office  he  still  holds.  His  ability 
as  a  financier  and  his  conservative  policy  of  man- 
agement have  had  the  result  of  bringing  the 
Rockford  National  to  a  position  second  to  none 
in  point  of  soundness  and  success.  In  1873  he 
was  instrumental  in  the  founding  of  the  well- 
known  Forest  City  Fire  Insurance  Company, 
of  which  corporation  he  is  now  the  president. 
In  1875  he  organized  the  Forest  City  Furniture 
Company,  one  of  the  largest  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments in  the  place,  and  in  the  same  year  he 
built  a  large  plow  factory,  now  merged  into  the 
furniture  company.  Two  of  the  finest  business 
blocks  in  Rockford  were  erected  by  Mr.  W'ood- 
ruff — one  of  which  is  occupied  by  the  Rockford 
National  Bank.  The  other  is  directly  across  the 
street  therefrom.  He  also  laid  out  WoodrufT's 
addition,  and  was  especially  active  in  inducing 
manufacturing  establishments  to  locate  there. 

In  the  prosperity  of  the  citj'  of  his  home  he 
has  been  an  invaluable  factor:  no  man  has  done 
more  toward  building  up  the  city  of  Rockford 


256 


niOORAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUTUAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


than  he,  and  his  public  spirit  and  his  progressive 
ideas  have  been  of  inestimable  value  to  the  com- 
munity, while  to  public  enterprises  and  to  every 
effort  looking  toward  the  advancement  of  his 
fellow  citizens  he  contributes  with  an  open  hand, 
and  is  a  prime  mover  in  most  of  them.  In  re- 
ligious matters  Mr.  Woodruff,  while  making  no 
ostentatious  parade  of  his  views,  is  a  firm  believer 
in  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  as  taught  by  the 
Congregational  Church,  of  which  he  is  a  member, 
and  of  which  he  has  been  a  trustee.  He  is  a 
trustee  of  the  Rockford  Female  Seminary. 

Politically  he  is  a  strong  Republican,  and  was 
elected  in  1873  mayor  of  his  city,  and  re-elected 
in  1874,  serving  as  such  until  1875.  Yet  he  is 
in  no  sense  a  politician.  The  peaceful,  quiet  walks 
of  business  life,  undisturbed  by  outside  causes, 
are  far  more  to  his  liking,  and  here  he  has  been 
successful,  and  here  has  been  the  true  splierc  of 
his  usefulness. 

Mr.  Woodruff  has  been  twice  married.  His 
first  wife,  to  whom  he  was  united  in  1842,  was 
formerly  ]\'Iiss  Nancy  Fay.  The  children  of  this 
union  are:  Saraii,  now  Mrs.  Parmele;  Volney  D., 
connected  with  the  Forest  City  Furniture  Com- 
pany; Emma,  the  wife  of  D.  H.Ferguson; William 
F.,  cashier  of  the  Rockford  National  Bank;  and 
Alice,  now  Mrs.  Emerson.  In  1878  Mr.  Wood- 
ruff married  IMrs.  Augusta  Ann  Todd,  a  lady  of 
many  noble  qualities  of  mind  and  heart.  Their 
residence  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Rock- 
ford. The  house  is  surrounded  by  spacious,  well- 
kept  grounds,  wherein  grow  flowers  and  shrub- 
bery, making  a  truly  idyllic  home. 

From  the  brief  outline  herewith  presented  some 
idea  may  be  gained  of  Mr.  Woodniff's  person- 
ality. He  is  a  man  to  whom  the  most  envious 
can  scarcely  grudge  success,  so  well  has  he  earned 
it,  so  admirably  does  he  use  it,  so  entirely  does  he 
lack  pride  of  purse.  He  is  kind,  unaffected  and 
approachable,  and  every  comer  has  a  claim  upon 


his  courteous  attention.  He  is  always  ready  to 
aid  and  relieve  suffering  and  distress,  and  many 
a  man  now  in  active  business  has  cause  to  remem- 
ber with  gratitude  the  timely  assistance  of  Mr. 
Woodruff,  which  made  success  possible.  His 
integrity  stands  as  an  unquestioned  fact  in  his 
history.  Endowed  by  nature  with  a  sound  judg- 
ment and  an  accurate  discriminating  mind,  he  has 
not  feared  that  laborious  attention  to  business  so 
necessary  to  achieve  success,  and  this  essential 
quality  has  ever  been  guided  by  a  sense  of  moral 
right  which  would  tolerate  the  employment  only 
of  the  means  that  would  bear  the  most  rigid  ex- 
amination, by  a  fairness  of  intention  that  has 
neither  sought  nor  required  disguise. 

Mr.  Woodruff  has  rounded  the  psalmist's  span 
of  three-score  years  and  ten,  with  mental  and 
physical  vigor  unimpaired,  overcoming  the  or- 
dinary and  usual  cares  and  weaknesses  of  age 
by  active  interest  and  participation  in  the  living 
issues  and  affairs  of  the  day.  Surrounded  at  his 
home  by  those  who  are  his  warm  personal 
friends,  and  favorably  known  by  hosts  of  men 
who  for  over  a  third  of  a  century  have  trans- 
acted business  with  him,  his  career  is  one  to 
which  his  family  and  his  friends  may  refer  with 
just  pride 

He  stands  to-day  in  his  mature  years — a  strong 
man — strong  in  the  consciousness  of  well-.spent 
years,  strong  to  plan  and  perform,  strong  in  his 
credit  and  good  name,  and  a  worthy  example  for 
young  men  to  pattern  after,  as  showing  what  in- 
telligence and  probity  may  accomplish  in  the  way 
of  success  in  life. 

The  institutions  he  has  founded,  and  with  whose 
success  his  name  will  ever  be  associated,  will  stand 
long  after  he  has  passed  from  the  scenes  of  his 
earthly  labors,  as  monuments  to  his  energy  and 
ability,  and  a  visible  proof  of  what  he  was  able 
to  accomplish  during  a  long  life  of  honorable 
activitv. 


HEPnESEXTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLIXOIS  VOLUME. 


25' 


JOHN  ANDERSON, 


WHO  does  not  know  John  Anderson,  the 
pubHsher  of  the  SkantHnaven?  Among  the 
okl  Norwegian  settlers  in  Chicago  no  man  is  better 
known  and  more  popular,  and  few  Norwegians  in 
America  have  been  in  a  position  to  acconiphsli 
more  for  their  people  than  he  has.  As  the  founder 
and  leader  of  the  oldest  and  most  powerful  Scan- 
dinavian newspaper  in  America,  he  has  exercised 
a  potent  influence  in  the  development  of  the  elder 
and  younger  generations  of  his  countrymen. 

John  Anderson  was  born  in  1836,  on  Voss, 
near  Bergen,  Norway,  and  came  to  this  country 
in  1845  with  his  parents  and  two  brothers  in  a 
small  vessel,  Olaf  Kyrre,  making  the  trip  in  about 
five  weeks,  a  comparatively  fast  trip  for  those  days. 
None  of  his  brothers  ever  reached  Chicago,  the 
new  village  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  The 
one  died  while  crossing  the  Atlantic,  and  the  other 
on  the  journey  from  New  York  to  Bufifalo. 

At  that  time  Chicago  was  not  much  of  a  city. 
The  bulk  of  the  population  lived  on  the  north 
side  along  Kinzie  street,  while  on  the  south  and 
west  sides  only  a  few  houses  were  scattered  around 
here  and  there.  The  climate  was  unhealthful  and 
many  hardships  were  to  be  endured.  On  his  ar- 
rival at  the  "windy  city"  the  little  Norwegian  was 
taken  sick  and  kept  the  bed  for  half  a  year.  On 
recovering  he  commenced  going  to  school,  l)Ut  the 
immigrants  had  to  live  on  scanty  fare  those  days. 
Everj-body,  down  to  the  youngest,  had  to  con- 
tribute his  share  to  the  support  of  the  family. 

John  started  in  as  a  business  man  at  once.  Ris- 
ing up  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  he  peddled 
yeast  and  fish  until  it  was  time  to  go  to  school, 
and  in  the  evenings  he  sold  apples.  He  has  the 
honor  of  being  the  first  fruit  peddler  in  Chicago. 
Later  on  he  became  a  newspaper  carrier,  in  which 
humble  pursuit  he  also  may  claim  to  be  a  pioneer. 
He  always  thought  it  a  great  thing  to  be  a  type- 
setter, and  after  having  distributed  his  papers  in 
the  evening  he  used  to  return  to  the  composing 
room,  where  he  learned  to  set  type.  It  did  not 
take  him  long  to  become  a  full-fledged  type-setter. 
He  then  obtained  a  position  on  the  Chicago  Trib- 
une, where  he  remained  without  interruption  for 


fourteen  years,  until  he  went  into  business  for  him- 
self. 

In  1866  he  connnenced,  in  partnership  with 
Knud  Langsland,  the  publication  of  the  Skandi- 
naven.  This  enterprise  proceeded  slowly  from 
the  start,  the  persevering  proprietors  gaining 
ground  little  by  little.  But  then  came  the  fire  of 
1871  and  destroyed  everything  but  the  subscrip- 
tion list,  which  ]\Ir.  Anderson  was  fortunate 
enough  to  save.  With  this  and  five  hundred  dol- 
lars' worth  of  type,  which  he  bought  on  credit,  he 
started  in  anew,  and  since  then  he  has  always  been 
successful  in  his  enterprises.  Skandinaven  has 
to-day  a  larger  circulation  than  any  other  paper 
printed  in  the  Scandinavian  language,  and  its 
character  as  the  leading  .Scandinavian  paper  is 
recognized  by  the  English  press  by  frequent  quo- 
tations. The  John  Anderson  Publishing  Com- 
pany has  now  the  largest  Norwegian-Danish 
bookstore  and  publishing  house  in  America  and 
one  of  the  largest  job  printing  establishments  in 
the  city. 

Mr.  Anderson  has  seen  the  village  grow  up  to 
be  the  great  city  of  Chicago,  and  by  his  honest 
perseverance  he  has  obtained  a  share  of  the  wealth 
created  here;  but  he  has  acquired  it  by  dint  of 
hard  work.  He  started  empty-handed  and  has 
only  his  own  energy,  thoughtfulness,  love  of  work 
and  perseverance  to  thank  for  what  he  is  to-day. 
He  has  speculated  in  real  estate  to  a  limited  ex- 
tent, and  has  always  met  with  success.  But  it  is 
in  the  establishment  and  building  up  of  his  paper 
that  he  has  done  the  work  of  his  life,  and  he  has 
had  the  fortune  to  see  his  work  bear  fruit.  He 
is  now  in  comfortable  circumstances,  residing  on 
the  North  Side,  on  Cleveland  avenue,  in  a  fine 
house  which  he  built  a  few  years  ago.  A  point 
which  has  to  a  great  extent  helped  him  in  his 
undertakings  is  his  strict  and  unfaltering  adher- 
ence to  his  promises. 

There  is  hardly  any  Norwegian  whose  acquaint- 
ance among  his  countrymen  in  the  Northwest  is 
wider  than  John  Anderson's.  Although  hardly 
more  than  a  new  settlement  when  John  Anderson 
first  came,  Chicago  soon  became  one  of  the  politi- 


258 


lilOanAPlIICAL  DICTIONAltY  AND  POIiTIiAIT  GALLER7  OF  THE 


cal  centers  of  the  countn'.  This  was  to  a  great 
extent  due  to  the  fact  that  lUinois  produced  the 
great  leader  in  tlie  fight  against  slavery.  John 
Anderson  joined  heart  and  soul  the  young  Repul> 
lican  party,  and  was  an  abolitionist  through  and 
thiough.  Personally  he  knew  the  great  leaders 
of  the  party, — Lincoln,  Seward,  Grant,  Colfax, 
and  Logan, — and  still  recalls  vividly  the  picture 
of  that  great  epoch  with  its  strong  characters. 
He  has  always  been  much  interested  in  public 
questions,  and  has  often  acted  as  delegate  to  Re- 
publican conventions:  but  he  has  never  been  a 
candidate  for  a  public  ofifice. 

In  spite  of  his  restless  energy  and  activity,  Mr. 
Anderson  is  of  a  retiring  disposition.  But  he  has 
been  tried  by  his  fellow  citizens  and  they  know 
his  worth.     He  was  for  three  successive  terms  the 


president  of  the  Old  Time  Printers"  Association, 
an  organization  counting  as  members  most  of 
the  leading  newspaper  men  in  Chicago;  twice  the 
president  of  the  Norwegian  Old  Settlers'  Associa- 
tion, and  also  president  of  the  Leif  Erikson  Mem- 
orial Association. 

His  mother,  Mrs.  Laura  Anderson,  is  still  living, 
hale  and  hearty.  She  is  eighty-four  years  old. 
His  father  died  in  the  cholera  epidemic  in  1849. 
In  this  year  and  in  1850  and  1852  he  was  suffer- 
ing from  cholera  himself,  but  pulled  through  ever>- 
time. 

He  has  been  married  twice.  Of  the  two  chil- 
dren of  the  first  marriage  only  a  son  is  living.  By 
the  second  marriage  he  has  had  four  children, 
of  whom  three,  a  daughter  and  two  sons,  are 
living. 


WILLIAM  HANNA, 


MONMOUTH. 


PROMINENT  among  the  energetic,  far- 
seeing  and  successful  business  men  of  cen- 
tral Illinois  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  His 
life  history  most  happily  illustrates  what  may  be 
attained  by  faithful  and  continued  effort  in  car- 
rying out  an  honest  purpose.  Integrity,  activity 
and  energy  have  been  the  crowning  points  of  his 
success,  and  his  connection  with  various  busi- 
ness enterprises  and  industries  have  been  a 
decided  advantage  to  this  section  of  Illinois,  pro- 
moting its  material  welfare  in  no  uncertain  man- 
ner. 

William  Hanna  is  a  native  of  Fayette  county, 
Indiana.  He  was  bom  on  the  19th  of  June,  1827, 
and  is  a  son  of  John  and  Sarah  (Crawford)  Hanna, 
the  third  in  order  of  birth  in  their  family  of  eleven 
children.  Back  to  Ireland  he  traces  his  ancestry, 
and  mingled  with  the  blood  of  his  ancestors  was 
that  of  a  Scotch  family.  His  father  was  born 
in  South  Carolina,  in  January,  1799,  and  died  at 
the  age  of  sixty-four  years,  while  his  wife,  who  was 
born  in  Virginia,  in  1802,  died  in  1852.  In  1835 
the  family  left  the  old  home  in  the  Hoosier  State 
and  came  to  Illinois,  taking  up  their  residence 
in  Warren  county,  which  was  then  an  almost  un- 
broken wilderness.     They  had  the  usual  experi- 


ences and  hardships  of  frontier  life,  and  William, 
who  was  a  youth  of  eight  years  at  the  time  of 
their  arrival,  acquired  his  education  in  a  primitive 
log  schoolhouse.  He  continued  his  studies 
until  eighteen  years  of  age,  pursuing  his  lessons 
through  the  winter  season,  while  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  year  he  aided  his  father  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  old  home  farm,  which  was  situated 
twelve  miles  northwest  of  Monmouth.  Who 
would  have  thought  that  the  boy  trudging  off 
to  school  and  conning  his  lessons  on  a  rude 
bench  in  a  log  building  would  one  day  become 
one  of  the  most  wealthy,  successful  and  prominent 
business  men  of  central  Illinois? 

When  Mr.  Hanna  was  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
two  he  left  the  old  home  to  seek  a  fortune  in  the 
West,  driving  an  ox  team  across  the  "plains"' 
in  1849.  Gold  had  been  accidentally  dis- 
covered in  California,  and  there  was  a  rush  to 
that  State  by  hundreds  who  anticipated  securing 
a  fortune  with  little  labor  and  in  a  very  short 
time.  He  carried  on  a  ranch  on  Feather  river, 
mined  on  the  Yuba  and  American  rivers,  and  after 
collecting  a  few  thousand  dollars  in  gold  during 
his  two  years'  residence  on  the  Pacific  slope  he 
returned  to  Illinois  in  1851,  and  engaged  in  farm- 


'-7-2^ 


-/^^"^d^^C. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


359 


ing  in  liis  own  interests,  following-  that  jiursnit 
nntil  1867. 

In  July  of  that  year  the  Weir  Plow  Company 
was  incorporated  and  Mr.  Hanna  became  one  of 
its  stockholders  and  was  made  its  cashier,  a 
position  whicli  he  filled  continuously  until  1892. 
It  had  at  first  a  paid-up  capital  of  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars,  but  the  field  proved  a  good 
one  for  such  an  undertaking  and  the  business  so 
rapidh"  increased  that  within  the  first  fourteen 
years  the  capital  stock  was  enlarged  to  five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  and  the  surplus  in  August, 
1875,  to  five  huiulred  and  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars.  Prior  to  1886  the  company  had  paid  in 
dividends  two  hundred  and  ninety  thousand 
three  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars. 

DIVIDENDS    MADE    KV  THE    WEIR    PLOW  CO.Ml'.ANV. 

1875 $40,375 

1876 25.000 

1879 50,000 

1880 25,000 

1881 25,000 

1883 25,000 

1884 25,000 

1886 75.000 

Total  dividends  prior  to  Nov.,  i886..$290,375 

In  1886  Mr.  Haiina  bought  out  Mr.  Weir's 
interest  in  the  business,  became  president  and 
treasurer  of  the  company  and  continued  to  serve 
in  those  capacities  until  1892,  when,  w-ishing  to 
retire  in  a  degree  from  active  business  labors,  he 
sold  a  three-fourths  interest  in  the  concern  to 
Martin  Kingman,  C.  A.  Jamison,  G.  H.  Schimpft 
and  A.  L.  Carson,  of  Peoria,  Illinois.  He  is  now, 
however,  one  of  its  directors.  The  business  has 
kept  abreast  of  the  times  in  every  particular,  im- 
provements being  constantly  added,  and  the  Weir 
plow  has  ever  been  kept  at  its  high  position  as 
one  of  the  best  farm  implements  on  the  market. 
Mr.  Hanna  has  ever  carried  on  to  successful 
completion  whatever  he  undertakes,  and  when 
he  formed  a  connection  with  this  business  he 
went  upon  the  road  as  its  traveling  representa- 
tive, continuing  in  the  sales  in  this  way  for 
seven  years.  More  than  half  a  million  dollars' 
worth  of  plows  are  turned  out  annually,  and  the 
business  has  become  one  of  the  most  extensive 
and   important   industries  in   this   section   of  the 


State,  furnishing  employment  to  nearly  si.x  hun- 
dred workmen,  and  thereby  e.Ktensively  promot- 
ing the  material  welfare  of  the  city  of  Monmouth. 

The  business  aljility  of  Mr.  Hanna  has  been 
by  nc  means  limited  to  one  line  of  undertaking. 
He  demonstrated  his  powers  as  a  successful  finan- 
cier by  his  capable  management  of  the  Monmouth 
X'ational  Bank,  of  which  he  became  president  in 
1872,  serving  for  ten  years.  He  is  president  of 
the  Monmouth  Mining  &  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, which  makes  sewer  pipe,  drain  tile,  fire 
brick,  etc.,  and  employs  about  one  hundred  and 
thirty  men  now  (1895).  He  is  also  president  of 
the  Monmouth  Pottery  Company,  which  owns 
the  largest  and  best  equipped  pottery  works  in 
the  world,  the  present  capacity  being  six  million 
gallons  yearly,  and  also  president  of  the  Mon- 
motith  Blanket  and  Saddlery  Company.  He  is 
president  of  the  Maple  City  Soaip  Works,  which 
were  incorporated  in  1890  by  Mr.  Hanna  and 
his  son.  The  present  capacity  is  tw'elve  thou- 
sand pounds  daily,  and  the  business  is  steadily 
increasing,  a  large  demand  now  coming  from  the 
East  for  this  commodity,  and  an  order  recently 
for  fifty  boxes  to  go  to  Honolulu. 

In  providing  railroad  facilities  he  has  also  been 
an  important  factor.  In  company  with  a  Mr. 
Phelps,  a  lawyer,  he  built  the  Iowa  Central  Rail- 
road from  Peoria  to  Keithsburg.  It  furnishes 
additional  shipping  facilities  to  the  city  and 
therefore  materially  promotes  the  welfare  of 
the  country  through  which  it  passes  by  competi- 
tion in  freights.  Mr.  Hanna  was  president  of  the 
road  nntil  after  the  work  of  construction  was  com- 
pleted, when  he  sold  out  to  the  Iowa  Central 
Company. 

On  the  26th  of  June,  185 1,  Mr.  Hanna  was 
united  in  marriage  with  J\Iiss  Sarah  Finnley, 
of  Warren  county,  daughter  of  James  Finnley,  a 
pioneer  settler,  who  located  here  in  1832.  Three 
children  were  boni  to  them,  but  one  of  them, 
Sarah  F.,  died  in  infancy.  The  others  are  James 
Ross,  who  is  now  vice-president  of  the  Sewer 
Pipe  Company  and  also  of  the  Monmouth  Pot- 
tery Company,  and,  like  his  father,  a  leading  busi- 
ness man  of  Monmouth;  and  Mary  T.  E.,  wife 
of  W.  D.  Brereton,  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
Monmouth  Pottery  Company. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Hanna  was  born  and 


200 


niOORAPIIWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


iM-cd  a  Democrat,  Init  on  account  of  "Graver's" 
views  on  the  money  question  he  left  the  ranks  of 
that  party  and  joined  the  Prohibition  party.  He 
held  the  office  of  mayor  of  Monmouth  for  two 
terms,  and  then  dcchned  further  honors  in  that 
line.  The  cause  of  education  has  ever  found  in 
him  a  stalwart  friend,  ready  to  advance  its  inter- 
ests. He  is  a  trustee  of  the  Warren  County  Li- 
brary, also  of  Lombard  University  of  Galesburg, 
Illinois,  and  is  deeply  interested  in  any  public 
enterjirise  calculated  to  benefit  the  city.  He  has 
been  deeply  interested  in  church  work,  and  is  a 
Universalist  in  faith;  but  as  there  is  no  Uni- 
versalist  church  in  Monmouth,  he  is  a  liberal 
supporter  of  the  United  Presbyterian  church,  of 
which  his  wife  has  been  a  consistent  member  for 
fifty-eight  years,  and  is  active  in  the  work  of  the 
home    and    foreign    missionary    societies.      He 


has  traveled  extensively  throughout  the  United 
States,  visiting  the  principal  cities,  and  through 
his  varied  business  experience,  travel  and  obser- 
vation he  has  become  a  man  of  broad  general 
information  and  of  liberal  and  progressive  views. 
He  has  made  an  untarnished  record  aiid  un- 
spotted reputation  as  a  business  man.  In  all 
places  and  under  all  circumstances  he  is  loyal 
to  truth,  honor  and  right,  justly  valuing  his  own 
self-resipect  as  infinitely  more  preferable  than 
wealth,  fame  and  position.  In  those  finer 
traits  of  character  which  combine  to  f(jrni 
that  which  we  term  friendship,  which  en- 
dear and  attach  man  to  man  in  bonds  which 
nothing  but  the  stain  of  dishonor  can  sever, 
which  triumph  and  shine  brightest  in  the  hour 
of  adversity,- — in  those  cjualities  he  is  royally 
endowed. 


MILTON  W.  MATHEWS, 


UKBANA, 


ON  Tuesday,  May  lo,  1892,  there  passed  away 
at  his  home  in  Urbana,  while  yet  in  the 
prime  of  manhood,  one  of  the  brightest,  strong- 
est, most  gifted  sons  Illinois  ever  had, — teacher, 
lawyer,  orator,  editor,  statesman, — a  brilliant 
success  in  each  field  of  endeavor.  His  won- 
derful ability  and  remarkable  qualities  were  just 
beginning  to  be  widely  known  and  respected 
when  his  career  was  terminated  by  death.  He 
stood  just  upon  the  threshold  of  national  repu- 
tation, honors  and  achievement.  Many  men  of 
worldwide  fame  possessed  fewer  of  the  qualities 
that  command  success  and  those  in  less  degree 
than  he.  What  may  be  termed  the  leading  events 
of  his  life  were,  briefly,  as  follows: 

He  was  the  son  of  John  R.and  Mary  Mathews, 
natives  of  Ohio;  was  born  in  Clark  county,  Illi- 
nois, March  i,  1846;  was  reared  on  a  farm,  and 
received  a  common-school  and  academic  edu- 
cation. In  April,  1865,  he  came  to  Champaign 
county  and  taught  school  at  what  is  known  as 
Yankee  Ridge.  He  determined  upon  law  as 
his  profession,  and  while  engaged  in  teaching 
employed  his  spare  hours  in  the  study  of  the 
law.     This  course  of    self-instruction  he  supple- 


mented by  a  course  of  study  in  the  office  of 
George  W.  Gere,  Esq.,  of  Champaign. 

He  was  the  embodiment  of  activity  and  en- 
ergy, possessing  a  bright,  quick  mind,  with  re- 
tentive memory.  He  rapidly  mastered  the  in- 
tricacies of  the  law  and  v\'as  admitted  to  prac- 
tice in  1867.  Soon  thereafter  he  formed  a  co- 
partnership with  his  preceptor,  whicli  continued 
about  two  years.  In  connection  with  his  law 
practice  he  also  held  a  position  under  the  gov- 
ernment in  the  internal  revenue  service.  In 
1873  he  was  appointed  master  in  chancery,  and 
held  this  office  nine  years  in  succession,  during 
which  time  he  was  often  called  to  pass  upon 
legal  questions  of  the  most  intricate  character. 

As  was  his  wont  in  all  things  he  undertook, 
he  gave  every  detail  his  most  careful  considera- 
tion, and  discharged  the  duties  of  his  office  to 
the  utmost  satisfaction  of  the  court  and  bar  of 
the  county.  In  1876  he  was  nominated  by  the 
Republican  party  for  State's  attorney,  and,  though 
opposed  by  the  combined  vote  of  the  Demo- 
cratic and  independent  parties  concentrated  in 
favor  of  the  opposing  candidate,  was  elected 
by  a   large  majority.     He  proved  a   most  effi- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLl'.UE. 


31)1 


cicnt  man  for  the  place,  and  was  a  veri- 
table terror  to  evil-doers.  In  this  position,  as  in 
all  others  in  life,  he  was  thoroughly  in  earnest, 
and  with  his  knowledge  of  the  law  and  his  keen 
insight  into  the  motives  and  actions  of  men  he 
readily  swept  aside  tlie  fabrics  of  sojihistry 
woven  as  a  cocoon  around  a  criminal,  and  laid 
bare  before  the  merciless  gaze  of  justice  the 
naked  truth.  The  affairs  of  the  county  were 
never  better  managed  in  this  direction  than  un- 
der his  prosecution  during  his  two  terms  of  of- 
fice, for  upon  the  expiration  of  his  first  term  he 
was  re-elected  to  another  term  of  four  years, 
retiring  in  1884. 

In  188S  he  was  noiuinated  for  .^tate  senator 
and  elected  l)y  a  majority  greater  by  several 
luindrcds  than  his  party  had  been  able  to 
give  any  candidate  since  1872.  Here  in  the 
councils  of  State  was  the  first  great  oppor- 
tunity that  had  come  to  him  to  exercise  to  their 
utmost  the  marvelous  abilities  with  which  na- 
ture had  endowed  him.  He  was  a  born  leader 
of  men,  and  in  this  august  body  his  qualities 
were  quickly  recognized.  He  at  once  took  first 
rank,  and  though  only  a  'new  member  in  the 
body,  was  elected  /;v  tempore  president  of  the 
senate,  an  honor  almost  unprecedented  under 
the  circumstances.  The  measures  he  advocated 
always  met  with  warm  and  cordial  support,  and 
he  proved  a  most  able  and  efficient  represent- 
ative of  his  district  and  especially  of  the  great 
interests  of  the  State  University,  an  institution 
in  which  he  has  always  taken  much  interest  and 
pride,  and  which  his  efiforts  had  done  so  much 
to  strengthen  and  build  up. 

Early  in  his  term  as  senator  he  was  appointed 
by  Governor  Fifcr  a  member  of  his  staff  with 
the  commission  of  colonel;  and  it  may  truly  be 
said  in  passing  that  he  won  and  retained  the 
complete  and  unqualified  confidence  of  the  chief 
executive,  and  was  one  of  his  closest  advisers 
and  counselors.  During  all  this  period  of  active 
political  life  he  maintained  his  leadership  at  the 
bar,  and  in  1879  added  to  his  responsibilities 
and  labors  by  purchasing  and  assuming  edito- 
rial charge  of  the  Champaign  County  Herald, 
thus  adding  to  his  other  pursuits  that  of  jour- 
nalist. In  this  field  he  met  with  the  same  pro- 
noiuiced  success  which  had  been  vouchsafed 
him  in  other  fields  of  labor. 


As  editor  of  this  paper  he  was  a  competitor 
of  one  of  Illinois'  brightest  newspaper  men,  the 
late  George  Scroggs,  and  the  test  was  a  crucial 
one.  Mr.  Mathews  proved  himself  fully  equal  to 
the  emergency.  Under  his  management  and  con- 
trol the  Herald  became  perhaps  the  best  and 
most  successful  county  newspaper  in  the  State. 
Newspaper  men  are  themselves  the  best  judges 
of  merit  in  their  profession,  and  as  an  evidence 
of  their  recognition  and  appreciation  of  this 
newcomer  in  the  field  of  journalism  they  twice 
elected  him  president  of  the  Illinois  State  Edi- 
torial Association,  and  twice  sent  him  as  their 
representative  to  the  National  Association. 

Mr.  Mathews  was  a  member  of  the  Modern 
\Voodmen  of  America.  The  affairs  of  the  order 
were  in  bad  shape,  dissensions  had  arisen,  fac- 
tional troubles  threatened  the  very  life  of  the 
order.  In  this  emergency  the  wiser  heads  be- 
gan casting  about  for  a  modem  Moses  to  lead 
them  out  of  the  w-ildemess.  At  a  national  meet- 
ing of  the  order  held  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  in 
1890,  he  at  once  took  a  commanding  position 
in  the  councils  of  the  convention,  and  by  his 
winning  matmers,  wise  suggestions  and  splendid 
oratory  succeeded  in  harmonizing  the  factions, 
bringing  order  out  of  chaos,  winning  the  confi- 
dence of  the  delegates,  and  when  the  officers  for 
the  succeeding  term  were  elected  he  was  made 
one  of  the  directors.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the 
board  he  was  made  chairman,  and  continued  in 
this  important  position  during  all  the  sittings  of 
the  board.  By  his  great  business  ability  he  suc- 
ceeded in  straightening  out  the  tangled  aiifairs 
of  the  order  and  placing  them  upon  a  firm  and 
solid  business  basis;  and  it  may  truly  be  said 
that  the  prosperous  condition  of  this  order  to- 
day is  due  more  to  his  efiforts  than  to  those  of 
any  other  one  man. 

Soon  after  his  advent  in  professional  life,  Oc- 
tober 21,  1869,  he  married  Miss  Julia  R.  Foote, 
of  Urbana.  The  wife  survives  him  with  two  chil- 
dren: Loueva  ^Tae,  born  August  6.  1871;  and 
Clyde  M.,  born  December  22,  1878.  Mr.  Mathews 
died,  as  before  stated.  May  10,  1892.  He  had 
been  ailing  for  some  time  prior  to  his  decease, 
suffering  three  severe  attacks  of  inflamma- 
tory rheumatism.  This  finally  affected  his  heart, 
and  in  the  very  prime  of  a  vigorous  and  emi- 
nentlv  useful  manhood  he  was  called  awav.     At 


262 


lUOaRAPITWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POIiTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  TlIK 


the  time  of  his  death  he  was  a  member  of  the  lUi- 
nois  senate,  president  of  the  RepubUcan  Editorial 
Association  of  Illinois,  chairman  of  the  board  of 
directors  of  Modern  Woodmen,  editor  and  pro- 
prietor of  the  Champaign  County  Herald,  and 
one    of   the    most    prominent    attorneys    of   the 

state. 

It  is  difficult  to  write  truthfully  and  justly  of  a 
man  like  Senator  Mathews  without  being  open 
to  the  charge  of  attempted  eulogy,  for  whatever 
may  be  written  must  if  truthful  be  eulogistic.  In 
whatever  relation  or  position  in  life  he  may  be 
viewed  he  was  more  than  an  ordinary  man.  Pos- 
sessed of  a  fine  physique,  a  noble  and  dignified 
bearing,  a  frank,  open,  intellectual  countenance, 
with  a  genial,  hearty  manner,  he  was  a  man  who 
in  any  company  of  men  would  at  once  attract  and 
hold  attention  and  command  respect  and  homage. 
In  whatever  he  undertook  in  life  he  proved  suc- 
cessful. This  is  saying  much,  but  in  whatever  he 
undertook  he  brought  all  the  force,  earnestness 
and  ability  of  his  nature  to  achieve.  As  a  lawyer 
he  understood  thoroughly  not  only  the  statute 
enactments  but  also  the  basic  underlying  prin- 
ciples on  which  law  is  founded.  As  an  advocate 
he  was  earnest,  forcible,  logical,  eloquent.  As 
an  editorial  writer  he  was  graphic,  brilliant  and 
incisive.  He  was  perhaps  the  leading  orator  of 
his  State. 

He  had  a  fund  of  apt  anecdote,  an  inexhausti- 
ble and  choice  vocabulary,  and  that  indescrib- 
able art  of  claiming  the  attention  of  an  audience 
and  swaying  them  as  he  chose.  With  all  these 
remarkable  powers  there  is  not  a  man  living  who 
can  accuse  him  of  wielding  his  power  for  any 
other  than  pure  and  laudable  ends.  As  a  lawyer 
he  was  above  pettifogging  or  intrigue.  As  a 
senator  he  was  accorded  the  leadership  by  unani- 
mous and  tacit  consent  immediately  upon  his 
appearance  in  that  body. 

There  was  not  a  petty  or  narrow^  trait  in  his 


character.  His  home  life  was  an  ideal  one.  He 
was  thoroughly  devoted  to  his  family,  and  they 
to  him,  and  in  the  home  circle  his  happiest  hours 
were  spent.  One  who  knew  him  long  and  wxU 
says  of  him,  "He  was  the  most  perfect  specimen 
of  noble  manhood  I  ever  saw." 

The  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  all  men 
wherever  he  was  known  was  amply  attested  at 
his  death.  Telegrams  of  condolence  poured  in 
from  all  directions.  The  funeral  services  were 
held  in  the  Military  Hall,  at  the  University  of 
Illinois,  and  was  attended  by  the  largest  con- 
course of  people  that  ever  assembled  on  such  an 
occasion  in  this  part  of  the  State,  and  this  not- 
withstanding there  was  a  steady  downpour  of 
rain  and  whosoever  paid  this  last  tribute  of  re- 
spect Idid  so  at  gre'at  personal  inconvenience. 
The  governor  of  the  State  with  his  stafif  and  the 
chief  officers  of  State  attended  in  a  body.  Dis- 
tinguished citizens  from  all  parts  of  Illinois  and 
from  surrounding  States  were  present. 

Resolutions  of  sympathy,  respect  and  condo- 
lence were  passed  by  the  senate  and  house,  by 
the  city  councils  of  Urbana  and  Champaign,  by 
the  Bar  Association  and  Press  Association;  and 
during  the  session  of  the  head  camps  of  the  Order 
of  Woodmen  held  at  Omaha  an  evening  was  set 
apart  with  the  special  object  of  allowing  the  mem- 
bers of  his  beloved  order  to  give  expression  to 
their  sentiments  with  reference  to  his  life  and  ser- 
vices as  a  member  of  that  order.  Resolutions  were 
passed.  An  eulogium  was  pronounced  by  Di- 
rector J.  G.  Johnson  truly  epic  in  its  grandeur  of 
language  and  sentiment,  while  numerous  other 
brethren  who  had  known  and  loved  him  added 
their  tribute  to  his  great  worth  in  unstinted  terms. 

Truly  such  a  life  is  worth  having  been  lived, 
and  such  lives  deserve  permanent  record  on  the 
pages  of  their  countr)''s  history,  that  others,  see- 
ing their  good  works,  may  follow  in  their  foot- 
steps. 


'UMU-- 


REPRESEyTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLIXOIS  VOLUME. 


•i(W 


JOHN  R.  TANNER, 


IN  the  affairs  of  state,  as  taken  aside  from 
the  extraordiiian-  conditions  of  warfare,  there 
are  demanded  men  whose  mental  ken  is  as  wide 
and  whose  generalship  is  as  effective  as  those 
which  insure  successful  maneuvering  of  armed 
forces  by  the  skilled  commander  on  the  field  of 
battle.  The  nation's  welfare  and  prosperity  may 
be  said  to  hinge  as  heavily  upon  individual  dis- 
crimination and  executive  ability  in  the  one  case 
as  the  other.  It  requires  a  master  mind  to  mar- 
shal and  organize  the  forces  for  political  purposes 
and  produce  the  best  results  by  concerted  effort. 
Such  a  leader  is  found  in  John  R.  Tanner,  who 
may  well  be  called  one  of  the  commanders  of  the 
Republican  army  of  Illinois,  and  the  victory  of  the 
party  in  1894  was  due  to  him  in  a  greater  degree 
than  to  any  other  indiviilual. 

Mr.  Tanner  is  a  native  of  \\"arrick  county,  In- 
diana, born  April  4,  1844,  and  a  son  of  John  and 
Eliza  (Downs)  Tanner.  Tlie  family  was  founded 
at  an  early  day  in  Norfolk,  Virginia,  and  Tanner's 
creek,  which  empties  into  the  bay  at  that  poi'it, 
derives  its  name  from  this  family.  Our  subject 
can  trace  his  ancestr>'  back  through  five  genera- 
tic^ns,  all  of  whom  bore  the  name  of  John  Tanner. 
His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Downs,  a  Baptist  preacher  of  prominence  in  Ken- 
tucky. His  father  was  a  farmer  by  occupation, 
and  during  the  late  war  responded  to  the  countr\'s 
call  for  troops.  He  gave  his  life  in  defense  of  the 
country,  dying  in  a  rebel  prison  in  Columbus, 
Mississippi,  in  1862.  His  wife  survived  him  only 
a  short  time,  passing  away  in  Carbondale.  Illinois, 
in  January,  1863. 

John  R.  Tanner  spent  the  days  of  his  boyhood 
and  youth  on  the  old  home  farm  and  acquired  his 
education  in  a  log  schoolhouse.  His  very  unfamil- 
iarity  with  what  are  termed  the  luxuries  of  life  de- 
veloped in  him  a  force  of  character  and  self-reli- 
ance which  have  proven  of  incalculable  benefit 
to  him  in  his  later  career.  After  his  mother's 
death,  although  only  nineteen  years  of  age,  he  en- 
tered his  country's  service  as  a  member  ol  the 
Xinety-eighth  Illinois  Infantry,  in  which  he  re- 
mained until  June,  1865.  when  he  was  transferred 


to  Company  B  of  the  Sixty-first  Illinois  Regiment, 
and  was  mustered  out  in  November  following. 
He  participated  in  the  campaigns  in  Tennessee  and 
Georgia,  with  the  amiy  of  the  Cumberland,  and 
saw  some  severe  service. 

When  the  war  was  over  he  returned  to  Clay 
county,  Illinois,  and  engaged  in  farming,  but  was 
soon  called  from  private  to  public  life  by  fellow- 
townsmen  who  recognized  his  worth  and  ability. 
In  1870  Mr.  Tanner  was  elected  sheriff  of  Clay 
county,  two  years  later  was  elected  clerk  of  the 
circuit  court,  and  in  1880  took  his  seat  in  the  legis- 
lative halls  of  Illinois  as  a  member  of  the  State 
senate.  In  1883  he  was  made  United  States  mar- 
shal for  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois  and 
sen-ed  until  December,  1884.  Steadilv  he  was 
gaining  a  place  among  the  foremost  members  of 
the  Republican  party  in  the  State,  and  still 
further  honors  were  conferred  upon  him  in  1886, 
by  his  election  to  the  responsible  position  of 
State  Treasurer,  in  which  he  served  for  one  term 
of  two  years.  In  1892  he  was  appointed  Assist- 
ant Treasurer  of  the  United  States  at  Chicago, 
filling  that  office  until  December,  1893.  His 
straightforward,  honorable  course  in  public  life 
has  ever  justified  the  confidence  of  his  friends 
in  his  ability  and  trustworthiness,  and  has  com- 
manded the  respect  of  the  opposition,  who  ac- 
knowledge his  merit. 

Perhaps  his  greatest  achievement  in  the  line 
of  politics  was  the  management  of  the  Republican 
campaign  in  1894,  as  chaimian  of  the  Republican 
State  central  committee.  Under  the  perfect  or- 
ganization of  that  committee  and  their  system- 
atic and  well-directed  efforts  the  Republicans  car- 
ried the  State  by  the  phenomenal  and  unprece- 
dented majority  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
thousand.  The  work  of  political  leadership  re- 
quires tart,  a  sagacity  and  the  delicate  adjust- 
ment of  forces  that  are  not  absolutely  necessarv 
in  the  leaders  of  armed  hosts,  where  commands 
are  given  and  must  be  obeyed.  Mr.  Tanner  first 
became  a  member  of  the  Republican  State  cen- 
tral committee  in  1874,  and  was  associated  with 
that  able  organization   until    1S84,   when   he   re- 


264 


DIOaiiArillCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


signed  to  accept  the  nfficc  of  United  States  mar- 
shal. Ten  years  later  he  again  became  a  memlier 
of  the  committee,  and  was  elected  chairman  of 
that  body  by  acclamation.  He  looked  with  a 
broad  view  over  the  field,  studied  closely  every 
question  bearing  upon  public  afifairs  and  the 
issues  of  the  day,  and  in  his  planning  of  the 
campaign  showed  himself  a  master  of  the  situa- 
tion that  has  been  unequaled.  In  early  years  Mr. 
Tanner  served  for  some  time  as  master  in  chan- 
cery- for  Clay  county,  Illinois,  and  in  1891  he  was 
appointed  railroad  commissioner  for  this  State, 
but  early  in  the  following  year  he  resigned. 


On  the  2Sth  of  December,  1866,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  John  R.  Tanner  and  Miss  Lau- 
retta Ingrahani,  of  Clay  county,  Illinois,  who 
died  October  23,  1877,  leaving  two  children,  a 
daughter  and  a  son.  The  former,  Lucinda  J., 
is  now  the  wife  of  J.  A.  Barnes,  of  Louisville, 
Illinois;  the  latter,  J.  Mac  Tanner,  resides  in  Chi- 
cago. Mr.  Tanner  is  a  member  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  and  the  Odd  Fellows 
order.  Always  courteous  and  genial,  he  pos- 
sesses a  social  disposition  that  well  fits  him 
for  the  the  important  part  he  has  taken  in 
political  afifairs. 


JACOB  HAISH, 


AMAX"S  reputation  is  the  property  of  the 
world.  The  laws  of  nature  have  forbidden 
isolation.  Ever}'  human  being  submits  to  the 
controlling  influence  of  others,  or  as  a  master 
spirit  wields  a  power  either  for  good  or  evil  on 
the  masses  of  mankind.  There  can  be  no  im- 
propriety in  justly  scanning  the  acts  of  any  man 
as  they  affect  his  public  and  business  relations. 
If  he  is  honest  and  eminent  in  his  chosen  field 
of  labor  investigation  will  brighten  his  fame  and 
point  the  path  that  others  may  follow  with  like 
success.  From  among  the  ranks  of  quiet,  per- 
severing yet  prominent  citizens — prominent  on 
account  of  what  he  has  done  in  commercial  cir- 
cles— there  is  no  one  more  deserving  of  mention 
in  a  volume  of  this  character  than  Jacob  Haish. 
He  stands  at  the  head  of  the  barb-wire  industry 
as  its  inventor  and  manufacturer.  His  business 
interests  have  materially  promoted  the  welfare  of 
this  section  of  the  State. 

Jacob  Haish  was  born  on  the  9th  of  March, 
1827,  in  Bandische,  near  Carlsruhe,  Germany, 
and  is  a  son  of  Christian  and  Christina  (Laman) 
Haish.  When  he  was  nine  years  of  age  his 
parents  came  to  America,  locating  in  Crawford 
county,  Ohio,  where  he  acquired  his  education, 
consisting  of  one  season's  instruction  in  the 
branches  taught  in  common  'schools;  but  his 
training  at  farm  labor  was  not  meager.  He  as- 
sisted in  clearing  and  cultivating  a  farm  and  de- 


veloped that  sturdy  manhood  and  self-reliance 
which  are  found  in  our  best  citizens.  Honest, 
industrious  and  courageous,  he  remained  at  home 
until  he  reached  the  age  of  nineteen,  when,  with 
a  desire  to  try  his  fortune  in  the  West,  he  bade 
adieu  to  his  parents  and  started  for  Naperville, 
Du  Page  county,  Illinois.  For  one  season  he 
worked  as  a  farm  hand  in  that  locality  and  then 
came  to  De  Kalb  county,  where  he  secured  pos- 
session of  a  few  acres  of  land.  Failing  health 
compelled  his  removal  to  the  town,  and  here  he 
began  working  at  the  carpenter's  trade,  having 
great  mechanical  genius.  At  length  he  accumu- 
lated $100  in  addition  to  his  modest  home,  and 
desiring  to  enter  the  lumber  trade  he  began  oper- 
ations on  a  small  scale,  having  as  his  chief  com- 
petitor a  man  of  considerable  means  and  the 
owner  of  a  large  lumber-yard  in  De  Kalb  and 
extensive  mills  elsewhere.  By  paying  his  bills 
promptly  and  treating  his  creditors  fairly  he 
won  the  public  confidence  and  gained  many 
patrons  by  his  universal  courtesy  and  help- 
fulness. 

He  would  frequently  do  odd  jobs  for  his  cus- 
tomers when  they  most  needed  help,  and  the 
policy  which  he  thus  followed  soon  secured  him 
a  large  business  and  he  therefore  accumulated 
some  money.  His  knowledge  of  carpentering 
also  enabled  him  to  figure  closely  and  advanta- 
geously, and  as  time  passed  and  his  trade  as- 


REPUESENTAriVB  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


■JfiS 


sullied  extensive  proportions  he  accumulated 
consideral)Ie  wealth. 

It  was  about  1873  that  Mr.  Haish  first  gave 
his  attention  to  the  question  of  providing  ma- 
terial for  fences.  Illinois  farmers  were  con- 
stantly endeavoring  to  secure  proper  fences  for 
their  extensive  prairie  farms.  There  was  neither 
wood  nor  stone  in  this  section  of  the  country 
from  which  to  construct  them,  and  Mr.  Haish 
after  considerable  thought  on  the  subject  suc- 
ceeded in  producing  three  rods  of  barb-wire 
fence.  For  three  months  this  lay  unused  and 
unnoticed  arovuid  his  shop,  except  when  he 
would  remove  it  from  a  pile  of  rubbish  to  ponder 
over  its  utility.  He  did  not,  however,  think  it 
of  practical  commercial  value  and  did  not  pay 
much  attention  to  it.  One  day  a  farmer,  named 
F.  W.  Pierce,  came  into  his  shop  and  seeing  the 
wire  lying  there  inquired  what  Mr.  Haish  would 
take  for  it.  Fifty  cents  was  the  price  asked  and 
given,  and  the  farmer  taking  home  his  purchase 
stopped  up  a  gap  in  a  willow  fence  with  it.  Sev- 
eral years  passed  and  the  incident  entirely  slipped 
from  the  mind  of  Mr.  Haish,  for  it  seemed  a 
trivial  thing  at  the  time;  but  "trifles  light  as  air" 
often  mold  human  destiny,  and  in  this  incident 
of  that  little  sale  has  largely  controlled  the  barb- 
wire  industry  in  America. 

Mr.  Haish  continued  his  experiments,  trying 
various  plans  for  the  manufacture  of  the  wire, 
sometimes  abandoning  and  sometimes  improv- 
ing on  these.  He  at  one  time  experimented 
with  a  plain  wire  on  which  were  fastened  the 
barbs.  These,  however,  all  pointed  in  one  way 
and  he  did  not  wish  this,  but  could  think  of  no 
method  which  would  place  the  barbs  at  different 
angles.  It  was  thought,  however,  that  the  wire 
would  look  better  if  it  was  twisted,  and  an  at- 
tempt to  do  this  was  made,  when  lo!  the  barbs 
were  turned  in  every  direction  and  the  difificulty 
was  removed.  Improvement  after  improvement 
was  attf-mptcd  and  after  much  experimenting 
what  is  known  as  the  S  wire  was  made. 

Mr.  Haish  built  his  first  factory  in  1874,  a 
humble  and  unpretending  structure,  which,  how- 
ever, was  enlarged  from  year  to  year.  In  1881 
he  erected  a  building  100x300  feet  and  two  stories 
in  height,  where  employment  was  furnished  to 
one  lumdred  men,  and  thirty  tons  of  steel  barb 


wire  was  produced  daily.  Mr.  Haisli  secured  his 
first  patent  January  20,  1874,  and  his  improve- 
ments made  from  year  to  year  entitle  him  to  be 
classed  among  the  great  inventors  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  His  famous  S  wire  met  with 
marvelous  success,  and  the  demand  for  it  comes 
from  all  parts  of  this  country  and  from  other 
countries  as  well. 

Previous  to  1873  other  apjilications  for  patents 
on  barb  had  been  made,  and  one  as  early  as 
1S67,  but  none  had  proven  successful.  About 
the  same  time  tliat  Mr.  Haish  completed  his  in- 
vention T-  F.  Glidden  also  secured  a  patent  on 
barb  wire,  which  he  successfully  manufactured 
for  some  years  in  connection  with  I.  L.  Ellwood. 

I  p  to  1876  there  had  been  no  discord  between 
inaiiufacturers  and  all  were  reaping  the  just  re- 
ward of  their  own  enterprise  and  progressive- 
ness:  but  in  1876  Mr.  Glidden's  interest  was  pur- 
chased by  the  Washburn-Moen  Manufacturing 
Company  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  which 
made  an  attempt  to  monopolize  the  business  bv 
proving  that  every  other  manufacturer  was  in- 
fringing on  Mr.  Glidden's  patent,  and  Mr.  Haish, 
being  their  most  formidable  competitor,  received 
the  brunt  of  the  attack.  The  matter  was  taken 
into  court  and  at  times  affairs  looked  particularly 
discouraging  to  Mr.  Haish,  for  though  satisfied 
in  his  own  mind  that  he  was  the  first  to  success- 
fully apply  the  barb  to  a  wire  and  demonstrate 
its  commercial  value,  he  did  not  have  the  evi- 
dence at  hand  to  prove  this  in  the  higher  courts. 
He  had  in  the  earlier  period  of  his  invention 
gone  about  his  work  so  quietly  that  he  attracted 
little  attention.  By  the  tactics  known  to  lawyers 
the  final  trial  of  the  case  was  delayed  from  time 
to  time  until  the  year  1881  was  reached  and 
thousands  of  dollars  had  been  expended  on  both 
sides. 

At  length  it  was  thought  that  the  trial  would 
be  lirought  to  a  close  unless  Mr.  Haish  could 
produce  some  conclusive  evidence  that  the  bent 
barb  on  the  wire  had  been  successfully  produced 
and  made  of  commercial  value  previous  to  the 
invention  of  Mr.  Glidden.  One  day  our  subject 
was  talking  with  Mr.  Pierce,  a  farmer,  who  in 
the  course  of  the  conversation  mentioned  that  he 
thought  he  was  the  first  purchaser  of  barb  wire. 
Mr.  Haish  had  all  these  years  forgotten  about 


26(5 


BIOIIUM'IIK'AL  DICTIOXAIIY  AND  POUTIIMT  flMLKUY  OF  Till-: 


tin-  tliivo  rods  (if  wiiv  that  he  had  sold  to  Mr. 
Pierce,  but  here  was  tlie  purchaser  before  him; 
so  he  secured  a  part  of  the  old  wire  and  went  into 
court  with  it,  where  he  established  the  fact  that 
his  invention  was  as  early  as  that  of  Mr.  Glidden, 
and  also  that  he  was  the  first  to  prove  its  com- 
mercial value.  A  compromise  beneficial  to  Mr. 
Haish  was  therefore  effected. 

The  factory  which  he  erected  was  the  finest 
and  best  equipped  in  existence,  its  chimney,  tak- 
ing the  form  of  an  obelisk  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  feet  high,  being  both  useful  and  or- 
namental. The  building  covers  forty  thousand 
feet  of  floor  space,  is  steam  heated,  lighted  by 
electricity  and  cost  over  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Mr.  Haish  is  not  u\\\y  the  practical 
originator  of  the  barb  wire  but  also  made  the 
first  model  for  the  automatic  barb-wire  machine, 
and  its  fundamental  principles  have  been  used  in 
all  machines  manufactured  since.  He  was  the 
first  to  make  and  use  the  spool  around  which  the 
wire  is  now  wound,  and  was  the  first  one  that 
coated  and  painted  the  wire  in  order  to  preserve 
it  from  rust.  He  also  made  the  first  shipments 
of  the  wire  by  railroad  and  by  water. 

Like  almost  every  inventor  who  has  given  to 
the  world  an  article  of  utility  or  beauty,  he  has 
had  a  struggle  to  defend  his  rights  and  to  intro- 
duce his  invention,  but  tlie  fact  that  he  was  in  the 
right,  combined  with  his  indomitable  energy 
and  perseverance,  have  at  length  secured  to  him 
a  handsome  competence,  and  he  is  to-day  enjoy- 
ing the  reward  of  his  own  labor  and  talent. 

Mr.  Haish  was  married  May  24,  1847,  to  Miss 
Sophia  A.  Brown,  who  is  an  accomplished  and 
intelligent  lady,  sharing  with  her  husband  in  the 
high  regard  in  which  he  is  held.  They  have  no 
children  of  their  own,  but  have  been  most  liberal 
in  giving  aid  to  the  children  of  others,  being  es- 
pecially interested  in  the  education  of  the  young. 
They  have  erected  several  schools  at  their  own 
expense  and  have  assisted  many  church  organ- 
izations, especially  of  the  Methodist  denomina- 


tion, of  which  Mrs.  Haish  is  a  member.  They 
have  an  elegant  home  in  De  Kalb,  where  the 
comforts  and  quiet  elegance  that  wealth  can  se- 
cure may  be  seen. 

In  1886  Mr.  Haish  founded  the  Barb  City 
Bank,  one  of  the  most  substantial  financial  in- 
stitutions of  northern  Illinois,  of  which  he  is  yet 
the  owner.  He  also  erected  the  opera  house  of 
De  Kalb,  which  is  a  finely  appointed  structure, 
lighted  by  electricity  and  supplied  with  all  the 
conveniences  for  spending  a  pleasant  evening 
there.  In  connection  with  others  he  secured  the 
location  of  the  State  Normal  School,  and  he 
alone  pledged  ten  thousand  dollars  to  the  insti- 
tution. It  is  probable  that  no  one  in  this  section 
of  the  State  has  done  more  for  its  development 
and  promotion  than  Mr.  Haish,  yet  no  ostenta- 
tion accompanies  his  gifts  and  many  more  are 
his  charities  that  are  unknown  to  the  public  than 
those  of  which  others  learned. 

The  career  of  Mr.  Haish  seems  almost  phe- 
nomenal, yet  his  success  has  been  by  no  means 
the  result  of  fortunate  circumstances.  It  has 
come  to  him  through  energy,  labor  and  perse- 
verance, directed  by  an  evenly  balanced  mind 
and  by  honorable  business  principles.  From 
early  life  he  made  it  his  plan  to  spend  less  than 
his  income.  He  has  made  the  most  of  his  op- 
portunities and  could  never  justly  be  called  ex- 
travagant unless  it  was  in  the  land  of  his  benevo- 
lences. In  manner  he  is  quiet  and  straightfor- 
ward,, saying  exactly  what  he  means  without  the 
addition  of  useless  compliment.  He  is  not  slow 
to  condemn  injustice  and  dishonesty,  nor  is  he 
slow  to  reward  faithfulness.  He  finds  his  great- 
est social  enjoyment  at  his  own  fireside,  where 
his  wife  and  a  few  intimate  friends  know  him 
to  be  a  delightful  companion  with  an  immense 
fund  of  humor.  Although  rather  retired  and 
conservative  before  the  public,  he  commands 
the  respect  of  all  with  whom  he  comes  in  con- 
tact and  his  successful  career  excites  their  ad- 
miration. 


^v^ 


C^\^i_    »-^-t  * 


t'^i^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 

NEWTON  BATEMAN,  A.  M.,  LL.D., 

GALESBURG. 


AMONG  the  foremost  American  educators 
of  the  nineteenth  century^  stands  the  Hon. 
Newton  Bateman,  A.  ^l.,  LL.  D.,  late  president 
of  Knox  College. 

He  was  boni  in  Fairfield,  Cumberland  county, 
New  Jersey,  ]\x\y  27,  1822.  His  ancestors  were 
English  and  Scotch.  Anglo-Saxon  detennina- 
tion,  blended  with  the  lofty  ideals  of  the  Scotch 
Presbyterian,  have  ever  been  among  the  promi- 
nent traits  of  his  character.  His  parents,  Burgin 
and  Ruth  (Bower)  Bateman,  of  northern  England 
and  southern  Scotland,  moved  to  Illinois  in  1833, 
where,  in  spite  of  the  meager  educational  advan- 
tages of  the  times,  by  hard  work  and  strict  econ- 
omy, lie  was  al)lc  to  overcome  obstacles  insur- 
mountable liy  the  ordinary  man.  and  he  gradu- 
ated from  Illinois  College,  in  Jacksonville,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one.  Having  the  Christian  min- 
istry in  view,  he  spent  a  year  in  Lane  Theological 
Seminary,  when  he  was  obliged  to  withdraw  on 
account  of  ill  health.  He  finished  his  education 
by  an  extensive  tour  in  the  United  States. 

He  then  commenced  work  in  his  chosen  field 
of  education,  as  principal  of  an  English  and 
classical  school  in  St.  Louis.  After  two  years' 
work  in  this  position,  he  spent  four  years  as  pro- 
fessor of  mathematics  in  St.  Charles  College,  in 
i^lissouri,  when  he  became  superintendent  of 
schtjols  and  principal  of  the  high  school  in  Jack- 
sonville, Illinois.  Seven  years  bear  witness  to  the 
faithfulness  with  w-hich  he  performed  his  work 
at  this  post,  during  three  years  of  which  he  was 
also  county  superintendent  of  schools  of  Morgan 
county.  He  then,  for  one  year,  was  principal  of 
the  Jacksonville  Female  Academy,  when,  in  1858, 
he  was  elected  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction  of  Illinois,  and  held  that  position  for 
fourteen  years.  Not  only  do  we  see  the  results  of 
his  executive  ability  in  the  excellent  condition  of 
the  public  schools  of  Illinois,  but  also  in  many 
other  States,  which  followed  the  standard  adopted 
by  this  State.  He  was  one  of  the  committee  of 
three  who  prepared  the  bill  for  the  act  of  Congress 
creating  our  National  Bureau  of  Education.  In 
1875,  having  retired  from  the  office  of  Superin- 


tendent of  Public  Instruction,  he  accepted  the 
presidency  of  Knox  College,  and  held  that  place 
eighteen  years.  That  institution  immediately  en- 
tered upon  a  new  era  of  growth  and  prosperity. 
New  students  were  attracted  by  his  wide-spread 
reputation;  and,  having  once  labored  under  the 
direct  inspiration  of  his  life  and  example,  were 
ever  afterward  glad  to  recommend  Knox  College 
to  friends  and  associates.  What  this  influence 
has  done  for  the  college  can  be  appreciated  only 
by  those  who  have  felt  it;  and  the  material  growth 
is  too  well  known  to  the  public  to  require  notice 
here. 

While  it  would  seem  that  the  many  positions 
already  mentioned  would  have  furnished  sufticient 
employment  for  an  ordinary  man.  Dr.  Bateman 
has  found  time  for  much  other  work  in  connec- 
tion with  them,  thereby  demonstrating  his  extraor- 
dinary qualities.  He  was  editor  of  the  Illinois 
Teacher  three  years.  As  superintendent  of  public 
instruction  he  was  the  author  of  seven  volumes 
of  Biennial  Reports,  some  of  the  articles  of  which 
were  republished  in  Europe  in  five  different 
languages,  and  of  a  book  entitled  Common - 
School  Decisions,  which  was  published  by  author- 
ity of  the  General  Assembly;  and  by  the  same 
authority  a  copy  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  ever)' 
board  of  township  trustees  and  of  school  directors 
in  the  State.  That  volume,  of  which  several  edi- 
tions have  been  issued,  is  still  authoritative 
throughout  the  State. 

For  fourteen  years,  from  1877,  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Board  of  Health,  during  four  of 
which  he  was  president  of  the  board. 

Such  is  an  outline  of  an  exceedingly  busy  life — 
the  life  of  one  who  considered  "work  not  a  duty 
but  a  privilege;  not  a  curse  but  a  blessing." 

During  the  last  few  years  Dr.  Bateman  has 
felt  it  his  duty  to  give  w^ay  to  a  younger  man  for 
the  position  of  president  of  Knox  College;  but  its 
board  of  trustees  would  never  accept  his  resigna- 
tion until  in  June,  1893,  when  he  insisted  on  re- 
tiring from  this  office.  The  regard  in  which  Dr. 
Bateman  is  held  is  best  illustrated  in  the  following 
rcj)ort  of  the  committee  appointed  by  the  trustees 


208 


BioauArnwAL  dict/onart  and  portrait  gallery  of  the 


to  draft  resolutions  relative  to  his  resignation: 

To  the  Honorable  Board  of  Trustees  'of  Knox 
College: 

Your  committee  to  prepare  a  suitalsle  expression 
of  our  appreciation  of  the  invaluable  services  of 
our  retiring  President,  Hon.  Newton  Bateman, 
LL.D.,  would  respectfully  report: 

That  our  honored  and  greatly  beloved  Presi- 
dent Bateman  ever  has  been  and  still  is  highly 
esteemed  by  the  board  of  trustees  of  Knox  Col- 
lege is  not  enough  to  express  all  that  we  recog- 
nize is  due  him  in  his  official  relations  to  this 
board  and  the  college  we  represent. 

Ilis  career  as  an  educator  has  been  a  remark- 
able one,  and  it  is  fitting  to  say  that  the  crowning 
work  of  his  life  has  been  that  in  connection  with 
Knox  College.  As  teacher,  professor  and  super- 
intendent of  public  instruction  he  had  few  if  any 
equals. 

As  a  college  president  he  has  displayed  rare 
gifts.  Assuming  the  responsibilities  of  the  presi- 
dency of  Knox  College  at  a  time  optical  in  her 
history,  and  most  important  in  the  educational 
interests  of  our  countn*-,  he  has  at  no  time  been 
found  wanting.  Indeed,  he  has  ever  risen  to  a 
true  estimate  of  the  situation,  and  proved  himself 
to  be  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  That  Knox 
College  has  had  marked  success  during  the 
eighteen  years  of  the  ofificial  relation  of  Dr.  Bate- 
man with  it  is  universally  admitted ;  that  this  mar- 
velous success  is  largely  due  to  the  personality  of 
Dr.  Bateman  must  certainly  be  recognized.  He 
had  a  very  high  ideal  of  what  was  desirable  and 
possible  as  President  of  Knox  College.  He  had 
a  broad  conception  of  the  work  to  be  done.  In 
his  scholarly  acquirements  and  ofificial  character, 
his  life  has  been  a  model.  Nature,  education  and 
grace  have  made  him  what  he  is.  His  rare  natu- 
ral gifts,  his  faithful  application  and  thorough 
consecration  of  himself  to  his  life  work,  have 
crowned  his  labors  with  an  abundant  success. 

The  grand  purpose  of  his  life  has  been  to  in- 
struct and  help  others.  Every  one  in  and  out  of 
the  college  has  been  his  friend,  because  he  was 
the  friend  of  all.  So  thoroughly  unselfish  in  all 
his  relations  in  life,  he  has  gathered  about  him 
an  innumerable  company  of  followers.  He  has 
always  been  respectful  to  those  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact  in  his  official  relation.  His  mod- 
est humility,  high  self-respect,  and  his  tender  con- 
sideration for  others,  his  disposition  to  see  every 
character  in  tlie  fairest  light,  his  fidelity  to  truth 
and  righteousness  have  placed  Dr.  Bateman  in  the 
front  rank  of  college  presidents  in  the  evening 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  the  class  room  and  on  the  platform  he  has 
always  been  firm  in  declaring  his  own  convictions, 
but  he  never  allowed  it  to  drift  into  a  petty  and 


factions  personality.  He  has  always  been  finn  in 
what  he  thought  to  be  essential,  but  gentle,  un- 
obtrusive and  ever  diffident  in  all  that  is  merely 
incidental.  He  has  been  peculiarly  gifted  in  meet- 
ing and  rebuking  intentional  disrespect  and  yet 
he  was  always  accessible.  It  has  been  his  disposi- 
tion to  deal  tenderly  with  the  erring  and  he  has 
been  patient  toward  all.  But  in  this  placing  on 
record  our  estimation  of  the  serviceof  Dr.  Ijatenian 
we  need  no  flattering  word.  His  life  and  life  work 
tell  the  story. 

Knox  College  of  1893,  relatively  considered 
with  what  she  was  eighteen  years  ago,  brings 
glory  enough  to  the  name  of  Newton  Bateman. 
Such  a  combination  of  gifts  and  graces  is  rare. 
Such  a  life  is  an  instructive  chapter  in  the  great 
book  that  Providence  is  making  in  the  educational 
and  Christian  circles  of  the  day. 

How  truly  does  his  life  and  work  illustrate  tlie 
fact  that  God  will  recognize  and  honor  fidelity, 
love  and  obedience.  The  members  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  are  most  hearty  in  this  expression  of 
delight,  that,  though  Dr.  Bateman  is  so  soon  to 
retire  from  the  active  duties  of  the  presidency  of 
the  college,  he  is  to  remain  as  one  of  the  faculty 
and  of  the  board.  That  he  may  spend  many 
years  in  this  new  relation  is  our  earnest  desire  and 
most  sincere  prayer. 

John  Hood, 

W.   Selden  Gale. 

Dr.  Bateman  has  done  more  for  Knox  College 
than  any  other  man  since  its  founding;  and  it  is 
a  pleasure  to  the  many  friends  of  both  the  Doctor 
and  the  college  to  know  that  his  principles,  en- 
ergv,  foresight  and  care,  exercised  for  the  insti- 
tution, will  remain  in  the  person  of  one  of  his 
most  promising  pupils,  Dr.  J.  H.  Finley.  It  is, 
however,  far  more  pleasant  to  know  that  the  be- 
loved personality  of  the  venerable  president  will 
also  remain,  and  that  his  genial  countenance  and 
words  of  wisdom  and  encouragement  may  be 
seen  and  heard  daily  in  that  little  college  world. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  board  of  trustees  the  unusual 
honor  of  President  Emeritus  was  conferred  upon 
the  Doctor  by  a  unanimous  vote.  This  act  of 
courtesy  and  appreciation  was  the  more  pleasing 
to  the  recipient  for  the  reason  that  it  was  wholly 
unexpected  and  unlooked  for. 

The  beauty  of  the  character  of  Dr.  Bateman  is 
best  illustrated  by  his  intercourse  with  his  hun- 
dreds of  students,  whose  welfare  he  is  constantly 
having  at  heart  and  whose  unreserved  love  and 
respect  is  his  to  an  unusual  degree. 

The  Doctor's  eighteenth  and  last  baccalaureate 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


269 


address  was  delivered  in  the  Old  First  Church  on 
the  public  square,  which  was  packed  to  the  doors 
on  that  memorable  Sunday  afternoon.  He  took 
for  his  text  part  of  the  eighth  verse  of  the  fourth 
Chapter  of  Philippians:  "Finally."  brethren,  what- 
soever things  are  true,  think  on  these  things." 
In  developing  his  theme  Dr.  Bateman  made  evi- 
dent four  great  truths:  First,  that  no  calamity  can 
l)efall  a  righteous  man  more  detrimental  than  the 
loss  of  faith  in  God ;  second,  that  one  of  the 
greatest  of  moral  bulwarks  is  an  inmiov- 
able  faith  in  regard  to  the  future  life,  and 
in  regard  to  Christ  and  his  gospel;  third,  that 
lx;lief  determines  character:  "As  a  man  thinketh 
in  his  heart,  so  is  he";  and  fourth,  that  Chris- 
tianity and  science,  instead  of  being  opposed  to 
one  another,  are  rather  co-ordinate  forces,  tending 
to  lift  the  soul  tO'  higher  and  nobler  aims. 

Following  the  exposition  of  these  thoughts. 
Dr.  Bateman  addressed  the  following  remarks 
to  the  Senior  Class: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Graduating  Class: 
— The  record  that  closes  with  this  hour,  and  my 
part  therein,  and  responsibility  therefor, — this  is 
the  reflection  which  overmasters  all  others,  as  I 
stand  before  you  this  afternoon.  If  only  I  could 
feel  that  I  had  done  for  you  all  that  I  had  hoped 
to  do  and  might  have  done — that  my  words  to 
you  and  my  life  before  you,  as  teacher  and  friend, 
had  all  been  such  as  I  shall  wish  they  had  been  in 
tliat  apocalyptic  hour  when  all  the  books  of  mem- 
ory shall  be  opened.  \\'hen  I  think  of  my  in- 
debtedness to  my  own  venerated  teachers,  when 
I  recall  the  seed-truths  that  so  often  fell  from  their 
lips  in  chapel  and  class-room,  and  how  much  they 
did  to  uplift  and  broaden  and  enrich  my  life ;  when 
above  all,  I  remember  how  they  lived  and  walked 
with  God, — how  silently  but  mightily  they  stirretl 
and  quickened  all  that  was  best  in  my  mind  and 
heart  l)y  their  simple,  beautiful,  consecrated  lives, 
—  1  am  at  once  filled  with  gratitude  and  awed 
by  a  sense  of  responsibility  as  I  look  into  your 
faces  and  utter  these  last  words  of  counsel  as  your 
teacher. 

The  fields  of  memor\'  are  ever  widening,  the 
landscapes  of  the  earthly  future  are  ever  narrow- 
ing. I  am  sure  that  the  blended  light  of  retrospec- 
tion and  hope  is  in  all  of  your  hearts  this  quiet 
Sabbath  afternoon.  It  can  hardly  be  but  that 
}our  thoughts  wander  from  what  has  been  to 
what  may  be — from  scenes  that  are  ended,  to 
those  which  are  beginning — from  life  books  for- 
ever closed,  to  others  now  to  be  opened.  If  there 
be  those  who  make  light  of  a  parting  hour  like 
this,  I  do  not  think  that  anv  of  vou  are  of  that 


number.  And  now,  what  word  can  I  utter,  what 
admonition  can  I  speak,  what  prayer  can  1 
breathe,  the  memory  of  which  you  may  lovingly 
and  profitably  bear  with  you  from  this  hallowed 
place. 

Before  you  is  this  wide  and  unknown  sea  of 
life  civer  which  you  must  go,  with  what  of  wisdom 
and  courage  vou  may,  till  the  anchor  drops  iqion 
the  shoresof  the  silent  land.  What,  oh  what,  my 
pupils,  shall  your  voyage  be?  As,  one  by  one  you 
near  those  outer  shores,  shall  the  light  of  heaven 
be  upon  your  faces,  shall  heavenly  music  break 
softly  upon  your  ears,  shall  the  peace  of  God  be 
in  your  hearts,  shall  "well  done"  be  the  saluta- 
tion that  greets  you,  or  shall  the  nameless  woes 
of  memory  and  conscience  be  yours,  in  view  of 
ill-spent  or  mis-spent  lives?  God  knowetli.  And 
you,  too,  may  know.  All  your  way  may  be  in 
the  light;  foresplendors  of  the  everlasting  glory 
may  be  ever  about  you ;  invisible  helpers  may  be 
ever  near  you;  all  your  conflicts  and  sorrows 
may  be  but  angel  convoys  to  lead  and  lift  you 
heavenward;  all  your  lives  may  be  conquest  and 
victory.  It  will  depend  upon  yourselves,  upon 
your  own  solemn  generic  volitions,  upon  the  ends 
you  choose,  the  ideals  you  cherish,  the  prizes  for 
which  you  strive,  the  motives  that  stir  you,  the 
aims  and  purposes  for  which  you  live — upon  your 
fidelity  to  the  immutable  principles  of  rectitude, 
upon  your  quick  and  loving  loyalty  to  the  voice 
and  regency  of  conscience,  your  ready  response 
to  the  calls  of  duty  and  the  claims  of  benevolence, 
your  acceptance  and  practice  of  the  precepts  of 
Christian  ethics,  and  your  heartfelt  l)elief  in  the 
divine  declaration  that  "the  life  is  more  than  meat." 

You  are  all  hoping  for  success  and  dreading 
failure.  Much  that  is  called  success  is  failure, 
utter  and  irretrievable;  and  yet  a  successful  life, 
as  God  counts  success,  is  within  the  reach  of  you 
all.  Honors  may  be  yours,  the  luster  of  which 
will  abide  when  crowns  and  coronets  and  the 
heads  that  wear  them  are  alike  in  the  dust.  For 
above  all  earthly  greatness  is  that  of  a  good  and 
true  life :  a  life  that  the  poorest  and  humblest  may 
live,  a  life  that  bravely  and  faithfully  stands  in  its 
lot.  be  it  lofty  or  lowly;  that  gratefully  accepts 
and  wisely  uses  whatever  of  good  Providence  be- 
stows ;  that  makes  the  most  and  the  best  of  passing 
opportunities,  and  finds  it  sufficient  reward  in  the 
consciousness  of  useful  burdens  cheerfully  borne 
and  daily  duties  faithfully  performed.  May 
yours  be  the  honors  that  crown  and  glorify  the 
one  who  helps  to  make  the  world  purer  and  bet- 
ter; mav  yours  be  the  garlands  which  entwine 
with  immortal  beauty  the  brow  of  him  who  re- 
members the  poor,  who  lifts  up  the  fallen  and 
bears  the  cup  of  cold  water  to  the  little  ones 
who  are  ready  to  perish:  may  it  be  yours  to  hear 
the  songs  that  float  out  from  the  towers  of  the 


270 


BWanAPniCAL  dictionary  and  PORTHAIT  gallery  of  THE 


city  of  God  when  the  good  man  goes  down  into 
the  last  shadow.  Millions  have  achieved  such 
honors,  success  and  victories,  whose  lives  were 
as  modest  as  the  daisies  and  violets  of  the  lowly 
vales  in  which  they  dwelt. 

And  so  we  have  come  to  "the  parting  of  the 
way."  Very  pleasant  will  be  my  memories  of 
the  class  of  '93 ;  and  may  I  not  hope  that  I  have 
been  permitted  to  be  of  some  help  to  some  of 
you  in  some  way;  that  some  word  or  act  of 
mine  of  counsel  or  encouragement,  or  sympathy 
or  love,  may  be  remembered  by  you  in  the  com- 
ing years,  and  help  you  in  your  yearnings  and 
strivings  after  the  better  life? 

Finally,  my  dear  pupils,  "whatsoever  things 
are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatso- 
ever things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things 
are  of  good  report,  if  there  be  any  virtue,  if  there 
be  any  praise,"  I  beseech  you  to  "think  on  these 
things''  and  do  them.  "Fight  the  good  fight  of 
faith;  lay  hold  on  eternal  life";  and  whatever 
our  separations  here,  let  us  resolve  that  we  will 
all  meet  at  last,  no  wanderer  lost,  in  our  Father's 
house.  With  this  hope  and  prayer,  I  now  bid 
you  all  a  loving  farewell. 

The  entire  life  of  Dr.  Bateman  has  been  as 
pure  as  it  has  been  earnest.  He  is  a  man  to 
cling  to  in  times  of  joy  or  sorrow.  His  intense 
religious  feeling  has  'been  developed  to  a  de- 
gree most  beautiful  to  behold,  and  he  is  ven- 
erated as  one  of  the  last  of  the  group  of  great 
Illinoisans  which  includes  Abraham  Lincoln, 
U.  S.  Grant,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Richard  J- 
Oglesby,  David  Davis  and  Stephen  T.  Logan. 
It  is  universally  conceded,  that  Dr.  Bateman, 
though  one  of  the  last,  is  by  no  means  one  of  the 
least.  He  was  the  firm  friend  and  faithful  ad- 
viser of  our  martyr  president,  and  inexhaustible 
are  his  recollections  of  that  great  man,  who  in 
many  emergencies  sought  Dr.  Bateman's  faith- 
ful friendship  and  advice.  For  -many  months 
their  offices  opened  into  each  other,  and  their 
daily  intercourse  only  tended  to  make  their 
mutual  regard  and  friendship  stronger  and  more 
enduring.  The  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is 
one  of  the  special  delights  of  Dr.  Bateman's  life; 
l.nit  which  of  these  two  men  was  the  higher 
honored  by  this  intimacy  is  ven-  difficult  to  de- 
termine. 

The  Doctor  is  now  (1895)  in  his  seventy- 
third  year;  but  as  the  seasons  come  and  go  he 
verily   grows   younger.      He  has   never   missed 


but  one  day  of  college  work  on  account  of  ill- 
health  during  the  twenty  years  of  his  connec- 
tion with  the  institution.  He  may  daily  be  seen 
wending  his  way  toward  the  college  when  the 
chapel  bell  calls  to  morning  devotion  at  nine 
o'clock.  He  is  an  exceedingly  hard  worker 
and  generally  works  far  into  the  night,  as  thougli 
his  zenith  were  yet  to  be  reached.  His 
life  has  had  a  guiding  mind  wise  enough 
to  know  the  right  and  strong  enough  to  do  it. 
May  his  rugged,  vigorous  manhood  continue 
for  many  years,  as  a  valuable  example  to 
younger  men. 

The  Grand  Old  ]\Ian  of  Knox  is  still  active  in 
instructing  the  students  )of  the  college,  where 
he  is  professor  of  mental  and  moral  philoso- 
phy and  aesthetics. 

At  the  presidential  inauguration  of  the  suc- 
cessor to  Dr.  Bateman,  Professor  Finley,  in  his 
inaugural  address^  said:  "Eighteen  years  ago 
he  who  now  resigns,  with  the  afifection  of  thou- 
sands, with  the  laurels  of  achievement  and  the 
universal  respect,  the  labors  of  the  office  he  then 
entered  upon  with  hope,  said  to  his  associates: 
T  believe  the  dawn  is  not  far  distant.  I  think 
I  see  the  flush  of  a  new  day  already  deepening 
in  the  East.'  His  vision  was  not  an  illusion. 
Today  I  stand  at  his  side,  in  a  brighter  light, — a 
light  which  is  to  him  God's  benediction ;  to  me 
God's  promise.'' 

Dr.  Bateman  has  been  married  twice.  The 
first  time,  August  13,  1850,  he  wedded  Miss 
Sarah  Dayton,  and  by  this  marriage  there  were 
three  children,  namely:  Newton,  the  eldest,  who 
died  in  infancy.  The  next  child  was  Clifford 
Rush,  who  died  February  6,  1883.  He  was  a 
promising  young  man,  a  graduate  of  Amherst 
College,  and  later  also  of  Columbia  College 
Law  School,  and  he  pursued  studies  in  Berlin, 
Heidelberg  and  Paris.  On  his  return  to  Amer- 
ica a  professorship  in  the  chair  of  administra- 
tive law  and  government  was  created  for  him 
in  Columbia  College,  which  he  filled  brilliantly 
until  his  death.  The  third  child,  Sarah  Dayton, 
became  the  wife  of  Rev.  Wiley  K.  Wright,  of 
Traverse  City,  i\lichigan.  Mrs.  Bateman  died 
in  1857,  and  in  October,  1859,  Mi".  Bateman 
married  Miss  Annie  N.  Tyler,  of  Massachusetts, 
and   by  this  marriage  there   were  two  children, 


REPnESEXTATTVE  MEX  OF  THE  VNITED  STATES:  ILLiyOTS  VOLUME. 


271 


viz.:  Annie  Tyler,  the  wife  of  Rev.  John  Y. 
Ewart,  of  Pittsburg,  Crawford  county,  Kan- 
sas; and  Ehzabeth  Newell,  the  wife  of  Rev.  Da- 
vid H.  Geissinger,  pastor  of  the  First  Evangel- 
ical Lutheran  Church,  of  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania. 


Dr.  Bateman  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  or- 
der, being  a  Knight  Templar,  and  in  politics  he 
was  originally  a  Henry  Clay  Whig,  and  since 
the  fonnation  of  the  Republican  party  he  has 
been  a  member  of  that  great  organization. 


ALBERT  J.  HOPKINS, 


A  HISTORY  of  Illinois  during  the  last  decade 
would  be  incomplete  without  a  sketch  of 
the  life  and  work  of  Hon.  Albert  J.  Hopkins, 
at  present  (1895)  and  for  ten  years  past  a 
member  of  Congress  from  his  native  State. 
At  the  bar  he  has  been  a  brilliant  advocate; 
in  the  halls  of  legislation  a  wise  and  pru- 
dent counsellor  and  able  debater;  on  the  ros- 
trum an  impressive  orator;  and  in  every  field  a 
controller  of  the  minds  of  men.  Fitted  by  native 
courage  and  intellectual  ability  to  direct  affairs 
and  to  assume  responsibility,  he  has  steadily  won 
his  way  to  a  position  among  the  leaders  in  thought 
and  action  in  Illinois. 

Ill  his  youth  he  received  the  sturdy  discipline 
and  lived  the  free  open  life  of  the  farm ;  and  the  re- 
sult has  been  that  a  naturally  strong  individuality 
has  developed  into  a  degree  of  self-reliance  rare 
even  in  the  ablest  men.  He  was  born  on  his  fa- 
ther's fann,  near  Cortland,  De  Kalb  county,  Illi- 
nois, August  15,  1846.  His  parents,  Cyrus  B.  and 
Fannie  (Larkin)  Hopkins,  were  natives  of  New 
York,  and  were  among  the  pioneer  settlers  of 
northern  Illinois,  having  established  their  home 
in  DeKalb  county  about  1838.  The  conditions 
of  life  in  Illinois  during  the  boyhood  of  their  son 
Albert  have  been  so  often  described  that  it  is  un- 
necessary to  refer  to  them  in  detail  now.  The  life 
of  young  Hopkins  was  the  life  of  the  average 
farmer  boy.  In  the  summer  he  worked  in  the 
corn-field  and  in  the  potato  "patch,"  milked  the 
cows  and  did  the  chores  about  the  house  and  the 
bam;  and  in  the  winter,  rosy-cheeked  and  full  of 
youthful  vitality,  he  was  duly  made  acquainted 
with  the  diree  R's,  tlie  foundation  of  the  country 
school-house  education  in  those  days.  Though 
endowed  to  an  unusual  degree  with  animal  spirits 
and  love  of  boyish  sports,  he  was  assiduous  in 


his  studies,  eager  to  learn,  always  ambitious  to 
"get  on."  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  induced  his 
parents  to  allow  him  to  attend  the  public  schools 
at  Sycamore,  the  county  seat  of  DeKalb  county, 
and  there  he  was  so  diligent  in  his  studies  that  at 
the  end  of  the  year  he  was  sufficiently  advanced 
to  enter  the  preparaton,-  department  of  Hillsdale 
College,  at  Hillsdale,  Michigan.  Tlie  next  year 
he  began  the  regular  collegiate  course  at  that  in- 
stitution, at  which  he  graduated  as  a  member  of 
the  class  of  1870. 

Long  before  his  graduation  his  mind  had  turned 
toward  the  law  as  his  vocation  in  life  and  it  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that  even  at  this  early  day  so 
firmly  had  his  choice  been  made  that  tempting 
offers  of  immediate  employment  in  an  honorable 
and  lucrative  position  failed  to  swerve  him  from 
the  course  he  had  marked  out  for  himself.  Shortly 
after  his  graduation  at  Hillsdale  College  he  re- 
ceived a  most  flattering  offer  to  take  charge  of  an 
academy  in  Maine.  The  proffered  position  would 
have  made  his  future  assured,  and  it  was  a  strong 
temptation  for  the  young  student  to  step  from  the 
class-room  into  a  well-salaried,  dignified  and  hon- 
orable sphere  of  work.  But  his  aims  were  too 
well  settled,  his  purpose  too  firmly  fixed  to  be  di- 
verted even  by  such  an  oft'er.  He  preferred  the 
sacrifice  of  temporal  advancement  rather  than 
give  up  or  even  postpone  his  entrance  upon  his 
chosen  work,  and  his  subsequent  career  has  fully 
justified  that  decision. 

Coming  to  Aurora  in  1870  he  entered  the  law 
office  of  C.  J.  ^letzner  as  a  student.  Mr.  ^letzner 
proved  an  able  preceptor,  being  recognized  at  that 
time  as  one  of  the  leading  attorneys  of  Kane 
county;  and  such  was  the  diligence,  zeal  and  nat- 
ural aptitude  of  young  Hopkins  that  in  1871  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar. 


272 


nionuM'iiWAL  DTcrrnyARr  AND  pnirntATT  OALLEnr  of  the 


Then  imkcd  began  the  \\x)i-k  for  which  all  the 
previous  years  of  study  had  been  preparation. 
At  that  time  the  Kane  county  bar  numbered 
amongf  its  members  some  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in 
the  Slate;  and  with  them, as  oneof  them  expressed 
it,  a  lawsuit  was  a  fight;  sham  reputations  and 
empty  pretense  were  of  no  avail  in  those  fierce 
struggles.  There,  indeed,  the  fittest  survived,  and 
only  the  very  fit  did  survive.  The  young  lawyer 
found  it  a  hard  school,  for  an  enterprising  young- 
ster often  had  to  bear  what  a  weakling  would  have 
been  spared  or  an  older  man  would  have  evaded. 
But  it  afforded  good  training;  and  as  Hopkins 
measured  strength  with  the  best,  his  mind  was 
developed,  his  intellectual  powers  were  quickened 
and  strengthened,  and  he  acquired  a  readiness  in 
action,  a  fertility  of  resource,  and  a  courage  under 
stress  that  could  have  been  gained  in  no  other 
school. 

He  took  to  politics  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
was  early  a  prominent  figure  in  the  local  conven- 
tions of  the  Republican  party.  In  1872  he  re- 
ceived the  Republican  nomination  for  State's  at- 
torney of  Kane  county,  and  was  elected  by  one 
of  those  big  majorities  which  it  is  the  habit  of  old 
Kane  to  roll  up  for  worthy  Republican  candidates. 
His  term  covered  a  period  of  four  years,  and  the 
same  untiring  zeal  and  unflagging  industry  that 
characterized  him  as  a  student  and  a  lawyer  dis- 
tinguished his  course  as  a  public  prosecutor.  No 
criminal  escaped  through  fault  or  negligence  on 
his  part.  At  the  end  of  his  temi  he  declined  a  re- 
nornination,  and  thenceforth  devoted  himself  to 
building  up  what  in  after  years  became  perhaps 
the  largest  law  business  in  northern  Illinois  out- 
side of  Chicago.  As  a  lawyer  he  has  had  the  suc- 
cess that  might  naturally  be  looked  for  where  close 
application  and  immense  power  for  work  are 
united  to  mental  strength  and  quickness,  an  ex- 
traordinary memory,  and  an  unappeasable  appe- 
tite for  the  activities  of  the  profession.  He  has 
never  been  a  man  of  much  leisure,  and  it  is  fortu- 
nate for  him  that  he  can  make  business  itself  a 
source  of  enjoyment.  Absolute  fidelity  to  the  in- 
terests of  his  clients  has  ever  been  his  rule  and 
guide. 

Mr.  Hopkins'  career  in  politics  beyond  Kane 
county  began  soon  after  he  left  the  office  of  State's 
attorney.  In  1878  he  became  a  member  of  the 
Republican  State  committee,  and  in  1884  he  was 


nominated  bv  the  Republican  State  convention  as 
a  presidential  elector,  and  as  such  he  helped  to 
cast  the  electoral  vote  of  Illinois  for  James  G. 
Blaine  and  John  A.  Logan.  In  1882  ardent 
friends  brought  him  forward  as  a  candidate  for 
Congress,  and  he  failed  by  only  a  narrow  margin 
to  secura  the  Republican  nomination.  Hon.  Reu- 
ben Ellwood,  who  carried  ofif  the  prize  in  that  year, 
was  renominated  in  1884,  but  died  during  the 
summer  of  1885,  and  a  special  election  was  called 
to  fill  the  vacancy.  The  Republican  nomination 
went  to  Mr.  Hopkins,  without  effort  on  his  part, 
and  he  was  elected  by  a  majority  that  was  pro- 
digious for  an  off  year,  and  phenomenal  for  a 
special  election.  He  served  the  unexpired  term 
by  making  a  thorough  study  of  the  duties  of  his 
new  position.  He  determined  at  the  outset  of 
his  Congressional  career  to  be  in  fact  as  well  as 
in  name  the  representative  of  the  people  of  his  dis- 
trict. Whatever  he  could  do  for  them,  whether 
collectively  or  individually,  he  did  with  all  his 
might. 

At  every  successive  election  since  1885  he  has 
been  returned  to  Congress  by  majorities  always 
large,  and  sometimes  enormous.  The  Demo- 
cratic tidal  waves  of  1890  and  1892  left  him  un- 
touched and  the  Republican  tidal  wave  of  1894 
simply  carried  him  back  to  Congress  by  a  larger 
majority  than  ever. 

In  the  house  of  representatives  he  at  first  served 
on  the  committees  on  election  and  militia.  In 
the  Fifty-first  Congress,  the  only  one  where  the 
Republicans  liave  had  a  majority  since  his  Con- 
gressional service  began.  Speaker  Reed  placed 
him  on  the  committees  on  post-offices  and  post 
roads,  civil  service,  and  merchant  marine  and 
fisheries.  In  the  Fifty-second  Congress,  Speaker 
Crisp  placed  him  on  the  ways  and  means  and  civil 
service  committees.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  here 
that  the  ways  and  means  committee  is  the  most 
important  committee  of  the  House.  A  position 
upon  that  committee  is  more  sought  after  and 
carries  with  it  greater  influence  than  the  chair- 
manship of  almost  any  other  committee,  that  on 
appropriations  being  perhaps  the  only  exception. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Mr.  Hopkins  is  the  only 
Republican  Congressman  from  Illinois  who  has 
had  a  position  on  the  committee  on  ways  and 
means  for  more  than  a  generation. 

In  his  Congressional  career  Mr.  Hopkins  has 


^/^  /)e^tL^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


273 


shown  himself  to  be  a  man  of  broad  mental  grasp. 
He  has  a  comprehensive  understanding  of  the 
leading  questions  that  divide  parties,  and  on  whose 
decision  hang  the  destinies  of  the  Republic.  He  is 
a  logical  and  convincing  speaker.  His  public 
utterances  have  the  ring  of  truth.  His  service  on 
the  ways  and  means  committee  has  made  him 
especially  familiar  with  the  tariff  policy  of  the 
countr)',  and  his  discussions  of  that  question  have 
a  peculiar  value  in  consequence  of  that  fact.  That 
lie  is  destined  for  still  greater  honors  is  shown  by 
the  favor  with  which  the  mention  of  his  name  in 
connection  w-ith  a  seat  in  the  United  States  senate 
and  the  governorship  of  the  State  of  Illinois  has 
been  received  by  the  Republican  press  all  over 
the  State. 

Throughout  his  professional  career,  Mr.  Hop- 
kins has  been  frequently  called  upon  for  political 
addresses  in  State  and  national  campaigns,  and  he 
has  thus  come  to  be  considered  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  and  forcible  speakers  in  the  State.  It 
was  but  consistent  recognition  of  his  position  and 
reputation  in  this  respect  that  he  should  have  been 
selected  to  respond  to  the  toast,  "Republican 
Illinois,"  at  the  annual  banquet  of  the  Marquette 
Club,  given  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  on  Octo- 
ber 9,  1894.  This  speech,  abounding  in  elo- 
(|uent  passages  on  the  political  history  of  the 
State  and  its  dedication  to  freedom,  was  wannly 
commended  by  the  press  of  Chicago  and 
of  the   State   generally,    and    was    a   notable  ef- 


fort on  an  occasion  distinguished  for  brilliant 
oratory. 

This  brief  sketch  may  fitly  close  with  a  refer- 
ence to  another  phase  of  Mr.  Hopkins'  character. 
A  man  of  spotless  integrity  in  all  his  social  and 
business  relations,  he  has  carried  and  maintained 
the  same  high  standard  of  morality  in  all  his 
official  relations.  Political  power  to  him  is  not 
a  thing  to  be  sought  for  its  own  sake;  it  is  simply 
a  means  to  an  end, — that  end  being  good  gov- 
ernment, the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number. 
While  making  no  canting  professions  of  superi- 
ority to  his  fellows,  his  life  expresses  his  belief 
that  a  good  official  is  all  the  better  for  being  a 
good  man. 

Mr.  Hopkins  was  married  on  the  9th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1873,  to  Miss  Emma  Stolp,  daughter  of 
James  B.  Stolp,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Aurora. 
Two  strains  of  good  old  pioneer  stock  were  thus 
joined  in  a  union  which  has  been  fruitful  of  happi- 
ness, of  nmtual  help  and  companionship  far  be- 
yond even  the  usual  happy  marriage.  Four  chil- 
dren have  been  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hopkins: 
Fannie  M.;  James  S. ;  Albert  J.,  Jr.;  and  Mark. 
In  his  home  life  Mr.  Hopkins  finds  his  chief  and 
most  abiding  source  of  enjoyment.  In  the  pleas- 
ures that  have  their  root  in  family  affection  he 
spends  the  hours  spared  from  official  and  profes- 
sional duties,  and  in  the  home  circle  he  obtains 
the  needed  rest  and  relaxation  from  the  stress  and 
strain  of  public  life. 


CALVIN  DE  WOLF, 


THERE  are  few  men  whose  lives  are  crowned 
with  the  honor  and  respect  which  is  univer- 
sallyaccorded  Calvin  DeWolf;  but  through  more 
than  half  a  century's  connection  with  Chicago's 
history  his  has  been  an  unblemished  character. 
With  him  success  in  life  has  been  reached  by  his 
sterling  qualities  of  mind  and  a  heart  true  to  every 
manly  principle;  he  has  never  deviated  from  what 
his  judgment  would  indicate  to  be  right  and  hon- 
orable between  his  fellow  men  and  himself;  he  has 
never  swerved  from  the  path  of  duty,  and  now 
after  a  long  and  eventful  career  he  can  look  back 
IS 


over  the  past  with  pride  and  enjoy  the  remaining 
years  of  his  earthly  pilgrimage  with  a  conscious- 
ness of  having  gained  for  himself  by  his  honor- 
able, straightfonvard  career  the  confidence  and 
respect  of  the  entire  community  in  which  he  lives. 
We  read  of  the  lives  of  the  heroes  of  the  past,  and 
they  not  only  prove  of  historical  interest  but  serve 
to  inspire  and  encourage  us;  yet  we  need  not  go 
to  former  ages  for  examples  that  are  worthy  of 
emulation.  The  men  of  to-day  who  have  won  dis- 
tinction and  honor,  equal  in  exemplary  traits  of 
character,  those  who  have  passed  away,  and  the 


274 


luoauAnncAL  DirrioxAnr  and  portrait  ciallert  of  the 


life  record  of  Calvin  Do  Wolf  may  well  prove  of 
great  benefit  if  he  will  but  heed  the  obvious  lessons 
which  it  contains. 

A  native  of  Pennsylvania,  he  was  born  in  I'rain- 
trim,  Luzerne  county,  February  18,  1815,  and 
traces  his  ancestry  back  to  French  refugees  that 
were  driven  from  their  home  on  account  of  their 
religious  views.  They  fled  to  Holland,  where  they 
might  worship  according  to  the  dictates  of  their 
consciences,  and  in  the  early  days  of  New  England 
histon-  became  identified  with  the  Colonies.  His 
grandfather  was  born  in  Pomfret,  Connecticut, 
which  was  also  the  place  of  birth  of  his  father, 
Giles  AI.  DeWolf.  His  mother,  who  bore  the 
maiden  name  of  Anna  Spaulding,  was  born  in 
Cavendish,  Vermont,  and  was  a  lineal  descendant 
of  Edward  Spaulding,  who  lived  at  Chelmsford, 
^fassachusetts,  in  1633.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  De  Wolf 
were  the  parents  of  thirteen  children,  and  soon 
after  the  birth  of  Calvin,  their  eldest  son,  who 
survived  childhood,  they  removed  to  Cavendish, 
Vermont,  where  they  spent  about  five  years. 
Returning  again  to  Braintrim,  their  residence 
continued  there  for  four  years,  when  they  went 
to  Pike,  Bradford  county,  Pennsylvania. 

The  father  was  a  well  educated  man,  and  under 
his  direction  INIr.  De  Wolf  of  this  review  acquired 
his  education  in  the  common  English  branches  of 
learning  and  in  mathematics,  while  in  Latin  he  was 
instructed  by  a  private  tutor.  Farm  work  afforded 
him  physical  training,  and  from  early  life  he  was 
familiar  with  the  various  duties  that  fall  to  the  lot 
of  the  agriculturist,  as  well  as  with  the  arduous 
task  of  clearing  a  wooded  tract.  He  could  not 
hope  to  inherit  wealth  or  to  receive  financial  aid 
in  starting  out  upon  his  business  career.  He  must 
depend  upon  his  own  efforts  and  resources,  and 
so,  leaving  home  when  he  had  attained  his  ma- 
jority, he  engaged  in  teaching.  He  afterward  re- 
ceived a  short  course  in  the  Grand  River  Institute 
of  Manual  Labor,  at  Austinburg,  Ashtabula 
county,  Ohio,  and  then  sought  upon  the  broad 
prairies  of  the  West  a  better  field  of  labor. 

Chicago  was  his  destination,  and  he  paid  his 
way  to  this  place  by  assisting  a  trader  who  was 
bringing  a  cargo  of  fruit  to  sell  in  the  new  town. 
The  name  Chicago  is  to-day  synonymous  with 
leadership  in  all  the  various  lines  of  commercial 
activity.    In  that  year  it  was  a  little  village  upon  a 


v,ct  prairie.  It  was  the  year  of  its  incorporation, 
and  other  towns  in  the  State  far  exceeded  it  in  pop- 
ularity and  promise.  Mr.  De  Wolf  arrived  on  the 
31st  of  October,  1837,  without  capital  save  a 
young  man's  bright  hope  of  Tlie  future  and  a  de- 
termination to  succeed  that  has  carried  him  for- 
ward over  difficulties  and  obstacles  which  would 
have  utterly  discouraged  most  other  men.  His 
business  experience  was  limited  to  school-teaching 
and  farming,  and  he  could  obtain  employment  at 
neither  in  this  city.  He  accordingly  started  across 
the  prairie  in  search  of  employment  and  made  his 
way  on  foot  to  Hadley,  Will  county,  Illinois,  where 
he  was  given  charge  of  a  school  for  the  winter 
term.  In  the  spring  of  1838  he  was  employed  as 
a  teacher  in  the  schools  of  Chicago,  and  devoted 
his  leisure  hours  to  reading  law,  for  he  had  formed 
a  determination  to  enter  the  legal  profession.  He 
has  never  been  content  with  mediocrity  and  there- 
fore he  thoroughly  prepared  himself  for  the  new 
field  of  labor  by  earnest  and  systematic  study. 
Lender  the  direction  of  Giles  Spring  and  Grant 
Goodrich,  both  distinguished  lawyers  of  Chicago 
in  an  early  day,  he  continued  his  studies,  and,  suc- 
cessfully passing  an  examination  before  the  judges 
of  the  supreme  court  of  the  State,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1843  ^"d  entered  upon  a  successful 
practice,  which  has  grown  in  importance  continu- 
ously up  to  the  present  time. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  De  Wolf  was  becoming 
known  throughout  this  section  of  the  State  as 
the  champion  of  the  cause  of  freedom.  A  quarter 
of  a  century  before  the  question  of  slavery  brought 
on  the  Civil  war,  he  advocated  the  abolition  move- 
ment and  fearlessly  defended  his  principles,  al- 
though the  expression  of  such  sentiment  brought 
down  upon  him  harsh  condemnation  and  threats. 
The  North  then  was  not  an  undivided  section, 
for  here  slavery  had  its  champions  as  strong  as 
those  of  the  South.  In  1838  Mr.  De  Wolf  took 
part  in  a  historic  little  meeting  which  was  held  at 
the  corner  of  Clark  and  Lake  streets  in  the  Saloon 
Building,  for  the  purjDOse  of  declaring  against  the 
mob  and  deploring  tlie  murder  of  Lovejoy  at  Al- 
ton. Thiswas  Chicago's  first  abolition  meeting.  A 
guard  had  to  be  placed  on  watch  to  give  warning 
if  the  mob  should  discover  the  place  where  they 
were  convened.  On  the  i6th  of  Januarv-,  1840,  the 
Chicaeo  Aiiti-slavcrv  .Society  was  formed,  and  Mr. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


De  Wolf  was  made  its  secretary.  He  subsequently 
became  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Western  Citizen, 
a  paper  published  in  the  interest  of  abolition,  and 
wastreasurerof  the  committee  that  raised  the  funds 
for  this  purpose.  Z.  Eastman  assumed  editorial 
charge  of  the  publication,  which  became  a  recog- 
nized power  in  the  anti-slavery  movement.  That 
its  influence  was  permanent  and  lasting  was  shown 
by  the  increase  of  the  Free-soil  party,  whose 
Chicago's  vote  in  1844  was  only  two  hundred  and 
nine,  while  in  1848  it  was  fifteen  hundred  and 
forty-three. 

Untiringly  did  Mr.  De  Wolf  continue  his  labors 
on  the  side  of  right,  justice  and  freedom.  Many 
a  fugitive  slave  escaping  to  Canada  has  received 
assistance  from  him,  and  not  until  after  the  Eman- 
cipation Proclamation  had  stricken  the  shackles 
from  three  millions  bondsmen  did  he  discon- 
tinue his  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed 
race.  In  i860  he  was  indicted  with  others 
for  assisting  on  her  way  to  Canada  a  young 
negro  woman  who  had  escaped  from  her  mas- 
ter in  Nebraska.  He  gave  bond  in  the  sum  of 
two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  but  was 
never  brought  to  trial,  and  the  case  was  dis- 
missed by  President  Lincoln's  attorney-general 
in  1S61. 

Through  all  these  years,  from  the  time  of  his 
admission  to  the  bar,  Mr.  De  Wolf  was  engaged 
in  the  prosecution  of  his  chosen  profession  and 
was  brought  into  contact  with  some  of  the  bright- 
est legal  minds  of  the  West,  including  Thomas 
Hoyne,  J.  Young  Scannnon,  Norman  B.  Judd, 
afterward  appointed  minister  to  Prussia'  by  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  John  D.  Caton,  w^io  became  emi- 
nent as  a  judge  of  the  Illinois  supreme  court,  and 
Edward  G.  Ryan,  afterward  on  the  supreme  bench 
of  Iowa.  He  has  a  fine  legal  mind,  analytical,  of 
keen  perceptions  and  broad  comprehensive  pow- 
ers. The  earnest  purpose  of  the  man  has  ever 
sliown  through  his  legal  work,  giving  force  to 
his  arguments  and  carrying  weight  with  judge 
and  jury.  In  1854  he  was  elected  justice  of  the 
peace  and  served  in  that  position  for  twenty-five 
consecutive  years,  during  a  period  when  it  was 
most  lucrative.     Within  that  time  he  heard  and 


disposed  of  more  than  ninety  thousand  cases,  a 
number  at  that  time  unprecedented  in  judicial 
records. 

As  a  member  of  the  city  council  he  has  advo- 
cated many  measures  that  have  proved  of  great 
benefit  to  Chicago.  He  served  as  alderman  from 
1856  until  1858,  and  was  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee that  revised  the  city  ordinances  and  really  de- 
vised the  system  of  government  now  existing;  he 
was  again  elected  in  1868;  and  he  has  also  served 
on  the  board  of  supervisors  of  Cook  county  for 
two  terms.  He  has  had  many  young  men  in  his 
oftlce  as  law  students,  and  among  those  who  have 
since  become  prominent  at  the  bar  is  Harvey  B. 
Hurd,  who  is  represented  on  another  page  of  this 
volume.  From  the  time  of  the  first  acquaintance 
the  warmest  friendship  has  existed  between  them, 
and  no  one  could  speak  in  higher  terms  of  another 
than  Mr.  Hurd  does  of  his  former  preceptor.  Mr. 
De  Wolf  has  always  been  especially  interested  in 
young  men  and  has  done  much  to  aid  them  in 
starting  in  life.  In  his  own  business  career  he  has 
not  only  won  success  as  a  lawyer  but  has  also 
made  extensive  investments  which  have  yielded 
to  him  a  handsome  income  that  is  the  merit  of 
reward  of  honorable  toil  and  sound  business  judg- 
ment. 

A  man  of  domestic  tastes,  Mr.  De  Wolf  has  ever 
found  his  greatest  happiness  in  his  home.  In  1841 
he  was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Frances 
Kimball,  and  they  became  the  parents  of  five  chil- 
dren, of  whom  three  are  now  living.  One  daugh- 
ter went  South  to  teach  the  negro  children  and 
died  at  Bay  St.  Louis,  Mississippi,  in  1878.  The 
keynote  of  his  character  is  contained  in  the  word 
helpfulness.  His  life  has  been  devoted  to  his 
family,  his  friends,  to  young  men  who  start  out  in 
life  dependent  upon  their  own  efforts  and  to  the 
support  of  those  principles  which  he  believed  to 
be  right.  His  unswerving  purpose,  his  un- 
questioned fidelity,  his  unfaltering  honesty  and  his 
unchanging  will  have  commanded  the  highest  re- 
spect of  all.  He  has  been  a  leader  in  the  cause  of 
liberty,  of  freedom  and  of  progress,  and  his  hearty 
co-operation  has  ever  been  given  to  that  which 
tends  to  elevate  mankind. 


270) 


niOORAPiIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


D.  A.  K.  STEELE,  M.  D., 


DANIEL  ATKINSON  KING  STEELE  was 
born  in  Eden,  Delaware  county,  Ohio, 
March  29,  1852,  and  comes  of  sturdy  ancestry  of 
the  Emerald  Isle.  His  father.  Rev.  Daniel  Steele, 
was  born  in  Cookstown,  county  Tyrone,  Ireland, 
in  the  ancient  country  seat  known  as  Steele's 
Rock,  where  his  ancestors  had  lived  for  over  a 
hundred  years.  lie  was  a  minister  of  the  Pres- 
byterian faith  and  for  some  years  did  missionary 
work  in  his  native  land.  He  wedded  Mary 
Leatham  Anderson,  and  with  his  young-  wife 
sought  a  home  beyond  the  Atlantic,  locating  in 
the  town  where  the  birth  of  the  Doctor  occurred. 
In  1854  he  removed  with  his  family  to  a  fami 
near  Pinckneyville,  Perry  county,  Illinois,  and 
Daniel  began  his  education  in  the  old  log  school- 
house  on  Grand  Cote  Prairie.  His  physical  train- 
ing was  not  neg-lected,  for  he  aided  in  the  labors 
of  the  home  farm  and  in  the  open  air  attained  a 
vigor  and  developed  a  strong  constitution  which 
has  proved  of  inestimable  benefit  to  him  in  later 
vears.  He  became  a  student  in  an  academy  at 
bakdale  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  on  the  removal 
of  the  family  to  Rantoul  he  embarked  on  a  suc- 
cessful career  as  a  teacher. 

Wishing  to  prepare  himself  for  a  life  work  he 
determined  to  enter  the  medical  fraternity  and 
began  studying  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  D.  P. 
McClure,  of  Rantoul,  at  the  same  time  acting  as 
clerk  in  a  drug  store.  In  1870  he  came  to  Chi- 
cago and  entered  upon  a  three-years  course  at  the 
Chicago  Medical  College,  at  which  he  was  grad- 
uated in  1873.  During  his  senior  year  he  was  pre- 
ceptor of  anatomy  in  the  college  and  on  the  com- 
pletion of  the  course  he  was  made  demonstrator 
of  anatomy  at  the  Chicago  School  of  Anatomy. 
Especially  interested  in  the  study  of  surgery  and 
desiring  to  make  himself  ver>'  proficient  in  that 
branch  of  science,  he  took  a  competitive  examin- 
ation for  the  position  of  iiiicriie  in  the  Cook 
County  Hospital,  and  won,  as  the  result,  the  po- 
sition of  house  siu-geon,  serving  thus  for  two 
years.  Dr.  Steele  now  entered  upon  general  prac- 
tice and  also  served  as  clinical  assistant  to  the 
celebrated  Dr.  Moses  Gunn,  of  Rush  ^.ledical  Col- 


lege. With  the  interests  of  medical  education  he 
has  since  been  prominently  identified.  In  1875 
he  was  made  attending  surgeon  at  the  South 
Side  Free  Dispensary  and  in  1876  lecturer  on 
surgery  at  the  Chicago  Medical  College,  with 
which  he  continued  until  1882.  His  abilities  now 
found  an  increased  field  of  usefulness,  for  with 
several  other  prominent  physicians  he  was  instru- 
mental in  founding  the  Chicago  College  of  Physi- 
cians and  Surgeons,  which  was  soon  recognized 
as  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the  medical  insti- 
tutions of  the  city.  Therein  he  acted  as  professor 
of  orthopaedic  surgery  until  1886,  when  he  was 
called  to  the  chair  of  principles  and  practice  of 
surgery  and  clinical  surger>'  to  succeed  Dr.  Nich- 
olas Seiui,  who  had  resigned.  He  was  younger 
by  ten  years  than  those  who  had  formerly  been 
called  to  fill  the  chair,  but  his  abilities  were  equal 
to  his  duties.  In  1893,  upon  the  death  of  Dr. 
Charles  Warrington  Earle,  he  was  unanimously 
elected  to  the  presidency  thus  left  vacant,  and  is 
now  at  the  head  of  a  medical  institution  which  has 
few  equals  in  the  countr\f. 

Dr.  Steele  was  one  of  the  originators  of  the 
Chicago  Biological  Society,  since  become  the 
Pathological  Society,  and  is  a  charter  member  of 
the  Chicago  Medical  Club,  a  very  select  organ- 
ization designed  for  social  as  well  as  professional 
purposes.  He  was  the  first  president  of  the 
Chicago  Medico-Legal  Society,  and  in  1887  and 
again  in  1890  was  made  president  of  the  medical 
board  of  the  Cook  County  Hospital,  where  for 
eight  years  he  was  attending  surgeon.  In  1886 
he  became  president  of  the  Chicago  Medical  So- 
ciety, and  in  the  State  and  National  Medical  As- 
sociations stands  in  the  foremost  ranks.  His 
position  may  be  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1888 
he  was  sent  by  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion as  a  delegate  to  the  British  Medical  Associa- 
tion, at  its  annual  convention  then  held  in  Glas- 
gow, Scotland.  \Miile  abroad  he  visited  the 
leading  medical  institutions  of  France,  Germany, 
England  and  Switzerland  and  made  many  im- 
portant investigations,  gaining  a  knowledge 
wl-.ic'i  he  afterward  crystallized  and  embodied  in 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


a  paper  entitled  "A  Chicago  Physician's  Impres- 
sions and  Observations  of  European  Surgery." 
He  formed  the  acquaintance  of  such  eminent 
members  of  the  profession  as  Lister,  McCormick 
and  Heath,  of  London:  Martin,  of  BerHn;  and 
McEwan,  of  Glasgow;  and,  recognizing  the  abil- 
ity of  their  American  colleague  they  took  pains 
to  show  and  describe  to  him  any  differences  in 
practice  and  theory  between  the  two  continents. 
This  visit  afterward  led  to  a  correspondence  on 
ctic|nctte  between  Dr.  Steele  and  a  well-known 
physician  of  England,  which  attracted  much  at- 
tention at  home  and  abroad.  He  also  combined 
pleasure  and  business  and  viewed  many  places  of 
historical  interest  and  visited  the  noted  art  gal- 
leries of  Vienna,  Rome,  Florence  and  Munich. 

Whatever  tends  to  promote  the  interests  of  his 
profession  and  place  before  man  the  key  to  the 
niysterv^  of  that  complex  problem  which  we  call 
life  at  once  attracts  the  interest  and  co-operation 
of  Dr.  Steele,  and  this  led  to  his  connection  with 
what  is  now  one  of  the  most  notable  institutions 
of  the  citA', — ^the  Public  Medical  Library  of  Chi- 
cago,— of  which  he  was  one  of  the  founders.  As 
a  writer  Dr.  Steele  is  known  throughout  the  coun- 
try,— yea,  his  reputation  extends  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  the  United  States  and  his  contributions 


to  medical  literature  are  profound  and  most 
valuable. 

In  1876  Dr.  Steele  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Alice  L.  Tomlinson,  daughter  of  Sheldon 
Tomlinson,  Esq.,  an  old  and  prominent  citizen 
of  Champaign  county,  Illinois.  She  is  a  lady  of 
superior  intellectual  attainments,  is  deeply  inter- 
ested in  her  husband's  work,  and  over  the  home 
she  presides  with  a  grace  and  ease  of  the  most 
accomplished  hostess,  thus  making  her  residence 
a  favorite  resort  with  her  many  friends. 

The  Doctor's  political  connections  make  him 
a  supporter  of  the  men  and  measures  of  the  Re- 
publican paa-t}-,  and  in  his  religious  views  he  is  a 
Presbyterian.  We  cannot  better  end  this  review 
of  his  life  than  by  quoting  the  words  spoken  of 
him  by  one  of  his  colleagues,  a  foremost  physi- 
cian of  Chicago,  who  said: 

"Dr.  Steele  is  an  extremely  busy  and  successful 
practitioner,  constantly  overburdened  by  demands 
ff)r  his  services,  both  professionally  and  socially. 
He  is  a  man  of  the  highest  and  purest  character, 
an  industrious  and  ambitious  student,  and  a  gifted 
teacher  of  surgery.  Genial  in  disposition,  unob- 
trusive and  unassuming,  he  is  patient  under  ad- 
verse criticism,  and  in  his  expressions  concerning 
brother  practitioners  is  friendly  and  indulgent." 


JOHN  KRANZ, 


AMONG  those  who  have  come  from  foreign 
lands  to  become  prominent  in  business  cir- 
cles of  Chicago  is  John  Kranz,  the  well-known 
confectioner.  His  success  in  all  his  undertak- 
ings has  been  so  marked  that  his  methods  are  of 
interest  to  the  commercial  world.  He  has  based 
liis  business  principles  and  actions  upon  strict 
adherence  to  the  ndes  which  govern  industry, 
economy  and  strict,  unswerving  integrity.  His 
etUerprise  and  progressive  spirit  have  made  him 
a  typical  Chicagoan  in  every  sense  of  the  word 
and  he  well  descr\-cs  mention  in  her  history. 
What  he  is  to-day  he  has  made  himself,  for  he 
began  in  the  world  with  nothing  but  his  own 
energ)-  and  willing  hands  to  aid  him.  By  con- 
stant exertion,  associated   witii   good  judgment, 


he  has  raised  himself  to  the  prominent  position 
which  he  now  holds,  having  the  friendship  of 
many  and  the  respect  of  all  who  know  him. 

Mr.  Kranz  was  bom  in  Germany,  in  1841,  and 
is  an  only  son  of  Alichael  and  Margurette 
(Nuegel)  Kranz.  His  father  was  also  an  only 
son.  Our  subject,  however,  had  three  sisters, 
of  whom  one  is  now  living,  a  resident  of  London, 
England.  John  Kranz  attended  the  public 
schools  near  his  home  and  secured  an  excellent 
education,  for  the  schools  of  that  locality  are 
among  the  best  in  the  world.  In  i860,  when 
but  nineteen  years  of  age,  he  left  the  Fatherland 
for  the  United  States,  hoping  to  benefit  his 
financial  condition  thereby.  The  hope  of  ac- 
quiring a  fortune  here  has  been  ampl\-  fultilled. 


278 


n/naiiAriffCAL  DicrioxARY  and  poiitrait  galleuy  of  the 


and  his  life  (k-nmnstratcs  what  can  be  accom- 
plished by  industry  and  talent  in  the  land  un- 
hampered by  caste  or  class. 

Arrivin.?  at  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Kranz  appren- 
ticed himself  to  a  confectioner  in  order  to  learn 
the  trade.  He  was  in  a  new  country  where  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  people  were  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  his  own  country,  and  he  often 
longed  for  the  "  Little  German  home  across  the 
sea."'  However,  he  was  brave  and  determined 
and  faithfully  pursued  his  work,  remaining  with 
his  first  employer  for  eight  years,  during  which 
time  he  mastered  the  business  in  every  detail. 
Through  careful  industry  and  frugal  living, 
he  succeeded  in  saving  a  sum  of  money, 
with  which  he  decided  to  engage  in  business  for 
himself.  He  sought  the  West  with  its  almost 
limitless  opportunities  and  rightly  believed  that 
Chicago  would  prove  a  good  opening  for  his 
undertakings. 

Mr.  Kranz  dates  his  arrival  in  this  city  from 
1868.  Here  he  was  offered  a  good  situation 
with  a  confectionery  firm  and  accepted  it,  being 
in  the  employ  of  others  for  a  year.  He  then  em- 
barked in  business  for  himself,  beginning  opera- 
tions on  a  small  scale.  Prosperity  attended  his 
efiforts  from  the  start  and  at  the  end  of  two 
years  his  quarters  on  Madison  street  were  too 
small  to  accommodate  his  rapidly  increasing 
business,  and  he  removed  to  115  Blue  Island 
avenue.  His  confectionery  was  made  of  the  best 
material  and  put  up  with  taste  and  neatness.     This 


soon  gained  him  an  enviable  reputation  and  a 
popularity  that  caused  such  an  increase  in  his 
business  as  to  compel  him  to  add  yearly  to  the 
number  of  his  employees.  For  two  years  he 
remained  on  Blue  Island  avenue,  and  then 
removed  to  his  present  commodious  establishment 
at  78  and  80  State  street.  After  renting  his  store 
for  a  few  years  he  purchased  the  building,  and  in 
addition  owns  a  large  wholesale  house  on  Ran- 
dolph street,  just  around  the  corner  from  the 
retail  establishment.  His  trade  has  assumed 
such  extensive  proportions  that  he  now  employs 
a  large  force  of  men  and  women  to  carry  on  the 
business.  The  Kranz  ice  cream  and  confectionery 
parlors  equal  if  not  surpass  any  in  the  city.  The 
interior  of  the  building  is  most  beautifully  and 
tastefully  adorned,  and  is  in  the  highest  degree 
artistic.  Mr.  Kranz  ships  his  goods  into  nearly 
every  State  of  the  Union,  and  his  out-of-town 
trade  is  immense,  while  from  the  Chicago  public 
he  receives  a  most  liberal  patronage,  the  su- 
perior quality  of  his  confections  winning  him 
the  handsome  trade  that  has  made  him  one 
of  the  most  substantial  citizens  of  northeast- 
ern Illinois. 

In  1869  Mr.  Kranz  was  united  in  marriage 
with  Miss  Flora  Bunte,  and  they  now  have  five 
daughters,  intelligent  and  interesting  young 
ladies  who  add  life  and  light  to  their  parents' 
home.  It  is  a  favorite  resort  with  young  people, 
and  Mrs.  Kranz  and  her  daughters  take 
ereat  delicrht  in  entertaining  their  manv  friends. 


ABNER  C.  HARDING, 


MONMOUTH. 


ABNER  C.  HARDING  was  born  at  East 
Hampton,  Connecticut,  on  the  loth  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1807,  having  removed  with  his  parents  to 
the  State  of  New  York  in  181 5.  He  received  his 
educational  discipline  in  the  public  schools  of 
Herkimer  county,  New  York,  and  graduated  at 
Hamilton  College,  same  State;  and  when  still  a 
youth  became  an  operative  in  a  wool-carding 
manufacton-.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  years  he  had 
so  far  advanced  in  his  studies  as  to  be  able  to 
qualify   for    a   schoolteacher,     in    which    line    of 


occupation  he  was  successful.  In  182 1  he  enlisted 
as  a  midshipman  in  the  United  States  Navy, 
but  was  rejected  on  account  of  his  stature  not 
being  up  to  the  requirements  of  that  branch  of 
the  nation's  service.  For  a  number  of  years  he 
devoted  himself  to  various  lines  of  business,  in 
connection  with  his  work  as  a  teacher.  He  was 
engaged  in  peddling  tinware  and  later  conducted 
operations  quite  successfully  as  a  stage  driver. 
In  1826-7  he  devoted  himself  to  the  reading  of 
law,  having  determined  to  make  that  profession 


.^-^/^.€ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


279 


liis  vdcatinn  iti  life.  His  removal  to  Pcnnsxlvania 
occurred  in  1828.  He  read  law  with  Mr.  Ruger, 
and  the  same  year  he  secured  admission  to  the  bar 
of  that  State.  Januar}-  30,  1829,  he  was  united 
in  marriage  to  Mrs.  Rebecca  L.  Beyers,  who 
died  in  1833,  leaving  two  children:  George  F. 
and  Mary  R. 

Mr.  Harding  soon  gained  prestige  in  his  pro- 
fession and  recognition  as  a  man  of  high  ability. 
He  was  elected  to  the  constitutional  convention 
of  Pennsylvania  in  1835.  Within  this  year  was 
consummated  his  second  marriage,  the  lady  of  his 
choice  being  Miss  Susan  Ickes,  a  native  of 
Bloomfield,  Perr)-  county,  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
daughter  of  Dr.  Jonas  Ickes,  a  man  of  much 
prominence  and  influence  in  the  Keystone  State, 
where  he  passed  nearly  his  entire  life.  The  Ickes 
faniilv  had  its  original  American  representatives 
among  a  colony  of  about  three  thousand  persons 
who  came  to  Pennsylvania  about  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  centurj-,  from  the  upper  por- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  under  the  con- 
trol of  Frederick  the  Great,  this  emigration  having 
been  made  under  the  guidance  of  William  Penn. 
The  emigration  of  this  family  was  on  account 
of  the  persecutions  which  they  had  endured  at  the 
hands  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  The  colony 
came  from  Eisleben,  near  where  Luther  was 
born.  There  being  a  constant  war  between  the 
Catholics  and  Protestants  in  that  locality,  Penn 
came  there  to  secure  fanners  who  would  aid  in 
his  scheme  of  American  colonization,  and  the 
people,  tired  and  disheartened  by  the  unequal 
struggle,  were  glad  to  come  with  him.  There 
was  a  family  of  Coblents  in  the  colony,  and  the 
father  of  this  family  was  called  the  baron  of  the 
city  of  Coblentz,  M.  Ickes  having  married  one  of 
his  daughters.  Frederick  the  Great  confiscated 
the  property  of  Coblents,  and  thereupon  he  came 
tc  America  and  took  up  his  abode  in  Albany, 
New  York,  where  some  of  his  descendants  still 
live.  Later  he  removed  to  Montgomery  county, 
Pennsylvania,  where  he  assumed  the  name  of 
Copeland.  The  baron  lived  to  attain  the  patri- 
archal age  of  one  hundred  and  twelve  years. 
The  Ickes  family  comprised  four  sons  and  three 
daughters,  the  colony  having  been  located  in 
Montgomery-  county,  northwest  of  Perkiomen 
creek,  the  township  being  named  Limerick.     Mr. 


Ickes  located  one  thousand  acres  of  land,  and 
gave  to  each  of  his  four  sons  two  hundri.d  and 
fifty  acres.  The  old  family  homestead,  which  was 
erected  in  1717,  was  still  standing  in  1880. 
Michael  Ickes,  the  father  of  Nicholas  Ickes,  re- 
ceived the  northeast  comer  as  his  portion,  and 
in  the  house  which  he  there  erected  were  born  to 
him  four  children,  one  of  whom  was  the  father  of 
the  wife  of  the  subject  of  this  review. 

In  June,  1838,  ^Ir.  Harding  came  to  Mon- 
mouth, Illinois,  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting 
the  practice  of  law  here,  and  he  became  a  prom- 
inent politician  in  the  Whig  party,  wielding  a  wide 
influence.  He  continued  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession  in  1847-8-9,  and  within  this  time  be- 
came interested  in  railroading,  and  built  that 
portion  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  cS:  Quincy 
railroad  extending  between  Peoria  and  Burling- 
ton. In  1848  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  constitu- 
tional convention,  and  was  a  member  of  the  State 
senate  in  1848-49-50.  He  again  became  active  in 
railroad  extensions  in  1851,  and  by  reason  of  the 
failure  of  his  eyesight  he  abandoned  the  practice 
of  law.  From  1852  until  i860  he  traveled  for  the 
benefit  of  his  health.  In  1851  he  had  formed 
a  partnership  with  Chauncy  Harding  and  Judge 
Ivory  Quinby,  and  built  what  is  known  as  the 
Peoria  &  Oquawka  railroad.  Having  procured 
the  charter,  the  original  route  was  changed  some- 
what, and  the  line  was  built  from  Burlington  to 
Knoxville,  and  continued  from  the  latter  point 
by  Kellv,  Moss  &  Company,  who  were  unable 
to  complete  the  work.  General  Harding  pur- 
chased their  contract  and  completed  the  line  in 
1856. 

In  1862  our  subject  enlisted  as  a  member  of 
the  Eighty-third  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  of 
which  he  was  made  Colonel,  being  mustered  into 
service  in  August  of  the  year  mentioned.  In 
March,  1863,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Brigadier  General  of  volunteers,  ser\'ing  with 
rare  distinction  and  honor.  In  1864  he  became 
the  Republican  candidate  as  representative  of  his 
district  in  Congress,  serving  in  the  Thirty-ninth 
and  Fortieth  Congresses,  and  being  re-elected  in 
1866.  In  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  he  served  as 
a  member  of  the  unportant  committee  on  man- 
ufacturing and  militia,  and  in  the  Fortieth  on  the 
committees  of  Indian  prisoners,  claims  and  mi- 


280 


niOORAPinCAL  DICrrnXARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLEHT  OF  TIIK 


litia.  Ill  his  own  name  he  secured  the  charter  to 
build  the  railroad  bridge  over  the  Mississippi 
river  in  Ijurlington,  Iowa.  This  charter  proved 
to  be  a  very  valuable  property,  and  he  sold  the 
same  to  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
Company,  who  erected  the  bridge. 

In  1869  the  health  of  General  Harding  became 
seriously  impaired  and  in  May,  1871, he  went  to 
Europe  in  the  hope  of  securing  relief.  He  re 
turned  to  his  home  in  the  following  August  and 
here  remained  in  invalidism  until  death  summoned 
him  into  eternal  rest,  at  nine  o'clock  on  the  evening 
of  Jnlv  19,  1874.  His  life  had  been  one  of  excep- 
tional activity  and  usefulness  and  had  been  char- 
acterized by  the  most  unswerving  integrity  and 
honor.  He  began  life  as  a  poor  boy  and  his 
financial  valuation   at    death    represented    more 


than  a  million  dollars.  This  great  fortune  he 
had  accumulated  by  judicious  investments  in  real 
estate,  and  throughout  his  entire  career  there 
had  been  no  action  on  his  part  that  could  have 
called  forth  adverse  criticism.  As  a  real-estate 
and  title  lawyer  there  were  none  who  could  excel 
him,  while  as  a  pleader  his  distinction  was 
equally  marked.  He  was  concerned  in  some  of 
the  most  celebrated  cases  which  shed  luster  on 
the  jurisprudence  of  Illinois,  and  his  efiforts  in 
behalf  of  Warren  county  transcended  in  impor- 
tance and  results  those  of  any  other  man  who 
has  ever  lived.  High  on  the  scroll  of  the  honored 
and  illustrious  men  of  the  State  will  be  inscribed 
for  all  time  to  come  the  name  of  General  Abner 
Clark  Harding,  the  subject  of  this  altogether  too 
brief  memoir. 


ADOLF  KRAUS, 


ADOLF  KRAUS  was  born  in  Bohemia  in 
1850.  He  acquired  his  early  education  in 
the  common  schools  and  was  graduated  at  the 
'■Real  Schule,"  which  corresponds  to  the  high 
schools  of  this  countr}'.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he 
sailed  for  the  new  world,  landing  in  New  York. 
He  was  young  to  start  out  in  life  for  himself  in 
this  manner,  but  he  had  to  earn  his  own  living, 
and  like  many  of  his  countrymen  believed  that 
he  might  have  better  advantages  beyond  the  At- 
lantic. 

For  a  year  after  his  arrival  he  worked  in  the 
factories  of  New  York  city  and  then  secured  a 
position  as  a  salesman  in  a  mercantile  establish- 
ment, traveling  over  the  country  to  a  considerable 
extent  while  thus  engaged.  In  the  meantime  he 
took  up  the  study  of  law,  reading  books  in  the 
evening. 

Air.  l\raus  came  to  Chicago  in  1871,  and  con- 
tinued the  study  of  law  until  1874,  when  he  spent 
two  years  abroad  in  Europe.  It  was  an  excel- 
lent preparation  for  his  future  business,  as  there 
is  nothing  that  so  broadens  one's  mind  and  stores 
it  with  general  information,  for  which  one  would 
seek  in  vain  in  books,  as  travel. 

On  again  coming  to  the  United  States  in  1876, 


Mr.  Kraus  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  su- 
preme court  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  in  1877.  He  has 
always  engaged  in  practice  in  Chicago.  The  yeai" 
following  his  establishment  in  business  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  bar  of  Cook  county,  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Mr.  Wm.  S.  Brackett,  under  the  firm 
name  of  Kraus  &  Brackett,  from  1878  until  1881, 
when  the  junior  member  of  the  firm  left  the  city 
and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Levy  Mayer.  In  1884 
Judge  Stein  also  became  a  member  of  the  firm 
and  the  business  was  carried  on  under  the  style 
of  Kraus,  Mayer  8l  Stein  until  the  election  of  the 
last  named  to  the  bench,  when  Judge  Moran  en- 
tered the  firm.  Among  those  occupying  a  fore- 
most place  at  the  bar  of  Chicago  is  the  firm  of 
Moran,  Kraus  &  Mayer,  which  is  now  doing 
a  large  business,  enjoying  a  most  extensive 
clientage. 

During  his  first  two  years  of  practice  Mr. 
Kraus  defended  five  murder  cases,  and  each  time 
the  man  was  acquitted.  He  has  since  refused  all 
criminal  cases.  He  has  gained  for  himself  a  lead- 
ing place  among  corporation  lawyers,  and  the 
firm  of  which  he  is  a  member  has  been  connected 
with  every  litigation  of  importance  that  has  come 
up  for  settlement  in  this  city  \\itliin  the  last  decade. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOL  CUE. 


28] 


In  his  political  views  Mr.  Kraus  is  a  stalwart 
Democrat,  and  served  as  a  member  of  the  Chi- 
cago school  board  from  1881  until  1887.  During 
the  last  two  years  of  his  service  he  was  president 
of  the  board,  and  his  administration  of  affairs  won 
him  the  commendation  of  all  concerned.  In  1893, 
on  the  request  of  Mayor  Carter  Harrison,  he  ac- 
cepted the  position  of  corporation  counsel,  with 
the  provision  that  he  could  resign  as  soon  as  the 
business  was  well  organized  and  in  working  or- 
der. When  this  was  completed  he  resigned,  in 
November,  1893,  wishing  to  devote  his  entire  at- 
tention to  his  private  practice.  He  has  been  prom- 
inently identified  with  public  affairs  since  his  ar- 
rival here,  and  is  deeply  interested  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  the  welfare  of  the  city.  At  one  time  he 
was  the  owner  of  the  Chicago  Times  and  greatly 
advanced  the  standard  of  that  paper,  which  he 
edited  until  selling  out  to  James  Scott.     He  is 


connected  with  several  social  organizations,  being 
a  member  of  the  Iroquois  Club,  the  Chicago 
Athletic  Club,  the  Lakeside  Club,  the  Chicago 
Clubs.  Although  of  foreign  birth  he  is  now  a 
topical  American,  whose  energy  and  enterprise 
are  in  accordance  with  the  dominant  spirit  of  Chi- 
cago, and  to  his  industry  and  perseverance  he 
owes  his  success. 

In  1877  Mr.  Kraus  was  united  in  marriage 
with  Miss  Matilda  Hirsh,  of  Chicago,  whose  fa- 
ther was  a  chemist  of  prominence.  They  have 
four  children,  namely:  Paula,  Albert,  Harry  and 
Milton.  Their  beautiful  home  is  located  at  No. 
4315  Drexel  boulevard,  where  evidences  of  a 
refined  and  cultured  taste  abound  and  where  they 
have  an  excellent  library,  including  many  hun- 
dreds of  volumes.  The  firm  of  which  he  is  a 
member  has  the  largest  i>ri\ate  law  library  in 
the  citv. 


DR.  ROPTNSON  TRIPP, 


FOR  more  than  sixty  years  this  gentleman  has 
been  a  resident  of  Chicago.  He  has  been 
identified  with  the  growth  of  the  city  since  it  was 
in  its  infancy,  when  the  now  populous  districts 
were  waste  prairies  or  swamp  lands,  and  the  most 
far-sighted  could  not  have  dreamed,  much  less 
realized,  that  the  hamlet  was  within  a  compara- 
tively few  years  to  become  the  second  city  of 
America,  the  commercial  center  of  the  country 
and  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  the  world, 
worthy  to  be  ranked  with  the  celebrated  "Seven 
Wonders."  The  Doctor  is  not  only  one  of  the 
oldest  in  years  of  continuous  residence  here,  but 
is  to-day  the  oldest  in  years  of  its  honored  inhab- 
itants, the  snows  of  ninety  winters  having  fallen 
upon  his  head.  He  is  nearly  the  end  of  life's 
pilgrimage,  yet  retains  an  active  and  commend- 
able interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  present  and  is 
indeed  a  valued  and  honored  citizen  of  the  "West- 
ern Metropolis."' 

Dr.  Tripp  was  born  in  Rutland  county,  Ver- 
mont, on  the  6th  of  April,  1805,  and  is  the  seventli 
in  order  of  birth  in  a  family  of  eight  children, 
whose  parents  were  William  and  Hannah  (Ben- 


nett) Tripp.  On  the  paternal  side  his  ancestry 
came  from  Wales,  while  his  mother's  ancestry 
were  Rhode  Island  people.  The  father,  vvho  was 
a  tanner  and  currier,  settled  in  \^ermont  in  1797. 
His  death  occurred  in  March,  181 5,  and  on  the 
loth  of  April  of  the  same  year  his  wife  passed 
away,  at  the  age  of  seventy-one.  Thus,  at  the 
earl\-  age  of  ten  years,  the  r)octor  was  left  an 
orphan  and  thrown  upon  his  own  resources.  He 
went  to  live  with  the  father  of  Hon.  Levi  P.  Mor- 
ton, the  present  governor  of  New  York,  then  a 
resident  of  Shoreham,  Vermont,  and  continued 
with  that  gentleman  for  about  four  years.  During 
that  time  he  attended  the  public  schools,  which 
was  about  the  only  educational  privileges  he  re- 
ceived. At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  secured  em- 
ployment at  the  tanner's  trade  and  to  that  work 
and  farming  devoted  his  energies  during  the  suc- 
ceeding two  years,  his  employer  owning  a  tannery 
and  thirty  acres  of  land,  which  he  aided  in  culti- 
vating. After  that  gentleman's  death,  Dr.  Tripp 
worked  elsewhere  as  a  farm  hand  until 
eighteen  years  of  age,  when  he  went  to  Syracuse, 
New  York,  and  for  three  months  engaged  in 


282 


liloaitAPincAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUTHAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


loading-  woud  (mi  canalboats  and  hauling  salt  for 
shipment  in  the  same  way.  He  had  been  indus- 
trious and  frugal,  and  had  saved  some  of  his 
earnings,  which  his  brother,  who  was  his  guardian, 
advised  him  to  invest  in  a  boatload  of  wood. 
He  did  this  and  then  l)egan  making  salt  at  his 
brothers  works.  Affairs  were  working  smoothly, 
but  after  two  weeks  he  was  taken  ill,  and  fifteen 
days  later  it  was  thought  that  life  was  extinct; 
but  he  rallied:  yet  for  more  than  six  weeks  lay  ill 
with  typhoid  fever.  For  five  years  afterward  he 
was  sick  each  spring.  Subsequently  he  followed 
the  carpenter's  trade  for  a  time  and  was  always 
busy,  leading  an  industrious  and  useful  life. 

Dr.  Tripp  was  married  March  25,  1830,  to  Miss 
Margaret  D.  Bronson,  who  was  born  in  Amster- 
dam" New  York,  November  11,  1808,  and  died 
August  14,  1894,  at  the  age  of  eighty-five.  For 
sixty-three  years  they  traveled  life's  journey  to- 
o-ether,  their  mutual  love  and  confidence  increas- 
ing with  the  passing  of  time,  sharing  with  each 
other  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  adversity  and 
prosperity  which  checker  all  earthly  careers. 

Ten  days  after  their  marriage  Dr.  Tripp  was 
taken  sick,  and  feeling  that  a  change  of  climate 
would  prove  beneficial  the  young  couple  sailed 
on  a  canalboat — the  Rock  Mountain— to  Buf- 
falo, where  they  boarded  the  schooner  Atlanta 
bound  for  Chicago.  They  started  on  the  4th  of 
June,  1834,  and  reached  their  destination  on  the 
1st  of  July,  taking  rooms  at  the  Mansion  House, 
conducted  by  Messrs.  Graves  &  Haddock,  just 
opposite  the  site  of  the  Tremont  House,  on  Lake 
street.  In  his  new  home  the  Doctor  began  w^ork 
at  his  trade  of  carpentering,  and  built  the  first 
board  sidewalk  in  the  city.  He  was  told  at  the 
time  that  Chicago  then  had  six  hundred  inhab- 
itants and  would  be  quite  a  town  some  day! 
How  this  prediction  has  been  fulfilled  many  real- 
ized in  the  summer  of  1893,  as  they  passed 
through  the  streets  of  America's  second  city  and 
gazed  on  the  triumph  of  Chicago  genius  and  en- 
terprise,— the  World's  Columbian  Exposition. 

In  1836  Dr.  Tripp  embarked  in  merchandising 
at  132  Lake  street,  two  doors  west  of  Clark  street, 
where  he  leased  fifty  feet  of  ground.  Upon  half 
of  this  he  built  a  store  and  then  rented  the  other 
half  for  what  the  entire  property  cost  him.  For 
two  years  he  carried  on  business  there,  with  ex- 


cellent success,  after  which  he  resumed  work  at 
his  trade,  which  he  continued  for  five  years.  Dur- 
ing this  time  he  studied  medicine  in  the  office  of 
Dr.  David  F.  Smith,  the  honored  founder  and 
president  of  Hahnemann  Medical  College,  and 
when  not  able  to  work  looked  after  the  books 
and  accounts  of  his  preceptor.  When  the  law 
was  passed  requiring  all  physicians  who  had  not 
practiced  for  ten  years  to  pass  an  examination, 
he  secured  papers  of  recommendation  signed  by 
Rev.  Dr.  Hitchcock,  Orrington  Lunt,  Judge 
Goodrich  and  Lewis  Nowlan,  and  was  told  that 
his  were  the  best  recommendations  handed  in. 

In  1849  he  became  interested  in  patent  braces 
introduced  by  Dr.  Banning,  and  is  still  connected 
with  the  line  of  business,  carrying  in  stock  the 
finest  makes  of  braces  manufactured.  As  old  age 
crept  upon  him  he  felt  the  need  of  some  one  to 
aid  him  in  his  work,  and  four  years  since  ad- 
mitted to  partnership  his  grandnephew,  Dr.  Will- 
iam A.  I'uller,  who  has  become  an  expert  in  fitting 
braces.  He  is  a  refined,  educated  gentleman, 
who  closely  applies  himself  to  his  business,  and 
operations  are  now  carried  on  under  the  firm 
name  of  Tripp  &  Fuller. 

Dr.  Tripp  and  wife  were  active  members  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  contributed  lib- 
erally to  its  support.  The  Doctor  united  with  the 
church  more  than  seventy  years  ago  and  for  many 
years  has  been  recording  steward  of  the  Clark 
.Street  Church!  His  long  Christian  life,  full  of 
good  deeds  and  kindly  acts,  is  well  worthy  of 
emulation.  He  is  charitable,  benevolent  and 
kindhearted,  and  is  an  advocate  of  temperance 
principles,  never  using  spirituous  liquor  as  a  bev- 
erage. He  has  always  been  a  deep  student  of  the 
Bible,  and  since  1864  has  read  it  through  no  less 
than  eighty  times,  reading  often  fifty  or  sixty 
chapters  on  a  Sunday.  In  early  life  he  supported 
the  Democracy,  but  on  the  organization  of  the 
Republican  party  he  joined  its  ranks,  supported 
John  C.  Fremont  for  the  presidency  and  has  since 
been  a  stalwart  advocate  of  the  party  principles. 
In  1842  he  was  elected  city  collector  of  Chicago. 

On  the  6th  of  April,  1895,  Dr.  Tripp  celebrated 
his  ninetieth  birthday  at  his  residence,  2030  In- 
diana avenue,  and  the  same  day  there  were  bap- 
tized his  great-great-grandnephew  and  niece,  Dr. 
Bolton  ofTiciating.     He  had  married  their  parents 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


283 


August   20,    1887,  namely,   A.   J-    Deuistry   and 
Marc^aret,  "cc  Fuller. 

In  all  the  relations  of  life  Dr.  Tripp  has  been 
honorable  and  upright,  and  speaking  of  his  career 


a  Christian  friend  said  of  him,  "It  is  like  a  clear, 
limpid  stream  wherein  you  can  see  the  form  and 
color  of  the  pebbles  at  the  bottom  and  through 
whose  meandering  course  no  sediment  appears." 


JOHN  FRANCIS  STAFFORD, 


As  the  progress  or  prosperity  of  a  nation  is 
the  result  of  the  aggregate  endeavor  of  its 
individual  citizens,  so  the  history  of  a  nation  is 
the  record  of  the  aggregate  achievements  of  its 
licople.  Biography  thus  becomes  the  very  foun- 
dation upon  which  must  rest  all  general  history 
of  mankind.  The  importance  nf  making  perma- 
nent record  oi  tlie  life  work  of  men  who  arc 
worthy  such  distinction  cannot  be  overestimated. 

The  mere  acquisition  of  wealth  is,  in  itself,  a 
fact  scarcely  deserving  mention  by  the  historian. 
It  is  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  that  its  power 
for  good  or  evil  lies.  Money  is  power,  and  the 
individual  who  has  the  faculty  and  ability  to  gar- 
ner wealth,  and  who  applies  his  acquisitions  to  tlie 
betterment  of  man.kind,  is  a  public  benefactor 
whose  memory  should  be  preserved  and  honored. 

Again,  to  the  individual  whom  nature  has  en- 
dowed with  a  keen  perception  of  that  which  is 
beautiful,  noble  and  grand,  and  who  by  all  means 
in  his  power  seeks  to  cultivate  and  inspire  in  others 
such  appreciation, — to  such  a  man  or  woman  the 
world  owes  a  debt  which  it  can  never  discharge. 

The  evolution  of  the  human  race  from  barbar- 
ism to  the  present  advanced  civilization  has  been 
slow,  and  the  man  who  in  his  day  and  generation 
has  helped  elevate  the  tastes  of  those  with  whom 
he  comes  in  contact,  does  a  work  the  results  oi 
which  will  be  cumulative  in  generations  to  come. 
We  are  led  to  the  above  train  of  reflections  by 
contemplating  the  life-work  of  one  of  the  old 
citizens  of  Chicago,  now  and  for  many  years  re- 
tired from  active  pursuits,  but  who  has  left  his 
impress  not  only  on  his  contemporaries  but  also 
through  them  on  later  generations. 

The  story  of  Captain  John  F.  Stafford's  life  is 
not  thrilling  or  romantic.  In  fact,  to  the  super- 
ficial reader  or  obser\'er,  it  is  quite  as  prosaic 
and  commonplace  as  that  of  the  average  successful 


Chicagoan.  He  began  the  battle  of  life  when  but 
a  lad,  without  friends,  influence  or  capital,  and 
after  some  vicissitudes  conciuered  adverse  fate  and 
actpiired  a  comfortable  fortune.  Then,  not  caring 
for  wealth  beyond  his  needs,  retired  from  the  cares 
f'f  business,  and  has  spent  much  of  his  time  in 
later  years  in  travel.  He  was  always  noted  among 
his  acquaintances  for  shrewd  business  judgment, 
strong  common  sense,  sterling  integrity,  unyield- 
ing preseverance  in  pursuance  of  a  plan  or  pur- 
pose, a  genial  bonhomie  and  warm-heartedness 
which  won  and  retained  friendship.  For  these 
and  other  good  qualities  he  was  credited;  but 
there  was  another  side  to  his  character  which,  less 
understood  by  the  multitude,  was  infinitely  more 
rare  than  any  or  all  the  traits  above  enumerated, 
and  of  this  we  shall  speak  later. 

The  life  of  Captain  Stafford  may  be  briefly  sum- 
marized as  follows: 

He  was  born  in  Dublin,  Ireland,  August  12, 
1S20.  His  parents  were  John  and  Sarah  (Mellon") 
StafTord.  His  ancestors  were  prominent  Irish 
patriots,  and  more  than  one  of  them  were  martyrs 
t'j  the  cause  of  libert}'.  Captain  Stafford's  father 
was  a  provision  merchant  in  Dublin  and  was  also 
engaged  in  packing  bacon  and  hams  for  the  Eng- 
lish market. 

In  1828  the  elder  Stafford  emigrated  with  his 
family  to  America.  Landing  at  Quebec,  they  took 
passage  on  what  was  known  as  a  Durham  boat  to 
Port  Hope,  Canada  West, — now  the  province  of 
Ontario, — and  here  he  purchased  a  farm  sixteen 
miles  back  in  the  country  from  Port  Hope.  On 
this  farm  was  a  saw  and  grist  mill  and  a  carding- 
niill.  The  following  winter  was  very  severe  and 
Mr.  Stafford  on  one  occasion,  having  gone  to  the 
village  to  purchase  supplies,  was  frozen  to  death 
on  the  return  trip  home.  This  left  the  mother 
with  two  small  children,  a  stranger  in  a  strange 


^84 


niOnUAl'lIICM.  DICriOXARY  AND  rOUTUAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


land.  She  sold  the  farm  and  moved  to  Rochester, 
New  York,  where  better  faciHties  were  offered  for 
rearing  and  cducatingf  licr  children.  When  the 
younger  son,  Owen  A.,  was  thirteen  years  of  age, 
he  was  apprenticed  to  a  famous  printer,  Henry 
O'Reilly,  to  learn  the  printers'  trade.  He  after- 
ward became  prominent  in  the  newspaper  world, 
\yas  for  many  years  associated  with  Redfield,  the 
celebrated  publisher,  and  later  on  purchased  a 
fruit-farm  in  California,  where  he  now  resides, 
on  one  of  the  most  beautiful  estates  in  that  won- 
derful country. 

John  F.  had  the  choice  offered  him  by  his  moth- 
er of  three  professions, — the  ministry,  law  or  medi- 
cine. He  chose  the  latter  and  took  up  the  study 
of  medicine  in  the  ofifice  of  Drs.  Elwood  and 
Tobey,  of  Rochester,  and  proved  so  apt  a  pupil 
that  after  the  first  month  he  was  intrusted  with  the 
compounding  of  all  the  medicines  used  in  the 
practice  of  his  preceptors,  it  being  the  custom  in 
those  days  for  all  physicians  to  compound  and 
furnish  the  medicines  they  prescribed.  In  about 
a  vear  Mr.  Stafford's  mother  died  suddenly  of 
cholera,  which  was  then  epidemic,  and  the  young 
lad  then  being  adrift  in  the  world  without  guardian 
or  counselor,  and  free  to  follow  the  bent  of  his 
own  inclinations,  determined  to  give  up  the  study 
cf  medicine  and  gratify  a  long  cherished  desire 
of  becoming  a  sailor.  His  first  embarkation  was 
as  cabin  and  general  utility  boy  on  a  small 
schooner.  The  "Brown"  of  Port  Hope,  plying  be- 
tween ports  on  Lake  Ontario.  The  following 
winter  the  vessel  lay  up  at  Ogdensburg,  New 
Yf)rk,  and  young  Stafford  here  fonned  the  ac- 
quaintance of  a  carpenter  residing  at  Brockville, 
Ontario,  and  was  induced  to  go  with  him  as  an 
apprentice  to  learn  carpentering.  His  experience 
in  this  line  soon  proved  unsatisfactory,  as  instead 
of  the  carpenter  instructing  him  in  the  mysteries 
of  the  craft  the  carpenter's  wife  kept  the  lad  busy 
most  of  the  time  caring  for  her  baby.  Not  relish- 
ing this  employment,  young  Stafford  ran  away 
and  returned  to  his  former  home  at  Rochester. 
Here,  upon  his  arrival,  he  learned  that  his  brother 
had  gone  to  Buffalo  and  obtained  employment  in 
the  office  of  the  Commercial  and  Journal  of  that 
city.  Thither  he  repaired  and  secured  employ- 
ment as  a  "printer's  devil"  in  the  same  ofifice. 
When  navigation   opened   the   following   spring 


he  again  sought  the  lakes,  and  this  year  (1837) 
he  made  his  first  visit  to  Chicago,  on  board  the 
shij)  Tnlia  Palmer,  one  of  the  first  two  full  rigged 
ships  that  ever  sailed  the  lakes.  He  continued  on 
this  vessel,  and  working  in  the  printing  ofifice 
winters,  till  the  spring  of  1841,  when  he  purchased 
of  Thomas  Foster  the  Buffalo  Coffee  and  Spice 
l\Iills  and  conducted  the  preparation  of  coffee 
and  spices  till  1848,  doing  a  profitable  busi- 
ness. 

In  the  fall  of  1847  'le  purchased  the  brig  Uncle 
Sam,  loaded  her  with  lumber  at  Saginaw,  and 
started  her  for  Buffalo.  On  the  first  trip  a  storm 
was  encountered  and  the  vessel  wrecked.  The 
following  winter  the  machinery  of  the  steamer 
City  of  Buffalo  was  transferred  by  the  owners  to 
a  larger  vessel,  and  Captain  Stafford  purchased 
the  hull  of  this  vessel,  and  with  rigging  which  had 
been  recovered  from  the  Uncle  Sam  fitted  her  out 
as  a  bark,  and  again  embarked  in  the  lumber 
trade.  This  vessel  met  with  the  same  fate  as  his 
former  one,  and  was  wrecked  on  the  Manitou 
islands  on  her  first  voyage.  After  this  second  mis- 
fortune he  sold  his  Spice  and  Coffee  Mills,  and 
with  the  money  thus  obtained  and  from  the  insur- 
ance on  his  vessel  he  proceeded  to  discharge 
all  the  indebtedness  he  had  incurred  in  fitting  out 
the  vessel.  This  done,  he  had  but  a  few  hundred 
dollars  left.  With  the  small  capital  he  had,  how- 
ever, he  ^vent  to  Memphis,  Tennessee,  purchased 
a  flatboat,  loaded  it  with  corn,  went  down  the 
river  to  Natchez  and  Grand  Gulf,  where  he  dis- 
posed of  boat  and  cargo.  He  spent  a  few  days 
in  New  Orleans  and  then  came  up  the  river  to 
Cairo  with  the  intention  of  buying  another  load 
of  corn  to  ship  down  the  river.  Not  being  suc- 
cessful in  this,  he  took  passage  on  a  boat  for  New 
Orleans.  On  this  trip  he  formed  the  acquaint- 
ance of  a  passenger  who  had  aboard  the  boat  a 
large  shipment  of  chickens  and  turkeys  bound 
for  the  New  Orleans  market.  About  this  time 
the  news  reached  them  that  cholera  was  raging  in 
New  Orleans.  This  so  frightened  the  poultry 
speculator  that  he  sold  his  cargo  of  poultry  to 
Captain  Stafford  at  a  nominal  figure,  and  the 
Captain,  braving  the  dangers  of  the  dread  dis- 
ease, succeeded  in  disposing  of  his  poultry 
after  reaching  the  Crescent  City,  at  an  enormous 
profit.    This  venture  gave  him  a  working  capital 


REPRESEyTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


285 


and  proved  the  nucleus  aroun<I  which  he  after- 
ward gathered  a  handsome  fortune. 

Returning  to  Buffalo  he  purchased  the  brig 
r.oston,  and,  himself  in  command,  engaged  in 
freighting  on  the  lakes.  After  a  successful  season 
he  sold  the  vessel,  and  the  following  spring,  1852, 
opened  a  ship  chandlery  and  grocery  store  at  148 
South  Water  street,  Chicago.  Having  an  exten- 
sive acquaintance  among  the  masters  of  vessels 
sailing  the  lakes,  he  immetliately  secured  a  large 
and  lucrative  trade.  As  his  mercantile  business 
prospered  he  began  investing  his  surplus  funds 
in  lake  craft,  and  at  one  time  ownied  a  fleet  of  ten 
vessels.  He  also  built  a  tug  mainly  for  his  own 
use,  naming  it  the  Fanny  Stafford. 

He  purchased  a  half  interest  in  the  then  cele- 
brated Sands  Brewery,  famous  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  cream  ale.  It  was  known  as  the  best 
constructed  and  best  equipped  brewery  then  in  the 
world ;  and  its  product  was  of  such  high  grade  that 
they  supplied  the  United  States  Government  with 
one  hundred  barrels  of  ale  daily  for  use  in  hos- 
pitals. 

Captain  Stafiford  opened  about  this  time  a 
wliolesale  liquor  store,  and  placed  his  head  book- 
keeper, Bennett  Peters,  in  charge,  also  giving 
Peters'  name  as  the  principal,  making  the  style 
of  the  firm  Bennett  Peters  &  Company.  In  this 
he  was  also  successful  and  did  the  largest  business 
in  that  line  in  Chicago.  Subsequent  events,  how- 
ever, proved  that  the  implicit  confidence  reposed 
by  Captain  Stafford  in  Peters'  honesty  was  not 
altogether  justified. 

In  1869  Captain  Stafiford,  having  acquired  a 
competence  and  being  one  of  those  rare  philoso- 
phers who  wisely  reason  that  they  have  no  use 
for  what  they  do  not  need,  concluded  to  give  up 
money-getting  and  devote  the  remainder  of  his 
life  to  pursuits  more  congenial.  He  accordingly 
disposed  of  his  various  interests,  and,  as  subse- 
quent events  proved,  at  a  very  fortunate  time,  as 
the  disastrous  fire  of  1871  sw'cpt  away  everything 
except  the  real  estate  where  his  various  interests 
had  been  located.  In  this  same  conflagration  the 
Captain  lost,  however,  his  home  located  at  Mon- 
roe street  and  Michigan  avenue,  and  also  a 
dwelling  which  he  owned  at  280  Ohio  street.  In 
addition  to  this  property  he  also  owned  at  this 
time  tliirty  lots  located  at  Clybourn  avenue  and 


North  avenue,  and  also  fifty-three  acres  on  whicli 
Edgewater  now  stands. 

After  the  fire  Captain  Stafford  was  prominent 
in  the  work  of  the  Relief  and  .Xid  Committee,  and 
contributed  liberally  of  his  own  means  to  assist 
rlie  unfortunate  sufferers. 

The  seemingly  interminable  litigation  and  con- 
test between  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany and  the  city  of  Chicago  regarding  the 
former's  rights  and  privileges  on  the  lake  front 
constitute  an  important  feature  of  Chicago's 
history  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century, 
and  the  efiforts  of  Captain  Stafiford  to  secure 
and  maintain  the  rights  of  the  people  of  Chi- 
cago as  against  the  encroachments  of  the  great 
railway  monopoly  have  l^een  important  and 
successful. 

In  1869  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  Illinois 
granted  to  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 
the  use  of  the  lake  shore  a  long  way  south  of  the 
Chicago  river.  The  company  afterward,  in  the 
exercise  of  its  riparian  rights,  usurped  the  right 
of  ownership  over  the  adjacent  portions  of  the 
lake  and  filled  a  portion  of  the  harbor,  subjecting 
so  much  of  the  lalce  as  it  chose  to  its  own  pur- 
poses. At  the  time  of  the  passing  of  the  statutes 
providing  for  the  conveyance  of  an  easement  to 
the  company  it  was  held  to  be  illegal  by  some  of 
our  best  lawyers,  and  a  meeting  of  merchants, 
capitalists  and  others  was  immediately  called  and 
convened  at  the  Tremont  House  to  take  measures 
to  resist  the  encroachments  of  the  railroad  com- 
pany. As  a  result  01  this  meeting,  J.  Young 
Scammon,  Thomas  Hoyne  and  John  F.  Stafiford 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  take  proper  steps 
to  restrain  the  company  from  exercising  riparian 
rights  on  the  lake  front.  In  pursuance  thereof  an  in- 
junction was  obtained  from  the  United  States  court, 
ludge  Drummond  presiding,  which  was  sustained; 
but  the  railroad  company  carried  the  case  up 
through  the  various  courts  until  it  finally  reached 
the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  and  there, 
twenty-four  years  after  its  institution,  the  case 
was  decided  adversely  to  the  railroad  company. 
It  is  conservatively  estimated  that  over  one  hun- 
dred millions  dollars'  worth  of  property  was  thus 
saved  to  the  people  of  Chicago.  While  the  suit 
w^as  in  the  various  courts,  first  Thomas  Hoyne  and 
later  on  J-  Young  Scammon  died,  and  Captain 


286 


niocnAfiiicAL  DTcnnxAnr  Axi)  roirniAiT  riALLKRY  of  the 


Stafford  was  the  only  one  of  tlie  original  commit- 
tee left  to  see  the  end  of  this  famous  suit. 

Captain  Stafford  has  always  been  an  earnest 
adherent  to  the  principles  of  the  Republican  party, 
but  though  often  solicited  has  invariably  refused 
to  accept  ofifice,  if  we  may  except  one  occasion, 
when,  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  Mayor  Heath, 
he  consented  to  accept  the  position  of  coal-oil  in- 
spector in  Chicago  with  the  distinct  understanding 
that  as  soon  as  he  could  get  the  affairs  of  the  office 
properly  straightened  out  and  in  good  working 
order  he  should  be  allowed  to  resign.  Much 
crookedness  had  prevailed  during  the  previous 
administration  in  the  conduct  of  this  ofifice.  It 
took  Captain  Stafford  seven  months  to  get  the 
affairs  of  the  ofifice  in  proper  shape.  As  soon  as 
this  was  done  he,  in  accordance  with  his  free  de- 
clared design,  resigned  the  position. 

We  come  now  to  consider  one  phase  of  Cap- 
tain Stafford's  character  and  career  which  has 
been  of  inestimable  value  not  only  to  the  people 
of  Chicago  but  also  the  entire  West.  Captain 
Stafford  inherited  from  his  father  a  deep  feeling 
for  and  keen  appreciation  of  art,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  busy  life  he  led  for  so  many  years, 
always  found  time  to  cultivate  and  gratify  this 
taste.  The  contemplation  and  study  of  art  was  his 
pastime  and  pleasure,  and  its  pursuit  brought  him 
into  intimate  relation  and  acquaintanceship  with 
all  of  the  most  prominent  artists  of  America. 
Wherever  he  was,  and  with  whomsoever  he  might 
come  in  contact,  he  lost  no  opportunity  to  instill 
in  others  something  of  the  keen  appreciation  and 
love  for  the  beautiful  which  was  so  important  a 
feature  of  his  own  character.  He  assisted  young 
and  struggling  artists,  and  older  ones,  too,  for  that 
matter, — both  by  a  cheering  and  friendly  word, 
and,  when  it  was  needed,  by  more  substantial  aid. 
He  helped  them  sell  their  pictures,  organized,  pro- 
moted and  fostered  exhibitions  of  paintings  and 
sculpture,  and  in  every  possible  way  sought  to 
cultivate  among  the  people  of  this  thriving  young 
city  a  feeling  for  art ;  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  to  John  F.  Stafford  more  than  to  any 
other  man  belongs  the  credit  of  having  made 
Chicago  one  of  the  greatest  art  centers  of  Amer- 
ica and  the  world. 

Alter  the  Chicago  fire  the  artists  of  New  York 
city  came  noblv  to  the  relief  of  their  brethren  in 


Chicago,  contriljuting  a  fund  of  over  eight  thou- 
sand dollars  to  be  used  for  the  relief  of  the  artists 
of  this  city,  and  unanimously  appointed  Captain 
Stafford  as  the  custodian  and  disburser  of  this 
fund,  without  bond,  thus  evidencing  the  great 
trust  they  reposed  not  only  in  his  honesty  but  also 
in  his  good  judgment  as  well. 

In  one  of  the  early  years  of  the  Chicago  Expo- 
sition, the  directors  planned  to  have  an  exhibi- 
tion of  art  exclusively  American,  and  proposed 
that  Captain  Stafford  be  appointed  a  committee 
of  one  to  go  East  and  visit  the  artists  and  art  cen- 
ters and  select  and  secure  the  necessary  paintings 
for  the  exhibit.  He  protested  against  assuming 
this  responsibility,  but  they  insisted  so  strongly 
that  his  knowledge  of  art  and  artists  rendered  him 
better  capable  of  this  important  trust  than  any 
other  man  they  could  select.  Reluctantly  accept- 
ing the  commission,  he  at  once  w^ent  East,  and 
called  together  fourteen  of  our  principal  American 
artists,  at  a  dinner  given  in  William  Beard's 
studio.  When  the  company  were  assembled,  he 
made  a  speech  stating  that  he  was  there  in  the  in- 
terest of  Chicago  and  art,  and  with  the  purpose 
and  desire  of  securing  as  full  a  representation  as 
possible  of  the  best  works  of  our  leading  American 
painters,  living  and  dead.  He  succeeded  in  in- 
teresting them,  and  they  there  and  then  drew  up 
a  paper,  all  signing  it,  each  agreeing  to  furnish 
two  or  more  pictures  and  use  their  influence  in 
securing  others;  and  thus  was  gathered  together 
for  this  gi-eat  exhibition  what  has  been  pro- 
nounced the  greatest  collection  of  American  art 
ever  gathered  together  and  exhibited. 

Captain  Stafford  was  one  of  the  promoters, 
organizers  and  most  earnest  supporters  of  the 
Chicago  Academy  of  De^gn.  He  was  one  of  the 
committee  appointed  to  go  before  Congress  with 
an  argument  and  petition  to  try  to  secure  Dear- 
born Park  for  library  and  other  purposes,  and 
while  they  failed  in  their  mission  at  that  time  the 
strong  argument  presented  doubtless  had  much 
to  do  with  securing  the  coveted  piece  of  land  for 
a  similar  purpose  later  on. 

In  January,  1854,  Captain  Stafford  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Michener  Cadwallader  of 
Buffalo,  New  York.  She  died  eight  years  later, 
leaving  two  children,  Juniata  and  Minne. 

Since  his  retirement  from  business,  the  Captain 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


287 


has  spent  much  time  in  travel,  spending  his  sum- 
mers at  the  various  northern  resorts,  and  tlie  win- 
ters as  far  south  sometimes  as  Cuba  and  Mexico. 
In  1888  he  visited  Ireland,  the  land  of  his  birth, 
after  an  absence  of  sixty-two  years.  He  was  ac- 
companied on  this  trip  by  his  daughter  Alinne 
and  spent  six  months  in  travel  through  Great 
ISritain  and  southern  Europe. 

In  religion  Captain  Stafford  is  an  Episcopalian, 
and  was  for  many  years  a  vestryman  of  Trinity 
Church. 

When  we  are  young  and  strong  with  pulsing  life 
That  makes  us  eager  for  some  conquering  strife, 

Oh,  then  how  surely  fame  and  fortune  glow  I 
And,  clearly  from  within  ourselves,  a  voice  calls.  Go! 


It  is  well  when  the  closing  years  of  a  man's  life 
may  be  quietly  and  happily  spent,  free  from  the 
difficult  task  of  adjusting  himself  to  new  business 
conditions,  so  radically  changed  from  those  of 
his  early  years  of  keen  perception  and  ready 
adaptability.  It  is  well  when  the  gentle,  kindly 
side  of  life  can  have  its  own  undisturbed  sway, 
rounding  out  with  its  i^eauty  and  grace  the  salient 
points  that  make  the  success  of  the  early  active 
years. 


When  jouth  is  gone,  and  we  have  given  our  best, 
But  find  life's  slowing  pulse  means  waning  zest, 
Oh,  then,  the  voice  of  long  ago  seems  dumb. 

And,  softly,  from  without  ourselves,  a  voice  calls, 
Come! 

Juniata. 


NICHOLAS  H.  RIDGELY, 


SPRINGFIELD. 


THE  honored  subject  of  this  memoir  was  the 
son  of  Greenbury  and  Rachel  (Ryan) 
Ridgely,  and  was  born  in  Baltimore,  Maryland, 
April  27,  1800.  He  was  descended  in  a  direct 
line  from  Colonel  Henry  Ridgely,  "Major  of  the 
Troop,"  who  arrived  in  Maryland  in  the  year 
1658.  The  Ridgelys  have  been  a  numerous  fam- 
ily in  Maryland,  having  existed  there  since  early 
Colonial  times,  and  they  have  been  prominently 
connected  with  the  political,  the  business,  and, 
in  a  marked  manner,  with  the  social  life  of  the 
State. 

The  subject  of  our  sketch  was  twice  married. 
His  first  wife  was  Jane  Olivia  Mncent,  daug'hter 
of  Samuel  Vincent,  also  a  Mar^-lander.  She 
died  in  St.  Louis,  iMissouri,  in  1833.  His  second 
wife  was  Jane  Maria  Huntington,  daughter  of 
Jonathan  Huntington,  formerly  of  Boston,  but 
afterward  of  St.  Louis,  where  the  marriage  took 
place  in  1835. 

Mr.  Ridgely  removed  from  Baltimore  to  St. 
Louis  in  1829.  Soon  after  his  arrival  at  that 
place  he  was  appointed  to  a  responsible  position 
in  the  branch  of  the  old  United  States  Bank,  of 
which  Nicholas  Biddle  was  president.  While  in 
the  employ  of  that  bank,  in  Alay,  1835,  the  State 
Bank  of  lUinois  was  organized,  and  he  was 
elected  cashier.  This  caused  his  removal  to 
Springfield,  where  he  resided  continuously  until 
his  death,  which  took  place  January  31,    1888. 


The  State  Bank  of  Illinois  failed  in  1841.  Mr. 
Ridgely  was  appointed  one  of  the  trustees  to  wind 
up  its  affairs  and  when  that  was  accomplished  he 
became  a  private  banker.  Afterward  he  organ- 
ized Clark's  Exchange  Bank  under  the  general 
banking  laws  of  the  State,  and  became  its  pres- 
ident. That  bank  went  into  voluntary  liquida- 
tion after  a  few  years,  when  Mr.  Ridgely  resuined 
the  business  of  banking  on  his  own  account.  He 
afterward  admitted  his  sons,  Charles  and  Will- 
iam, to  partnership  with  him,  under  the  style  of 
N.  H.  Ridgely  &  Company.  This  firm  gave  way 
to  the  Ridgely  National  Bank  in  1866,  which 
bank  still  exists. 

From  the  time  of  his  arrival  in  Springfield  Mr. 
Ridgely  was  occupied  with  schemes  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  town.  This  was  before  the 
days  of  the  free  schools,  and  so  he  organized  the 
Springfield  Academy,  and  built  an  excellent 
brick  schoolhouse,  at  which  many  of  the  older 
boys  reared  in  Springfield  received  at  least  the 
rudiments  of  their  education.  Being  a  man  of 
taste  he  built  a  substantial  stone  building  for  the 
State  Bank,  which  was  classical  in  design  and 
correct  in  detail;  so  that  it  remained  a  credit  to 
the  city  until  it  was  demolishetl,  to  give  way  to 
structures  occupying  less  ground.  He  was  es- 
pecially fond  also  of  music  and  flowers.  The  old 
residents  will  testify  to  the  many  rare  musical 
treats  which  he  provided  for  them,  and  to  the  en- 


288 


BIOORAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


joyment  wliich  liis  beautifully  kept  gardeu  aud 
grounds  constantly  afforded  citizens  and 
strangers  alike.  The  impetus  which  he  gave  to 
the  cultivation  of  flowers  is  still  felt  in  the  city  of 
his  residence. 

In  1848  Mr.  Ridgely  and  his  associate,  Colonel 
Thomas  Mather,  bought  at  public  auction  from 
the  State  that  part  of  the  old  Northern  Cross 
railroad  lying  between  Springfield  and  the  Illi- 
nois river.  This  road  had  been  built  and  oper- 
ated by  the  State,  but  when  the  collapse  of  the 
"Internal  Improvement  System"  came  its  oper- 
ation was  discontinued,  and  it  fell  into  a  very  bad 
condition.  After  its  purcliase  by  Mr.  Ridgely 
and  Colonel  Mather  it  was  at  once  rebuilt,  and 
in  1849  it  was  reopened  to  Naples,  on  the  Illinois 
river.  For  a  considerable  time  this  was  the  only 
outlet  which  the  people  of  this  section  had  to  the 
markets  of  the  world.  Later,  the  road  became  a 
part  of  the  Wabash  system,  which  it  still  con- 
tinues to  be.  In  politics  ]\Ir.  Ridgely  was  a  Whig. 
He  was  a  great  admirer  of  Henry  Clay  and  a 
firm  believer  in  the  "American  System.''  He 
was  never,  however,  active  in  politics,  and  was 
never  a  candidate  for  office.  Upon  the  death  of 
the  Whig  party  he  gave  his  adhesion  to  the 
Democrats,  with  whom  he  continued  to  affiliate 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 

Mr.  Ridgely  was  by  nature  a  student.  In  his 
youth  he  had  familiarized  himself  with  ever}'thing 
that  was  best,  both  in  prose  and  poetry — the 
work  of  English  and  American  authors.  This 
reading  he  always  kept  up,  so  that  he  was  an  ac- 
complished "Belles  Lettres"  scholar.  He  delighted 
also  in   the   achievements    of   science,    and  kept 


pace  to  the  last  with  the  progress  of  invention. 
He  was  also  a  close  student  of  political  economy 
and  the  science  of  finance.  This,  coupled  with 
his  long  experience  as  a  banker,  gave  his  opinions 
great  weight  upon  such  subjects,  and  made  him 
always  a  most  interesting  and  instructive  talker. 
Mr.  Ridgely  was  a  great  believer  in  the  future  of 
the  city  of  Chicago  and  the  State  of  Illinois,  and 
it  was  to  the  judicious  investment  of  money  in 
Chicago  and  in  wild  lands  throughout  the  State 
that  he  was  mainly  indebted  for  the  foundation 
of  the  fortune  which  he  acquired  and  left.  It 
wijuld  transcend  the  limits  of  this  article  to  at- 
tempt to  enumerate  the  various  undertakings  in 
Avhich  Mr.  Ridgely  was  engaged  during  his  long 
residence  in  Springfield.  He  was  in  almost 
everything  that  promoted  the  growth  of  the  place 
and  made  it  what  it  is,  and  at  his  death  his  family 
had  nothing  to  look  back  upon  except  with  pride. 
His  life  had  been  open  to  his  fellcnv  citizens  and 
no  suspicion  of  any  doubtful  practice  had  ever 
attached  to  it.  It  had  been  clean  in  every  way, 
and  his  influence  had  always  been  for  what  was 
honest,  for  evei-}'thing  that  was  elevating  to  the 
public  taste,  for  everything  that  conserved  the 
interests  of  the  city,  for  everything  that  was 
sound  in  finance,  for  everything  that  was 
true  and  everything  that  was  right.  He  left 
a  large  family,  every  one  of  whom  holds  his 
memory  in  most  respectful  and  affectionate 
veneration.  He  was  a  sort  of  financial  land- 
mark, kno\\ii  throughout  the  State  and  es- 
pecially through  all  central  Illinois.  His  life 
was  an  important  part  of  the  history  of  Spring- 
field. 


HUGH  WARNOCK, 


ROCK   ISLAND. 


HUGH  WARN'OCK  was  born  in  county 
Down,  Ireland,  March  3,  1825,  and  is  the  son 
of  William  and  Janet  (Byers)  Warnock,  the 
former  being  a  farmer  of  that  locality. 

His  boyhood  was  spent  in  his  native  place  and 
at  Newtownards,  Ireland.  He  attended  school  and 
afterward  learned  the  trade  of  soap  and  candle 
making,  serving  an  apprenticeship  of  five  years 
and  a  half.     After  learning  his  trade  he  remained 


with  his  employer,  James  Davidson,  for  three  or 
four  years,  and  then  emigrated  to  America,  lo- 
cating at  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was 
employed  by  Robert  Craig  &  Company,  soap 
manufacturers.  Three  years  later,  in  1853,  he  re- 
moved to  Rock  Island,  where  he  had  friends,  and 
engaged  in  the  business  of  manufacturing  soap 
with  James  Kelly,  the  firm  being  Wamock  & 
Kelly.     The  business  was  conducted  successfully 


«^ 


',  re 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


289 


for  five  or  six  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which 
period  i\Ir.  Kelly  retired  to  go  to  farming,  and  was 
succec<led  by  Mr.  Robert  Ralston.  Since  that 
time  the  firm  of  Warnock  &  Ralston  has  been  one 
of  the  leading  majiufactories  in  Rock  Is- 
land. Mr.  Warnock  does  not  now  take  an 
active  part  in  the  business,  his  son,  J-  R- 
Warnock.  having  for  some  time  attended  to 
the  duties  formerly  so  ably  performed  by 
him. 

I\Ir.  Warnock  votes  the  Republican  ticket, 
but  beyond  this  his  interest  in  politics  ceases. 
He  has  served  with  much  credit  as  alder- 
man of  the  city  of  Rock  Island.  In  religious  faith 
he    is    a    mcndjcr    of    the    United    Presbyterian 


Church.  Since  his  arrival  in  America  he  has 
made  two  trips  to  his  old  home  in  Ireland,  and 
enjoyed  himself  "hugely"  while  revisiting  the 
scenes  of  his  youth. 

Mr.  Warnock  w^s  married  July  13,  1849,  to 
Miss  Martha  Davidson,  the  daughter  of  his  em- 
ployer, James  Davidson,  and  by  her  has  one  son, 
James  Davidson. 

Mrs.  Warnock  died  January  30,  1890.  Mr. 
Warnock  has  been  a  hard  worker,  and  has  earned 
his  success  and  the  rest  from  arduous  toil  that  he 
now  enjoys.  Close  attention  to  business  in  his 
early  life  and  upright  conduct  have  been  rewarded 
with  a  competency,  as  well  as  the  respect  and  es- 
teem of  his  fellow  citizens. 


DANIEL  VOLINTINE, 


THE  Volintine  family  of  America  is  unques- 
tionably one  of  the  earliest  of  which  there 
is  any  record  in  history.  Its  antiquity  in  old- 
world  histiir}-  is  likewise  unquestioned,  as  the 
name  occurs  as  early  as  140  A.  D.,  when  Volen- 
tinus  (Volintine  in  English),  the  eloquent  and 
learned  founder  of  one  of  the  most  complete  and 
ingenious  of  all  the  Gnostic  systems,  was  born  at 
Alexandria.  During  the  time  from  364  to  425 
the  three  emperors  named  Volintinian  ruled 
Rome,  and  Pope  Engenius  was  succeeded  by 
Pope  Volintine  in  827  A.  D.  The  many  varia- 
tions of  the  name  like  Valintyn,  Volentine,  Vol- 
lintine,  Voluntin,  Vollunton  and  even  Fallington 
are  corruptions  of  the  original  Volentine,  caused 
either  by  ignorance,  carelessness  in  spelling  or 
desire  for  distinction  from  contemporaries  of  the 
\'olentine  families,  for  various  personal  reasons. 
The  Volintines  in  Europe,  while  not  numerous, 
have  been  exceedingly  prominent,  and  many  of 
them  of  world-wide  reputation  in  all  branches  of 
science  and  literature  even  to  the  present  day. 
The  name  of  Volentine  is  by  no  means  common 
in  this  country,  though  it  is  represented  in  almost 
every  State  in  the  Union.  All  by  this  name, 
however,  appear  to  be  direct  descendants  of  three 
distinct  progenitors  of  the  Volentine  family,  none 
of  these  being  brothers,  as  has  so  often  been 
stated,  nor  even  near  relatives,  while  it  is  doubt- 
less true  that  if  the  lineage  was  traced  back  far 
19 


enough  their  common  origin  woidd  be  found  to 
meet  in  three  old  families  of  northern  Europe. 

The  family  from  which  our  subject  sprang  came 
directly  from  Richard  Volentine,  who  settled  at 
Hempstead,  Long  Island,  in  1644.  He  was  a 
young  man  when  the  first  division  of  land 
among  the  sixty-six  proprietors  of  the  town  took 
place,  in  1647.  He  was  of  English  origin  and 
doubtless  a  lineal  descendant  of  Richard  Volen- 
tine, of  the  parish  of  Eccles,  in  Lancastershire, 
the  undoubted  ancestor  of  the  New  England  pro- 
genitor of  the  Volentine  family,  a  John  Volin- 
tine, who  came  to  Boston  in  1675. 

Of  the  first  American  \'olintine  but  little  is 
known,  for  the  public  and  private  records  of 
those  days  were  imperfectly  kept.  He  must  have 
married  soon  after  immigrating,  if  not  before, 
for  in  1685  he  had  four  sons  who  were  freehold- 
ers. In  a  tax  paid  that  year.  Widow  Richard  Vol- 
intine is  assessed  on  forty  acres  of  land ;  Obadiah, 
forty- four;  William,  forty;  Ephraim,  forty;  and 
Richard,  Jr.,  seventy-one  acres.  Perhaps  Richard 
Volintine,  Sr.,  had  more  than  these  sons,  for  in 
February,  1679,  Jonah  Volintine  petitioned  the 
governor  for  a  grant  of  one  hundred  acres  of 
land.  In  1679  Richard  \'olintine,  Jr.,  "one  of 
the  Hempstead  rioters,"  asked  to  be  exempted 
from  punishment  "on  account  of  his  youth  and 
ignorance." 

The  names  of  the  four  or  fi\e  sons  of  Richard 


290 


DIOORAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Volintine  remain  to  the  present  time  family  names 
in  the  hneage  of  our  subject,  and  all  of  them  oc- 
cur very  frequently  in  all  the  historical  records 
in  existence.  The  English  origin  is  sufficiently 
attested  by  the  occurrence  of  July  7,  1674, 
when  the  marshal  of  the  town  of  Hempstead, 
Richard  Volintyn  by  name,  is  complained  of  be- 
fore the  ("Dutch"')  governor  general  and  council 
of  New  Netherlands,  for  refusing  to  put  in  execu- 
tion a  judgment  against  one  Jeremy  Wood,  and 
"for  uttering  these  seditious  words:  'Is  it  in  the 
name  of  the  king  of  England?  for  I  will  do  nothing 
in  the  name  of  the  prince  or  of  the  States  of  Hol- 
land,'"  etc.  True  to  his  English  origin  the  marshal 
found  the  Dutch  government  a  yoke  too  burden- 
some to  bear,  and  rebelled.  In  the  stirring  events 
of  that  period  the  Volintines  appear  to  have  taken 
an  active  part.  In  1702  Richard  Volintine,  Jr., 
was  one  of  the  grand  jury  raised  especially  to  in- 
dict Samuel  Brown,  an  itinerant  Quaker  preacher 
who  came  to  that  region;  but  instead  of  doing 
so  the  jury  indorsed  the  paper  "Ignoramus,"  and 
returned  to  the  judge,  utterly  refusing  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  such  work;  and  many  of 
Richard's  posterity  afterward  became  "Friends," 
and  some  remain  such  to  this  day 

There  is  no  continuous  genealogical  record  of 
this  family;  but  it  is  certain  that  nearly  all  of  the 
Long  Island  Volintines,  except  those  of  Brook- 
lyn (and  even  many  of  that  city  also),  have  de- 
scended from  John  Volintine  The  family  name 
soon  extended  to  Oyster  Bay,  Jamaica  and  Flush- 
ing until  finally  it  was  common  in  every  town  in 
Queens  county. 

At  an  election  for  deputies  held  in  Jamaica 
November  7,  1775,  the  names  of  Richard,  Jacob, 
•  William,  Obadiah,  Robert  and  Jonas  were  among 
the  voters.  Some  of  the  Volintines,  like  their 
original  ancestors,  were  quite  loyal  to  the  British 
crown,  as  Caleb,  Jacob,  Jonah,  Philip,  Obadiah, 
Robert,  Thomas  and  William  did  not  acknowl- 
edge allegiance  to  the  American  government  till 
October,  1776,  though  afterward  they  appear  to 
have  been  extremely  patriotic,  and  Philip  became 
captain  of  a  company  in  the  Revolutionary  army, 
in  which  company  Richard  served.  Philip  was 
detailed,  with  his  company,  to  march  into  Captain 
Seaman's  district  to  apprehend  seventy  defaulters. 
Though  in  favor  of  liberty  for  themselves,  they, 


like  many  others  in  that  day  and  since,  seem  to 
have  disregarded  the  right  of  the  blacks  to  per- 
sonal liberty.  Thus  June  2,  1791,  Obadiah  Volin- 
tine, of  Oyster  Bay,  ofTers  "£5  reward  for  the  re- 
turn of  his  remarkable  black  negro  man.  Bob, 
aged  22.  He  had  on  a  brown  coat  and  green  lin- 
ings, yellow  vest  and  old  boots.  He  had  gray 
hairs  on  his  neck." 

Thomas  Volintine,  a  grandchild  of  the  original 
Richard  Volintine,  married  Elizabeth  Hewlett 
and  lived  on  a  part  of  his  father's  farm,  which 
was  supposed  to  have  contained  a  thousand  acres 
of  land,  located  near  West  Hill,  in  the  town  of 
Oyster  Bay.  They  had  ten  children,  among  whom 
was  Absalom,  the  second  son.  Absalom  married 
Susan  Bunistead  and  they  had  eleven  children. 
Their  youngest  child  was  Richard,  of  North 
Hempstead,  Long  Island.  His  son,  Joseph,  was 
bom  at  that  place  January  6,  1750,  and  seems  to 
have  left  home  when  he  arrived  at  manhood,  for, 
in  1775,  he  is  found  in  Poughkeepsie,  where  he 
then  enlisted  in  Captain  Swartwout's  company  in 
the  Revolutionary  war.  He  appears  either  to 
have  served  but  a  year  or  obtained  a  furlough, 
for  he  was  married  July  1 1 ,  1 776,  after  which  he 
lived  for  a  short  time  in  Chatham,  Columbia 
county.  New  York,  and  finally  settled  perma- 
nently in  the  town  of  Jackson,  Washington  county. 
New  York.  Here  was  born  to  him  Elias  S.  Vol- 
intine, on  January  10,  1779,  who  married  Mary 
Church,  settling  at  Salem,  Washington  county, 
where  our  subject  first  saw  light  on  July  30,  1813. 
The  commonwealth  of  Illinois  possesses  a  rich 
heritage  in  her  adopted  sons,  and  no  State  in  the 
Union  has  a  brighter  record  of  remarkable  suc- 
cess achieved  by  its  citizens.  Her  advancement 
is  the  aggregate  results  of  the  individual  efforts 
of  her  children,  and  she  stands  pre-eminent  in 
the  sisterhood  of  States,  matchless  in  her  industry, 
commerce,  manufacture  and  agriculture,  not  be- 
cause of  any  particular  natural  advantages  pe- 
culiar to  her,  but  simply  because  of  the  ability, 
integrity  and  wonderful  efforts  of  her  people. 

Among  the  many  men  who  have  done  much 
for  the  material  advancement  of  northern  Illinois, 
Mr.  Volintine  was  prominent,  for  his  labors  were 
largely  directed  toward  securing  for  all  with 
whom  he  dealt  important  and  lasting  benefits. 

His   educational   advantages  were   secured   in 


REPRESENT  ATI  rE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLTNOTS  VOLUME. 


291 


his  home  town,  and  were  no  different  from  those 
obtained  by  any  young  man  of  his  class,  except 
such  education  as  he  received  through  being  con- 
nected with  his  father  in  the  conduct  of  a  lum- 
ber business.  His  great  ambition  to  succeed, 
however,  defeated  him  in  his  effort,  as  he  over- 
taxed his  strength,  frequently  laboring  eighteen 
hours  a  day.  This  resulted  in  an  extended  attack 
of  typhoid  fever,  which  so  much  impaired  his  con- 
stitution that  fear  was  entertained  that  he  would 
be  unable  to  endure  hard  work  again.  At  the 
suggestion  of  his  father  he  entered  mercantile 
life  in  the  town  of  Shushan,  Washington  county. 
New  York,  which  he  successfully  prosecuted  for 
twenty  years,  dealing  in  general  merchandise, 
wool,  pork  and  other  farm  produce,  building  up 
a  large  business  and  earning  a  lasting  reputation 
for  himself  as  a  thorough  business  man,  a  high- 
minded  and  public-spirited  citizen,  and  a  con- 
sistent and  zealous  Christian.  While  the  town 
in  which  he  conducted  his  enterprise  was  small, 
"U.Y^olintine's  Store"  became  known  to  everybody 
within  a  radius  of  thirty  miles.  Affable,  witty, 
friendly,  and  especially  true  to  his  word,  he  rap- 
idly gained  friends,  (and.  the  adherence  to  his 
motto  of  "low  prices  and  quick  returns"  secured 
him  his  great  financial  success. 

While  yet  in  Shushan  he  again  overtaxed  his 
strength,  and  his  health  so  rapidly  failed  that  he 
was  obliged  to  close  his  business  and  seek  a 
differenjt  climate,  during  which  the  West  and 
the  South  were  visited  with  a  view  toward  a 
change.  The  West  was  finally  decided  upon,  and 
in  1854  he  removed  to  Aurora,  Illinois,  where  he 
engaged  in  similar  enterprises,  on  a  much  larger 
scale.  When  he  located  in  Illinois  there  was  but  a 
vcr)-  limited  market  for  the  products  of  the  farms, 
and  he  immediately  made  an  effort  toward  se- 
curing a  better  one.  He  soon  obtained  the  trade 
of  all  the  farmers  for  sixty  miles  around  Aurora, 
who  preferred  to  deal  with  him  instead  of  Chi- 
cago merchants,  which  speaks  volumes  for  his 
business  enterprise.  His  wool  business  extended 
far  into  Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  and 
the  volume  of  his  transactions  was  one  of  the 
greatest  in  the  entire  W"est.  He  quickly  saw  the 
necessity  for  railroad  connection  with  the  East, 
and  was  in  1865  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the 
Illinois  &  Fox  River  Railroad  Company,  author- 


ized by  an  act  of  the  legislature.  Subsequent 
railroad  facilities  made  the  building  of  this  road 
unneccssarj-.  The  railroads  in  those  days  were 
prone  to  charge  all  that  the  traffic  would  bear, 
but  Mr.  Volintine's  business,  however,  was  of 
such  a  character  that  this  policy  on  the  part  of 
the  railroads  would  mean  early  ruin  to  him. 
Therefore  he  devised  plans  to  defeat  the  roads 
and  succeeded  by  putting  into  ser^-ice  large 
double-team  wagons  to  carry  his  freight  to  Toliet. 
where  railroad  competition  could  be  secured.  The 
railroad  officials  soon  saw  the  folly  of  their  policy, 
and  immediately  Aurora  secured  as  cheap  rates  as 
was  consistent  with  good  service. 

The  extent  of  :\Ir.  \^olintine's  business  rapidly 
increased,  his  shipments  going  principally  to  New 
York  and  Boston,  amounting  annually  to  five 
hundred  thousand  pounds  of  wool,  frivo  hundred 
carloads  of  pork,  one  hundred  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  butter,  forty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
poultr>-,  in  addition  to  eggs  and  other  products  in 
proportion.  During  the  latter  years  of  Mr.  Volin- 
tine's business  career  his  territory  extended  further 
West  until  he  purchased  wool  in  Colorado,  Kansas, 
Nebraska  and  Missouri,  and  was  at  the  time  of  his 
death  the  oldest  as  well  as  the  leading  wool  mer- 
chant in  the  West.  His  reputation  for  honesty, 
which  did  not  lean  upon  the  weak  support  of 
business  being  business,  but  upon  the  memorial 
brotherhood  of  man,  was  the  same  among  the 
farmers,  from  whom  he  purchased  his  supplies, 
as  It  was  among  the  merchant  princes  of  the  East 
His  word  was  not  only  as  good  as  his  bond,  but 
it  was  law  and  as  inflexible  as  time.  He  did  not 
carry-  his  church  into  his  business,  for  they  were 
one  and  the  same.  He  did  not  have  one  kind  of 
conduct  for  his  daily  life  and  one  for  his  Sabbath, 
but  his  private  and  public  efforts  were  alike.  Tlie 
ability  for  making  money,  clean  money,  was  his 
to  a  wonderful  degree,  and  he  used  his  accumula- 
tions as  liberally  and  inoffensively  as  he  made 
them.  He  was,  in  1871,  one  of  die  founders  of  tlie 
Second  National  Bank,  and  served  as  its  presi- 
dent, but  his  many  and  varied  business  enter- 
prises justified  him  in  resigning;  he  then  accepted 
the  vice-presidency,  and  also  was  a  director,  until 
the  time  of  his  death.  His  banking  experience  did 
not  begin  with  the  Second  National  Bank,  as  he 
was  one  of  the  founders  and  the  principal  mem- 


292 


niOGiiAPirirAL  dictionary  and  ronriiAiT  gallery  of  the 


her  of  the  private  haiikhig  house  of  VoHntiiic, 
WiUiams  &  lioyd,  cstaljlished  in  1868.  He  was 
also  one  of  tlie  founders  of  the  Aurora  Silver 
Plate  Manufacturing  Company,  which  has  met 
with  universal  success,  and  was  its  president  dur- 
ing the  most  profitable  period  of  its  existence. 
He  was  during  his  entire  business  life  among  the 
foremost  business  men  wherever  he  happened  to 
be  engaged  in  business.  His  retail  business  in 
Aurora  covered  over  sixteen  years,  during  which 
he  was  connected  with  the  firms  of  Volintine  & 
Hurd,  Volintine  &  Stockwell  and  Volintine,  Law- 
rence &  Company.  In  1870  he  retired  from  the 
mercantile  business  and  gave  his  entire  attention 
to  the  wool  trade. 

In  politics  he  was  a  thorough  Democrat,  but 
never  desired  public  office.  In  1875  he  was  in- 
duced to  accept  the  nomination  for  mayor  of 
Aurora,  and  was  elected.  He  gave  the  city  a 
thorough  business  administration,  but  absolutely 
refused  re-election.  His  religious  connections 
were  Baptist,  and  of  the  most  cordial  and  en- 
joyable kind.  He  was  a  member  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  of  Aurora,  and  his  contribu- 
tions to  it  and  to  the  University  of  Chicago 
were  generous,  tlunigh  in  a  high  degree  unos- 
tentatious. 

He  was  married  on  March  17,  1841,  to  Miss 
Sarah  J.  Ruste,  a  daughter  of  Samuel  Ruste,  Esq., 
and  Harriet  (Fairchild)  Ruste,  of  Cambridge,  New 
York.  Their  living  children  are  Hattie  A.,  the 
widow  of  William  S.  Bininger,  of  Milwaukee: 
and  William  J.  \'olintine,  who  married  i\Iiss  May 
Anderson,  both  residents  of  Aurora. 

Though  Mr.  ^'olintine's  health  had  suffered  con- 
siderable on  account  of  his  exceeding  activity,  he 
nevertheless  passed  the  Psalmist's  span  of  time 
by  several  years,  possessing  his  mental  and 
physical  power  unimpaired  until  his  last  illness, 
which  overtook  him  a  few  days  before  his  death, 
which  occurred  Thursday,  February  9,  1888.  The 
immediate  cause  of  death  was  pneumonia. 

Mr.  Volintine  possessed  deep  convictions  and 
was  most  just  and  generous,  a  true  friend  whose 
friendship  did  not  consist  of  words  alone.  His 
will-power  was  remarkable.  While  his  health  had 
steadily  deteriorated  for  several  years  previous  to 
his  death,  and  his  once  robust  form  had  become 
emaciated,  he  would  at  times  straitrhten  himself 


to  his  full  height  and  assure  his  friends  that  he 
was  as  strong  as  ever.  The  esteem  in  which  Mr. 
Volintine  was  held  is  best  illustrated  by  the 
following  resolution  and  memorial,  presented  the 
bereaved  family  soon  after  his  death : 

"Whereas,  In  the  mysterious  dispensation  of 
an  all-wise  Providence  death  has  removed  our 
esteemed  and  cherished  friend  and  brother,  Daniel 
Volintine,  late  of  Aurora,  Illinois,  a  former  mem- 
ber of  this  church,  and  while  we  bow  with  sub- 
mission of  the  divine  will,  we  desire  to  add  our 
testimony  to  his  high  character  as  a  citizen  and 
a  Christian  man,  which  made  his  name  one  to 
be  respected  and  venerated  by  all;  and — 

"Whereas,  In  fraternal  appreciation  of  his 
former  relations  with  this  church,  and  the  interest 
manifested  by  him  in  its  spiritual  and  temporal 
welfare,  ever  ready  with  a  generous  heart  and 
liberal  hand  to  aid  in  its  spiritual  advancement 
and  material  prosperity,  therefore — 

"Resolved,  That  in  his  death  the  church  has 
been  bereft  of  an  earnest,  able  and  useful  worker, 
the  city  of  his  adoption  an  upright  and  active 
citizen  and  his  family  a  loving  husband  and  a 
kind  father. 

"Resolved,  That  we  loved  and  respected  him  in 
life  and  revere  his  name  and  memory  in  our 
hearts,  as  we  commemorate  them  with  a  sorrow- 
ing tribute  of  speech,  and  can  say  that  our  loss 
is  liis  eternal  gain,  but  he  rests  from  his  labors 
and  his  works  do  follow  him.  Life's  tide  sets  in 
toward  the  heavenly  shore.  On  its  blessed  wave 
we  trust  he  has  reached  the  highlands  and  has 
been  welcomed  to  the  green  fields  beyontl.  The 
fruition  is  his,  the  promise  is  ours. 

"Resolved,  That  to  his  bereaved  family  we  tender 
our  Christian  and  heartfelt  sympathy  in  this  their 
hour  of  deep  affliction  and  sorrow,  assuring  them 
that  their  loss  is  our  loss,  and  we  can  only  turn 
them  for  comfort  and  consolation  to  'Him  who 
doeth  all  things  well' 

"Resolved,  That  the  Clerk  of  the  Church  be 
directed  to  transmit  a  copy  of  this  preamble  and 
resolutions  to  the  family  of  the  deceased,  and  to 
the  Washington  County  Post  and  Aurora  Beacon 
for  publication,  and  that  the  same  be  engrossed 
on  the  records  of  this  Church''  (Baptist  Church 
of  Shushan,  New  York). 
(A  true  copy.)     "D.  V.  T.    Qua,    Church  Clerk:' 

"in    MEMORIA-M. 

"Whereas,  God  in  his  inscrutable  Providence 
has  seen  best  to  take  from  our  midst  by  death  our 
beloved  brother  and  friend,  Daniel  Volintine; 
therefore  . 

"Resolved,  That  while  we  humbly  bow  in  sub- 
mission to  the  divine  will  of  our  heavenlv  father, 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  .STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


293 


wc  can  but  feci  that  tlie  cause  of  Christ  as  well  as 
the  church  has  hereby  sustained  a  great  loss. 

''Resolved,  That  we  tenderly  remember  him  as 
a  self-denying  modest  Christian  Ijrother,  as  was 
manifested  in  his  church  as  well  as  in  his  private 
life,  wherein  he  exemplified  the  nobility  and  genu- 
ineness of  a  true  Christian  character. 

"Any  extended  eulogy  from  us  of  his  life  and 
character  would  be  needless;  neither  would  we 
ofTend  his  characteristic  humility  by  enlarging 
upon  the  same ;  but  we  may  be  permitted  to,  nay, 
we  must,  magnify  the  grace  of  God  in  him  which 
was  seen  anti  felt  by  all  who  knew  him. 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  with  devout  thankfulness 
to  God  that  we  can  call  to  our  memories  so 
many  delightful  associations.  He  is  not  lost, 
but  gone  lieforc;  and  the  memory  of  his  de- 
voted life  will  be  his  best  and  most  enduring  nmn- 
ument. 

"Resolved,  That  the  sympathies  of  the  chiu-ch 
are  herebv  cordially  extended  to  the  bereaved 
familv,  and  we  most  earnestly  conmiend  them 
to  the  kind  care  of  Him  that  doeth  all  things  well 
and  tempers  the  storm  to  the  shorn  lambs  of  his 
flock. 

"Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  preamble  and 
resolutions  be  spread  upon  the  records  of  the 
church,  and  that  a  copy  thereof  be  sent  to  the  be- 
reaved family. 

"Adopted  by  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Aurora,  Illinois,  February  12,  A.  D.  1888. 

■' LvMAN  Baldwin,  Clerk." 

Following  is  the  memorial  of  respect  adopted 
by  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Second  National 
Rank  of  Aurora,  to  the  late  vice-president  and 
director,  Hon.  Daniel  Volintine: 

"The  directors  of  the  Second  National  Bank  of 
Aurora,  at  the  banking  office,  February  11,  1888, 
each  with  sorrow  and  a  deep  sense  of  personal 
loss,  record  the  death  of  Hon.  Daniel  Volintine, 
a  director  of  this  Bank  from  its  organization  until 
his  death,  February  9,  1888. 

"It  is  our  desire  to  add  our  testimony  here  to 
the  honorable  record  he  has  made  during  the 
many  years  that  he  has  been  associated  with  this 
bank  and  its  directors,  whether  in  the  capacity 
of  president,  vice-president  or  director.  He  was 
sound  in  judgment,  keen  and  discriminating  on 
all  subjects,  a  prudent,  safe  adviser. 

"In  his  personal  friendship,  and  with  his  as- 
sociate directors,  he  was  ever  genial  and  cordial. 

"To  his  wife  and  family  we  extend  our  heartfelt 
sympathy  and  direct  that  this  testimony  be  spread 
on  the  records  of  this  bank,  and  a  copy  of  the  same 
sent  to  the  family. 

F.  B.  Rice, 

Benjamin  George,  V Committee. 

Frank  L. 


ICE,         i 

IN  George,  >( 
L.  YouxG,  S 


"IN    MEMORIAM. 

"\Miereas,  We  have  heard  with  mingled  feelings 
of  sorrow  and  regret  of  the  death  of  the  Hon. 
Daniel  \'olintine,  ex-mayor  of  the  city  of  Aurora, 
therefore  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  in  his  death  we  are  called  upon 
to  mourn  the  loss  of  one  of  our  most  prominent, 
influential  and  worthy  citizens. 

"Resolved,  As  a  token  of  sincere  regret  and 
deep  sympathy  with  his  family,  and  with  the 
people  of  this  conmumitv  in  their  sad  bereave- 
ment, that  these  resolutions  be  spread  upon  our 
records  as  a  mark  of  respect  and  esteem  for  the 
memory  of  the  deceased,  and  that  a  copy  thereof 
be  sent  to  his  family. 

"Adopted  by  the  City  Council  of  the  cih"  of 
Aurora,  February  25.  A.  D.  1888. 

George  Meredith,   Mayor. 
J.  M.   Kennedy,  City  Clerk." 

The  funeral,  which  was  private  in  character, 
was  the  largest  and  most  notable  ever  held  in 
Aurora.  People  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles 
came  to  pay  their  last  tribute  to  his  memory  and 
all  evinced  a  deep  sorrow  over  the  loss  of  a  loved 
and  faithful  friend. 

There  are  in  every  community  men  who  with- 
out any  particular  effort  on  their  part  leave  an 
impress  upon  the  community  which  can  never  be 
effaced.  Mr.  Volintine  was  one  of  these.  What- 
ever he  did  for  his  own  financial  benefit  would  be 
certain  to  confer  pennanent  and  valuable  results 
upon  the  entire  community.  No  man  did  more 
for  his  city  than  he,  and  no  man  took  less  credit 
for  his  acts  than  he.  With  his  own  hand  he  shaped 
his  destiny.  While  his  was  a  beneficent  existence 
for  many  years,  it  seems  to  the  vision  of  man  that 
he  died  before  his  time.  He  was  a  perfect  type 
of  a  noble  American  citizen,  and  manliness,  patri- 
otism, sincerity  and  friendship  are  instructively 
associated  with  his  name.  The  common  testi- 
mony of  him  is  that  he  was  a  man  of  remarkable 
sagacity,  a  quality  in  the  human  mind  that  we  can 
scarcely  overestimate  in  business  and  many  re- 
lations in  life;  a  man  who  saw  much  sooner  than 
he  spoke;  a  man  who  was  careful,  prudent  and 
honest;  a  man  therefore  favored  not  by  chance  but 
by  the  due  exercise  of  his  own  good  qualities. 
His  honesty  was  the  root  of  honor,  which  is  one 
and  the  same  thing,  something  sweeter,  nobler 
and  more  far-reaching  than  square  dealing.  He 
possessed  in  a  marked  degree,  unselfishness,  an 
eagerness  and  willingness  to  see  that  all  men  had 
opportunities  and  a  desire  to  favor  all. 


294 


niOCIiM'lIIVAh  DICTIONAUY  AND  PuUTItAIT  OALl.HUr  UF  THE 


NICHOLAS  (;.  IGLEHART, 


CHICAGO. 


NICHOLAS  G.  IGLEHART  is  a  son  of 
Nicholas  P.  ami  Frances  Mary  (Gano)  Iglc- 
liart,  and  was  born  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  on  the 
28th  of  February,  1841.  When  he  was  a  lad  of 
ten  years  the  parents  removed  to  Chicago,  in 
which  city  and  in  Evanston  he  has  since  resided. 
On  the  paternal  side  he  is  a  direct  descendant 
of  John  Iglehart,  who  emigrated  from  Germany 
to  America  about  the  year  1735;  and  on  the 
maternal  side  traces  his  ancestry  back  to  Fran- 
cis Gerneaux,  a  Huguenot,  who  came  to  the 
New  World  about  1666.  The  line  of  ances- 
try is  as  follows:  Nicholas  G.  Iglehart  is  the 
son  of  Nicholas  P.  Iglehart,  who  was  born  July 
29,  181 1,  and  was  married  July  18,  1837,  to  Miss 
Frances  Mary  Gano,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  daugh- 
ter of  Lieutenant  Aaron  G.  Gano,  one  of  the 
earliest  graduates  of  West  Point  Academy,  hav- 
ing completed  the  prescribed  course  of  study 
and  training  in  that  institution  in  the  year  1818. 
He  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  Third  Artillery', 
United  States  army.  The  paternal  grandfather 
of  the  gentleman  whose  name  begins  this  review, 
William  Iglehart,  was  born  in  Howard  county, 
Maryland,  October  3,  1778,  and  died  on  the  loth 
of  October,  1831.  He  was  a  soldier  in  the  war 
of  18 12,  and  was  married  to  Miss  Jane  Smith, 
of  Maryland.  John  Iglehart,  the  father  of 
William,  was  a  farmer  who  lived  in  Prince 
George  county,  INIaryland,  and  married  Mary 
De  Noon. 

The  maternal  ancestrj'  of  Nicholas  G.  Igle- 
hart is  traced  back  through  Lieutenant  Aaron 
G.  Gano,  before  mentioned,  who  was  a  son  of 
Major  General  John  S.  Gano.  The  latter  was 
born  July  14,  1766,  and  was  the  son  of  the  Rev. 
John  Gano,  who  was  born  in  New  Jersey,  July 
23,  1727,  and  served  in  the  French  and  Indian 
wars  and  in  the  Colonial  wars.  He  resigned 
his  commission  as  an  officer  in  the  former  in  1760, 
and  the  following  year  removed  to  New  York 
city,  where  he  was  engaged  in  the  work  of  the 
ministry  until  the  beginning  of  the  struggle  for 
independence.  He  then  entered  the  army  as 
chaplain  of  the  Nineteenth  Continental  Infantry 


and  discharged  the  duties  of  that  positiun  and  as 
chaplain  of  the  Fifth  New  York  Infantry,  com- 
mencing November  21,  1776.  On  the  17th  of 
August,  1778,  he  was  made  brigade  chaplain,  con- 
tinuing his  labors  until  May,  1780,  in  what  was 
known  as  General  Clinton's  brigade.  He  con- 
tinued with  the  Continental  Army  until  the  close 
of  the  Revolution  and  then  removed  to  Ken- 
tucky, where  he  again  engaged  in  ministerial 
labors  until  his  death  in  1804.  Rev.  John  Gano 
was  a  son  of  Daniel  Gano  and  Sarah  Britton,  and 
the  former  was  a  son  of  Stephen  Gano  and  Ann 
Walton,  while  Stephen's  father  was  Francis  Ger- 
neaux, a  native  of  Guernsey,  a  town  on  the  Island 
of  Jersey  in  the  English  Channel.  The  last 
named  was  a  Huguenot  and  a  man  of  consid- 
erable wealth,  who  during  the  edict  of  Nantes 
chartered  a  vessel  for  himself  and  crossed  the 
Atlantic  to  America  about  the  year  1666,  settling 
in  the  town  of  New  Rochelle,  New  York. 

Nicholas  G.  Iglehart,  whose  name  introduces 
tliis  review,  acquired  his  preparatory  education  in 
Niles,  Michigan,  after  which  he  entered  the  Wis- 
consin State  University  at  Madison,  pursuing  his 
studies  in  that  institution  for  four  years,  and  is 
to-day  a  member  of  the  Alumni  Association  of 
Wisconsin. 

On  leaving  the  university,  Mr.  Iglehart 
joined  his  father  in  the  real-estate  business  and 
continued  operations  in  that  line  until  1879, 
when  he  accepted  a  position  in  the  freight 
department  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern 
Railroad.  There  his  superior  business  ability  won 
him  promotion,  and  by  steady  advances  he  at- 
tained to  prominent  position  in  railroad  circles. 
He  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  classification 
committee  of  the  western  roads,  and  for  four 
years  prepared  and  issued  all  the  classification 
and  rate  sheets  used  by  the  committee.  He 
was  appointed  commissioner  of  the  Chicago 
Freight  Bureau  in  September,  1887,  and  has 
proven  a  most  efficient  and  popular  officer.  To 
him  is  due  the  credit  of  having  placed  Chicago 
on  an  equality  with  outside  points  in  regard  to 
freisrht  rates  to  the  towns  of  southern   Illinois. 


^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


2'jr) 


His  success  in  tliis  particular  lias  done  more 
within  the  last  twelve  months  than  any  other 
cause  or  any  other  half  dozen  causes  to  extend 
Chicago's  trade  and  enrich  its  merchants. 

This  is  not  the  first  time  by  any  means  that 
he  has  rendered  similar  service  and  service 
equally  beneficial.  A  few  years  ago  Chicago's 
packing  trade  was  threatened  with  extinction  on 
account  of  the  Western  roads  making  cheaper 
rates  on  packing  house  products  than  on  live  hogs 
from  the  Missouri  river  to  this  city.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  the  packing  trade  of  the  country 
was  being  transferred  to  Western  points.  Com- 
missioner Iglehart  carried  the  matter  to  the  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Commission  and  secured  an 
order  from  that  body  prohibiting  for  all  time 
tlie  making  of  any  higher  rates  on  live  hogs  than 
on  the  manufactured  pork  product.  The  first 
year  after  that  decision  was  rendered  tlie  trade 
at  the  stock-yards  increased  by  over  $9,000,000. 
Mr.  Iglehart  is  now  working  industriously  to 
break  down  the  Chinese  wall  which  the  Southern 
roads  have  built  up  against  Chicago  trade  by 
their  rate  discriminations.  He  has  already 
secured  an  order  from  the  Inter-State  Commerce 
Commission  on  that  matter,  but  the  roads  re- 
fuse   to    obev    this,    and  the  case  is  now  in  the 


courts.  Tlicre  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  of 
the  final  decision  in  this  matter;  Chicago  has 
right  and  justice  on  her  side  and  must  win. 

As  well  as  being  a  successful  man  of  affairs, 
Mr.  Iglehart  is  a  verj-  popular  society  man.  He 
is  a  thirty-second-degree  Mason,  a  life  member  of 
Oriental  Consistory,  a  Knight  Templar,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Mystic  Shrine,  a  Veteran  Odd  Fellow 
and  Veteran  Mason.  He  is  also  one  of  the  Sons  of 
the  American  Revolution,  treasurer  and  director 
of  the  Country  Club,  of  Evanston,  a  director  of 
the  Evanston  Club,  and  a  member  of  the  Evans- 
ton  Boat  Club. 

Mr.  Iglehart  was  united  in  marriage  June  7, 
1865,  to  Miss  Ella  Gano,  daughter  of  Colonel 
Charles  L.  Gano,  of  Butler  county,  Ohio.  Mr. 
Iglehart  is  a  genial  and  polished  gentleman,  a 
man  of  ripe  scholarship  and  broad  general  infor- 
mation, and  is  highly  esteemed  in  railroad  < 
circles  notwithstanding  his  keenness  in  oppos- 
ing discriminating  rates  made  by  the  officials. 
Socially  he  is  held  in  the  warmest  regard  by 
many  friends  who  delight  in  doing  him  honor. 
Merit  and  ability  have  gained  him  the  respon- 
sible position  which  he  to-day  occupies,  and  his 
influence  is  a  power  in  connnercial  circles  that 
is  broadly  felt. 


JOHN  F.  EBERHART, 


EDUCATOR,  lecturer,  editor,  real-estate 
dealer,  benefactor  and  the  "father  of  the 
Cook  county  public  schools,"  is  John  F.  Eber- 
hart.  Probably  to  no  man  in  the  State  do  the 
schools  of  Illinois  owe  more  than  to  him;  and  their 
development  and  promotion  to  their  present  ad- 
vanced position  has  resulted  largely  from  the  im- 
petus which  he  gave  to  the  work  in  the  two  de- 
cades that  followed  1850.  On  tlie  lecture  plat- 
form he  inspired  and  enthused  his  audience  to 
greater  efforts;  through  the  columns  of  his  paper 
he  encouraged  and  aided;  in  business  he  has  fur- 
nished an  example  of  honorable,  straightforward 
dealing;  and  this,  in  brief,  is  the  record  of  a  long, 
useful  and  honored  life  on  which  falls  no  shadow 
of  wrong  or  suspicion  of  evil. 


I\Ir.  Eberhart  was  born  on  the  21st  of  January, 
1829,  in  Hickory  township,  Mercer  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  is  a  son  of  Abraliam  and  Esther 
(Amend)  Eberhart.  His  father  was  one  of  the 
early  settlers  of  Mercer  county,  locating  there  in 
1821,  and  was  the  builder  of  the  first  sawmill  in 
the  countr>'.  John  Eberhart  spent  the  first  eight 
years  of  his  life  on  his  father's  farm  in  his  native 
county,  and  then  the  family  removed  to  Big  Bend 
in  Venango  county.  During  the  summer  he 
aided  in  the  labors  of  the  farm  and  in  the  winter 
attended  district  schools  until  sixteen  years  of 
age,  when  he  began  teaching,  thus  entering  upon 
a  work  to  which  he  has  devoted  many  of  the  best 
years  of  his  life.  His  first  school,  at  the  mouth 
of  Oil  Creek,  where  Oil  City  now  stands,  he  taught 


290 


DIOGnAPlIICAL  DICTIONARY  AXD  POHTHAIT  OALLEET  OF  THE 


for  $8.50  a  month  and  "boarded  around"  amonp 
his  pupils.  In  the  succeeding:  summer  he  took 
lessons  in  writing,  drawing  and  pen-and-ink 
flourishing,  and  as  soon  as  his  course  was  finished 
he  began  teaching  tliose  branches. 

Being  desirous,  however,  of  obtaining  a  Ijettcr 
education,  he  spent  two  terms  in  Cottage  Hill 
Academy  in  Ellsworth,  Ohio,  and  then,  in  the 
spring  of  1849,  entered  Alleghany  College,  gradu- 
ating there  July  2,  1853.  He  met  the  expenses  of 
the  course  by  teaching  in  the  spring  and  fall  and 
working  in  the  harvest  fields  during  the  summer; 
and  so  he  obtained  physical  training  while  provid- 
ing the  means  for  mental  training.  The  laudable 
ambition  which  prompted  him  to  secure  an  edu- 
cation, even  though  he  had  to  provide  the  means 
himself,  has  colored  his  entire  career,  and  has 
been  an  impetus  for  progressive  work  through 
life. 

On  the  1st  of  Scptemlicr,  1853,  "Mr.  Eberhart 
became  principal  of  Albright  Seminary  in  Berlin, 
Somerset  county,  Pennsylvania,  the  first  educa- 
tional institution  founded  in  Pennsylvania  by  the 
Evangelical  Association.  It  was  then  his  inten- 
tion to  make  teaching  his  life  work,  and  to  fit  him- 
self he  studied  zealously  night  and  day;  but 
imder  the  strain  his  health  gave  way  and 
he  was  forced  to  abandon  his  long  cherished 
plans. 

On  the  15th  of  April,  1855,  he  arrived  in  Chi- 
cago, and  soon  aftenvard  went  to  Dixon,  Illinois. 
Plis  physician  had  given  him  little  hope  of  recov- 
ery, but  he  thought  perhaps  a  change  of  climate 
might  prove  beneficial ;  and  so  it  did.  In  Dixon 
he  became  editor  and  publisher  of  the  Dixon 
Transcript;  but  during  the  winter  of  1855-6  he 
disposed  of  it  and  began  delivering  courses  of 
scientific  lectures  before  various  institutions  of 
learning.  These  soon  became  very  popular  and 
drew  large  audiences.  His  zeal  in  his  younger 
days  to  scitc  the  world  as  an  educator  was  such 
that  when  sickness  unfitted  him  for  work  in  the 
school-room  as  a  teacher  he  turned  his  efforts 
into  the  broader  channels  of  teaching  the  teachers 
through  his  educational  publications  and  the  lec- 
ture platform.  On  the  completion  of  his  lecture 
tour  he  spent  a  year  in  traveling  as  the  represent- 
ative of  two  New  York  publishing  houses, — 
Ivison  &  Phinney  and  A.  S.  Barnes  &  Company. 


His  next  work  was  the  establishment  of  the  North- 
western Home  and  School  Journal,  of  Chicago, 
which  he  purchased  and  edited  for  three  years, 
and  also  conducted  many  teachers'  institutes  and 
delivered  many  lectures  on  educational  topics  in 
Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  Illinois.  He  thoroughly  en- 
joyed this  work,  as  it  gave  him,  besides  a  valu- 
able experience,  a  much  larger  acquaintance  with 
men  engaged  in  educational  work,  and  assisted 
him  materially  in  forming  and  perfecting  his 
vievv's  on  educational  topics. 

In  the  autumn  of  1859  Mr.  Eberhart  was  elected 
school  commissioner  of  Cook  county,  which atthat 
time  was  only  a  business  and  commission  office, 
new  to  the  people,  little  understood,  and  its  la- 
liors  but  little  appreciated  by  the  people  of  the 
county.  Through  his  efforts  and  the  assistance 
of  Hon.  Newton  Bateman,  State  Superintendent 
of  public  instruction,  the  office  was  changed  to  that 
of  county  superintendent  of  schools;  and  for  the 
succeeding  ten  years  he  performed  the  duties  of 
that  office  and  won  the  gratitude  of  a  people  who 
appreciated  the  value  of  education  and  its  im- 
portance to  a  community;  for  he  greatly  advanced 
the  standard  of  the  schools,  secured  better  teach- 
ers and  introduced  more  advancc<l  lines  of  work. 
Finding  a  scarcity  of  qualified  teachers  he  de- 
termined to  secure  a  preparatory  school  for 
teachers,  and  though  he  met  with  long  and 
strong  opposition,  he  at  length  carried  his  point; 
and,  the  county  board  of  supennsors  having 
made  the  necessary  appropriation,  the  Cook 
County  Normal  School  was  opened,  in  Blue  Isl- 
and, in  September,  1867.  On  the  opening  of  the 
school,  under  the  able  management  of  D.S.Went- 
worth,  there  were  thirty-two  pupils,  and  from  the 
first  they  made  marked  progress,  and  the  success 
of  the  enterprise  was  assured.  Mr.  Eberhart  has 
always  taken  great  pride  in  the  Normal  School, 
which  owes  its  existence  to  his  zeal  and  labors. 
The  school  has  been  removed  to  Normal  Park  and 
has  a  large  enrollment.  His  work  along  educa- 
tional lines  did  not  stop  even  here,  for  he  did  muc'i 
in  the  way  of  organizing  teachers'  institutes,  es- 
tablishing district-school  libraries,  introducing 
the  union  graded  system  of  schools  into  many  of 
the  towns  and  cities  of  the  State,  and  securing 
needed  amendments  to  the  school  laws.  He  was 
one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Illinois  State  Teach- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


291 


ers'  Association,  assisted  in  foundin.e:  the  State 
Normal  University  at  Bloomington,  and  to  his 
special  efforts  may  be  attributed  the  passage,  by 
the  State  lep^islature,  of  the  act  authorizing  coun- 
ties to  establish  normal  schools.  He  was  the 
prime  mover  in  the  formation  of  the  State  Asso- 
ciation of  County  Superintendents,  and  was  its 
first  president.  He  was  also  an  earlv  member  of 
the  American  Institute  of  Instruction,  and  one  of 
tlic  first  life  members  of  the  National  Teachers' 
Association.  As  president  of  the  Cook  County 
Hoard  of  Education  he  was  the  means  of  intro- 
ducirrg  the  kindergarten  system  into  the  Cook 
C"ounty  Normal  School,  and  also  aided  in  estab- 
lishing the  "free  kindergarten"'  schools  in  the  city. 
.At  various  times  he  has  declined  important  pro- 
fessorships, believing  his  health  not  suited  for  that 
line  of  work. 

After  twenty  years'  connection  with  educational 
work,  Mr.  Eberhart  began  dealing  in  real  estate, 
and  judiciotis  investments  and  the  rise  in  Chicago 
realty  has  made  him  a  wealthy  man.  His  first 
purchase,  made  in  i860,  comprised  one  and  a 
([uarter  acres  of  land  on  Larrabee  street  near 
Fullerton  avenue,  where  the  Lincoln  school  now 
stands,  for  which  he  paid  $1,600,  and  which  he 
sold  in  two  years  for  $6,500.  He  has  owned  al- 
together nearly  2,000  acres  in  Chicago,  his  real- 
estate  transactions  being  extensive  and  varied. 

Mr.  Eberhart  was  married  on  Christmas  eve- 


ning of  i(%4,  to  Miss  Matilda  Charity  Miller, 
daughter  of  the  late  Joseph  C.  Miller,  of  Chi- 
cago, who  came  to  this  country  from  Toronto, 
Canada,  when  she  was  a  year  old.  She  is  a  lady 
of  refinement  and  intelligence,  who  worthilv  as- 
sists her  husband  in  his  charitable  work.  They 
have  four  children  living. 

In  politics  Mr.  Eberhart  was  early  an  Aboli- 
tionist, and  on  the  organization  of  the  Republi- 
can party,  formed  to  prevent  the  further  exten- 
sion of  slavery,  he  joined  its  ranks.  While  a  de- 
spiser  of  political  intrigue  and  underhanded  meas- 
ures, he  takes  a  deep  interest  in  clean  politics,  and 
is  a  stalwart  supporter  of  everything  that  is  calcu- 
lated to  benefit  the  city,  State  or  nation.  He  was 
leared  a  Methodist,  but  is  now  a  leading  meniber 
of  the  People's  ChurcJi,  whose  pastor.  Rev.  H.  W. 
Thomas,  was  formerly  his  pupil,  and  was  by  him 
lirst  induced  to  take  work  in  this  city.  Very  natu- 
rally they  are  close  personal  friends.  Mr.  Eber- 
liart  is  a  man  of  broad  sympathy,  kindliness  and 
benevolence,  easily  touched  by  any  account  of 
sorrow  or  distress,  and  doing  what  he  can  to 
lighten  the  woes  and  burdens  of  humanity  and  dis- 
sipate ignorance  and  misery. 

He  has  traveled  extensively,  and  there  are  few 
spots  in  North  America,  either  inhabited  or  wild, 
that  he  has  not  visited.  In  nature  he  finds  a 
source  of  inspiration  and  pleasure,  and  with  him 
it  is  but  a  step  "from  nature  up  to  nature's  God." 


CHALMERS  M.  SHERFY, 


CII.\MPAIGN. 


ONE  of  the  pioneers  of  Champaign  still  living 
and  in  active  business,  who  has  been  prom- 
inently identified  with  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  city,  is  Chalmers  M.  Sherfy. 

Mr.  Sherfy  is  a  native  of  Maryland,  having 
iiecn  born  at  Hagerstown,  that  State,  January  i, 
1831.  His  paternal  ancestors  were  Pennsylvania 
Germans,  belonging  to  the  sect  known  as 
Dunkards.  His  paternal  grandfather  owned 
part  of  the  land  on  which  was  fought  the  famous 
battle  of  Gettysburg,  and  much  of  the  land  about 
Rig  and  Little  Round-top  had  been  in  his  family 
for  generations.  On  the  maternal  side  Mr. 
Shertv  is  of  Scotch-Irish  lineage. 


In  1835  he  came  with  his  parents  to  Tippecanoe 
county,  Indiana,  and  in  1838  they  removed  to 
Perrysville,  Indiana.  Here  most  of  his  boyhood 
was  passed.  His  facilities  for  obtaining  an  edu- 
cation were  very  limited;  in  fact,  he  may  be  truly 
said  to  be  self-educated.  All  his  life  he  has  been 
a  reader  and  student,  and  is  well  infonned  on 
almost  any  subject  that  may  be  brought  up. 

When  but  fourteen  years  of  age  he  started  out 
in  the  world  to  fight  the  battle  of  life.  He  went 
to  Terre  Haute,  Indiana,  and  learned  the  printer's 
trade.  In  1852  he  came  to  L^rbana,  Illinois,  and 
took  charge  of  a  stock  of  goods,  and  a  year  later 
opened  a  general  store  on  his  own  account.     On 


298 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONAIiV  AND  l-ORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


the  1st  of  July,  1854,  he  met  with  an  accident 
which  came  near  costing  him  his  life,  and  from 
the  effects  of  which  he  never  fully  recovered; 
while  lifting  a  heavy  barrel  he  overexerted  him- 
self and  produced  spinal  hemorrhage.  His  con- 
dition was  so  serious  that  he  returned  to  the 
home  of  his  parents,  where  he  remained  some 
months. 

Soon  after  his  return  to  Urbana  in  1855  he 
was  elected  county  assessor,  and  treasurer,  and 
served  the  county  in  this  double  capacity  two 
years.  In  1856  the  Grand  Prairie  Bank  located 
at  Urbana  decided  to  open  a  branch  bank  at 
Champaign,  and  Mr.  Sherfy  was  made  cashier 
of  this  institution.  In  1858  the  Cattle  Bank  of 
Champaign  was  organized,  and  he  became  its 
cashier  and  continued  in  that  position  till  1861, 
when  the  bank  closed.  The  following  year,  1862, 
the  private  banking  firm  of  D.  Gardner  &  Com- 
pany was  established,  and  Mr.  Sherfy  became  a 
partner  and  cashier  of  the  bank,  and  so  continued 
until   1879. 

On  August  I,  1879,  in  partnership  with  his 
brother-in-law,  Mr.  G.  C.  Willis,  he  engaged  in 
the  real  estate  and  loan  business,  imder  the  firm 
name  of  Willis  &  Sherfy.  This  continued  until 
1890,  when  he  purchased  the  interest  of  Mr.  Wil- 
lis, and  has  since  conducted  the  business  alone. 

Before  he  met  with  the  accident  before  alluded 
to  ]\Ir.  Sherfy  was  a  man  of  great  strength  and 
physical  vigor,  his  injury  resulted  in  partial 
paralysis,  rendering  locomotion  difficult,  and  yet 
notwithstanding  he  has  been  thus  heavily  handi- 


capped he  has  been  most  energetic  and  enter- 
prising. 

It  was  largely  through  his  efforts  that  the 
money  was  raised  which  procured  the  location 
here  of  the  Urbana  and  Champaign  Institute, 
which  has  since  developed  into  the  University  of 
Illinois.  When  the  bill  was  passed  under  which 
the  University  of  Illinois  was  established  he  was 
active  in  securing  money  and  lands,  valued  in 
all  at  six  hundred  thousand  dollars,  which  se- 
cured the  location  of  that  institution  at  its  present 
place. 

He  was  a  charter  member  of  Vesper  Lodge, 
No.  33,  the  first  lodge  of  the  I.  O.  O.  F.  estab- 
lished in  Champaign,  in  1855,  and  has  since  held 
every  office  within  the  gift  of  the  lodge. 

Politically  his  first  vote  was  cast  for  Franklin 
Pierce,  but  since  then  he  has  always  voted  the 
Republican  ticket. 

In  October,  1869,  he  married  Miss  Eunice  M. 
Beach,  of  Champaign,  who  died  in  October,  1873, 
leaving  one  child,  a  daughter.  Miss  Fanny  Belle 
Sherfy,  now  a  young  lady  residing  with  her  father. 

When  Mr.  Sherfy  first  came  to  Champaign 
there  were  but  four  houses  in  the  place.  He  has 
seen  it  grow  and  aided  in  its  development  into 
the  present  beautiful  little  city  of  10,000  popu- 
lation. 

He  is  of  a  bright,  cheerful  disposition,  genial 
and  courteous,  and  has  the  good  will  and  esteem 
of  the  entire  community.  He  is  now  the  oldest 
citizen  of  the  city  in  point  of  residence,  and  bids 
fair  for  many  years  yet  of  active  business  life. 


JOSEPH  G.  STOLP, 


AURORA. 


THE  gentleman  here  named  is  a  native  of 
New  York  State,  born  in  Marcellus, 
Onondaga  county,  August  16,  1812,  the  son  of 
George  and  Katharine  Stolp,  nee  Stahl,  both  be- 
ing of  German  extraction. 

John  Jost  Stolp,  the  grandfather  of  our  sub- 
ject, came  to  New  York  in  1752,  with  his  chil- 
dren,— Peter  and  Kathrine.  The  son  was  twelve 
years  of  age  at  the  time,  and  his  father 
innnediately  went  up  the  Hudson  river  and  set- 


tled in  Montgomery  county,  where  he  lived  with 
his  family  until  1795.  Peter,  having  meanwhile 
married  Kathrine  Crysler,  had  a  family  of  eight 
children, — seven  sons  and  one  daughter, — and 
in  179s  moved  up  the  Mohawk  river  and  stopped 
at  Johnstown,  Fulton  county.  New  York.  Here 
they  lived  until  1808,  when  all  the  children,  who 
had  scattered  throughout  the  neighborhood, 
were  gathered  together  by  their  father  and  they 
all   moved   West,   settling   at   Marcellus,  above 


'M^/r/^, 


REPRESENTATIVM  MEN  OF  TIIK  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


200 


mentioned.  Joseph  Stahl,  the  maternal  grand- 
father of  our  subject,  came  Hkewise  with  his 
parents  to  America  from  Germany,  also  settling 
up  the  Hudson  river,  and  in  179S  removed  to 
Caughnavvaga,  Xew  York,  where  Kathrine  Stahl 
was  married  to  George  Stolp,  the  son  of  Peter. 
The  journey  to  Marcellus,  which  is  near  Syra- 
cuse, from  the  Hudson  river  in  those  days  was 
a  prodigious  undertaking.  The  canal  had  not 
yet  been  constructed,  and,  with  scarcely  any 
roads  to  guide  the  travelers,  the  entire  distance 
was  made  by  team. 

Joseph  was  born  on  his  father's  farm,  where 
he  grew  to  manhood,  receiving  but  a  very  lim- 
ited degree  of  educational  instruction  previous  to 
his  seventeenth  year,  at  which  time  he  was  bound 
out  for  a  period  of  five  years  to  learn  the  trade 
of  manufacturing  woolen  goods,  under  the  train- 
ing of  B.  N.  Parsons,  of  Marcellus;  and  during 
his  apprenticeship  he  was  to  receive  no  pay  what- 
soever, but  was  to  have  the  benefit  of  three 
months'  schooling  each  year.  On  the  day  he 
was  twenty-one  years  of  age  he  accepted  employ- 
ment in  a  large  woolen  mill  which  was  to  last 
for  a  period  of  ten  months,  at  a  salary  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  one-half  to  be  paid  in 
cash  and  the  balance  in  woolen  cloth,  as  money 
wad  exceedingly  scarce.  When  he  had  com- 
pleted his  contract  at  this  mill  he  went  to  Skan- 
eateles,  eight  miles  distant,  where,  from  the  fall 
of  1835  to  May  10,  1837,  he  worked  in  the  wool 
business,  at  higher  wages.  Saving  his  money 
economically,  he  then  purchased  some  machinery 
with  the  intention  of  coming  West  to  engage  in 
business  for  himself.  His  brotlier  John  had 
come  West  two  years  previous  and  secured  a 
water  power  location  at  Aurora.  His  uncle, 
Frederick  Stolp,  had  by  agreement  taken  up  a 
claim  to  the  land  on  the  island  which  has  since 
been  known  as  Stolp  island;  and  when  it  came 
into  the  market  in  1842,  Joseph  G.  Stolp  received 
a  title  to  it  from  the  United  States  Government. 

The  Stolp  family  became  numerous  in  Mar- 
cellus; and,  as  none  of  them  ever  received  more 
than  one  baptismal  name,  and  as  the  name 
Joseph  was  one  of  common  occurrence  in  the 
family,  our  subject,  in  addition  to  his  name  of 
Joseph,  took  the  name  of  George,  after  his  father, 
and  has  since  been  known  as  Joseph  G.  Stolp. 


In  the  spring  of  1837  he  left  his  native  State 
with  the  machinery  he  had  purchased  and  the 
little  money  he  had  saved  and  set  his  face  West- 
ward, his  objective  point  being  Aurora,  and  he 
came  by  way  of  the  Erie  canal  and  the  lakes  to 
Chicago,  thence  on  foot,  as  there  was  no  other 
way  for  him  then  to  reach  this  place.  He  ar- 
rived here  June  12,  1837,  after  a  journey  of 
twenty-two  days.  He  innnediately  began  the 
erection  of  a  building  on  the  north  end  of  his 
island,  in  which  was  placed  his  wool-carding  and 
cloth-dressing  machinerj-,  which  was  completed 
in  the  autumn  of  1837,  and  here  he  began  and 
continued  his  business  until  1849,  ^'th  success. 
Several  heavy  losses  from  flood  and  ice  finally 
compelled  him  to  begin,  in  1847,  the  construction 
of  a  mill  race  to  the  center  of  the  island,  which 
was  completed  at  a  cost  of  $10,000.  He  erected 
the  mill  a  few  rods  west  of  the  present  court  house 
and  new  Government  building,  and  occupied  it 
continuously  until  1887,  when  he  retired  from  the 
wool  manufacturing  business  and  leased  his 
property  for  other  purposes.  During  the  time 
he  operated  his  mills  he  conducted  an  extensive 
business,  employing  from  seventy-five  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  hands.  While  nearly 
all  the  buildings  on  the  island  belong  to  him  or 
his  children,  he  however,  has  done  a  great  deal 
to  enhance  the  value  of  Stolp  island,  either  by 
direct  donation  or  by  making  the  consideration 
for  which  he  sold  his  land  so  small  that  improve- 
ments were  a  matter  of  course.  It  is  without 
question  the  most  important  part  of  Aurora;  and 
the  character  of  its  improvements  is  such  as  to 
insure  the  permanency  and  future  great  increase 
in  value. 

Mr.  Stolp  has  donated  more  important  prop- 
erty for  public  use  than  any  other  man  in  Aurora. 
The  city  obtained  a  charter  in  1857,  in  which  it 
was  provided  that  the  city  hall  should  in  time  be 
built  on  the  island  between  the  tvvo  rivers  on  the 
ground  donated  by  Mr.  Stolp. 

Previous  to  1877  there  was  organized  in 
Aurora  a  soldier's  monument  association,  which 
finally  decided  to  erect  a  memorial  hall,  the 
comer  stone  of  which  was  laid  July  4,  of  that 
year.  The  building  is  octagonal  in  form  and 
c(>nstructed  of  stone  in  the  style  of  workman- 
ship known  as  rock-faced  ashlar.     The  building 


300 


r,i(>(ii!.\PincM-  fi/cTKiNAjn-  AM>  rouruMT  calleuy  of  the 


was    erected    east    of    tlK'  city  hall,   on   ground 
donated  by  Mr.  Stolp. 

In  1870,  when  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  decided  to  erect  a  Iniilding  for  their 
own  special  use,  they  concluded  that  the  island 
Nvas  the  central  ground  upon  which  they  could 
erect  it.  By  going  to  Mr.  Stolp  for  assistance 
in  their  purpose,  he  immediately  donated  the 
necessary  ground,  and  the  association  now  owns 
a  fine  building,  free  of  debt. 

This  island  has  always  been  a  sort  of  "neutral" 
or  "compromise"  ground  upon  which  East  and 
West  Aurora  could  meet  and  settle  their  differ- 
ences. Even  the  United  States  Government 
seemed  to  recognize  this  fact  when,  in  1891, 
it  placed  on  this  island  the  Federal  building,  to 
cost  $100,000. 

While  part  of  the  island  is  improved  with  ex- 
ceedingly valuable  and  important  buildings,  Mr. 
Stolp  has  with  great  foresight  and  shrewdness 
refused  to  part  with  such  portions  of  the  island 
as  were  not  in  the  way  of  actual  need  and 
improvement,  and  to-day  still  owns  a  large  por- 
tion, which  is  constantly  increasing  in  value.  For 
a  great  many  years  Mr.  Stolp  has  been  one  of 
the  most  enterprising  men  of  Aurora.  He  owns 
and  has  owned  a  large  amount  of  property  in 
both  East  and  West  Aurora,  and  is  one  of  the 
heaviest  tax-payers  in  the  city.  He  was  one  of 
the  promoters  of,  and  the  largest  stockholder  in, 
the  Aurora  Silver  Plate  Works,  one  of  the  most 
successful  manufacturing  concerns  in  Aurora,  and 
has  been  its  president  for  a  great  number  of  years. 
The  First  National  Bank  is  also  indebted  to  him 
for  its  existence,  as  he  was  one  of  its  original 
stockholders  and  for  several  years  one  of  its 
directors. 

June  6,  1839,  is  the  date  of  Mr.  Stolp's  mar- 
riage to  Temperance  Dustin,  a  daughter  of 
Ebenezer  Dustin,  of  Plattsburg,  New  York. 
She  died  in  June,  1855,  lamented  by  five  chil- 
dren, namely:  Allen  W.,  who  died  January, 
1893;  Myron  G.,  a  prominent  business  man  of 
Aurora;  Elnora  O.,  now  the  wife  of  Samuel  B. 
Sherer;  Cleora  A.,  the  wife  of  James  Murray,  of 
Evanston,  Illinois;  and  Caroline  T.,  the  wife  of 
J.  F.  Johnson,  of  Philadelphia ,  Pennsylvania. 
Mr.  Stolp  was  afterward  married,  in  the  winter 
of  1858,  to  Isabella  INIiller,  who  died  February 
19,  1883,  leaving  no  children. 


While  Mr.  Stolp  has  passed  his  four-score  years 
he  is  still  actively  engaged  in  attending  to  his 
affairs.  He  is  hale  and  hearty,  with  his  mental 
and  physical  powers  unimpaired.  Being  of  a 
literary  turn  of  mind,  he  is  now  constantly  de- 
voting a  part  of  each  day  to  the  writing  of  his 
early  experiences  when  starting  in  life  in  the 
"New  West,"  and  he  is  also  recording  on  his- 
tory's pages  many  of  the  events  of  later  days. 

Occasionally  on  his  birthday,  he  gathers  to- 
gether all  the  older  citizens  in  his  spacious  res- 
idence, to  talk  over  old  times  and  to  refresh  each 
other's  memories.  When  leaving,  each  visitor 
signs  his  name  and  age  in  books  kept  by  Mr. 
Stolp  for  that  purpose,  thus  preserving  an  indel- 
ible evidence  of  their  existence.  Each  year  sees 
more  and  more  empty  chairs  at  Mr.  Stolp's 
gatherings. 

From  the  day  he  trudged  afoot  from  Chicago  to 
Aurora,  now  nearly sixtyyears  ago,  he  has  seen  the 
State  of  Illinois  become  the  most  important  part 
of  the  great  West.  Temperate  in  all  things,  he 
has  wonderfully  advanced  temperance  in  others, 
and  has  never  allowed  liquor  to  be  sold  on  ground 
belonging  to  him,  nor  has  he  ever  sold  any 
ground  upon  which  liquors  were  to  be  sold. 

In  his  political  principles  he  has  ever  been  a 
Republican,  and  has  always  raised  his  voice  for 
the  good  men  in  all  parties.  I"or  himself  he 
could  have  had  any  office  within  the  gift  of  the 
citizens  of  Aurora,  but  has  always  preferred  to 
help  his  friends  rather  than  to  accept  office  for 
himself.  His  pure  life  is  undoubtedly  the  cause 
of  his  healthy  longevity.  Though  not  a  mem- 
ber of  any  church,  he  has  for  many  years  been 
a  constant  attendant  at  the  Congregational 
church,  and  has  been  a  liberal  contributor  to 
its  material  needs.  Of  a  charming  nature  and 
disposition,  he  is  always  endeavoring  to  help 
some  one  or  something;  and  he  can  be  looked 
upon  as  everybody's  patron,  to  whom  particu- 
larily  the  young  men  and  those  in  distress  can 
freely  apply  with  reasonable  certainty  of  instant 
assistance  if  their  cause  be  worthy.  Being  a 
man  of  considerable  wealth,  j\Ir.  Stolp  is  able 
to  indulge  in  those  charities  which  are  of  prac- 
tical benefit  to  the  recipient.  No  man  is  better 
known  in  northern  Illinois  than  Joseph  G.  Stolp. 
and  no  man  has  done  more  for  the  individual 
prosperity  of  the  citizens  than  he,  and  his  life 


REPnE^^EXTATTVE  MES  OF  THE  FXITED  STATES:  ILLTXOIS  VOLUME. 


301 


will  always  be  a  most  important  example  of 
what  is  possible  for  the  young  man  to  ac- 
complish if  he  but  possess  those  characteris- 
tics which  go  so  far  to  make  perfect  manhood, 
honesty,  honor,  integrity,  courage  and  econ- 
omy. 

Mr.  Stolp  has  lived  during  the  days  of  all  the 
presidents  of  the  United  States,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Washington,  who  died  before  the 
birth    of    Mr.   Stolp.     He    has    had    the   novel 


experience,  at  one  time  in  his  life,  of  looking 
around  to  find  none  of  his  early  associates  alive, 
many  of  whom  lived  to  an  old  age.  In  his  four- 
score years  he  has  lived  to  see  the  nation  grow 
from  six  millions  to  sixty-five  millions  of 
people,  to  see  slavery  abolished  and  the  Republic 
tried  by  the  greatest  civil  war  that  history  records, 
and  emerge  from  it  strong  and  more  firmly 
rooted  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  than  ever 
before. 


NICHOLAS  R.  GRAHAM, 

cmc.vGO. 


THE  late  Judge  Graham  was  a  representa- 
tive of  that  rare  element  in  modem  life, 
which,  although  an  invaluable  part  o£  it,  yet 
rests  upon  a  basis  of  something  ideal  and  philo- 
sojihical.  In  the  worldly  sense  he  certainly  made 
his  mark,  serving  most  creditably  in  his  native 
State  of  New  York  as  one  of  the  youngest  judges 
of  th.e  country,  and  being  recognized  both  in 
that  commonwealth  and  the  home  of  his  adoption 
as  an  astute  lawyer,  politician  and  statesman. 
Whenever  he  came  in  contact  with  men  of  note, 
not  only  was  he  valued  as  an  equal  of  practical 
strength  and  resources,  but  also  as  one  whose 
integrity  was  beyond  question.  Judge  Graham 
was  not  only  practical,  drawing  to  himself  the 
strongest  minds  of  his  profession,  but  was  im- 
bued with  the  best  scientific  and  philosophical 
thought  of  the  day,  being  often  a  co-w'orker  with 
those  whose  entire  lives  were  thus  absorbed. 

Bom  in  Homer,  Cortland  county.  New  York, 
in  1818,  the  Judge  w^as  educated  at  the  academy 
of  his  native  town  and  subsequently  took  up  the 
study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Edward  Ouinn,  a 
famous  barrister  and  one  time  friend  of  the  cele- 
!)ratcd  Irish  patriot,  O'Connor.  He  had  as  a 
fellow-student  Francis  Keraan,  who  subsequently 
arose  to  prominence  as  United  States  senator. 
In  1843  Mr.  Graham  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
Chemung  county.  New  York,  and  was  soon  after 
elected  district  judge,  being  then  but  thirty-five 
years  of  age,  and  the  youngest  incumbent  of  that 
position  on  the  Hudson  river.  During  the  Civil 
war  he  raised  a  regiment  and  was  otherwise  of 


invaluable  service  to  his  country.  Judge  Gra- 
ham, in  fact,  was  a  war  Democrat  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  stamp  and  his  standing  even  at  that 
early  day  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  he 
was  the  intimate  and  trusted  supporter  of  Gov- 
ernor Horatio  Seymour,  Senator  Kernan  and 
others  of  like  type.  It  is  also  worthy  of  note  that 
his  political  w-isdom  was  treasured  by  such  ris- 
ing lights  as  David  B.  Hill. 

Judge  Graham  did  not  come  West  until  during 
the  war — 1862.  He  was  especially  prominent  in 
the  Greeley  campaign  of  1872.  As  a  member  of 
the  State  committee  which  directed  the  canvass 
he  was  associated  with  Cyrus  H.  McCormick, 
John  M.  Palmer,  James  R.  Doolittle  and  others 
of  the  national  organization  who  had  been  resi- 
dents of  the  West  during  most  of  their  manhood, 
but  who  nevertheless  heartily  welcomed  so  stal- 
wart a  supporter  to  their  cause  as  he.  For  a  short 
time  after  coming  to  Chicago  Judge  Graham  was 
associated  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  with 
facob  Newman,  whom  he  first  met  as  a  law  stu- 
dent in  the  oflice  of  ex-Senator  Doolittle.  Sub- 
sequently he  was  a  member  of  the  Illinois  legis- 
lature, being  eamest  in  his  support  of  the  World's 
Fair  appropriation  and  the  drainage  bill,  both  of 
which  measures  are  proving  to  be  so  far-reach- 
ing in  their  influence  for  good  upon  the  future  of 
Chicago. 

As  stated,  however.  Judge  Graham  had  an- 
other side  to  his  character  than  that  which  brought 
him  into  prominence  as  a  politician,  a  legislator. 
a  judge,  a  lawyer  and  a  broad-minded  statesman. 


302 


r,ronnApnrc.\r.  victioxauy  and  ponTitATT  gallery  of  the 


In  Chica.Efo  the  profoundly  philosopliical  tcn- 
ckMicy  of  his  mind,  as  well  as  the  huinaiiity  of  his 
nature,  was  ilhistrated  by  his  friendship  with  such 
men  as  Dr.  Thomas  and  the  late  Professor  Swing. 
Associated  with  them  he  founded  the  first  philo- 
sophical society  of  this  city,  acting  upon  the  oc- 
casion of  its  organization  as  president  pro  tern. 
Rut  although  to  the  last  Judge  Graham  was 
abreast  of  the  best  thought  of  the  day,  during 
several  of  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  was  obliged 
to  withdraw  himself  from  society  on  account  of 
the  steadily  advancing  paralysis  of  the  throat 
which  made  conversation  an  impossibility.  Al- 
tliough  he  received  all  relief  that  the  best  medical 
skill  could  devise,  combined  with  the  devoted  at- 
tentions of  wife  and  daughter,  the  disease  finally 
brought  his  useful  life  to  an  end  on  the  gth  of 
July,  1895. 

The  funeral  took  place  at  the  residence  of  Mrs. 
John  H.  Snitzler,  his  only  daughter,  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  request  of  the  deceased  his  close 
friend,  James  R.  Doolittle,  made  a  few  simple, 
manly  and  expressive  remarks  in  memory  of 
one  whom  he  had  learned  to  admire  and  love. 
This  tribute  cannot  be  brought  to  a  more  ap- 
propriate close  than  by  repeating  some  of  the 
words  there  uttered: 

"My  friends,"  said  Judge  Doolittle,  "the  request 
of  the  deceased,  coming  to  me  through  his  wife 
and  daughter,  that  I  should  make  a  few  remarks 


at  his  funeral,  comes  to  me  as  a  command  which 
I  could  not  refuse  to  obey  if  I  would,  and  I  would 
not  if  I  could;  for  he  was  my  friend,  a  friend  of 
many  years, — a  personal,  professional  and  polit- 
ical friend.  Let  me  say,  in  a  very  few  words, 
that  a  great  and  good  man  has  left  us.  He  was 
not  only  an  able  lawyer  and  a  jurist,  but  a  most 
profound  and  philosophical  thinker,  quite  abreast, 
if  not  in  advance,  of  most  men;  and  while  my 
public  career  during  the  administrations  of  Bu- 
chanan, Lincoln  and  Johnson  brought  me  in 
contact  with  many  men  that  the  world  call  great, 
such  as  generals  in  the  army,  statesmen,  sena- 
tors and  presidents,  yet  I  do  not  go  too  far  when 
I  say  that  Judge  Graham  would  be  regarded  as 
a  great  man  among  the  greatest.  I  repeat,  there- 
fore, a  great  man  has  left  us;  but  as  the  highest 
tribute  to  his  memory  let  me  say  that  he  was  not 
only  a  great  man,  but  perfectly  sincere,  upright 
and  honest.  He  always  meant  what  he  said  and 
said  what  he  meant.  He  was  by  nature  endowed 
with  the  greatest  of  all  human  faculties,  integ- 
rity, which  wealth  could  not  purchase,  power 
could  not  intimidate,  or  dying  men  bequeath, 
and  which  is  stamped  upon  those  natures,  whether 
born  in  a  palace  or  a  manger,  the  impress  of  God's 
nobility,  for  'an  honest  man  is  the  noblest  work 
of  God.'  He  was  indeed  a  true  man,  a  kind 
and  generous  husband  and  father,  loving  and 
beloved." 


JACOB  L.  LOOSE, 


JACOB  L.  LOOSE,  the  well-known  president 
of  the  American  Biscuit  &  Manufacturing 
Company,  was  bom  in  Franklin  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, June  17,  1850,  and  is  a  son  of  Isaac  and 
Eliza  (Scholl)  Loose,  both  of  German  lineage, 
the  mother  being  a  daughter  of  a  German  Re- 
formed minister  of  Pennsylvania,  in  whose  veins 
flowed  the  blood  of  the  Huguenot  and  Hol- 
lander. The  father  carried  on  farming  and  stock- 
raising  with  success,  and  in  the  '40s  made  ex- 
tensive investments  in  real  estate,  buying  wild 
land  in  Illinois  and  Iowa.  Upon  one  tract  in 
Sangamon  county,  Illinois,  he  located  in  i860, 
taking  with  him  his  family,  including  Jacob,  then 
a  lad  of  (en  summers. 


The  spirit  of  the  West,  whether  inherent  or  ac- 
quired after  his  arrival  in  the  Mississippi  valley, 
was  early  manifest  in  the  gentleman  whose  name 
introduces  this  review.  He  was  the  youngest  in 
a  family  of  eight  children  and  in  the  schools  near 
his  Western  home  began  his  education,  but  as  the 
educational  facilities  of  Illinois  were  then  infe- 
rior to  those  of  the  East  he  was  sent  back  to 
Pennsylvania,  in  1862,  to  be  educated  under  tlie 
supervision  of  his  sister,  Mrs.  Lizzie  M.  Brown, 
of  Merccrsburg,  Pennsylvania,  wife  of  a  German 
Reformed  minister.  This  was  the  time  of  the 
Civil  war  and  the  Soutliem  army  had  made  its 
way  into  Northern  territory.  In  consequence, 
studies  were  often  interrupted,  and  in  1863  he  re- 


^.^r^^n^C^^ 


REPRESEKTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


303 


turned  to  Illinois  and  completed  his  education 
in  the  high  school  of  Decatur. 

Mr.  Loose  at  once  entered  upon  his  business 
career.  Unaided,  financially,  he  started  out  for 
himself,  securing  a  clerkship  in  a  dry-goods  house 
in  Decatur;  but  after  a  short  time,  at  the  age 
of  twenty,  he  went  to  Kansas  and  became  a  sales- 
man in  the  drj-goods  house  owned  by  two  of 
his  brothers,  the  firm  being  known  as  D.  A. 
Liiose  &  Company.  He  soon  acquired  an  inter- 
est in  the  business,  which  by  that  time  was  con- 
ducted under  the  name  of  D.  A.  &  J.  L.  Loose. 
It  was  at  that  time,  early  in  the  '70s,  that  the 
financial  depression  was  beginning  to  be  felt,  a 
depression  that  ended  in  the  panic  of  1873,  yet 
the  Loose  firm  managed  affairs  so  wisely  and 
well  that  when  others  were  failing  they  were  pros- 
pering. They  were  located  in  the  town  of  Che- 
tojia,  and  the  condition  of  the  place  had  to  be 
taken  into  consideration  as  well  as  the  times. 
Chetopa  was  a  typical  border  settlement  formed  of 
all  classes  o(  people, — the  cool,  conservative 
business  man  of  the  East,  the  desperado  of  the 
West,  the  cowboy  of  the  plains,  the  adventurer, 
scout  and  speculator.  It  was  in  this  community 
that  Mr.  Loose  studied  human  nature  and  gained 
a  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs  that  has  been 
of  incalculable  benefit  to  him  in  his  career.  He 
studied  people  and  their  motives,  and  judged  of 
men  with  a  keenness  that  looked  beyond  external 
appearance  to  the  real  character  of  the  individ- 
ual. In  this  motley  community  the  firm  of  Loose 
Brothers  carried  on  a  constantly  increasing  busi- 
ness, conducting  their  concern  on  a  strictly  cash 
basis. 

When  monetary  values  were  uncertain,  when 
liouse  after  house  of  supposed  financial  stability 
went  down  in  the  general  crash,  they  watched 
indications,  and,  with  a  managerial  ability  sel- 
dom equaled,  controlled  their  affairs  until  their 
business  became  too  extensive  for  the  town  in 
which  they  were  located.  In  1877  they  estab- 
lished a  branch  house  in  Joplin,  Missouri,  which 
was  at  that  time  becoming  known  as  an  impor- 
tant mining  center  and  was  a  good  field  for  mer- 
cantile operations.  Two  years  later  the  brothers 
dissolved  partnership,  the  elder  becoming  sole 
proprietor  of  the  new  and  thriving  enterprise  while 
Jacob  L.  became  the  owner  of  the  older  house 
in  Kansas. 


But  at  this  time  the  confines  of  Chetopa  were 
too  narrow  for  the  volume  of  trade  which  came 
to  the  Loose  mercantile  house,  and  Jacob  L. 
turned  his  energies  into  another  channel.  He 
opened  a  lumber  yard,  and  in  addition  invested 
considerable  capital  in  farming  land,  thus  becom- 
ing interested  in  agriculture  and  stock-raising. 
He  did  much  to  improve  the  grades  of  stock, 
and  was  especially  interested  in  the  importation 
of  Norman  horses.  For  long  ages  the  farmer 
was  considered,  socially,  on  a  scale  below  the 
professional  man,  but  Mr.  Loose  is  one  of  those 
broad-minded  men  who  have  been  largely  in- 
strumental in  removing  the  old  prejudice,  con- 
sidering the  supervision  of  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  not  beneath  the  notice  of  a  man  able  to  con- 
trol the  most  extensive  corporations.  From  early 
youth  Mr.  Loose  possessed  a  laudable  ambition, 
tempered  with  a  safe  conservatism,  and  his  in- 
vestments of  capital,  when  others  were  waiting 
the  turn  of  affairs,  undoubtedly  led  to  much  of 
his  success.  He  had  the  wisdom  to  invest  judi- 
ciously, yet  realized  the  truth  of  the  old  proverb, 
"Nothing  venture,  nothing  have."  Thus  he  laid 
the  foundation  of  his  reputation  for  successful 
and  honorable  business  conduct. 

In  the  autumn  of  1882  a  broader  field  of  use- 
fulness and  labor  was  sought  and  obtained  in 
Kansas  City,  Missouri,  where,  in  connection  with 
his  brother,  J.  S.  Loose,  he  bought  a  controlling 
interest  in  the  Corle  Cracker  &  Confectionery 
Company,  and  in  the  spring  of  1883  he  removed 
to  the  place  of  his  new  enterprise  after  having 
closed  his  various  interests  in  Kansas,  a  task 
which  was  successfully  accomplished  within  ninetv 
days.  Experience  had  never  made  him  familiar 
with  the  new  undertaking,  but  he  had  learned 
to  investigate  and  study  thoroughly  any  thing 
with  which  he  became  connected,  and  the  lead- 
ing features  were  soon  known  to  him,  and  only 
a  short  period  elapsed  until  he  had  mastered  all 
the  details  necessar}-  for  the  successful  manage- 
ment of  such  a  concern.  The  company  was  soon 
at  the  head  of  its  line  of  trade  along  the  Mis- 
souri river,  but  Mr.  Loose  possesses  a  spirit  which 
contents  itself  not  with  mediocrity,  never  resting 
until  it  has  attained  the  highest  position,  and 
from  the  time  of  his  connection  with  the  cracker 
company  it  grew  in  importance.  He  is  quick  to 
sec  an  opportunity  and  grasp  an  advantage,  yet 


304 


niOGRAPIIICAL  DICTrONARY  AND  POIiTRAIT  OALLEltY  OF  THE 


has  never  been  known  to  infrinfifc  on  tlic  rights 
of  others.  In  1889  the  name  of  the  corporation 
was  changed  to  Loose  Brothers  Manufacturing 
Company  and  a  large  trade  was  enjoyed  over  a 
large  tract  of  territory.  His  strong  and  aggress- 
ive business  qualities  led  him,  between  the  years 
1884  and  1890,  to  attempt  to  increase  the  con- 
sumption of  the  company's  commodities  by  the 
formation  of  several  associations  of  bakers  in 
the  West.  The  result  was  highly  gratifying,  both 
as  to  increased  products  and  improved  quality. 
This  advanced  step  and  manifest  improvement  led 
Mr.  Loose  in  1890  to  the  determination  to  con- 
solidate the  interests  of  Western  cracker  bakers 
for  purposes  of  mutual  protection,  mutual  econ- 
omy and  mutual  advantages.  This  was  an  ac- 
complishment of  much  difficulty,  owing  to  the 
divergent  interests  and  views,  but  was  carried  to 
a  successful  issue.  His  efiforts  thus  led  to  the 
formation  of  the  American  Biscuit  &  Manufactur- 
ing Company,  May  15,  1890,  with  headquarters 
in  Chicago,  and  he  was  made  the  first  president 
of  the  company,  to  which  position  he  has  been 
continuously  re-elected. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  conjecture  what  manner 
of  man  is  Mr.  Loose.  In  a  republican  country, 
where  merit  must  win,  we  can  tell  much  of  his 
life.  Wealth  may  secure  a  start  but  it  cannot 
maintain  one  in  a  position  where  brains  and  ex- 
ecutive ability  are  required.  Mr.  Loose  did  not 
have  wealth  to  aid  him  in  the  beginning  of  his 
business  career.  His  reliance  has  been  placed  in 
the  more  substantial  qualities  of  perseverance, 
untiring  enterprise,  resolute  purpose  and  com- 
mendable zeal,  and  withal  his  actions  have  been 
guided  by  an  honesty  of  purpose  that  none  have 


questioned.  He  is  a  true  type  of  Western  progress 
and  enterprise,  the  embodiment  of  the  spirit 
which  has  produced  the  phenomenal  growth 
of  Chicago.  His  intellectual  energy,  profes- 
sional integrity,  prudent  business  methods  and 
reliable  sagacity  have  all  combined  to  make 
one  of  the  ablest  business  men  of  the  great 
West. 

The  public  career  of  such  a  man  is  often  quite 
well  known  while  that  of  his  private  life  is  an 
unread  page.  There  is  and  should  be  a  de- 
gree of  what  might  be  termed  secrecy  attending 
the  sacredness  of  home  relations,  yet  it  is  often 
pleasant  to  learn  that  the  man  who  controls  such 
extensive  business  interests  as  Mr.  Loose  finds 
time  for  the  pleasures  and  companionships  of  the 
home  and  fireside.  He  was  married  in  1878  to 
Miss  Ella  Clark,  daughter  of  Jones  Clark,  of  Car- 
thage, Missouri,  and  the  great-great-granddaugh- 
ter of  Abram  Clark,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  Two  children  were  born 
to  them,  but  both  have  been  called  to  the  home 
beyond  this  life.  Mr.  Loose  is  a  member  of  some 
of  the  best  clubs  in  Kansas  City  and  Chicago, 
and  his  genial  disposition  makes  him  a  social  fa- 
vorite. He  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  frater- 
nity, holds  membership  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  in  his  political  connection  is  a  Re- 
publican. Yet  in  the  prime  of  life,  he  probably 
has  before  him  a  career  of  usefulness  that  will 
equal  the  marvelous  development  of  the  metrop- 
olis with  which  he  is  now  identified,  and  his  mem- 
ory will  be  cherished  for  the  maintenance  of  those 
industries  which  '  have  advanced  the  material 
prosperity  of  the  city  and  afforded  to  an  army  of 
workers  the  means   of  livelihood. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


30E 


JOSEPH  F.  GLIDDEN, 

DE  kali;. 


"  '  I  "HERE  is  nothing  extemporaneous,"  said 
JL  one  of  Chicago's  eminent  divines:  "every- 
thing results  from  some  previous  condition  or 
labor."  This  truth  is  especiajlly  manifest  in  the 
life  of  the  inventor.  He  may  perfect  in  a  few 
weeks  or  perhaps  days  an  invention,  but  it  is  the 
outgrowth  of  years  of  thought,  study  and  experi- 
ment. Mr.  Glidden,  as  the  inventor  of  the  barb 
wire,  may  be  numbered  among  the  truly  great 
men  of  this  country.  True  greatness  is  found 
in  the  spirit  of  the  man,  and  those  who  know 
Joseph  Farwcll  Glidden  recognize  his  fidelity  to 
principle,  his  faithfulness  to  all  that  is  honorable 
in  public  or  private  life,  his  broad  sympathy  and 
warm-hearted  hospitality.  IMore  than  half  a  cen- 
tury ago  he  came  to  De  Kalb  county  and  identi- 
fied himself  with  its  agricultural  interests. 

Mr.  Glidden  was  born  in  Charleston,  Sullivan 
county.  New  Hampshire,  January  i8,  1813,  and 
is  a  son  of  David  and  Polly  (Hurd)  Glidden,  both 
of  whom  were  natives  of  the  Granite  State  and 
were  there  married.  During  his  infancy  they  re- 
moved to  Orleans  county,  New  York,  locating  up- 
on a  farm  in  the  town  of  Clarendon,  where  they 
rcsidcil  until  1844,  when  they  came  to  Illinois. 
Living  in  Ogle  county  for  a  short  time  they  came 
to  De  Kalb  county,  spending  the  remaining  years 
of  their  lives  in  the  home  of  their  son,  Joseph  P., 
who  did  all  in  his  power  to  make  their  last  years 
pleasant  and  to  repay  them  in  part  for  their  care 
of  him  during  his  childhood  and  youth.  In  their 
family  were  six  children,  the  others  being  Betsy, 
Eunice,  Willard  J.,  Abigail  and  Stephen  H. 

Joseph  F.  Glidden  was  reared  upon  the  old 
home  farm  in  the  Empire  State,  acquiring  a 
tliorough  and  practical  knowledge  of  its  details 
through  the  summer  months,  while  in  the  winter 
season  he  attended  school.  In  addition  to  the 
branches  usually  taught  in  district  schools  he  also 
studied  algebra  and  the  classics  with  the  inten- 
tion of  pursuing  a  collegiate  course,  but  finally 
abandoned  that  plan.  He,  however,  was  a  stu- 
dent in  Middlebury  Academy,  in  Genesee  county, 
and  in  the  seminary  at  Lima,  Livingston  county. 
New  York.  He  engaged  in  teaching  school  for 
20 


some  terms,  but  the  more  active  life  of  the  farm 
had  for  him  great  attractions,  and  he  engaged 
in  renting  land,  for  in  those  days  he  had  no 
money  with  which  to  purchase  property.  Land 
values  were  high  in  the  Empire  State  and  there 
seemed  little  hope  of  acquiring  a  farm  of  his  own 
in  that  scotioiu  of  the  country;  but  upon  the  broad 
prairies  of  the  West,  where  the  settlements  were 
few  and  there  was  little  demand  for  farms,  he 
thought  that  he  might  obtain  control  of  a  tract  that 
could  be  developed  into  good  fanning  property. 
Government  had  not  sold  land  when  he  caime. 
The  first  land  sale  for  the  Chicago  district  was 
in  1843. 

So  in  the  fall  of  1842  he  proceeded  to  Detroit, 
with  two  threshing  machines,  of  the  primitive  con- 
struction then  in  use,  and  spent  thirty  days  on 
the  wheat  farms  of  Michigan,  operating  his 
threshers,  with  the  assistance  of  his  brother  Wil- 
lard and  two  other  men.  He  subsequently  shipped 
his  machines  to  Chicago  and  came  thence  to  De 
Kalb  county,  where  he  followed  the  same  busmess 
for  two  years.  In  the  winter  after  his  arrival  he 
purchased  six  hundred  acres  of  land  on  section 
22,  De  Kalb  township,  of  his  cousin,  Russell 
Huntley;  it  is  pleasantly  located  a  mile  west  of 
the  village,  and  this  property  he  still  owns,  and 
his  labors  and  enterprise  have  made  it  one  of  the 
finest  fanns  in  the  State.  Its  boundaries  have 
been  extended  until  it  now  comprises  more  than 
eight  hundred  acres,  the  greater  part  of  which  is 
under  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  while  all  the 
buildings,  machinery  and  other  improvements  of 
a  model  farm  are  found  there.  As  his  financial 
resources  have  increased  he  has  judiciously  in- 
vested his  capital  in  other  property,  and  is  to-day 
the  owner  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  acres  of 
valuable  farming  lands.  He  has  always  been 
interested  in  the  raising  of  fine  stock,  and  in 
connection  with  H.  B.  Sanborn  is  the  owner  of  a 
cattle  ranch  in  northwestern  Texas,  where  they  are 
herding  about  sixteen  thousand  head  of  cattle. 
They  own  two  hundred  and  eighty  sections  of 
land,  covering  two  hundred  and  eighty  square 
miles  of  territory  and  requiring  one  hundred  and 


HOfi 


niooHAPiircxL  DicrioNAnr  and  poiitrait  oallert  of  the 


fifty  miles  of  fencing.  This  has  now  Ijccn  turned 
over  to  Mrs.  Bush,  his  daughter,  who  now  owns 
one  hundred  thousand  acres. 

For  many  years  the  question  of  fencing  material 
was  one  which  agitated  the  minds  of  those  en- 
gaged in  agricultural  pursuits  upon  the  broad 
prairies  w  here  timber  was  obtainable  only  at  high 
prices  on  account  of  its  having  to  be  shipped  in. 
To  obviate  this  difficulty  was  a  problem  to  which 
various  men  gave  their  attention,  and  as  early 
as  1867  barb  wire  had  been  invented,  but  it  was 
imperfect,  and  further  study  and  labor  was  re- 
quired to  make  it  a  marketable  commodity.  J\Ir. 
Glidden  was  a  practical  agriculturist.  His  own 
broad  acres  required  fencing,  and  occasioned  his 
study  of  the  subject.  Careful  thought,  investiga- 
tion and  experiment  resulted,  in  October,  1873, 
in  his  application  for  a  patent,  which  was  issued' 
the  next  spring.  He  did  not  here  end  his  labors, 
but  continued  the  work  of  improvement  and  tested 
the  utilitv  of  his  invention  by  the  use  of  his  fenc- 
ing upon  his  own  farm.  In  those  early  days  the 
process  of  manufacture  was  crude  in  the  extreme. 
The  barbs  were  cut  by  hand,  and  afterward  the 
parts  of  an  old  coffee-mill  were  extemporized  as  a 
machine  for  coiling  them  about  the  wire.  When 
a  piece  twenty  or  thirty  feet  long  had  been  barbed, 
a  smooth  wire  was  placed  beside  it  and  one  pair 
of  ends  fastened  to  a  tree  and  the  others  attached 
to  the  axle  of  a  grindstone,  which  by  turning  with 
a  crank  gave  it  the  required  twist. 

Having  secured  his  patents,  Mr.  Glidden  en- 
tered into  partnership  with  I.  L.  Ellwood,  a  hard- 
ware merchant  of  De  Kalb,  who  had  also  given 
much  time  to  the  study  of  the  fence  problem. 
His  biography  and  portrait  appear  elsewhere  in 
this  volume.  Mr.  Ellwood,  being  a  practical 
man  of  affairs,  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  busi- 
ness management,  and  operations  were  begun, 
under  the  firm  name  of  Glidden  &  Ellwood. 
There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  Mr.  Glidden  was 
the  real  inventor  of  the  perfected  barb  wire  now 
in  use.  He  applied  for  his  patent  in  1873,  his 
claim  was  acknowledged  and  he  secured  it.  He 
sold  his  interest  in  1876,  but  continued  to  draw 
his  royalties  until  1891.  He  has  been  the  inven- 
tor of  all  the  essential  features  of  barb-wire  ma- 
chines now  in  use,  and  to  him  is  due  the  great 
credit  for  bringing  to  the  people  of  the  West  a 


cheap  and  serviceable  substitute  for  the  stone, 
rail  or  wooden  fences  once  in  use.  As  time  passed 
the  business  grew  and  was  removed  from  the  farm 
to  the  village,  where  a  small  factory  was  estab- 
lished, and  here  the  improvement  was  made  of 
using  horse  power  to  do  the  twisting,  the  barbs 
being  slipped  on  to  one  end  of  the  wire  and  then 
placed  the  proper  distance  apart  by  hand.  In 
1875  the  company  built  the  first  part  of  the  old 
brick  shop,  put  in  a  small  steam  engine  which 
was  made  to  do  the  twisting,  and  Mr  Glidden 
and  T.  W.  Vaughn  obtained  a  patent  for  some 
devices  for  barbing  and  spooling  that  proved  of 
efficient  aid  to  the  workmen. 

In  1876  Mr.  Glidden  sold  his  interest  in  the 
business  to  the  Washbum  &  Moen  Manufactur- 
ing Company  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  and 
tlie  effectiveness  and  usefulness  of  the  new  inven- 
tion having  been  fully  demonstrated  the  business 
increased  with  astounding  rapidity.  From  his 
invention  Mr.  Glidden  has  made  a  fortune.  He 
obtained  a  large  royalty  per  year  until  1891,  but 
success  has  not  changed  the  level-headed,  un- 
pretentious man  of  sound  judgment.  The  life  of 
Mr.  Glidden  has  been  a  very  busy  and  useful 
one.  Though  he  has  become  a  millionaire  he  has 
never  laid  aside  business  cares,  and  is  to-day  the 
proprietor  of  the  Glidden  House,  of  De  Kalb. 
He  owns  the  De  Kalb  Roller  ^lills,  a  fine  flouring- 
mill  in  this  city,  and  since  its  organization  in 
1883  has  been  vice-president  of  the  De  Kalb 
National  Bank,  an  institution  which  is  unsur- 
passed for  financial  soundness.  His  affairs  have 
always  been  conducted  on  strict  business  princi- 
ples, conducted  with  fairness  to  himself  and  those 
with  whom  he  has  business  dealings.  He  is  a 
man  of  excellent  executive  ability,  quick  to  recog- 
nize and  reward  faithfulness  on  the  part  of  em- 
ployes, and  he  has  the  confidence  and  regard  of 
all  with  whom  he  has  been  brought  in  contact. 
He  has  never  entered  tlie  alluring  field  of  spec- 
ulation, but  through  the  legitimate  channels  of 
business,  and  as  the  result  of  indefatigable  indus- 
try and  superior  ability,  has  gained  his  marvelous 
success. 

When  De  Kalb  made  an  earnest  effort  to  get 
the  Normal  School  located  within  its  limits  Mr. 
Glidden  at  once  donated  for  the  institution  six- 
tv-four  acres  of  his  old  homestead  on  Main  street, 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


301 


entered  from  tlie  Government  as  early  as  1850, 
when  Indians  were  still  wearing-  trails  through 
the  original  grass  upon  his  land.  This  dona- 
tion was  made  for  the  benefit  of  coming  genera- 
tions. At  the  suggestion  of  the  poetic  Jacob 
Haish,  and  in  the  presence  of  about  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  citizens,  Mr.  Glidden  broke  the 
soil  (preparatory  to  building)  with  a  lead  pencil, 
as  tliis  little  utensil  was  considered  emblematic 
of  literature  and  education. 

It  is  in  the  home  that  Mr.  Glidden's  true  life 
shines  out.  He  has  ever  been  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  his  family  with  an  unselfishness  that 
indicates  his  beneficent  nature. 

He  was  first  married  in  Clarendon,  New  York, 
in  18,^7.  tlie  lady  of  his  choice  being  Clarissa 
l-"oster.  W'licn  he  started  westward  he  left  his 
wife  and  two  children  in  New  York,  but  both  of 
the  latter  died  ere  Mrs.  Glidden  came  to  Illinois. 
She  died  in  Ogle  county,  in  June,  1843,  "I'lfl  '^ 
(laughter  lx3rn  at  that  time  died  in  early  infancy. 
The  children  born  of  that  marriage  were  named 
\irgil,  Homer  and  Clarissa.  In  October,  1851, 
in  Kane  county,  Illinois,  Mr.  Glidden  married 
Lucinda  Warne,  daughter  of  Henry  Warne,  and 


they  have  one  daughter,  Elva  Frances,  who  is 
now  the  wife  of  W.  H.  Bush,  a  merchant  of 
Chicago. 

The  political  sup])ort  of  Mr.  Glidden  has  al- 
ways been  given  to  the  Democracy,  and  he 
has  the  distinction  of  being  the  last  Demo- 
cratic official  of  the  county,  having  been  elected 
sherifif  in  1852.  He  has  always  been  prom- 
inent in  public  affairs,  and  no  one  has  been 
more  actively  or  commendably  interested  in 
the  welfare  and  development  of  this  section 
of  the  State.  He  is  a  man  of  enterprise,  pos- 
itive character,  indomitable  energy,  strict  in- 
tegrity and  liberal  views,  and  has  been  fully  iden- 
tified with  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  State 
of  his  adoption.  He  has  persevered  in  the  pur- 
suit of  a  persistent  purpose  and  gained  a  most 
satisfactory  reward.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  per- 
sonal appearance,  and  his  kindliness,  sympathy 
and  generosity  beam  forth  in  his  eye  and  are 
substantially  manifest  in  his  actions.  His  life 
is  exemplary  in  many  respects  and  he  has  the 
esteem  of  his  friends  and  the  confidence  of 
those    who    have    had    Inisiness    relations    with 


JOHN  F.  NASH, 


JOHN  F.  NASH  was  born  in  Williamsburg, 
Massachusetts,  December  16,  1824,  the  son 
of  Almerin  and  Mandana  (Warner)  Nash, 
and  is  a  direct  descendant  of  Thomas  Nash,  wdio 
came  from  England  and  settled  in  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  in  1637;  from  him  all  the  American 
Kashes  have  sprung. 

John  was  educated  in  the  public  schools,  and 
fitted  fur  college  at  an  academy  in  Granville,  Put- 
nam county,  Illinois.  He  taught  school  in  win- 
ter and  worked  on  a  farm  during  the  sunnner 
until  1847,  when  he  came  to  Ottaw-a  and  entered 
the  law  office  of  Judge  T.  Lyle  Dickey,  to  study 
law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  November, 
1849.  He  went  into  the  office  of  the  circuit  clerk 
of  La  Salle  county  and  served  as  deputy  till  April, 
1855.  'Ti*'  from  1855  to  i860  was  clerk  and  re- 
corder of  deeds  for  the  countv.     In  1861  he  was 


first  assistant  secretary  of  the  Illinois  State  senate. 
In  1862  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  and 
followed  it  in  all  the  courts  of  La  Salle  county  till 
1865.  At  the  general  session  of  the  Illinois  legis- 
lature for  1865  he  sen'ed  as  secretary  of  the 
senate. 

In  June,  1865,  he  abandoned  the  practice  of 
law  and  assisted  in  organizing  the  First  National 
I'ank  of  Ottawa,  becoming  its  first  cashier,  in 
which  position  he  has  remained  for  thirty  years. 
He  is  looked  upon  as  a  sound  financier,  standing 
high  in  banking  circles,  and  has  made  the  First 
National  Bank  what  it  is  to-day,  one  of  the  first 
banks  of  the  State. 

In  politics  Air.  Nash  is  a  Republican,  and  ha? 
taken  an  active  part  in  the  politics  of  the  town, 
county  and  State.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
board  of  education  for  the  years  1875-6-7.     He  is 


308 


IJlOilItAPJ/ICAr.  DICTIONAHY  AND  rORTRAIT  OALLKIIY  OF  THE 


a  niaiilxT  of  the  Masonic  order,  and  was  grand 
commander  of  the  Grand  Commandery  of  Illi- 
nois in  1877.     In  religion  he  is  an  Episcopalian. 

November  5,  1849,  ^^  married  Miss  Laura  M. 
Pennell,  of  Vermont,  and  they  have  three  chil- 
dren,— a  son  and  two  daughters, — all  married 
and  living  in  Ottawa. 

Mr.  Nash  is  one  of  Ottawa's  solid  men  and 
has  done  a  great  deal  for  his  adopted  city  and 
home.  He  is  a  most  genial  man  to  meet.  He  is 
a  fine  illustration  of  a  self-made  man,  and  his 
career  should  serve  as  a  lesson  to  the  young.  He 
began  his  career  under  adverse  circumstances,  be- 


ing compelled  to  make  his  own  way  and  his  suc- 
cess in  life  illustrates  most  forcibly  the  power 
of  patient  and  persistent  effort  and  self-reliance. 
He  has  so  conducted  all  affairs,  whether  of  pri- 
vate interests  or  of  public  trusts,  as  to  merit  the 
esteem  of  all  classes  of  citizens;  and  no  word  of 
reproach  is  ever  uttered  against  him.  As  a  man 
and  citizen  he  enjoys  the  added  prosperity  which 
comes  to  those  genial  spirits  who  have  a  hearty 
shake  of  the  hand  for  all  those  with  whom  they 
come  in  contact  from  day  to  day,  and  who  seem 
to  throw  around  them  in  consequence  so  much  of 
the  sunshine  of  life. 


BENJAMIN  F.  FELT, 


BENJAMIN  F.  FELT  was  bom  at  Platts- 
burg.  New  York,  January'  3,  1821,  and 
passed  his  boyhood  days  in  the  limits  of  his  native 
town,  where  he  attended  the  common  schools,  un- 
til his  father  became  paralyzed,  which  misfortune 
was  followed  within  a  year  by  the  mother's  death. 
He  then  worked  the  family  farm  until  he  was 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  after  which  he  removed 
to  Galena,  Illinois,  and  entered  the  employ  of  his 
brother  (who  had  moved  West  in  1837),  ^s  clerk, 
• — a  position  he  occupied  for  the  ensuing  four 
years,  earning  in  this  time  one  thousand  and  fifty 
dollars,  seven  hundred  dollars  of  which  he  saved. 
His  theory  has  been  that  any  one  receiving  one 
dollar  a  day  can  save  money  if  he  spends  but 
ninety  cents  of  it, — and  to  the  adoption  of  this 
theory  in  practical  form  may  be  ascribed  Mr.  Felt's 
later  success. 

In  1846,  he  was  enabled  with  his  savings  to 
engage  in  the  grocery  business  for  himself,  which 
he  did,  and  continued  therein  for  forty-five  years, 
or  until  1891, — with  unvarying  success.  For  the 
last  thirty-five  years  of  this  period  he  occupied  the 
same  store  continuously.  In  1891  Mr.  Felt  re- 
tired from  active  business  and  devoted  himself  to 
caring  for  the  various  interests  that  he  possessed, 
as  the  result  of  long  years  of  industry. 

Mr.  Felt  has  been  a  stockholder  of  Galena's 
leading  financial  institution.  The  Merchants'  Na- 
tional Bank,  since  its  organization,  thirty  years 


ago,  and  a  member  of  its  board  of  directors  since 
the  death  of  his  brother,  whom  he  succeeded,  in 
1876.  He  was  at  one  time  interested  in  a  bank 
in  Iowa,  but  withdrew  from  that  some  time  since. 
He  is  the  owner  of  consideraljle  real  estate,  though 
not  to  so  great  an  extent  as  formerly,  he  having 
sold  the  major  portion  of  such  holdings.  He  has 
traveled  quite  extensively,  visiting,  among  other 
places,  the  Pacific  coast  several  times. 

During  all  the  years  of  his  residence  in  Galena, 
Mr.  Felt  has  been  foremost  in  advancing  that 
city's  prosperity.  Two  years  ago  he  formed  the 
idea  of  founding  a  free  public  library  for  the 
benefit  of  his  fellow  citizens, — a  project  in  which 
he  was  strongly  encouraged  by  his  daughter, 
Anna.  He  at  first  tried  to  interest  other  citizens, 
offering  to  be  one  of  ten  who  should  contribute 
the  necessary  funds:  there  was  no  one  his  equal 
in  liberality  and  generosity,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  abandon  that  mode  of  procedure.  Mr.  Felt, 
however,  had  decided  that  Galena  was  to  have  a 
public  library,  and  he  did  just  what  might  have 
been  expected  of  a  large-hearted,  generous  man, 
— offered  to  pay  the  entire  expense  himself. 
Having  come  to  this  conclusion  he,  in  the  fall 
of  1894,  sent  the  following  to  the  city  council  of 
Galena : 

To  the  Honorable  City  Council  of  the 
City  of  Galena: — When  a  petition  was  presented 
bv  the  leading  taxpayers  of  the  city  of  Galena  to 


^././^- 


REPJiESEJVTATIVB  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLVMi:. 


3()<) 


the  city  council  in  May,  1892,  asking  that  a  public 
library  and  reading-room  be  established,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  Illinois  statutes,  the  ground 
upon  which  the  city  council  placed  its  refusal  to 
establish  such  libran.'  was  that  the  fund  which 
could  legally  be  raised  by  taxation  in  any  one 
year  would  be  wholly  inadequate  to  establish  a 
library  suitable  to  the  needs  of  the  city.  Be- 
lieving that  the  fund  which  can  be  annually  raised 
bv  taxation  will  be  sufficient  to  maintain  suitably 
a  library  if  once  established,  as  evidencing  my 
desire  that  a  libran,'  be  established  and  main- 
tained, I  make  the  following  offer  to  you : 

Upon  your  establishing  a  public  library  and 
reading-room,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions 
of  the  statutes  of  the  State,  I  will  donate  to  the 
board  of  directors  for  such  public  librarv'  and 
reading-room  one  thousand  volumes;  I  will  fur- 
nish the  room  or  rooms  wdiere  such  liljrary 
and  reading-room  is  established  with  all  the 
modern  equipments;  pay  for  the  leading 
]''eriodicals  and  newspapers  for  the  reading-room 
for  a  term  of  two  years;  rent  a  suitable  room  on 
Main  street  and  pay  all  the  expenses  of  maintain- 
ing the  same  as  a  librarv'  and  reading-room  for 
the  period  of  two  years,  upon  the  following  terms 
and  conditions: 

The  city  of  Galena  shall  annually  levy  a  tax  of 
two  mills  on  the  dollar  on  all  the  taxable  property 
in  said  city,  in  accordance  with  the  first  section  of 
an  act  authorizing  cities  to  establish  and  maintain 
free  public  libraries  and  reading-rooms,  the  first 
levy  of  such  tax  to  be  made  at  the  time  of  the 
annual  tax  levy  next  following  the  acceptance  of 
tliis  proposition.  Among  the  by-laws,  rules  and 
regulations  adopted  by  the  board  of  directors  of 
such  library  for  the  government  of  the  librarj'  and 
reading-room  there  shall  be  the  following: 

The  name  shall  be  the  Galena  Public  Library 
and  Reading-Room. 

.\o  anarchistic,  atheistic  or  inmioral  book  shall 
be  tolerated  in  the  librarv". 

( )f  the  nine  directors  required  by  tlie  Illinois 
law,  four  shall  be  women. 

Very  respectfully,  B.  F.  Felt. 

The  council  accepted  the  proposition  and 
promised  to  maintain  the  library  after  two  years, 
.'ind  the  following  nine  trustees  were  appointed 
and  confirmed:  ]\[rs.  R.  H.  McClellan,  Mrs. 
John  V.  Hcllman,  Mrs.  Charles  Merrick,  Miss 
Anna  E.  Felt,  Rev. David  Clark, James  B.Brown, 
Dr.  H.  T.  Godfrey,  M.  H.  Bermingham,  David 
Sheean. 

Miss  Felt  will  doubtless  have  a  great  deal  to  do 
with  the  management  of  the  library,  as  she  had 
about  its  establishment.     She  was  born  in  Galena 


and  graduated  at  Wells  College  in  1880.  She 
was  president  of  the  Wells  College  Students'  As- 
sociation at  the  same  time  that  Airs.  Grover  Cleve- 
land was  the  head  of  the  eastern  association.  Miss 
Felt  held  the  position  six  years  and  then  resigned 
to  go  abroad.  She  traveled  in  Europe  for  some 
time,  and  on  returning  home  was  elected  Western 
vice-president  of  the  Wells  College  Alumni  Asso- 
ciation and  secretary  of  the  Illinois  Christian  En- 
deavor Union.  She  is  a  woman  of  broad  culture 
and  has  done  considerable  literary  work.  Her 
love  of  books  has  not  only  made  her  labor  for 
the  library  a  pleasant  task  but  has  made  her 
sen-ices  of  great  value.  She  knew  what  she 
was  about  when  she  began  the  work  of  se- 
lecting the  one  thousand  volumes  her  father 
donated,  and  her  judgment  has  been  approved 
by  some  of  the  most  noted  librarians  of  the 
country. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  I\Ir.  Felt  has  al- 
ways been  a  liberal  contributor  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  city  of  his  home,  and  is  one  of  her  most 
popular  citizens,  yet  he  has  never  allowed  his 
name  to  be  used  in  connection  with  any  public 
office, — although  he  could  unquestionably  be 
elected  to  any  position  within  the  gift  of  his  towns- 
men. He  has  no  desire  for  political  preferment, 
his  only  interest  in  politics  being  that  of  a  citizen 
desirous  of  good  government:  with  this  end  in 
view  he  votes  the  Republican  ticket. 

On  the  nth  day  of  September,  1854,  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Ann  Elizabeth  Piatt,  of  Platts- 
burg.  Three  children  of  this  union  are  now  liv- 
ing, Z.  C,  a  graduate  of  Princeton  College,  now 
of  the  brokerage  firm  of  Baker  &  Felt,  of  Denver; 
Anna  E.,  previously  mentioned,  and  B.  F.,  Jr., 
whose  education  was  obtained  at  Bcloit  and  Lake 
Forest,  and  who  is  now  engaged  in  farming  at 
Everly,  Clay  county,  Iowa.  Mrs.  Felt  is  one  of 
the  best  known  ladies  in  western  Illinois,  and  is 
prominently  identified  with  the  church  and  charity 
work  of  Galena,  where  her  intelligence,  refinement 
and  accomplishments  have  always  won  for  her 
loyal  and  devoted  friends. 

Mr.  Felfs  success  is  due  to  economy  and  pru- 
dence, and  his  career  forcibly  illustrates  what  mav 
be  accomplished  by  determination  and  energy,  in 
a  land  where  all  avenues  are  open  and  exertion 
is  untrammelcd. 


:!i() 


niocuM-jrifM.  DicTioxAnr  Axn  poirruMT  galleht  of  thr 


ARTHUR  S.  WRIGHT, 


ARTHUR  ST.  CLAIR  WRIGHT  is  the  eld- 
est son  of  Calvin  J.  and  Hannah  N.  (Moore) 
Wright,  both  members  of  old  New  England  fami- 
ilies  whose  ancestors  came  to  America  long  be- 
fore the  Revolution,  and  members  of  both  fam- 
ilies served  afterward  in  the  Continental  army. 

Calvin  J-  Wright  was  a  cabinetmaker  in  St. 
Johnsbury,  Vermont,  in  which  place  the  subject 
of  this  sketch  was  born  October  17,  1832.  His 
early  years  were  passed  in  that  town,  where  he 
attended  the  local  district  school  and  acad- 
emy, when  not  assisting  his  father  in  his  shop. 
He  also  attended  the  Newbury  Academy,  but 
when  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age  he  began 
service  as  an  apprentice  in  carpentry  and  joining, 
and  followed  this  occupation  for  the  subsequent 
four  years.  Being  desirous  of  bettering  himself 
he  started  for  the  West  and  arrived  at  Moline, 
May  ID,  1856,  where  he  obtained  employment  in 
John  Deere's  plow  factory,  but  remained  there 
only  a  short  time.  He  then  went  to  work  in  what  is 
now  the  wood  shop  of  the  Moline  Pump  Com- 
]iany  and  made  a  hundred  bureaus,  after  wliich 
lie  worked  on  a  new  schoolhouse  and  the  resi- 
dence of  Hon.  J.  M.  Gould.  Soon  after  this 
work  was  completed  he  went  by  boat  to  St.  Louis 
and  thence  in  like  manner  to  Omaha,  the  trip  be- 
tween the  latter  two  cities  occupying  seventeen 
days.  He  reached  Omaha  April  7,  1857,  and  be- 
gan working  at  his  trade,  also  assisting  the  county 
surveyor,  whose  principal  business  at  that  time 
was  the  location  of  claims.  He  remained  in 
Omaha  until  the  panic  of  1857,  and  then  like 
every  one  else  was  left  completely  without  fimds. 

In  search  of  employment  he  drifted  to  Craw- 
ford county,  Iowa,  and  at  what  is  now  the  town 
of  Denison  secured  employment  in  the  erection 
of  sixty  buildings  under  process  of  construction 
by  the  Providence  (Rhode  Island)  Western  Land 
Company.  A  month  later  that  company  failed, 
and  he  was  again  penniless.  Though  disheart- 
ened he  did  not  despair,  and  soon  was  able  to 
obtain  work  from  the  county, — which  was  just 
being  organized  and  had  no  court-house  or 
bridges, — in  Iniilding  a  number  of  bridges  at 
various  points. 


L^pon  completing  this  work  he  took  the  con- 
tract for  erecting  the  court-house,  which  he  did 
successfully.  The  only  means  that  the  farmers 
had  for  cleaning  their  grain  was  to  toss  it  into 
the  air  and  let  the  wind  blow  through  it.  There- 
fore Mr.  Wright  built  twenty-five  fanning-mills, 
buying  the  screenery  and  castings  in  Indiana  and 
shipping  them  by  way  of  St.  Louis  and  Coun- 
cil Bluffs,  and  then  by  team  to  Denison.  These 
mills  he  sold  very  readily  to  the  farmers,  who 
sometimes  came  seventy-five  miles  for  them. 

In  the  fall  of  i860  he  returned  to  Moline, 
where  he  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  fan- 
ning-mills, in  company  with  i\Ir.  Ezra  Smith, 
with  whom  lie  cnntinued  until  January  I, 
1863.  From  that  time  until  1865  Mr.  Wright 
conducted  the  business  alone,  at  which  time 
he  purchased  the  interest  of  H.  E.  Barber 
in  a  pump-finishing  business,  and  with  Mr. 
Barber's  former  partner,  L.  T.  Harper,  contin- 
ued that  line  of  manufacturing.  Tlie  material 
had  been  coming  from  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  fin- 
ished at  Moline,  and  then  peddled  by  team 
through  the  surrounding  countr}\  Upon  Mr. 
Wright's  advent  into  the  concern,  new  machinery 
was  purchased  and  used  to  manufacture  the 
pumps  entirely.  Owing  to  the  lack  of  water  dur- 
ing the  day  sufficient  to  furnish  power,  they  were 
compelled  to  operate  their  plant  solely  at  night. 
The  following  fall  a  site  was  purchased  in  Moline 
proper,  and  a  new  partner,  Walter  Hillhouse,  was 
taken  into  the  firm,  it  now  becoming  Wright, 
Hillhouse  &  Company.  Under  this  title  the  busi- 
ness was  continued  until  1872,  when  it  was  in- 
corporated as  the  Moline  Pump  Company,  with 
Mr.  Wright  as  president  of  the  corporation,  and 
under  this  title  it  is  still  known.  Its  product 
consists  of  over  two  hundred  kinds  and  sizes  of 
iron  and  wood  pumps,  and  finds  a  m;u-ket  in 
Illinois,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  Minnesota 
and  Wisconsin.  In  addition  to  all  kinds  of 
pumps,  the  company  manufactures  windmills, 
fire  apparatus  and  builds  water  works.  They  are 
also  extensive  jobbers  in  iron  pipe,  well  macliin- 
ery,  and  all  goods  used  for  the  supplying  of 
water. 


nn^lWiy\J~L 


^i^^/- 


^ 


liEPUESENTATlVK  MEN  OF  THE  I'XITEl)  STATES;  IIJANOIS  VOLUME. 


811 


Mr.  Wrig-ht  is  an  (ild-tiinc  l^cmocrat  and  a 
strong  believer  in  free  trade.  He  was  a  mcnihcr 
of  the  board  of  trustees  of  Moline,  prior  to  the 
municipal  organization,  and  has  served  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board  of  supervisors.  He  has  also 
been  one  of  the  board  of  the  Moline  Public  Li- 
brary, and  for  twenty  years  has  been  a  member  of 
the  cemetery  association.     Socially  he  is  a  nieni- 


i)cr  of  tile  -Masiinic  order.  lie  has  tra\Tle(l  nearly 
all  over  the  country,  l)Ut  almost  entirely  upon 
business. 

Mr.  Wright  was  married  February  9,  1864, 
to  Miss  Harriet  A.  Brett,  of  Rockville.  Con- 
necticut. They  have  one  cliild,  a  daughter, 
Eluvia  E. ;  and  lost  one  child,  Edith  W.,  in 
infancy. 


JAMES  D.  MORGAN, 


GENERAL  JAMES  D.  MORGAN  was  b.nn 
in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  Augu.st  i,  18 10, 
and  is  the  son  of  James  and  Margaret  (Patch) 
Morgan,  the  former  being  a  native  of  Brimfield, 
Massachusetts,  where  he  was  born  in  1780,  and 
was  by  occupation  a  sea  captain  and  a  foreign 
trader  in  the  East  Indies.  During  the  war  of  181 2 
he  held  a  captain's  conmiission  and  was  captured 
and  imprisoned  for  a  time  by  the  Spanish  author- 
ities. The  founders  of  the  Morgan  family  in 
America  were  three  brothers  of  that  name  who 
emigrated  from  Wales  and  settled  respectively  in 
Massachusetts,  New  York  and  Virginia.  It  is 
from  the  Massachusetts  branch  of  the  family  that 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  descendant.  His 
mother's  family  was  of  English  origin.  She  her- 
self, however,  was  born  in  Dublin,  Massachusetts, 
in  1782.  Our  subject  passed  his  early  youth  in 
his  native  city  of  Boston,  where  he  attended  school 
for  a  very  short  time.  His  schooling  ceased  when 
he  was  nine  years  of  age,  and  he  went  out  to  work 
by  the  day  among  strangers.  At  the  age  of  six- 
teen he  began  to  learn  the  trade  of  coopering, 
which  he  mastered  and  followed  for  several  years. 
In  the  year  1826  he  went  to  sea  in  the  sailing 
vessel  Beverly,  which  was  burned  on  the  17th  day 
of  October  in  that  year,  when  fifteen  hundred 
miles  from  land.  With  others  of  the  crew  he  took 
refuge  in  one  of  the  small  boats,  and  for  fourteen 
days  drifted  helplessly  on  the  water,  suffering  the 
agonies  of  hunger,  their  daily  allowance  consist- 
ing of  one-half  a  gill  of  water  and  one  and  a  half 
biscuits!  At  the  end  of  that  time  they  reached  the 
coast  of  South  America  and  thus  escaped  what 
would  have  been  a  most  horrible  death. 


In  1834  the  ("icneral  removed  with  his  family 
to  (juincy,  then  a  village  of  but  a  few  hundred 
inhabitants,  antl  here  he  soon  afterward  opened 
a  cooper-shop  in  partnership  with  Edward  Wells. 
This  venture  proved  successful  and  was  continued 
for  five  years,  or  until  i83(),  when  he  started  a 
confectionery  and  bakery,  which  he  conducted, 
however,  but  a  short  time,  and  then  engaged  in 
the  grocery  business.  Afterward  he  became  a 
member  of  the  firm  of  C.  M.  Pomeroy  &  Com- 
pany, pork  packers,  in  which  business  he  remained 
for  twenty-five  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which 
period  the  partnership  was  dissolved  and  he  re- 
tired from  active  business. 

General  Morgan  has  always  had  a  strong  liking 
for  military  matters,  and  as  early  as  1837  was  con- 
nected with  the  Ouincy  Grays,  a  famous  military 
organization  of  that  day.  In  1845  he  was  com- 
mander of  a  corps  of  fifty  mounted  riflemen,  which 
served  as  military  police  in  Hancock  county  dur- 
ing the  Mormon  war.  In  1846  he  participated  in 
the  Mexican  war,  and  commanded  a  company  of 
one  hundred  men,  which  afterward  became  Con-.- 
pany  A  of  the  First  Illinois  Infantry,  John  J. 
Hardin  being  the  colonel  commanding,  acting 
under  orders  of  General  John  E.  Wool.  Com- 
panies A  and  E  formed  an  independent  battalion, 
which  our  subject  commanded  during  his  term  of 
service.  He  was  present  at  the  battle  of  Buena 
Msta  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  other  conflicts. 
When  the  great  Civil  war  broke  out  and  the  im- 
mortal Lincoln  issued  his  call  for  troops.  General 
Morgan  was  suffering  from  a  broken  leg;  but  his 
patriotism  and  ardor  were  unquenched,  and  as 
soon  as  he  was  able  he  entered  the  service  of  his 


•M2 


i!i(i(!i:.\riiirM.  nicTioyMiv  ASi>  i'(nrrn.\ir  callhiiv  ah'  the 


LH>uiitr\-  to  di.'fcinl  the  honor  of  that  starry  banner 
under  whose  folds  he  had  before  won  distinction. 
In  1861  he  was  ai)i>ointed  lieutenant  colonel  of 
the  Tenth  Illinois  Infantry,  and  in  August,  1862, 
was   made  brigadier-general.     For  gallant   and 
nuritorious  conduct  on  the  field  of  battle  at  Ben- 
tonville,  North  Carolina,  he  was  promoted  to  be 
brevet  major-general   of  volunteers, — an   honor 
fittingly  and  worthily  bestowed.    He  served  under 
Generals  Pope,  Rosecrans,  Thomas  and  Sherman, 
and    participated    in    numerous   battles,    among 
them  being  those  of  Island  No.  10,  New  Madrid, 
Corinth,  and  those  of  the  Atlanta  campaign,  ac- 
companying General  Sherman  on  his  ever  mem- 
orable march  to  the  sea.    From  the  time  he  en- 
tered the  service  in  April,  1861,  till  he  was  mus- 
tered out  in  August,  1865,  he  served  continuously, 
and  never  during  that  time  received  a  furlough. 
At  the  battle  of   Bentonville,    North   Carolina, 
General  Morgan  was  in  command  of  the  Second 
Division  of  the  Fourteentli  Army  Corps,  and  as 
such  displayed  such  tact  and  skill  as  to  show  him 
to  be  the  possessor  of  great  ability  as  a  com- 
mander.    It  is  a  matter  of  historical  record  that 
this  division  under  General  Morgan  saved  the 
left  wing  of  Sherman's  army. 

General  Morgan  was  honorably  discharged 
from  service  at  Louisville,  Kentucky,  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  and  returned  to  his  home  in  Quincy, 
which  he  had  not  visited  in  four  years.  Here  he 
has  since  resided,  secure  in  a  fame  that  is  a  lustrous 
page  in  his  country's  history,  and  held  in  esteem, 
veneration  and  afTection  by  his  fellow-citizens. 
Thougli  not  actively  engaged  in  business  for  many 


years,  General  Morgan  has  been  fnuuicially  in- 
terested in  many  of  Quincy 's  most  prominent 
industries.  For  years  he  w-as  a  director,  and  part 
of  the  time  vice-president,  of  the  First  National 
Bank,  one  of  the  sound  financial  institutions  of 
the  city.  He  has  also  been  a  director  of  the 
Whitney  &  Holmes  Organ  Company,  and  the 
Omaha  &  Kansas  City  Railroad  Company;  was 
one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  Quincy  Gas  Light 
&  Coke  Company  and  was  for  many  years  treas- 
urer and  subseciuently  president  of  the  corpora- 
tion; also  a  director  in  the  Quincy  Electric  Light 
&  Power  Company  and  a  stockholder  in  the 
Quincv  Hotel  Company,  which  owns  the  magnifi- 
cent Hotel  Newcomb.  As  vice-president  of  the 
Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  of  Illinois 
he  has  been  a  prominent  figure  at  the  gatherings 
of  the  association,  and  as  treasurer  of  the  Soldiers' 
and  Sailors'  Home  at  Quincy — a  position  he  has 
held  since  its  organization — he  has  done  much 
toward  alleviating  the  poverty  of  many  of  the 
veterans  of  the  war. 

Politically  the  General  is  independent;  has  no 
desire  for  public  ofifice,  but  is  content  to  do  his 
duty  as  a  private  citizen  and  leave  office-seeking 
for  others. 

General  IMorgan  has  been  twice  married.  His 
first  wife,  whose  maiden  name  was  Jane  Strachan, 
died  in  1855,  leaving  two  sons:  William,  w-ho  re- 
sides in  Quincy,  and  James,  of  Everett,  Massachu- 
setts. On  the  14th  day  of  June,  1869,  he  was 
united  to  his  present  wife,  formerly  Miss  Harriet 
Evans,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  daughter 
of  Cajitain  Robert  G.  Evans. 


UEWITT  C.  DIMOCK, 


MOLINE. 


DEWITT  CLINTON  DIMOCK  was  born 
in  Willington,  Connecticut,  October  i,  1820, 
and  found  his  origin  in  a  strong  and  hardy  stock. 
His  early  days  were  uneventful,  and  were  spent 
in  his  native  State. 

In  1840  he  removed  from  his  Eastern  home 
to  Geneseo,  Illinois,  and  in  1843  came  to  Moline, 
where  he  follow-ed  his  trade,  that  of  wood-tuming. 
He  first  became  associated  with  a  Mr.  Sears,  in 
the  manufacture  of  bedsteads,  and  later  formed  a 


partnership   with   Gilbert    Pitts,    under   the   firm 
!'ame  of  Dimock  &  Pitts. 

In  1852  John  j\I.  Gould,  who  aftenvard  married 
Mr.  Dimock's  sister,  became  his  partner  in  the 
manufacture  of  woodenware,  and  thus  was  organ- 
ized the  now  great  lumber  concern  of  Dimock, 
Gould  &  Company.  A  factory  was  erected  on  the 
island,  which  was  operated  with  great  profit  until 
1867,  at  which  time,  the  government  requiring  the 
use  of  the  ground  they  occupied,  the  firm  was 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


;ii:{ 


compelled  to  move  to  the  main  land.  Here  they 
put  up  more  substantial  buildings,  including  a 
sawmill,  and  continued  on  in  their  prosperous 
career.  In  1875  fire  destroyed  the  sawmill,  but  it 
was  at  once  rebuilt,  larger  and  more  complete 
than  ever. 

When  the  business  was  incorporated,  Mr. 
Uimock  was  chosen  president  of  the  new  com- 
pany, which  office  he  held  until  1884,  when  he 
declined  to  serve  longer.  Later  he  was  elected 
treasurer,  and  continued  as  such  until  his  death, 
which  occurred  May  23,  1886.  In  1857  Mr. 
Dimock  and  Mr.  Gould  organized  the  banking 
house  of  Gould,  Dimock  &  Company,  which  in 
1863  became  the  First  National  Bank  of  Moline. 
Of  this  strong  financial  institution  he  was  for 
many  years  a  stockholder  and  director. 

While  making  no  ostentatious  parade  of  his 
religious  views,  Mr.  Dimock  was  a  firm  believer 
in  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  as  taught  by  the 


Congregational  Church,  of  which  he  was  one  of 
the  founders  and  most  liberal  contributors  in 
Moline.  He  was  a  strong  Republican,  but  never 
held  a  political  office,  nor  allowed  his  name  to  be 
used  in  connection  therewith. 

On  the  17th  day  of  June,  1843,  Mr.  Dimock  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Alaria  H.  Hubbard, 
daughter  of  Rufus  Hubbard  land  a  native  of 
Bergen,  New  York.  Of  the  two  children  bom  to 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dimock,  one  daughter,  Nellie,  died 
in  infancy;  the  other,  Florence,  grew  to  woman- 
hood, and  became  the  wife  of  Edward  H.  Sleight 
of  Moline. 

In  the  spring  of  1S86  Mr.  Dimock  was  attacked 
with  congestion  of  the  nerves,  which  incapaci- 
tated him  for  business.  Early  in  May  other  com- 
plications set  in,  which  caused  his  illness  to  termi- 
nate fatally.  His  death  was  mourned  far  beyond 
his  inmicdiate  family  circle,  for  he  was  esteemed 
by  a  large  circle  of  friends  and  acciuaintances. 


JAMES  E.  LOW,  D.  D.  S., 


THIS  is  an  age  of  progress,  and  America  h 
the  exponent  of  the  spirit  of  the  age.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century  our  countiy 
was  in  its  infancy,  and  historyshows  no  parallel  for 
its  growth  and  achievements.  No  other  country 
has  made  as  great  advancement  in  the  lines  of 
science  and  mechanical  invention  and  the  su- 
periority of  her  inventions  has  been  widely  recog- 
nized,—  acknowledged  in  that  triumph  of  Ameri- 
can art  and  genius,  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position, which  only  Chicago  could  have  pro- 
duced. In  this  steady  growth  and  development 
which  has  characterized  the  age,  the  science  of 
dentistry  has  kept  pace  with  the  general  progress, 
and  in  that  profession  Dr.  Low  stands  among  the 
foremost.  The  progress  which  has  been  made  in 
dentistry  is  largely  due  to  him,  and  in  future  ages 
the  world  will  recognize  him  as  a  benefactor  of  the 
race.  The  old  lines  of  usage  and  prejudice  he  has 
broken  down,  and  in  broader  fields  of  usefulness 
and  practice  he  has  led  a  large  following. 

Dr.   Low  was  born  in  Otsego  county.    New 
York,  in  1837,  and  is  a  son  of  Rinald  and  Susan 


(Haywood)  Low.  He  was  only  six  years  old 
when  his  father  died,  and  the  family  was  then  left 
in  somewhat  limited  circumstances.  This  neces- 
sarily made  his  educational  privileges  meager  and 
forced  him  early  in  life  to  earn  his  own  livelihood 
and  aid  in  support  of  the  family.  Thus  he  soon 
developed  a  self-reliance  and  force  of  character 
that  has  made  him  '"a  man  among  men."  He 
overcame  the  obstacles  in  his  path,  steadily  worked 
his  way  upward,  and  though  his  difficulties  were 
numerous  he  entertained  the  ambition  of  securing 
an  education  which  would  fit  him  for  a  profes- 
sional career.  With  this  end  in  view  he  studied 
night  and  day,  when  not  occupied  with  his  fami 
labors,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  for  a  thorough 
education  along  the  line  of  the  profession  which 
he  chose  as  his  life  work.  Not  content  with  a 
humble,  obscure  career,  as  a  youth  he  was  pos- 
sessed of  a  laudable  ambition  which  has  led  him 
onward  and  upward.  From  his  meager  earnings 
he  at  length  saved  a  sufficient  capital  to  enable 
him  to  pursue  further  his  studies,  in  Cooperstown 
Scnu'nary,   in  his  native  county.     There  he  ap- 


314 


nwoHAPinrAL  DwrioNAiiY  AXD  rouruAjr  oallkry  of  tuk 


l)lio(l  liiiHsi-lf  (liligi-iilly  to  his  work  and  soon 
mastered  the  branches  to  which  he  was  giving  his 
attention.  In  the  meantime  he  had  determined  to 
take  u])  the  study  of  dentistry,  and  upon  leaving 
tlie  academy  he  commenced  his  professional 
studies,  being  connected  with  some  of  the  leading 
dental  institutions  of  the  East  for  several  years. 
As  in  everything  else  with  which  he  has  been  con- 
nected he  was  not  content  with  a  superficial 
knowledge  of  the  subject  and  through  his  entire 
career  as  a  dentist  he  has  also  been  a  student. 

Dr.  Low  dates  his  arrival  in  Chicago  in  1865. 
He  opened  an  ofifice  and  his  skill  and  ability  soon 
won  recognition  in  a  large  and  lucrative  practice, 
and  also  gained  him  the  respect  of  his  profes- 
sional brethren  who  recognized  in  him  a  rival  that 
would  be  formidable  on  account  of  the  high  ex- 
cellence of  his  workmanship.  In  1870  he  became 
a  member  of  the  Illinois  State  Dental  Society, 
and  in  1873  joined  the  American  Dental  Society. 
He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Chicago  Dental 
Society,  but  withdrew  from  all  of  these  on  ac- 
count of  the  differences  of  opinion  regarding  his 
invention,  many  dentists  being  too  unprogressive 
to  acknowledge  the  superiority  of  his  excellent 
work.  What  has  gained  Dr.  Low  his  great,  well- 
merited  and  enviable  notoriety  and  placed  him  in 
the  lead  of  the  dental  fraternity  are  results  of  his 
untiring  and  unremitting  study.  In  former  years 
dentistry  was  largely  the  practice  of  extracting 
teeth,  and  this  was  often  done  in  an  almost  bar- 
barous manner.  Dr.  Low  rebelled  against  such 
practices,  believing  something  better  could  take 
the  place  of  those  cruel  methods.  If  a  set  of 
teeth  became  decayed  and  troublesome  they  were 
extracted,  and  in  their  place  was  put  a  cumber- 
some set  of  false  teeth.  To  the  old  system  and  its 
usages  he  was  directly  opposed,  and  for  years 
gave  his  time  and  attention,  his  thought  and  labor, 
to  provide  a  substitute  for  extracted  teeth  which 
would  be  more  after  nature's  methods. 

In  the  first  place  Dr.  Low  does  not  believe  that  a 
troublesome  tooth  is  fit  only  for  the  forceps ;  on  the 
contrary  he  thinks  that  every  possible  effort  should 
be  put  forth  to  save  and  restore  to  a  healthful  con- 
dition this  diseased  organ.  If  this  cannot  be  done 
and  a  tooth  must  be  removed,  he  then  believes  in 
replacing  it  with  an  artificial  one,  but  not  to  put 
this  in  on  a  cumbersome    plate  which  occupies 


too  nuich  space  in  the  moutli  entirely  and  often 
affects  the  speech  and  taste.  He  gave  to  the  sub- 
ject his  earnest  attention,  and  as  the  result  of  long 
and  earnest  thought  he  invented  a  process,  called 
the  "no-plate  method,"  by  which  artificial  teeth 
are  attached  to  the  natural  teeth  or  roots  by  im- 
movable gold  bands  or  crowns.  This  was  cer- 
tainly an  innovation  in  the  profession  and  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  dentists  throughout  the 
country.  Many  soon  recognized  the  merits  of  the 
invention,  acknowledged  its  superiority  over  old 
methods  and  Dr.  Low-  soon  had  a  large  following; 
yet  much  opposition  was  also  aroused  and  blinded 
prejudice  had  to  be  overcome;  but  the  unwaver- 
ing perseverance  and  resolute  purpose  which  have 
characterized  his  entire  life  overcame  this,  as  well 
as  other  obstacles,  and  to-day  the  profession  ac- 
cedes his  right  to  the  prominence  which  his  work 
has  won  for  him.  The  Doctor  is  devoting  a  large 
share  of  his  time  to  perfecting  processes  by  which 
the  teeth  and  the  natural  conditions  of  the  mouth 
may  be  preserved.  He  believes  that  one's  teeth 
were  made  to  last  while  life  lasts,  and  has  long 
since  supported  the  truth,  which  is  now  widely  ac- 
cepted, that  the  health  of  an  individual  depends 
largely  upon  the  condition  of  the  teeth.  This 
trath  he  continually  tries  to  impress  upon  the 
public,  urging  upon  the  people  the  care  and  pres- 
en'ation  of  this  part  of  their  anatomy,  even  though 
it  should  lessen  his  patronage.  Yet  there  is  no 
fear  that  Dr.  Low  will  not  always  be  a  busy  man 
as  long  as  he  cares  to  continue  his  w^ork.  His 
reputation  is  too  well  and  too  firmly  established 
for  him  ever  to  find  idle  moments, — when  his 
services  ai^e  not  required  professionally.  It  is 
only  when  he  compels  himself  to  take  rest  and 
recreation  that  his  office  is  not  filled  with  patients. 
Not  long  since  there  has  been  established  in 
Chicago,  by  a  company  representing  large  cap- 
ital, a  school  for  the  instruction  of  his  methods, 
and  there  he  spends  considerable  time, — the  ex- 
ponent of  his  advanced  and  progressive  views. 
He  has  also  given  much  time  to  the  manufacture 
of  dental  appliances  of  his  own  invention  and  has 
given  to  the  profession  many  valuable  instruments 
and  other  appliances  which  simplify  the  work 
and  lessen  the  pain  to  the  patient.  The  increased 
demand  for  these  by  the  public  led  him  to  man- 
ufacture on  an  extensive  scale,  and  the  finest  ma- 


RKPREfiENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  rXITED  STATES:  ILLIXOTS  VOL^^fE. 


315 


cliinerv  and  equipment  have  been  obtained  for 
t!ie  purpose.  In  connection  with  tlie  Other  work, 
the  manufacture  of  porcelain  teeth  lias  also  been 
added,  this  being  the  first  and  only  manufactoPt- 
of  teeth  in  the  West.  The  business  has  grown 
in  volume  and  importance,  and  is  now  a  leading 
industry  of  the  city.  Tliis  became  a  necessity 
to  work  out  the  more  improved  methods,  as  teeth 
manufactured  by  the  old  processes  cannot  be 
used. 

The  domestic  relations  of  Dr.  Low  have  been 
most  pleasant.  He  was  married  in  Milford, 
Xew  York,  to  Roena  Knapp,  a  lady  of  varied 
attainments  and  abilities,  whose  many  charms 
liave  made  her  as  popular  in  society  as  she  is  with 
her   own   intimate    friends.     Their   children    are 


Maud,  born  July  24,  184S.  and  Mabel,  born  Sep- 
tember 20,   1861. 

The  Doctor  has  devoted  himself  to  that  which 
he  loves, — his  family  and  his  profession.  Hi.s 
pleasant,  genial  manner  wins  him  friends  wher- 
ever he  goes,  haughtiness  and  ostentation  finding 
no  part  in  his  composition.  His  years  rest  lightly 
upon  him  and  the  fine  physique  which  he  devel- 
oped in  his  earlier  days  has  the  vigor  of  a  man 
many  years  his  junior.  He  is  a  typical  represent- 
ative of  the  age  in  which  he  lives  and  of  the  city 
which  is  his  home,  and  truly  his  life  may  be 
termed  a  success,  for  the  principles  for  which 
he  has  lived  he  has  seen  adopted  and  hon- 
ored,— a  success  which  is  above  that  of  the 
millionaire. 


WILLIAM  R.  MOORE, 


MR.  MOORE  was  born  in  Pittsburg,  Penn- 
sylvania, June  26,  1852,  and  is  the  second 
of  the  eight  children  of  John  and  Catherine  (Foy) 
Moore,  the  former  for  a  number  of  years  a  mer- 
chant ofMoline  but  now  retired  from  active  busi- 
ness. In  1857  our  subject  removed  with  his  parents 
to  Moline,  in  which  city  he  attended  the  common 
schools,  supplementing  the  instruction  received 
there  with  a  course  at  a  commercial  school  in 
Daveni>ort,  Iowa,  at  which  he  graduated. 

His  first  eniployment  after  finishing  his  educa- 
tion was  as  clerk  in  a  grocery  store  in  Moline, 
where  he  remained  about  two  years:  but,  deciding 
to  make  the  law  his  profession,  he  abandoned  that 
situation  and  entered  the  law  office  of  J.  T.  Brown- 
ing as  a  student,  in  1870.  On  the  13th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1873,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  but  did 
not  leave  Mr.  Browning  until  a  year  later,  when 
he  formed  a  partnership  with  W.  J.  Entrikin,  the 
firm  name  being  Entrikin  &  Moore.  This  con- 
nection continued  for  the  ensuing  year  and  a  half 
and  was  then  dissolved,  since  which  time  Mr. 
Moore  has  practiced  alone. 

He  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  prominent 
lawyers  of  his  city,  and  has  been  connected  with 
many  of  the  most  important  cases  that  have  been 
before  the  local  courts.     In  the  spring  of  1894 


he  was  employed  to  assist  the  city  attorney  of 
Moline  in  an  action  against  tlie  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific,  and  the  Chicago,  Burlington  & 
Quincy  Railroad  Companies,  which  had  been  in 
the  courts  previously,  and  had  always  resulted  in 
a  victory  for  the  railroads ;  with  Mr.  Moore  in  the 
case  the  result  was  different,  and  the  railroad  com- 
panies were  defeated, — a  significant  fact  of  itself 
as  an  indication  of  his  legal  ability. 

Following  this,  in  April,  1895,  after  the  elec- 
tion of  Gustaf  Swensson  mayor,  the  city  council 
created  the  office  of  corporation  counsel,  and  Mr. 
Moore  was  appointed  by  the  mayor  to  fill  the 
office  thus  created  for  the  first  time;  and  his  ap- 
pointment was  unanimously  confirmed  by  the 
council.  The  legal  department  of  the  city  now 
consists  of  the  corporation  counsel  and  the  city 
attorney,  the  latter  being  elected  by  the  people. 

In  political  belief  our  subject  was  for  many 
years  a  Republican  and  a  great  admirer  of  the 
lamented  Blaine;  but,  becoming  dissatisfied  with 
that  party's  policy  on  the  tarifif  question,  lie  trans- 
ferred his  allegiance  to  the  DemcKracy.  While 
he  was  reading  law  he  served  as  town  clerk  of 
Moline,  and  in  January,  1884,  was  appointed  city 
attorney  by  Mayor  E.  B.  Knox,  to  fill  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  resignation  of  E.  J.  Dalims,  which 


316 


inOdllAPIliaAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POltniAJT  CALLEllT  OF  TIIIC 


office  liL  IkIiI  fnr  a  war  and  a  half.  Tie  was  also 
elected  in  1S76  to  the  office  of  city  attorney,  and 
served  ably  and  faithfully  during  the  term  for 
which  he  was  chosen. 

W'lun  any  new  cnteiprise  is  proposed  which 
promises  benefit  to  his  city  Mr.  Moore  is  always 
on  hand  ready  to  help  with  his  means  and  influ- 
ence. In  October,  1884,  he  organized  the  Moline 
Central  Street  Railway  Company,  and  was  secre- 
tary of  the  company  until  1888,  and  after  that  its 
president  until  iSgi.  He  was  the  principal  mover 
in  equijiping  the  road  with  electricity,  it  being  the 
second  street  railroad  in  the  State  to  adopt  that 
power.  At  the  same  time,  not  only  was  electricity 
added,  but  three  times  as  much  road  as  was  previ- 
ously built  was  added  to  the  system.  He  also  su- 
perintended the  laying  out  and  beautifying  of 
Prospect  Park,  and  was  one  of  the  original  mem- 
l)ers  of  the  famous  Sylvan  Boat  Club,  of  which 
•he  was  secretary  and  president  for  a  number  of 
years.     For  two  years  he  was  president  of  the 


Mississippi  Valley  Amateur  Rowing  Association, 
and  during  his  administration  the  association  be- 
came free  from  debt  for  the  first  time  in  its  history. 
When  Rock  Island  and  Moline  decided  to  put  a 
base-ball  team  into  the  field  Mr.Moorewas  chosen 
as  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  organization,  and  did 
much  toward  its  support  and  advancement.  He 
is  also  interested  in  silver  mining  in  Colorado, 
being  secretary  of  the  Georgetown  Tunnel  and 
Mining  Company  of  that  State.  In  company  with 
Messrs.  E.  H.  Guyer,  of  Rock  Island,  and  T.  A. 
Murphy,  of  Davenport,  Mr.  Aloore  is  interested 
in  the  Tri-City  Electric  Sprinkler  Company,  a  cor- 
poration formed  for  the  purpose  of  sprinkling  the 
streets  of  the  three  cities.  As  may  be  inferred 
from  the  name,  the  sprinklers'  motive  power  is 
electricity.  Its  operation  has  been  attended  with 
great  success. 

Socially  he  is  a  member  of  the  Societies  of 
Modern  Woodmen  and  Knights  of  the  Globe, 
though  not  an  active  member  in  either  order. 


THERON  CUMINS 


T HERON  CUMINS  was  born  in  Tun- 
bridge,  Orange  covmty,  Vermont.  July  12, 
1825,  and  was  the  youngest  of  the  seven  children 
of  Joseph  and  Hannah  (Converse)  Cumins,  both 
of  whom  also  were  natives  of  that  State. 

In  1840  the  father  of  our  subject  removed  to 
CMiio,  making  the  journey  by  team  and  canal  to 
Buffalo,  and  thence  on  Lake  Erie  to  Fairport, 
Ohio,  where  he  engaged  in  the  mercantile  busi- 
ness, which  had  been  his  vocation  in  the  East. 
Later  he  removed  to  Illinois  and  made  his  home 
at  Grand  Detour,  where  he  remained  until  his 
death,  in  185 1. 

As  a  boy  young  Thcron  received  but  a  meager 
education  at  the  local  district  school  and  a  neigh- 
boring academy.  Since  leaving  these  institu- 
tions, however,  he  has  acquired  a  most  thorough 
practical  knowledge  in  the  great  school  of  ex- 
perience. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  became  a  clerk  in  his 
father's  store,  and  two  years  later,  in  1842,  made 
his  first  visit  to  Illinois,  going  to  Chicago  by  the 


Great  Lakes,  and  making  the  journey  from  that 
city  to  Grand  Detour,  then  a  small  but  prom- 
ising village,  by  stage.  Though  poor  in  purse, 
he  was  rich  in  industry  and  ambition,  and  soon 
after  his  arrival  obtained  a  clerical  position  in  a 
general  store.  Here  he  remained  three  years, 
and  at  the  expiration  of  that  period  returned 
East  as  far  as  Newark,  Ohio,  where  he  passed  the 
subsequent  four  years.  He  then  returned  to 
Grand  Detour  and  entered  into  partnership  with 
his  brother,  Solon,  and  carried  on  a  dry-goods 
business  for  a  couple  of  years.  Again  he  went 
to  Ohio,  where  he  became  a  railroad  contractor, 
and  as  such  built  a  portion  of  the  line  of  the  Ohio 
&  Indiana  Railroad,  which  is  now  a  part  of  the 
great  Pennsylvania  system.  In  this  he  was  suc- 
cessful and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  his  later 
success.  When  his  contract  was  completed  he 
returned  to  Grand  Detour  and  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  Major  I-eonard  Andrus  in  the  plow- 
manufacturing  business,  which  had  been  founded 
by  Major  Andrus  and  John  Deere,  late  of  Mo- 


BEPEESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


•AY, 


line.  A  disastrous  fire  a  few  years  previous  to 
this  time  had  badly  crippled  the  business  and  its 
affairs  were  not  in  a  prosperous  condition.  IMr. 
Cumins  had  traveled  and  attended  to  the  routine 
work  of  the  office  for  a  year,  when  one  day  in 
August,  1863,  Major  Andrus  told  him  that  his 
physician  had  said  he  must  rest  from  active  busi- 
ness and  the  attendant  anxiety.  He  thereupon 
tendered  Mr.  Cumins  an  interest  in  the  firm, 
which  was  accepted,  and  the  latter  entered  upon 
the  career  in  whicli  he  has  been  so  successful. 
Major  Andrus  went  East  in  search  of  health, 
and  ]\Ir.  Gumins  was  in  full  charge  of  the  busi- 
ness, into  which  he  threw  his  entire  energy,  with 
a  result  that  the  prosperity  of  the  establishment 
became  an  assured  fact.  He  made  every  detail 
of  the  business  his  careful  study  and  soon  became 
thoroughly  conversant  with  all  the  intricacies  of 
their  most  minute  phases. 

In  1867  Major  Andrus  died,  and  until  i86g 
Mr.  Cumins  continued  the  business  alone.  Owing 
to  inadequate  shipping  facilities  at  Grand  Detour, 
Mr.  Cumins  had  for  a  long  time  been  desirous 
of  moving  the  plant  to  Dixon,  and  had  in  his 
mind  a  most  advantageous  location  selected  in 
that  city.  In  June  of  the  last  named  year  he 
took  in  as  a  partner  Colonel  Henry  T.  Noble, 
and  the  works  were  then  removed  to  their  present 
location,  on  the  land  that  Mr.  Cumins  had  so 
long  had  in  view,  and  adjacent  to  the  tracks  of 
the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  and  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroads.  The  firm  then  became  known 
as  T.  Cumins  &  Company.  In  June,  1874,  O.  B. 
Dodge  was  admitted  to  the  firm,  which  was 
changed  to  Cumins,  Noble  &  Dodge.  In  June, 
1879,  it  was  incorporated  as  the  Grand  Detour 
Plow  Company,  and  as  such  continues  on  its 
prosperous  career.  Ever  since  its  incorporation 
Mr.   Cumins  has  been   its  prcsi<lcnt.       Of  late 


ycai's,  however,  he  has  retired  from  active  par- 
ticipation in  the  management  of  the  details  of  the 
business,  though  in  an  advisory  capacity  he  keeps 
fully  in  touch  with  all  the  points  of  its  workings. 

As  the  works  grew  from  year  to  year,  new  and 
modern  machinery  was  added,  electric  lights  put 
in,  and  the  buildings  kept  up  to  the  requirements 
of  an  increasing  trade.  In  the  busy  season  the 
plant  is  operated  night  and  day,  and  furnishes 
employment  to  a  large  number  of  workmen.  The 
output  of  the  Grand  Detour  Plow  Works  is 
found  in  every  Western  State,  and  is  well  and 
favorably  known  abroad. 

Mr.  Cumins  is  interested  in  other  business  en- 
terprises as  well,  and  is  a  director  and  the  vice 
president  of  the  Dixon  National  Bank,  one  of 
the  sound  monetary  institutions  of  the  State. 

During  his  active  business  life  probably  no  man 
worked  harder  or  longer  than  Mr.  Cumins.  Of 
late  years,  however,  he  has  traveled  extensively, 
and  frequently  in  the  summer  season  visits  the 
Adirondacks,  Lake  George,  and  Atlantic  resorts, 
or  wanders  back  to  old  Vermont  and  renews  ac- 
quaintance with  the  scenes  of  his  boyhood  days. 

Mr.  Cumins'  success  may  be  ascribed  to  close 
application  and  untiring  industry,  and  all  that  he 
is  and  all  that  he  has  are  the  results  of  his  own 
labors.  His  residence  occupies  a  block  of 
ground  at  the  comer  of  North  Galena  avenue 
and  Fellows  street,  where  he  has  dwelt  for  eigh- 
teen years.  It  is  truly  an  ideal  spot,  and  one  of 
tlie  most  beautiful  of  Dixon's  handsome  homes. 

Mr.  Cumins'  family  consists  of  his  wife,  who 
was  formerly  Miss  Louise  B.  Gill,  of  Ohio,  to 
whom  he  was  married  in  1884,  and  two  daugh- 
ters— children  of  a  former  marriage. 

In  respect  to  religion,  Mr.  Cumins  attends  the 
Episcopal  church  and  is  a  contributor  to  its 
support.  ,     I    .    ! 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


319 


HENRY  SIEGEL, 


To  sav  of  him  \vln5sc  name  heads  this  sketch 
that  he  has  risen  unaided  from  comparative 
oV)Scurity  to  rank  among"  the  millionaire  merchant 
princes  of  the  world,  is  a  statement  that  seems 
trite  to  those  familiar  with  his  hfe,  yet  it  is  but 
just  to  say  in  a  history  that  will  descend  to  future 
jjencrations  that  his  lousiness  record  has  been  one 
that  any  man  would  be  proud  to  possess.  Be- 
g^inning  at  the  very  bottom  round  of  the  ladder 
he  has  advanced  steadily  step  by  step  until  he 
is  now  occupying  a  position  of  prominence  and 
trust  reached  by  very  few  men.  Through  his 
entire  business  career  he  has  been  looked  upon 
as  a  model  of  integrity  and  honor,  never  mak- 
ing an  engagement  that  he  has  not  fulfilled  and 
standing  to-day  an  example  of  what  determina- 
tion and  force,  combined  with  the  highest  degree 
of  business  integrity  can  accomplish  for  a  man 
of  natural  ability  and  .strength  of  character.  He 
is  respected  by  the  connnunity  at  large  and  hon- 
ored by  his  business  associates.  In  the  world  of 
politics  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  called  "The 
Little  Giant,"  and  that  term  might  well  be  ap- 
plied in  the  world  of  trade  to  the  president  of  the 
firm  of  Siegel,  Cooper  &  Company. 

A  native  of  Germany,  Mr.  Siegel  was  born  in 
Eubigheim,  on  the  17th  of  March,  1852,  and  is 
therefore  now  in  the  very  prime  of  life  and  des- 
tined to  even  greater  prominence  and  success  in 
business.  His  parents,  Lazarus  and  Zerlina 
(Kock)  Siegel,  had  a  family  of  ten  sons,  Henry 
being  the  eighth  in  order  of  birth.  His  father 
was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and  served  as  bur- 
gomaster of  the  city  in  which  he  lived.  He  was 
honest,  thrifty  and  industrious, — sterling  quali- 
ties that  his  son  Henry  inherited  from  him.  He 
died  in  1890,  his  wife  having  passed  away  the 
year  previous.  The  first  of  the  family  to  come 
to  America  was  B.  Siegel,  who  crossed  the  Atlan- 
tic forty-five  years  ago,  and  all  the  other  brothers 
had  emigrated  to  the  New  World  before  Henry 
sought  a  home  here.  Some  of  the  members  of 
the  family  lived  in  Washington,  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, and  took  an  active  part  as  soldiers  in  the 
war  of  the  Rebellion. 


On  the  I2th  of  July,  1867,  Henry  Siegel  landed 
in  the  L^nitcd  States.  He  began  his  education  in 
the  common  schools  of  his  native  land,  and  pos- 
sessing an  observing  eye  and  retentive  memory 
he  stored  away  in  the  recesses  of  his  mind  much 
valuable  information  and  business  experience 
that  have  made  him  the  practical  man  of  affairs 
which  we  to-day  find  him.  On  reaching  this 
country  he  spent  one  week  in  New  York  city, 
and  then  went  to  Washington,  where  he  found 
employment  in  the  clothing  store  at  a  salary  of 
three  dollars  and  a  half  per  week.  He  remained 
in  that  position  four  years,  steadily  winning  pro- 
motion until  he  was  receiving  fifteen  dollars  per 
week.  In  no  other  country  than  America  is  merit 
so  surely  rewarded,  and  the  faithfulness  and  in- 
dustry of  Mr.  Siegel  were  recognized  by  his  ad- 
vancement from  one  position  to  another,  with  a 
corresponding  increase  in  wages.  During  this 
time  he  also  attended  night  school.  He  saw 
the  need  of  an  education  and  profited  by  the 
knowledge.  Llis  early  years  in  America  were, 
therefore,  a  period  of  almost  continuous  employ- 
ment, either  behind  the  counter  or  with  his  text- 
books, but  the  years  of  sowing  have  since  yielded 
a  rich  harvest. 

On  leaving  Washington  Mr.  Siegel  went  to 
Parkersburg,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  em- 
ployed in  his  brothers'  store  for  two  years,  when 
the  Siegel  Brothers  established  a  store  in  Law- 
renceburg,  Pennsylvania,  Henry  becoming  one  of 
the  partners.  Several  years  later  they  sold  out 
and  all  came  to  Chicago  in  January,  1876,  since 
which  time  the  firm  of  Siegel  Brothers  has  been 
prominently  identified  with  the  commercial  inter- 
ests of  this  city.  They  established  the  firm  of 
Siegel,  Hartsfeld  &  Company,  manufacturers  of 
ladies'  cloaks,  and  were  soon  doing  a  flourishing 
business  which  has  now  assumed  extensive  pro- 
portions. Henry  Siegel  went  upon  the  road  as 
a  traveling  representative  of  this  house  for  eight 
years,  and  its  introduction  to  the  merchants 
throughout  the  country  was  due  in  no  small  de- 
gree to  his  efforts.  An  enviable  reputation  was 
soon  established  and  after  four  years  Mr.  Harts- 


820 


BIOORAPinCAL  DICTIONAnr  AND  mUTRAir  OALLKRY  OF  THE 


fekl  sold  his  interest  to  the  other  members  of  the 
firm,  which  is  still  doing  business  under  the 
name  of  Siegcl  Brothers.  Henry  Siegel  was  ever 
watchful  and  alert  and  took  advantage  of  the  op- 
portunity to  notice  the  wants,  defects  and  short- 
comings of  all  the  retail  stores  with  which  his 
business  brought  him  in  contact,  and  it  was  then 
that  he  resolved  to  improve  upon  tliem  and  to 
open  a  store  that  would  be  a  wonder  and  a  mar- 
vel,— for  it  was  the  dream  and  ambition  of  his  life 
to  be  a  retail  merchant.  After  ten  years  he  sold 
his  interest  in  the  manufacturing  establishment 
and  formed  a  friendship  with  Frank  H.  Cooper, 
a  prominent  merchant  of  Peoria,  Illinois,  which 
resulted  in  tlie  formation  of  the  firm  of  Siegcl, 
Cooper  &  Company.  The  phenomenal  success 
of  the  firm  is  well-known, — how  they  began  oper- 
ations at  the  corner  of  Adams  and  State  streets 
on  the  28th  of  May,  1887,  and  there  continued, 
winning  the  good-will,  confidence  and  golden 
opinons  of  the  people,  until  August  2,  1890,  when 
their  house  was  destroyed  by  fire ;  how  new  quar- 
ters were  at  once  secured  and  business  opened 
on  a  larger  scale  at  the  comer  of  Adams  street 
and  Wabash  avenue;  and  how  they  eventually 
opened  the  "big  store,"  the  most  extensive  store, 
not  alone  in  Chicago,  but  in  the  world.  The  peo- 
ple of  the  metropolis  point  with  pride  to  this 
vast  concern  as  typical  of  the  city's  progress.  It 
is  a  monument  to  the  enterprise  and  indomita- 
ble energies  of  the  proprietors, — the  product  of 
the  fertile  brain,  the  ready  hand  and  superior  di- 
recting powers  of  the  owners.  What  Mr.  Siegel 
has  accomplished  in  the  world  of  commerce  can- 
not adequately  be  told  in  words.  It  is  certainly 
not  asserting  too  much  to  say  of  one  who  can 
direct  and  control  a  business  of  such  magnitude, 
that  he  must  possess,  aside  from  mercantile  fore- 
sight and  sagacity,  the  happy  faculty  of  reading 
and  judging  men,  unusual  powers  of  organiza- 
tion and  executive  ability, — in  a  word  that  he 
must  be  a  master  mind.  And  yet,  if  one  shall 
seek  in  Mr.  Siegel's  career  the  causes  that  have 
led  to  his  success,  they  will  be  found  along  the 
lines  of  well-tried  and  old-time  maxims.  Hon- 
esty and  fair  dealing,    promptness,  truthfulness, 


fidelity, — all  these  are  strictly  enforced  and  ad- 
hered to.  Faithfulness  on  the  part  of  employes 
is  promoted  by  the  knowledge  that  good  service 
means  advancement  as  opportunity  opens  and 
that  neglect  of  duty  will  not  be  tolerated,  and  is 
further  enhanced  by  the  interest  taken  by  the 
employer  in  the  personal  welfare  of  the  deserving. 

Gigantic  and  extensive  as  is  the  store  in  Chi- 
cago, the  firm  is  now  making  preparations  for  a 
still  larger  one  in  New  York,  of  which  Mr.  Siegel 
will  take  active  charge.  The  building  is  already 
under  way,  and  will  be  a  fire-proof  structure, 
465  X  200  feet,  seven  stories  in  height,  the  cost 
being  four  million  dollars.  It  is  located  on  Sixth 
avenuQ,  between  Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth 
streets,  and  employment  will  there  be  given  to 
three  thousand  individuals.  A  store  in  New  York 
has  been  a  pet  scheme  of  Mr.  Siegel's  for  years 
and  the  magnificence  of  the  undertaking  will 
bear  testimony  to  his  enterprise,  ability  and  fore- 
sight. The  policy  which  he  has  always  followed 
and  which  has  already  made  him  one  of  the  most 
potents  factors  in  commerce  assures  prosperity 
to  the  new  store,  and  the  old  Knickerbocker  city 
will  have  represented  in  this  establishment  a  pro- 
gressive concern  that  brings  the  alert,  wide-awake 
spirit  of  the  West  into  the  Eastern  metropolis. 

In  1885  Mr.  Siegel  married  Miss  Julia  Rosen- 
baum,  of  Chicago,  daughter  of  Samuel  R.  Rosen- 
baum.  She  died  in  December,  1886,  leaving  a 
daughter,  Julia  F.  Mr.  Siegel  is  liberal  and  un- 
ostentatious in  his  charities,  giving  freely  to 
worthy  objects.  There  is  no  detail  of  the  vast 
business  too  small  to  be  overlooked  by  him.  He 
gives  everything  his  personal  attention.  He  is 
the  life  and  master  spirit  of  the  vast  concern,  com- 
prising sixty-five  complete  stores,  separate  and 
distinct  in  one.  He  is  liberal,  and  above  all  he 
is  just.  He  is  dearly  loved  by  all  of  his  employes. 
Flis  maxims  are  honesty,  fair  dealing,  apprecia- 
tion and  truthfulness.  He  always  appreciates 
faithfulness  on  the  part  of  his  employes,  is  quick 
to  reward  good  service  and  to-day  stands  a  promi- 
nent figure  in  the  mercantile  world, — ^an  honest, 
upright,  self-made  man  and  an  up-to-date  mer- 
chant. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


321 


WILLIAM  A.  PINKERTON, 


THE  name  whidi  introduces  this  review  is 
one  which  is  famiHar  to  the  residents  of  all 
sections  of  the  Union,  if  not,  indeed,  of  the  entire 
civilized  world,  and  it  is  one  which  suggests  to 
the  honest  man  a  feeHng  of  confidence  and  se- 
curity, and  to  the  evil-doer  it  betokens  a  power 
which  is  feared  as  the  instrument  through  which 
he  is  most  likely  to  meet  with  apprehension  and 
thereafter  expiate  for  his  malfeasance  to  the  laws 
which  are  the  stable  foundation  of  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  his  fellow  beings.  There  is  a  dis- 
tinctive element  of  psychical  interest  attaching  to 
the  thought  that  a  mere  name  can  thus  produce 
in  two  different  beings  such  conflicting  senti- 
ments, and  of  this  element  the  various  members 
of  this  famous  family  of  detectives  have  had  cog- 
nizance, while  they  have  invariably  grown  strong 
in  their  cliarity  for  weak  human  nature,  whose 
crimes  are  more  often  results  than  anything  else. 
To  have  traced  through  the  intricate  career  of 
a  subtle  criminal,  be  he  in  high  station  or  low, 
can  not  fail  of  having  granted  a  deeper  insight 
into  the  intrinsic  essence  of  character,  nor  can  it 
fail  to  inspire  a  wholesome  pity  for  the  wrong- 
doer, whose  punishment  is  essential  to  the  se- 
curity and  protection  of  the  public  as  well  as  to 
protecting  him  from  his  own  misguided  tenden- 
cies. The  life  of  an  honest  detective  is  not,  as 
many  think,  such  an  one  as  will  make  its  subject 
turn  callous  and  unsympathetic,  but  on  the  con- 
trary the  development  is  more  likely  to  be  along 
the  line  of  extraordinary  sensitiveness  and  broad- 
est charity. 

William  A.  Pinkcrton  was  born  in  Dundee, 
Kane  county,  Illinois,  on  the  7th  of  April,  1846, 
the  son  of  Allan  and  Joan  (Carfrae)  Pinkerton 
of  whose  nine  children  he  was  second  in  order 
of  birth.  Allan  Pinkerton  was  born  in  the  his- 
toric old  city  of  Glasgow,  Scotland,  where  he 
grew  to  manhood,  little  thinking,  as  he  labored 
industriously  at  his  honest  but  prosaic  trade,  that 
in  the  New  World  he  would  in  time  gain  recog- 
nition as  one  of  the  most  capable  detectives  that 
time  has  brought  forth.  He  married  Joan  Car- 
frae, a  native  of  Rflinborough,  in  1842.  and  upon 


the  very  day  which  marked  the  nuptial  ceremony 
they  set  sail  for  America,  locating  in  Chicago  in 
the  year  1842.  Mr.  Pinkerton  was  a  cooper  by 
trade,  and  in  this  line  was  secured  his  first  em- 
ployment in  Chicago,  where  he  was  retained  as 
an  artisan  by  the  Lill  Brewing  Company.  After 
working  here  for  some  time  he  removed  with  his 
family  to  Dundee,  Kane  county,  where  our  sub- 
ject and  his  brother,  Robert  A.,  the  two  famous 
detectives,  were  born.  Plere  the  father  was  ap- 
pointed a  deputy  sheriff  of  Kane  county,  in 
which  capacity  he  served  for  some  time,  after 
which  he  returned  with  his  family  to  Chicago, 
where  he  was  appointed  to  a  similar  preferment. 
When  the  police  department  was  organized  in 
the  city  he  was  made  the  first  detective  on  the 
force,  and  was  also  selected  as  a  Government 
po'Stoffice  inspector.  In  1850,  at  the  solicitation 
of  the  few  railroads  having  termini  in  Chicago, 
he  founded  the  great  agency  w^iioh  bears  his 
name,  and  this  he  conducted,  with  that  success 
which  has  made  his  name  known  far  and  wide, 
until  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  July  i, 
1884. 

inuring  the  late  Civil  war  Allan  Pinkerton  was 
chief  of  the  United  States  Secret  Service,  and  in 
this  connection  his  able  efforts  were  a  most  po- 
tent influence  toward  insuring  the  success  of  the 
Union  arms. 

The  immediate  subject  of  this  sketch,  William 
A.  Pinkcrton,  received  his  elementary  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  and  later  sup- 
plemented the  instruction  thus  acquired  by  a 
course  in  the  University  of  Xotre  Dame,  at  South 
Bend,  Indiana.  As  a  young  man  still  in  his 
'teens,  he  left  home  to  enter  the  secret  service  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  of  which  branch  of 
the  military  his  father  was  chief,  as  already  noted. 
In  this  connection  the  young  man  served  under 
Generals  McClellan,  Burnside,  Hooker  and 
Meade,  and  later  under  Major  General  Canby, 
commanding  the  Department  of  the  Gulf,  in 
which  last  connection  our  subject  served  until 
the  clo.>e  of  the  war. 

Having  thus  lent  effective  aid  in  defending  his 


322 


juoanAPincAL  Dirr/oxAnr  A.XD  ponrnAir  gallery  of  the 


country,  Air.  l^iiikertoii  received  his  discharge  and 
again  made  preparations  for  usefuhiess  in  "the 
piping  times  of  peace."  In  1865  he  entered  the 
Bryant  &  Stratton  Business  College,  where  he 
pursued  his  studies  for  some  time,  after  which 
he  secured  employment  with  his  father's  detective 
agency,  where  in  a  short  time,  through  consecu- 
tive promotions,  he  was  advanced  to  the  position 
of  superintendent  of  the  Chicago  office.  Upon 
the  death  of  his  father,  in  1884,  he  and  his  brother 
assumed  control  of  the  famous  detective  agency, 
our  subject  retaining  the  management  of  the 
Western  division,  and  his  brother,  Robert  A., 
assvmving  a  similar  executive  office  in  the  Eastern 
division.  The  latter  division  has  supervision  of 
the  offices  located  in  New  York,  Boston  and  Phil- 
adelphia; while  the  Western  division  maintains 
control  over  the  offices  at  Chicago,  Saint  Paul, 
St.  Louis,  Kansas  City,  Denver,  Portland  and 
San  Francisco. 

The  agency  retains  in  its  employ  an  aggregate 
corps  of  about  one  thousand  men,  and  in  addi- 
tion to  its  operations  in  the  United  States, 
branches  arc  maintained  in  Europe,  and  these  are 
operated  under  the  direction  of  the  Eastern  di- 
vision. To  enter  into  details  concerning  the 
work  of  the  Pinkerton  detective  agency  would 
practically  include  a  recapitulation  of  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  most  celebrated  cases  in  the  annals 
of  crime  for  many  years  past, — and  this  indul- 
gence would  scarcely  be  compatible  in  an  article 
of  this  nature.  However,  it  will  not  be  malapro- 
pos to  mention  a  few  of  the  more  important  cases 
which  have  been  ferreted  out  by  the  agency,  and 
in  the  list  we  select  the  following  as  designating 
the  success  which  the  Pinkertons  have  had  in 
bringing  criminals  to  the  bar  of  justice:  The 
capturing  of  the  thieves  who  defrauded  the  Bank 
of  England,  in  1873;  the  apprehension  of  the  Far- 
rington-Barton-Taylor  gang  of  train  robbers  in 
Tennessee;  the  Kewanee  bank  robbers,  of  Illi- 
nois; the  Tiskilwa  bank  robbers,  Bureau  county, 
Illinois;  robbers  of  the  Union  National  Bank, 
of  Duluth,  Minnesota;  of  the  Merchants'  Na- 
tional Bank,  of  Saint  Paul;  and  the  Bank  of  the 
Republic,  Chicago;  the  Brockway  and  the  Jack 
Bush  gangs  of  forgers;  the  arrest  and  conviction 
of  Schwartz  and  Watt  for  the  murder  and  rob- 
bery of  Nicols,  the  United  States  Express  messen- 


ger on  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  rail- 
road; arrest  of  the  Palmer  House  jewelry  rob- 
bers and  also  the  Clifton  House  jewelry  robbers, 
Chicago;  and  the  arrest  and  conviction  of  Fritz 
Dhien,  who  made  away  with  twenty  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  jewelry  at  Dayton,  Ohio. 

The  Pinkertons  are  police  agents  for  tlie  Jew- 
elers' Protective  Union  (for  the  protection  of  their 
traveling  salesmen),  and  the  Jewelers'  Security 
Alliance,  whose  object  is  to  secure  protection  of 
located  stocks  of  jewelry.  These  two  associations 
comprise  in  their  membership  nearly  every  jew- 
eler of  any  importance  in  the  United  States.  The 
services  of  this  agency  are  also  retained  by  the 
American  Bankers'  Association,  representing 
nearly  every  bank  in  the  Union. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  our  subject 
is  a  man  endowed  with  the  strongest  individuality, 
intrepid  bravery  when  in  the  face  of  most  desper- 
ate situations,  and  a  phenomenal  coolness  and 
presence  of  mind  under  all  circumstances.  His 
record  is  such  as  clearly  demonstrates  these  facts, 
and  his  career  in  its  success  shows  that  he  has 
not  orily  been  endowed  by  nature  with  a  vigorous 
mind  and  great  physical  courage,  but  that  these 
attributes  have  been  accentuated  by  the  many 
thrilling  experiences  which  have  been  his  in  tread- 
ing the  dark  and  devious  paths  where  crime  up- 
lifts its  sullen  and  desperate  front.  Master  of 
himself  in  every  particvdar,  he  has  in  his  work 
only  to  gain  the  mastery  of  others,  and  such  is 
his  intimate  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  its 
vagaries,  and  such  his  results  under  given  cir- 
cumstances, that  he  is  enabled  to  make  many  a 
desperate  man  play  directly  into  his  hands.  That 
he  is  feared  and  hated  by  many  in  the  criminal 
class  is  but  a  natural  sequence,  and  several  at- 
tempts upon  his  life  have  been  made,  without 
success.  As  a  man  among  men  Mr.  Pinkerton 
holds  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  those  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact  in  either  a  business  or 
social  way,  and  his  strongly  individual  face,  with 
its  keen  and  penetrating  eyes,  is  recognized  in 
Hiany  of  the  leading  associations  of  Chicago  busi- 
ness men.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Chicago  Ath- 
letic Club,  the  Washington  Park  Club,  and  at  one 
time  had  charge  of  all  race  tracks  in  Chicago, 
selling  and  receiving  all  tickets  and  maintaining 
a  lively  interest  in  the  afl'airs  of  each  association 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


328 


represented.  This  incumbency  he  retained  for 
many  years,  and  does  yet.  He  is  largely  inter- 
ested in  the  detective  work  on  all  railroad  sys- 
tems, and  has  been  employed  to  some  extent  by 
every  railroad  company  in  the  Union.  Politic- 
ally he  supports  the  Republican  party  and  its 
policies,  and  fraternally  he  is  prominently  iden- 
tified with  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  of  which  order 
he  became  a  member  in  1870,  being  initiated  in 
Cosmopolitan  Lodge,  No.  6,  of  Chicago,  and  be- 
ing later  demitted  to  DelMolay  Lodge,  No.  13. 
He  has  passed  all  the  degrees  known  to  this  order. 
He  is  much  interested  in  higher  lines  of  accom- 
plishment wliich  tend  to  educate  and  entertain  the 
public,  and  is  a  contributor  to  that  noble  organ- 
ization, the  Chicago  Art  Institute.  He  is  public- 
spirited,  liberal  and  of  social  nature,  is  easily  ap- 
proachable and  has  a  wide  circle  of  friends  in  the 
Garden  Citv.     Domestic  in  his  tastes,  he  is  de- 


voted to  his  home,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  exact- 
ing cares  of  his  business  he  there  finds  his  great- 
est solace  and  happiness. 

Of  the  ten  children  born  to  Allan  Pinkerton 
and  wife  only  three  are  now  living:  William  A., 
subject  of  this  sketch ;  Robert  A.,  manager  of  the 
Eastern  division  of  their  great  agency;  and  Joan, 
wife  of  \\'illiam  J.  Chalmers,  president  of  the 
Fraser  &  Chalmers  Alanufacturing  Company,  of 
Chicago. 

On  the  13th  of  December,  1866,  Mr.  Pinkerton 
was  united  in  marriage  to  I\Iiss  Marguerite  S. 
Ashling,  daughter  of  a  prominent  citizen  of 
Adrian,  Michigan,  and  to  them  two  chiklren  have 
been  born:  Isabella  J.,  and  Marguerite  A.,  wife 
of  William  C.  Pullman,  of  this  city.  Mrs.  Pinker- 
ton is  a  member  of  the  Third  Presbyterian 
Church,  of  whose  able  and  renowned  pastor,  Dr. 
Withrow,  our  subject  is  a  great  admirer. 


JOSHUA  T.  ATKINSON, 


JOSHUA  T.  ATKINSON,  one  of  the  promi- 
nent early  settlers  of  northwestern  Illinois, 
was  bom  February  9,  1810,  of  New  England 
Puritan  ancestn,',  his  parents  being  William  and 
Anna  (Little)  Atkinson,  of  Newburyport,  Massa- 
chusetts. He  was  one  of  a  familj^  of  seven  broth- 
ers and  one  sister,  all  of  whom  lived  to  middle 
or  old  age  and  were  active  and  influential  citi- 
zens of  the  various  States,  from  Massachusetts  to 
Oregon,  in  which  they  made  their  homes. 

On  account  of  his  father's  entire  loss  of  prop- 
erty twice  by  fire,  he  was  when  about  three  years 
of  age  given  to  his  grandfather.  Colonel  Josiah 
Little,  of  Newburyport,  a  man  of  large  wealth  anil 
active  in  the  business,  political  and  military  af- 
fairs of  his  State.  The  family  w'as  of  the  severe 
Puritan  type,  and  here  under  such  influences 
Joshua  grew  to  manhood,  gaining  the  strength  of 
character  that  served  him  so  well  and  made  him 
so  marked  in  after  life.  In  his  early  'teens  he  be- 
came the  trusted  manager  of  one  of  his  grand- 
father's large  farms.  When  seventeen  his  health 
failed,  and,  showing  signs  of  consumption,  he 
spent  one  summer  on  a  tri])  on  a  fishing  schooner 


to  the  Labrador  coast.  Returning  much  im- 
proved, he  resumed  his  former  place  in  his  grand- 
father's family  and  in  care  of  his  business  until 
he  was  twenty-one.  His  grandfather  dying  sud- 
deidy  through  an  accident,  and  w^ithout  a  will, 
the  property  went  to  his  children,  and  Joshua  was 
thrown  on  his  own  resources  with  but  little. 

After  tw^o  years  of  mercantile  business  in  Bos- 
ton and  Lowell,  rumors  of  the  great  new  West 
reaching  him,  he  decided  to  visit  it,  which  he  did 
in  1834,  coming  with  letters  of  introduction  to 
business  men  in  Detroit.  Failing  to  find  busi- 
ness there,  he  walked  to  Chicago,  and  no  satis- 
factory opening  presenting  itself  there,  he  bought 
a  horse  and  rode  over  much  of  northern  Illinois 
and  southern  Wisconsin.  Deciding  to  cast  his 
lot  in  the  new  country,  he  returned  East  to  pre- 
pare for  it.  Among  other  things,  he  bought  four 
freight  wagons,  with  which  he  planned  starting  a 
freight  line  from  Chicago  to  Ottawa,  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Illinois  river.  Returning  West 
the  next  spring  by  New  York,  his  brother  Charles 
decided  to  accompany  him,  their  route  being 
bv  j'liiladelphia.    Harrisburg,    Pittsburg,  and    by 


324 


luoauAPiircAL  niCTroxAnr  and  pouTUAir  gallery  of  the 


river  to  Alton,  Illiiniis,  where  tliey  bonoht  horses 
and  rode  over  iinich  of  Illinois  and  Indiana.  On 
Charles'  deciding  also  to  make  the  West  his  home, 
he  returned  East  for  their  wives,  Joshua  remain- 
ing to  prepare  for  the  winter  at  Prophetstovvn,  Illi- 
nois. Here  they  all  came  and  occupied  part  of 
a  cabin  with  John  \V.  Stakes  and  family.  Not- 
withstanding their  limited  quarters,  they  passed  a 
pleasant  winter,  the  only  drawback  being  now 
and  then  a  short  allowance  of  provisions,  which 
would  necessitate  a  journey  to  Fox  river,  or  to 
Knox  county  or  Rock  Island.  In  one  of  these 
latter  trips  his  brother  had  the  misfortune  to  crip- 
ple his  hand,,  which  led  to  his  spending  part  of 
the  winter  with  Dr.  Baker  near  Rock  Island,  and 
finally  locating  at  Cleveland,  in  that  county.  Re- 
peated trips  to  Chicago  and  many  inquiries  were 
made  for  the  freight  wagons,  but  they  could  not 
be  found.  Finally  he  found  they  had  come,  and 
without  his  receiving  any  notice,  after  a  little 
delay,  they  had  been  sold  for  freight  to  prominent 
early  settlers  in  Chicago,  who  used  them  in  then- 
city  business. 

Thus,  the  freight  line  failing,  he  decided  to  turn 
his  attention  to  farming.  In  the  spring  of  1836  he 
went  to  Round  Grove,  which,  by  the  way,  received 
its  name  from  him  and  Mr.  Stakes,  with  the  in- 
tention of  settling  there,  and,  in  accordance  with 
one  of  the  rules  in  vogue  at  that  day,  "jack- 
knifed"  a  claim.  As  soon  as  this  was  done  he 
started  to  Henry  or  Rock  Island  county  to  get 
a  team  for  breaking  purposes,  and  on  his  return 
found  that  he  had  been  ousted  by  Messrs.  Pil- 
grim, Nance,  Jones  and  others,  who  had  broken 
patches  all  arotmd  the  grove  during  his  absence. 
There  was  nothing  to  do  but  submit.  He 
left  there,  and  in  company  with  J.  W.  Stakes 
made  claims  to  a  large  amount  of  land  on  both 
sides  of  Rock  creek,  in  what  is  now  Union  Grove 
and  Mount  Pleasant  townships.  After  leaving 
Round  Grove,  he,  that  summer,  broke  the  first 
seven  or  eight  acres  where  Morrison  now  stands. 
As  the  claim,  or  rather  claims,  made  by  Messrs. 
Atkinson  and  Stakes  covered  considerable  terri- 
tory, a  division  was  made  in  June,  1836,  Mr.  At- 
kinson taking  the  part  on  the  west  side  of  Rock 
creek,  and  Mr.  Stakes  the  part  on  the  east  side. 
Mr.  Atkinson  commenced  making  improvements 
on  his  claim.  Incated  in  what  is  now  Union  Grove 


township,  in  the  sunnner  and  winter  of  TS35,  and 
built  the  first  cabin  in  the  township,  and  from  the 
fifth  to  the  eighth  in  the  county.  In  July,  1836, 
he  moved  his  family  to  the  claim  and  continued  to 
reside  there  until  his  removal  to  Geneseo,  Henry 
county,  in  1875.  He  made  the  first  prairie- 
breaking  plow  in  the  township,  and  perhaps 
in  Whiteside  county.  He  was  assisted  in  the 
iron  work  by  Mr.  Hubbard,  brother  of  Alexis 
Hubbard,  of  Lyndon,  and  in  the  woodwork  by 
C.  G.  Woodruff,  of  the  same  place.  The  timber 
for  the  plow  was  cut  in  Union  Grove,  and  con- 
siderable trouble  occasioned  in  finding  a  tree  of 
the  right  twist  for  the  moldboard.  The  land- 
side  bar  of  the  plow  was  between  four  and  five 
feet  long,  and  the  share  between  three  and  four 
feet,  the  plow  turning  a  furrow  from  thirty -two 
to  thirty-six  inches!  This  unique  implement  of 
husbandry  was  constructed  in  1836.  Mr.  At- 
kinson also  brought  the  first  reaper  into  the 
country.  It  was  one  of  McCormick's  first  manu- 
facture, and  was  bought  in  1847  or  1848. 

At  the  election  held  in  the  fall  of  1836,  the  first 
one  held  in  the  county  after  its  preliminary  organ- 
ization by  the  general  assembly,  Mr.  Atkinson 
was  elected  justice  of  the  peace,  and  James 
Heaton  constable.  Mr.  Atkinson  was  ordered  to 
take  the  returns  of  the  election  to  Galena,  Jo 
Daviess  county,  a  trip  which  consumed  about 
four  days'  time,  at  a  cost  of  eight  to  ten  dollars, 
for  the  customary  fee  of  one  dollar  and  fifty 
cents!  He  had  to  qualify  as  justice  of  the  peace 
also  at  that  place,  Whiteside  county  being  then 
yet  attached  to  Jo  Daviess  county  for  judicial  pur- 
poses. 

Mr.  Atkinson  was  ahvays  one  of  the  first  to 
assist  in  pushing  forward  any  enterprise  which 
looked  to  the  development  of  the  township  and 
coimty  of  his  adoption,  and  when  the  project  of 
building  a  railroad  through  the  county  from 
Dixon  to  Fulton  was  started,  he  entered  at  once 
heartily  into  the  work,  and  used  all  of  his  influence 
to  obtain  aid  to  construct  it.  He  was  elected  one  of 
the  first  directors  of  the  company,  which  was  then 
known  as  the  Mississippi  &  Rock  River  Junction 
Railroad  Company.  The  efforts  of  this  com- 
pany, strange  to  say,  met  with  strong  opposition 
from  many  along  the  proposed  line,  some  urging 
one  objection,  and  some  another,  while  still  others 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


825 


contented  themselves  with  throwing  ridicule  upon 
it.  One  settler  of  influence  said  the  road  would 
not  help  to  raise  any  more  corn,  pork  or  beef, 
and  another  that  it  would  be  time  enough  fifty 
vears  afterward  to  talk  about  building  railroads. 
These  objectors  are  now  beneficiaries  of  the  road 
to  a  large  extent,  and  would  gladly  give  their 
thousands  rather  than  have  it  destroyed  or  have 
the  track  moved  to  a  different  location.  Mr.  At- 
kinson took  a  ver\'  prominent  part  in  township 
and  county  afifairs  from  the  time  he  first  became 
a  resident  of  Whiteside,  and  being  a  man  of  more 
than  ordinary  ability  and  activity  wielded  a  wide 
influence  in  shaping  them  for  the  best  interests  of 
the  people.  After  the  organizatiim  of  the  town- 
ship under  the  township  organization  law,  he  rep- 
resented Union  Grove  in  the  Board  of  Super- 
visors  for  seven  successive  terms,  and  has  also 
held  other  township  offices. 

In  1874  he  sold  his  farm  and  moved  to  Gene- 
sco,  Illinois,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  Here,  as  in  his  Whiteside  home,  he  became 
interested  in  whatever  was  for  the  public  welfare, 
and  among  other  things  was  mainly  influential 
in  securing  the  location  of  the  Geneseo  Collegiate 


Institute, — an  institution  devoted  to  Christian  ed- 
ucation, which  he  always  advocated  and  assisted, 
and  which  he  believed  was  to  be  the  saving  factor 
in  the  solution  of  all  the  vexing  c|uestions  crowd- 
ing ujjon  us,  and  the  only  hope  of  the  perma- 
nence and  endurance  of  our  government. 

He  was  manied  in  183 1  to  Miss  Emeline  Little, 
of  Plymouth,  \ew  Hampshire,  who  was,  like 
himself,  of  Puritan  Xew  England  stock,  and  who 
was  his  etTicient,  faithful  helper  in  the  hardships 
of  a  pioneer's  life  and  in  founding  Christian  so- 
ciety and  schools,  and  who  died  "Februar}'  7,  1892. 
Their  children  have  been:  Anna  E.,  James  W., 
Sarah  L..  Josiah  L.  and  George  L.  Of  these  Jo- 
siah  L.  died  in  Union  Grove  in  1849,  ^nd  George 
L.  died  in  Colorado  in  1876;  Anna  E.  married 
E.  P.  Keyes  and  lives  in  Newbury,  V'ermont; 
James  W.  married  Miss  Sarah  M.  Savage,  daugh- 
ter of  the  late  W.  J.  Savage,  of  Morrison,  and 
lives  in  Moline;  Sarah  L.  resides  in  Geneseo, 
Henry  county. 

Mr.  Atkinson  died  on  May  28.  i8(j4,  as  he  had 
lived,  an  advocate  and  supporter  of  all  that  is 
good  and  useful  in  society  and  an  exponent  of 
the  highest  type  of  Christian  patriotic  citizenship. 


CHARLES  ATKINSON, 


HO.\.  CHARLES  ATK1XS(~»X.  prominent 
as  a  founder  of  the  original  town  of  M(5linc, 
continued  until  his  death,  April  27,  1887,  a  con- 
spicuous promoter  not  only  of  prosperity  built 
upon  that  foundation  but  also  of  the  whole  region 
of  which  it  is  a  center.  His  career  was  one 
peculiarly  characteristic  of  those  strong  quali- 
ties of  character  which  have  given  to  the  Missis- 
sippi valley  its  solid  growth  and  sterling  cul- 
ture. 

He  was  born  in  Xewburyport,  Massachusetts, 
May  18,  1808.  His  parents,  William  and  Nancy 
(Little)  Atkinson,  were  of  pure  English  ancestry, 
v.'ho  settled  in  old  Newbury  prior  to  1635.  He 
was  the  second  of  eight  children,  seven  sons 
and  one  daughter.  The  sister  became  the  wife 
of  Mr.  G.  D.  Dickenson,  and  mother  of  Mrs. 
Charles  H.  Deere,  of  Moline.     The  six  brothers 


all  achieved  unusual  success;  William  as  an  officer 
of  the  Atlantic  Mutual  Marine  Insurance  Com- 
pany of  New  York  City ;  Joshua  as  a  farmer  and 
prominent  citizen  of  Whiteside  and  Henry  coun- 
ties, Illinois;  Joseph  as  a  farmer  and  prominent 
citizen  of  Newbury,  Vermont;  Moses  as  a  leading 
physician  at  Lawrence,  Massachusetts;  George 
as  the  superintendent  of  the  American  Home 
Missionary  Society  for  Oregon  and  Washington 
Territory ;  and  Josiah  as  a  real-estate  dealer  in 
Portland,  Oregon. 

When  Charles  was  but  three  years  of  age  all 
his  father's  property  was  destroyed  by  the  great 
Newburyport  fire  of  181 1.  As  a  result  he  received 
only  the  common  school  education  of  the  winter 
months,  his  summers  being  spent  in  work  on  the 
farm.  Already  in  boyhood  there  were  evidences 
of  the  courage,  tenacity  and  dauntless  confidence 


326 


BioaiiM'incAi.  DicrioyAUY  AXD  pohthmt  gallery  of  the 


ill   tin-   winning  qualities  of  hard,   honest   work 
which  afterward  distinguished  his  Hfe. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  began  life  for  himself 
as  a  clerk  in  a  general  store  at  Nashua,  New 
Hampshire.  In  1829,  with  his  brother  William, 
he  opened  a  dry-goods  and  hatter's  store  in 
Nashua,  but  in  the  same  year  sold  out,  and  re- 
moving to  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  engaged  in 
the  business  of  real  estate  and  hat  manufacturing. 
On  January  4,  1830,  at  Suncook,  New  Hamp- 
shire, he  married  .Miss  Ann  Eliza  Bates,  born  at 
Nashua,  that  State,  May  20,  1809,  the  daughter 
of  Stephen  and  Naiicy  (Thurston)  Bates.  To  the 
rare  qualities  which  were  thus  brought  to  his  side, 
and  which  brightened  during  all  the  years  of  their 
childless  home,  is  largely  due  not  only  the  success 
of  his  own  life  l:)Ut  also  the  happiness  of  many 
others. 

The  real-estate  venture  at  Lowell  resulted, 
after  two  years,  in  the  loss  of  all,  so  that  in  1832, 
turning  over  the  business  to  his  brother  William, 
he  wait  to  Newbury,  Vermont,  and  there  as- 
sumed the  management  of  a  hotel.  Two  years 
here  showed  a  saving  of  one  thousand  dollars, 
which  being  invested  in  a  patent  right  was  sunk. 
In  1S34  ^Ir.  Atkinson  began  once  more  at  the 
foot  of  the  ladder  as  a  clerk  in  the  office  of  the 
Commercial  Marine  Insurance  Company  of  New 
York  city.  Herp,  his  health  becoming  impaired, 
he  set  out,  in  the  spring  of  1835,  in  company  with 
his  brother  Joshua,  by  way  of  Pittsburg  and  the 
Ohio  river,  for  St.  Louis.  Thence  they  journeyed 
bv  stage,  horse  and  on  foot  northward  through 
Illinois,  carefully  prospecting  this  sparsely  settled 
country  as  far  as  Grundy  county,  near  where  the 
city  of  Morris  is  located,  and  here  these  brothers 
separated,  Joshua  remaining  to  further  recon- 
noitre, and  Charles  journeying  on  alone  to  Chicago 
and  thence  to  Detroit  on  horseback.  In  the  fall 
of  the  same  year  he  brought  Mrs.  Atkinson  and 
his  brother's  wife  west  to  Detroit  and  thence  by 
wagon  to  Prophetstown,  on  Rock  river,  where 
they  arrived  October  8,  1835. 

A  week's  survey  of  the  new  country  and  the 
difficulties  they  must  encounter  in  a  region  still 
freely  traversed  by  the  Indians,  decided  them  to 
make  their  new  beginning  in  the  then  incipient 
city  of  Chicago.  To  secure  supplies  for  food  for 
their  immediate  wants  Mr.  Atkinson  went  with 


his  brother  to  the  little  settlement  of  Rock  Island. 
Returning,  they  were  overtaken  by  one  of  the 
fierce  prairie  fires  incident  to  that  early  day.  In 
the  el'fort  to  secure  a  retreat  by  setting  a  "back- 
fire," a  powder  flask  burst  and  so  terribly  burned 
and  mutilated  Mr.  Atkinson's  right  hand  as  to 
deform  it  for  life.  It  was  two  months  or  more 
before  the  wound  was  healed,  and  then  there  re- 
mained of  his  money  but  tw-elve  dollars  and  fifty 
cents.  Thus  the  Chicago  plan  was  vetoed  by  ne- 
cessity; and  although  such  repeated  misfortune, 
together  with  physical  injun,-,  would  have  dis- 
heartened most  men,  he  braced  up  with  deter- 
mined purpose  to  succeed,  and  entered  a  claim 
of  farm  land  in  Henry  county,  upon  which  he 
soon  constructed  a  log  cabin. 

Early  in  1836  another  small  tract  was  pur- 
chased on  credit,  which  was  in  part  platted  as  the 
town  of  Cleveland.  Lpon  this  site  he  began  in 
1836  and  finished  in  1837  the  first  frame  house  in 
Henry  county,  the  siding  of  which  was  split  out 
of  logs  shaved  down  and  pressed  straight;  all  the 
studding,  braces  and  rafters  were  also  split  and 
hew-n.  In  this  house  and  on  his  farni  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Atkinson  lived  seven  years  with  varied  ex- 
periences of  abundance  and  scarcity. 

Going  sixteen  miles  to  Rock  Island  for  a  pair 
of  boots,  but  finding  his  credit  insufficient  and 
having  no  money,  he  returned  home,  worked  till 
the  amount  was  earned  and  again  made  the  ex- 
pedition, this  time  successful.  It  was  thus,  by 
indomitable  perseverance  in  a  hard  struggle  with 
reverses  and  hard  times,  that  he  gained  in  these 
years  the  victory,  and  here  was  developed  the 
necessary  economy  on  which  hinged  all  his  future 
success. 

As  a  citizen  of  Henry  county  he  was  most  en- 
ergetic in  the  pushing  of  every  good  interest  both 
secular,  moral  and  religious.  As  early  as  July  4, 
1837,  the  best  people  of  the  count}-  fortified  tliem- 
selves  against  the  arch  enemy  of  homes,  by  a  tem- 
perance celebration  at  his  house.  He  was  the 
county's  first  probate  judge,  in  1837-8,  and  was 
for  five  years  justice  of  the  peace.  His  property 
and  life  were  openly  threatened  by  the  lawless 
band  of  horse  thieves  and  counterfeiters  then  in- 
festing the  borders,  vi'ho  found  in  him  however  a 
fearless  opponent. 

In  1S43  the  great  distance  of  the  market  for  his 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  V<  I  r.i'ME. 


■^•11 


produce,  t.\q:(.tlicr  with  the  low  prices  it  afforded, 
induced  hini  to  find  a  new  home  on  the  ground 
nC'W  occupied  by  the  city  of  iNIoline,  but  where 
was  then  only  a  mill  and  a  half  dozen  houses,  con- 
stituting the  settlement  of  "Rock  Island  Mills." 
In  company  with  D.  Ij.  Scars  and  others,  Mr. 
.Atkinson  purchased  a  portion  of  the  farm  of 
Huntington  Wells  and  laid  out  the  town  plat  of 
Moline.  To  this  he  later  added  a  first  and  sub- 
sc(iuently  a  second  addition.  From  that  date  until 
his  death  he  was  a  commanding  figure  and  a 
potent  factor  in  all  Moline's  business,  educational 
and  religious  welfare.  In  1844  he  joined  with  his 
wife  and  sixteen  others  in  organizing  the  First 
Onigregational  Church  of  Moline,  of  which  he 
was  ever  a  leading  member  and  sujjporter.  To 
the  erection  of  each  of  the  church  edifices,  as  well 
as  to  those  of  other  denominations,  he  was  a 
large  contributor.  In  1877  he  erected  and  pre- 
sented to  his  church  a  commodious  parsonage, 
at  a  cost  of  two  thousand  and  five  hundred  dollars. 
This  is  but  one  item  of  the  many  benevolences  for 
religious  and  educational  work  at  home  and  else- 
where, which  have  mounted  up  in  the  aggregate 
to  many  thousands  of  dollars. 

From  the  first  Mr.  Atkinson  was  largely  in- 
terested in  real  estate,  both  at  home  and  in  Henry 
county,  where  in  1857  he  purchased  a  third  inter- 
est in  forty-four  thousand  acres  of  land.  In  1846 
he  built  the  second  sawmill,  and  afterward  set  in 
motion  the  first  planing  machine  above  St.  Louis. 

During  several  years  of  the  war  ]\Ir.  Atkinson 
was  the  town  supervisor.  He  was  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Moline, 
of  which  for  ten  or  twelve  years  he  was  vice- 
president.  Of  the  Deere  &  Mansur  Corn-Planter 
Works,  now  one  of  the  largest  and  most  popular 
concerns  of  the  city,  as  well  as  of  the  world-famous 
Deere  Plow  Works,  he  was  formerly  a  part  pro- 
prietor. 

But  that  for  which  the  comnuniity  stands 
chiefly  indebted  to  Mr.  Atkinson  is  the  remark- 
able executive  ability,  combined  with  an  accurate, 
far-sighted  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  which 
constituted  him  a  natural  and  eminent  assistant 
in  great  enterprises.  F'rom  his  first  arrival  he 
recognized  the  strategic  characteristics  of  IMoline 
as  the  natural  and  certain  center  of  vast  industrj-. 
As  one  of  the  first  trustees  of  the  town,  he  then 


and  ever  after  bent  himself  with  tireless  energy 
to  the  encouragement  and  personal  assistance  of 
what  could  aid  substantial  growth.  Hardly  a  bus- 
iness of  large  proportions  exists  in  the  city  to-day 
which,  either  in  its  conception  or  at  some  critical 
point  of  its  progress,  has  not  been  strengthened, 
or  tided  over  financial  shallows,  by  his  timely  aid. 
I-'ew,  save  those  who  are  cognizant  of  the  business 
history  of  a  growing  city,  can  estimate  the  value 
to  every  business  of  strong,  resolute  conservative 
men  upon  whom  others  may  lean.  Such  a  man 
Mr.  Atkinson  was,  in  many  respects  a  general, 
wise  to  counsel  and  stnmg  to  lead. 

Up  to  about  1851  the  only  passenger  transit 
from  Chicago  to  Rock  Island  was  by  stage  to 
.Albany,  Illinois,  and  down  the  river  road  to  Rock 
Island,  or  otherwise  l>y  canal  to  La  Salle,  and 
steamboat  to  St.  Louis,  and  thence  up  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  Rock  Island.  Mr.  .Atkinson,  discern- 
ing the  imperative  need  of  a  direct  stage  route 
between  Rock  Island  and  La  Salle,  applied  for 
the  establishment  of  such  a  route  to  Messrs.  Frink 
&  Walker,  of  Chicago,  the  great  stage  proprietors 
of  the  Northwest.  Upon  their  refusal,  he  went 
direct  to  Columbus,  Ohio,  and  made  a  similar 
proposition  to  the  Ohio  Stage  Company,  who 
at  once  assented  and  entered  upon  the  preliminary' 
arrangements.  Messrs.  Frink  &  Walker,  learn- 
ing of  the  decision,  anticipated  its  execution  by 
putting  on  a  daily  stage  themselves  from  La  Salle 
to  Rock  Island,  which  was  continued  until  the 
completion  of  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Rail- 
road. Prior  to  the  organization  of  the  last  named 
company,  Mr.  Atkinson,  with  others,  had  been 
actively  engaged  in  the  project  of  a  railroad  from 
La  .Salle  to  Rock  Island,  and  for  such  a  road  a 
charter  had  been  secured.  Consultation  as  to  this 
enterprise  with  Messrs.  Sheffield  and  Farnham,  of 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  who  were  then  build- 
ing the  Michigan  .Southern  road  into  Chicago,  de- 
veloped the  thought  of  a  road  from  Chicago  to 
Rock  Island,  instead  of  from  La  Salle  to  Rock 
Island,  which  culminated  in  an  examination  of 
the  route  by  these  gentlemen.  The  result  was  so 
satisfactory  that  they  made  a  definite  proposition 
to  build  and  equip  the  entire  road  from  Chicago 
to  Rock  Island,  provided  the  proper  amendment 
could  be  obtained  to  the  existing  charter,  and  a 
local  subscription  of  six  hundred  thousand  dollars 


828 


nronnAPincAL  vrrrrnxAnv  axd  poutiiait  galleiiy  of  the 


be  secured  to  the  stock  on  the  tlirough  line.  Mr. 
Atkinson  was  an  indcfatisahlo  worker  in  securing 
the  fulfihnent  of  the  conditions  and  so  in  the  ac- 
quisition to  this  region  of  one  of  these  grandest 
and  modern  civiHzing  and  developing  agencies, 
the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Railroad. 

And  here  may  be  noted  one  of  these  iteins  of 
history  on  which  hung  the  whole  future  of  Moline. 
Elected  at  the  outset  a  director  o."  the  road,  it  was 
bv  his  sagacious  and  timely  action  at  the  verj'  nick 
of  opportunity  that  a  policy  was  averted,  whose 
aim  was  to  bring  the  road  into  Rock  Island  by 
way  of  Rock  River  valley,  thus  leaving  Moline 
completely  out  "in  the  cold;"  but  they  who  plotted 
so  deliberate  a  thrust  at  Moline's  prosperity  did 
not  count  on  the  keen  alacrity  with  which  the  man 
to  whom  Moline's  prosperity  was  dear  would  sig- 
nally foil  the  attempt. 

So  again,  when  in  1861  the  committee  of  the 
Tri-Cities  of  which  he  was  an  active  an  enthu- 
siastic member,  visited  Washington  to  urge  the 
locating  of  a  general  arsenal  on  Rock  Island, 
they  were  met  with  spirited  opposition,  not  only 
from  the  regions  already  equipped  and  coveting 
enlargement,  but  also  from  able  statesmen  like 
Zachariah  Chandler,  Timothy  O.  Howe,  O.  H. 
Browning  and  others,  who  persistently  urged  the 
claims  of  other  points.  When  some  of  the  com- 
mittee were  discouragetl  and  seemed  ready  to 
give  up  the  effort,  the  difficulties  only  sei-ved  to 
strengthen  Mr.  Atkinson's  faith  and  persistence. 
He  proposed  the  immediate  and  careful  prepara- 
tion of  a  map,  which  would  show  at  a  glance  the 
proof  beyond  dispute  to  every  Congressman  the 
immensely  superior  advantages  of  Rock  Island 
over  every  other  locality  suggested  for  a  national 
arsenal.  Nerved  by  his  courage,  the  plan  was 
adopted,  the  map  was  completed,  and  with  a 
memorial  laid  on  the  desk  of  each  member  of 
Congress.  The  result  was  a  final  decision  for 
Rock  Lsland,  and  the  appropriation  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  on  July  11,  1862. 

From  the  organization  of  the  Moline  Water 
Power  Company  Mr.  Atkinson  was  its  president 
and  manager.  He  was  chiefly  instrumental  in 
perfecting  the  contract  by  which,  in  1867,  the  Gov- 
ernment agreed,  by  virtue  of  the  company's 
cession  of  its  water-power  interest,  to  develop 
and  maintain  the  power  at  its  own  cost,  and  give 


the  company  the  use  in  perpetuity  of  one-fourth 
of  the  whole,  free  from  rent,  repairs  and  expense 
of  every  kind.  As  is  well  known,  the  agreement 
between  the  water-powder  company  and  the  United 
States  was  made  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  high 
Government  officials  and  sanctioned  by  Congress; 
yet  the  Government  has  utterly  failed  to  cafry 
out  its  agreement,  and,  in  consequence,  the  value 
of  the  water  power  through  the  manufacturing 
interests  of  Moline  has  not  been  realized.  It  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  the  Government  of  this 
great  country  will  continue  to  ignore  its  solemn 
obligations  and  withliold  the  justice  so  clearly 
due  to  its  loyal  citizens.  When  such  justice  is 
done  and  the  work  completed  Moline  will  pos- 
sess, as  a  monument  to  the  sagacity  and  unremit- 
ting toil  of  Mr.  Atkinson,  one  of  the  first  water 
powers  in  the  world. 

It  is  thus  seen  that,  measured  by  a  length  of 
service  and  magnitude  of  advantages  secured  to 
the  city  of  his  founding  the  subject  of  our  sketch 
stands  pre-eminent.  The  best  thoughts  and  ef- 
forts of  his  life  are  wTought  into  ]\Ioline"s  pros- 
perity. He  stood  in  his  old  age,  wdien  clothed 
with  the  honor  of  wealth  and  host  of  friends  his 
life-work  has  won,  just  where  he  stood  fifty  years 
before,  when,  a  poor  young  man  beset  w"ith  dif- 
ficulties, for  the  best  elements  of  Christian  prog- 
ress, for  education,  for  temperance,  for  absolute 
justice,  for  the  dignity  of  manual  labor,  for  the 
bible,  the  church  and  the  widest  spread  of  the 
gospel.     Such  lives  are  well  worth  a  study. 

Though  his  early  education  was  meager,  yet 
ho  achieved  for  himself,  by  conflict  with  obstacles 
and  continuous  interest  in  every  great  question  of 
the  age,  an  education  which  the  profoundest 
student  might  covet,  and  which  the  thoughtful 
lines  of  his  face  and  the  simplicity  of  his  bearing 
at  once  revealed. 

As  one  of  the  first  trustees  of  Iowa  College, 
and  by  assistance  at  many  points,  he  showed  his 
deep  appreciation  for  the  best  educational  facili- 
ties. The  strong  qualities  which  made  him  so 
useful  in  one  locality  would  have  insured  his  emi- 
nence anywhere.  Though  never  a  seeker  for 
political  honors,  he  exerted,  by  his  wide  ac- 
quaintance with  the  leaders  of  political  and  bus- 
iness life,  an  influence  exceeding  that  of  many 
whose  names    were    familiar    in    public    affairs. 


^^-"^-^/c 


^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


329 


Thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  the  sentiments 
which  gave  the  Repnhhcan  party  being,  he  was 
ever  its  devoted  supporter.  Keen  and  clear- 
headed, always  busy,  always  careful  and  con- 
ser\-ative  in  financial  matters,  moving  slowly  but 
surely  in  every  transaction,  he  had  few  superiors 
in  the  steady  progress  which  invariably  reaches 
the  objective  point. 

On  January  4,   1880,  the  golden  wedding  of 
Mr.  and  ^Irs.  Atkinson  was  celebrated,  at  which 


two  were  present,  ]\Irs.  S.  1'.  Head,  sister 
of  ^Irs.  Atkinson,  and  Aliss  Mary  Bergin,  of 
Concord,  New  Hampshire,  who  congratu- 
lated thcni  on  their  marriage  fifty  years  be- 
fore. Mr.  Atkinson  left  no  children  to  in- 
herit his  success:  but  the  story  of  his  achieve- 
ments, through  many  reverses  and  great  ob- 
stacles, must  inspire  all  young  men  who  read 
it  with  a  truer  estimate  of  the  value  and  sure 
rewards  of  character. 


GAIL  BORDEN, 


NONE  of  the  famous  men  of  America  whose 
energy  and  genius  have  left  an  impress 
upon  its  rapidly  developing  civilization  arc  more 
deserving  the  gratitude  of  mankind  than  (iail 
Rorden,  v.hose  inventive  genius  brought  to  him 
a  world-wide  reputation  and  proved  of  material 
advantage  to  every  civilized  nation  on  the  face 
of  the  globe.  Expeditions  have  failed  because 
of  an  inadequate  supply  of  food  with  which  to 
sustain  the  lives  of  those  participating  therein, 
and  through  all  ages  the  cjuestion  of  preserving 
foods  has  been  a  momentous  and  much  consid- 
ered one.  After  deep  research  and  study  Mr. 
Borden  solved  this  problem  and  by  close  research 
and  investigation  has  given  to  the  world  articles 
of  nourishment  which  can  be  taken  into  even-- 
region  and  to  every  clime. 

Every  important  discoven,-  isattended  with  more 
or  less  contest  by  claimants  appropriating  to  them- 
selves sole  credit  for  its  origin  or  perfection.  The 
period  innnediatcly  following  the  discovery  and 
practical  working  of  the  vacuum  principle  as  a 
means  of  condensing  milk  for  preservation  was 
no  exception  to  the  general  rule,  but  it  soon  be- 
came established  as  an  indisputable  fact  that  the 
late  Gail  Borden  was  entitled  to  all  the  credit 
attached  to  this  invention.  The  principal  author- 
ity, the  Encyclopedia  Hritannica  so  awards  the 
credit.  The  United  States  granted  him  patents 
on  the  following  dates:  August  19,  1856:  May 
13,  1862:  February  10,  1863:  November  14,  1865: 
and  April  17,  1866.  Complete  foreign  patents 
were  not  taken  out:  consequently  parties  abroad 


early  attempted  to  appropriate  Gail  Borden's  in- 
vention. Accurate  statistics  upon  this  branch  of 
the  dairy  business  have  never  been  compiled : 
therefore  estimated  figures  are  the  onlv  availalile 
ones.  From  a  small  beginning,  in  1856  and  1857, 
it  has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
branches  of  dairy  industry.  As  nearly  as  can  be 
estimated  the  aggregate  quantity  of  milk  used 
during  the  past  year  (1894)  by  the  condensing 
companies  now  located  in  the  United  States  was 
four  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  pounds. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  cows  are  required  to  pro- 
duce this  milk  and  thousands  of  persons  are  di- 
rectly and  indirectly  interested  in  the  feeding  of 
cattle,  care  of  milk,  the  process  of  manufacture 
and  distribution  of  product, — the  New  York 
Condensed  Milk  Company  doing  by  far  the 
largest  business  of  all  condensing  companies  in 
the  United  States,  while  the  Gail  Borden  Eagle 
brand,  of  its  manufacture,  is  known  favorably  in 
all  countries  and  is  the  leading  brand  used  in 
the  majority  of  them.  It  has  stood  the  test  of 
all  climates.  As  an  infant  food  it  is  without  an 
equal  and  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  children 
successfully  raised  on  it  and  equipped  with  good 
health  for  life's  long  battle  constitute  testimonials 
of  merit  which  are  available  everywhere. 

While  Mr.  Borden  did  not  belong  to  the  State 
of  Illinois,  he  is  nevertheless  entitled  to  represen- 
tation in  this  volume,  for  no  man  has  done  more 
for  the  advancement  of  this  State  than  he.  His 
career  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  for  diversi- 
fied endeavor  of  all  ever  recorded,  and  none  of 


330 


BIOORAl'inCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALI.KRY  OF  THE 


his  efforts  ever  proved  a  failure.  He  was  bom  in 
Norwich,  New  York,  November  6,  1801,  and 
was  descended  from  New  England  ancestry.  He 
was  the  eldest  of  seven  children  and  at  an  early 
age  assisted  his  father  upon  the  farm,  and,  so  far 
as  practicable,  profited  by  the  limited  educa- 
tional privileges  within  his  reach.  In  December, 
1814,  the  father  emigrated  from  New  York  to 
Covington,  Kentucky,  and  Gail  cultivated  a  field 
of  corn  where  the  city  hall  of  that  place  now 
stands.  In  the  spring  of  1816  they  removed  to 
the  Territory  of  Imliana,  locating  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio  River,  ten  miles  below  Madison, 
where  IMr.  Borden  resided  until  1822.  Finding 
his  health  impaired  he  then  went  to  iMississippi, 
where  he  engaged  in  teaching  school,  and  also 
filled  the  position  of  county  surveyor  and  United 
States  deputy  surveyor.  In  1829  he  went  to 
Texas,  where  he  first  engaged  in  farming  and 
stock  growing.  In  1833  he  was  elected  a  dele- 
gate from  Lavaca  district  to  the  convention  in 
San  Felipe  to  define  the  position  of  the  colonies 
and  to  petition  the  Mexican  government  for  sep- 
aration from  the  State  of  Coahuila.  He  was  also 
in  charge  of  the  official  survey  of  the  colony, 
conii)iling  the  topographical  map  of  Texas,  and 
had  charge  of  the  land  office  at  San  Felipe  up 
to  the  time  of  the  Mexican  intervention.  In  1835 
with  his  brother,  Thomas  H.,  he  established  a 
newspaper  called  the  Telegraph  and  Texas  Land 
Register  at  San  Felipe,  which  was  later  trans- 
ferred to  Houston,  and  was  the  first  and  only 
newspaper  issued  in  Texas  during  the  war  for 
the  independence  of  that  colony.  He  had  its 
chief  management  and  directed  his  efforts  toward 
resisting  the  establishment  of  the  central  govern- 
ment by  Santa  Anna.  From  this  time  on  for 
some  years  Mr.  Borden  was  prominently  identi- 
fied with  the  history  of  the  Lone  Star  State,  and 
was  an  important  factor  in  its  development  and 
progress.  Upon  the  esablishment  of  the  Repub- 
lic of  Texas  he  was  appointed  by  President 
Houston  as  the  first  collector  of  the  port  of  Gal- 
veston. The  city  at  that  time  (1837)  had  not  been 
laid  out,  and  the  first  surveys  w-ere  made  by  Mr. 
Borden.  His  first  dwelling  there  was  a  rough 
board  structure  located  on  the  bay  shore  and 
erected  by  two  carpenters  in  half  a  day,  and  his 
office  was  in  a  room  in  what  was  known  as  the 


Mexican  custom  house.  From  1839  until  1857 
he  was  agent  of  the  Galveston  City  Company,  a 
corporation  owning  several  thousand  acres  of 
land  on  which  the  city  is  now  built. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Borden  entered  upon  the 
work  which  probably  was  the  most  important 
effort  of  his  life  in  regard  to  the  benefit  it  has 
been  to  his  fellow  men.  In  1849  his  attention 
was  drawn  to  the  need  of  a  more  suitable  supply 
of  nourishment  for  emigrants  and  travelers  cross- 
ing the  plains,  and  after  some  experiments  pro- 
duced the  Pemmican,  which  Dr.  Kane  carried 
with  him  on  his  Arctic  expedition.  The  meat 
biscuit,  which  is  the  most  suitable,  economical 
and  efficient  form  of  portable  concentrated  food, 
was  also  invented  by  him.  This  article  gained 
for  him  "the  great  council  medal"  at  the  London 
Fair  in  1851,  and  he  was  elected  an  honorary 
member  of  the  London  Society  of  Arts.  Meeting 
onposition  from  army  contractors,  he  was  unsuc- 
cessful in  the  manufacture  of  this  food,  and  dis- 
continued its  production  in  1853.  In  this  under- 
taking he  lost  his  entire  property,  and  he  then  re- 
moved to  the  North,  where  he  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  the  study  of  a  method  for  preser\-ing  milk. 
The  result  of  his  investigation  and  labors  is 
known  in  the  condensed  milk  so  widely  used  to- 
day. He  applied  for  a  patent  for  "producing 
concentrated  sweet  milk  by  evaporation  of  same." 
He  gave  the  question  much  study  and  at  length 
took  out  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  water,  and 
with  the  milk  added  a  sufficient  quantity  of  pure 
granulated  sugar  to  preserve  it.  He  knew 
nothing  of  the  germ  theory  but  resolved  that  the 
product  which  he  manufactured  should  be  utterly 
free  from  all  injurious  effects.  He  was  aware  that 
numerous  attempts  had  been  made  to  preserve 
and  solidify  milk  as  w-ell  as  to  find  acceptable 
substitutes  for  it,  and  he  knew  also,  or  believed, 
that  all  had  proved  failures,  greater  or  less;  cer- 
tainly he  found  no  products  which  made  a  near 
approach  to  such  excellence  as  he  believed  to  be 
attainable.  Recognition  of  the  merits  of  his  in- 
vention, however,  came  slowly  and  it  was  not 
until  1856  that  he  could  secure  a  patent,  and  sub- 
sequently the  New  York  Condensed  Milk  Com- 
pany w^as  formed.  During  the  war  condensed 
milk  was  extensively  used  by  the  army  and  navy, 
and  the  sale  of  this  product  has  continually  in- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


331 


creased  until  it  is  now  used  by  every  civilized 
country  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Pecuniary  as 
well  as  manufacturing  success  in  due  time 
crowned  his  labors.  Many,  however,  were  the 
discouragements  and  disappointments  which  he 
had  met.  It  was  three  years  after  he  first  ap- 
plied for  a  patent  that  it  was  granted  him.  He 
claimed  that  the  method  of  evaporation  through 
means  of  a  certain  vacuum  was  tlie  important 
point  in  his  discovery,  but  this  was  not  conceded 
by  the  patent  officers  until  it  was  firmly  estab- 
lished by  scientific  men.  Even  when  a  patent 
was  secured  it  was  some  time  before  the  business 
was  established  on  a  firm  financial  basis. 

Mr.  Borden  also  experimented  with  condensed 
meat  juices  and  produced  an  extract  of  beef  of 
superior  (|uality  which  was  first  manufactured  in 
Elgin,  but  later  an  establishment  was  erected 
especialJN  for  the  purpose  in  Ilorden,  Texas, 
where  the  industry  was  continued  after  his  death. 
Subsec|ueiitly  he  produced  an  excellent  prepara- 
tion of  condensed  tea,  coft'ee  and  cocoa.  In  1862 
he  patented  the  process  by  means  of  which  the 
juice  of  fruits,  such  as  apples,  currants  and  grapes 
could  be  reduced  to  one-seventh  of  its  original 
bulk.  His  labors  were  conducted  with  the  ut- 
most care  and  perseverance  and  his  success  was 
only  obtained  through  long,  tedious  and  expen- 
sive experiments,  but  his  intense  energy,  unyield- 
ing tenacity  and  great  ingenuity  enabled  him  to 
perfect  his  inventions  which  have  so  largely  con- 
tributed to  the  good  of  humanity.  While  Justus 
von  Liebig,  surrounded  with  the  elaborate  ap- 
paratus of  his  well-appointed  laborator)'  at 
Giessen,  was  experimenting  and  prosecuting 
those  researches  into  the  nature  of  flesh  and 
animal  juices  which  culminated  many  years  later 
in  the  production  of  "Extractum  Carnis,"  Gail 
Borden,  in  the  wilds  of  Texas,  was  independently 
investigating  the  same  problem  without  scientific 
apparatus,  and  his  labors  resulted  in  bringing  him 
the  great  council  medal  before  mentioned. 

The  fir.st  works  for  the  condensing  of  milk 
were  established  at  Wolcottville,  Connecticut,  in 
1856,  and  the  following  year  a  factory  was  put 
in  operation  at  Burrvillc.  His  business  grew 
rapidly  during  the  Civil  war,  when  large  quanti- 
ties of  the  condensed  milk,  preserved  with  re- 
fined   sugar,    were    required    by    the    Northern 


armies.  So  quickly  did  the  business  develop  that 
it  necessitated  the  establishment  of  two  other 
factories,  one  at  Livermore  Falls,  Maine,  and  the 
other  at  Winsted,  Connecticut.  The  Gail  Bor- 
den Eagle  brand  of  condensed  milk  soon  became 
widely  known,  and  has  continued  to  grow  in 
public  favor  with  every  nation.  From  time  to 
time,  owing  to  the  wonderful  success  of  the  busi- 
ness which  demanded  extensive  manufacturing 
facilities,  new  establishments  were  erected  at 
suitable  points  throughout  the  country.  In  1861, 
after  careful  inspection,  the  most  important 
plant  of  the  New  York  Condensed  Milk  Com- 
pany was  located  at  Wassaic,  Dutchess  county. 
New  York;  another  factory  was  established  at 
Brewster,  New  York,  in  1863:  a  third,  at  Wallkill, 
in  1881 :  a  fourth,  at  Millerton,  in  1892;  a  fifth,  at 
Deposit,  in  1894:  a  sixth,  at  New  Berlin,  in 
1895, — besides  several  milk  stations, — all  in  New 
York  State. 

Mr.  Borden  was  not  long  in  perceiving  that 
the  West  offered  e.xeceptional  facilities  for  the  ex- 
tension of  his  wonderful  discovery.  As  early  as 
1865  he  caused  to  be  erected  at  Elgin,  Illinois,  a 
modest  factory,  which  has  from  time  to  time 
been  rebuilt  and  extensive  additions  constructed 
until  at  this  writing  (in  1895)  it  constitutes  one  of 
the  largest  and  most  complete  plants  owned  by 
the  Illinois  Condensing  Company:  the  name  of 
this  organization  has  recently  been  changed  to 
the  Illinois  branch  of  the  New  York  Condensed 
Milk  Company.  This  company  is  familiar  to 
the  majority  of  Americans  and  its  fame  has 
extended  to  other  countries  by  reason  of  its 
extensive  manufacture  and  sale  of  the  high- 
est quality  of  dairy  products.  Who  has  not 
heard  of  the  famous  Elgin  butter?  Here  is 
prepared  on  a  most  extensive  scale  the  Gail  Bor- 
den Eagle  brand  of  condensed  milk,  of  which 
millions  of  cans  are  distributed  from  this  point 
throughout  the  western  and  southern  sections 
of  the  country.  Tlie  growth  of  this  Western 
industry  was  rapid  and  soon  necessitated  addi- 
tional manufacturing  plants.  In  1887  it  was 
proved  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  Elgin  factory 
would  not  be  able  to  supply  the  increased  demand 
for  the  company's  product  in  the  West  and  ac- 
cordingly plans  were  made  and  an  establishment 
erected  at  Carpcntersville,  one  of  the  largest  and 


332 


lUOaiiArillGAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUrilAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


most  complete  factories  operated  by  the  com- 
pany. Since  then  additional  facilities  have  been 
needed  and  in  1892  the  factory  at  Algonquin  was 
established  and  supplied  with  the  very  latest  and 
best  machinery  for  the  manufacture  of  Borden's 
Plain  Condensed  Milk,  Prepared  Milk  and  Pure 
Fluid  Milk:  the  latter  is  bottled  for  sale  and  de- 
livered packed  in  ice.  The  botding  department 
of  this  factor}'  was  transferred  to  Belvidere 
in  1895.  The  offices  which  have  control  of  this 
immense  business  are  located  in  New  York  city, 
Jersey  City,  Newark  and  Chicago,  and  each  place 
has  one  or  more  branch  offices.  Up  to  the 
time  of  Mr.  Borden's  death  the  business  received 
his  personal  supervision,  and  he  is  entitled  to 
the  entire  credit  of  establishing  this  great  in- 
dustrv,  so  invaluable  to  mankind.  In  a  Inief 
period  he  succeeded  in  massing  an  innnense 
fortune,  Init  it  was  ever  used  for  the  good 
of  humanity,  and  his  charity  and  liberality  were 
among  his  most  marked  traits.  He  possessed 
an  earnest  Christian  character,  a  noble  gener- 
osity and  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  others 
which  has  made  his  memory  cherished  and  re- 
vered by  friends  and  acquaintances.  He  was 
a  companionable  gentleman,  broad-minded 
and  sincere,  and  his  life  abounded  in  kind- 
ness and  courtesy  to  all  and  in  active  philan- 
thropy and  hearty  co-operation  in  every  good 
work. 

He  died  January  11,  1874,  at  Colorado,  Texas, 
whither  he  had  gone  to  spend  the  winter,  and 
was  buried  at  Woodlawn  cemetery,  near  New 
York  city. 

Mr.  Borden  was  married  in  i860  to  Enieline 
Eunice  Church,  nee  Eno.  By  her  first  marriage, 
Mrs.    Church  had  two  children, — Alfred  B.  and 


Sanniel  Mills  Ciiurch.  Their  father  was  Hiram 
Church,  who  as  early  as  1835  located  in  St.  Louis, 
where  he  engaged  in  merchandising.  During  that 
year  he  made  a  trip  from  St.  Louis  to  Chicago. 
He  was  a  man  of  much  natural  force  of  character 
and  possessed  many  of  the  enterprising  traits  of 
the  pioneers  who  established  civilization  in  the 
upper  Mississippi  valley.  His  son,  Alfred,  was 
bom  in  Vernon,  Oneida  county.  New  York,  May 
10,  1884,  spent  a  portion  of  his  youth  in  the  West 
and  when  old  enough  was  employed  by  his  step- 
father in  the  milk  business.  He  first  reached 
Elgin  in  1869,  and  at  this  place  eventually  be- 
came the  manager  of  the  factory,  which  he  con- 
ducted successfully  for  about  seven  years.  He 
has  since  been  one  of  Elgin's  progressive  citizens 
and  associated  with  WilliamGrote  has  operated 
extensively  in  real  estate  and  building,  having 
done  much  for  the  growth  and  beautifying  of  the 
city.  In  politics  he  is  a  staunch  Republican,  and 
for  many  years  has  performed  valuable  service 
for  Elgin  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  education 
and  of  the  public  library  board.  In  1893  in  con- 
nection with  his  brother  he  determined  to  erect 
some  substantial  monument  to  the  memory  of 
his  ste])fathcr,  Gail  Borden.  To  that  end  they 
purchased  a  valuable  corner  in  Elgin  and  of- 
fered to  donate  it  to  the  city  provided  a  suitable 
building  was  erected  on  the  same  to  be  called  the 
Gail  Borden  Public  Library.  The  result  of  this 
generous  offer  is  one  of  the  most  complete  and 
beautiful  public-library  buildings  which  any  city 
of  the  size  can  boast.  It  w^s  dedicated  February 
22,  1894,  and  is  a  fitting  monument  to  him  whose 
interest  in  his  fellow  men  arose  from  a  sincere 
sympathy  for  them  and  whose  life  was  largely 
devoted  to  uplifting  humanity. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNTTED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


338 


ABNER  SMITH, 


THE  subject  of  this  biof^fraphy,  one  of  the 
lionored  sons  of  Massacliusetts  and  a  most 
distinguished  resident  of  the  Queen  City  of  the 
\\'est,  is  pre-eminently  a  self-made  man.  He 
began  life  with  a  definite  purpose  in  view, 
worked  faithfully,  lnjuestly,  and  with  a  will  for 
its  accomplishment,  and  now  enjoys  a  reputation 
that  is  by  no  means  limited  by  the  boundaries 
of  Illinois.  A  man  of  progressive  ideas,  fine 
attainments,  high-minded,  who  has  made  the 
most  of  his  opportunities  in  life.  Judge  Smith 
has  ai"i.sen  to  a  foremost  place  among  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  legal  fraternity  of  the  nation. 
He  was  born  in  Orange,  Franklin  county, 
Massachusetts,  on  the  4th  day  of  August,  1843, 
and  is  a  son  of  Humphrey  and  Sophronia  (Ward) 
Smith.  On  both  sides  he  has  descended  from 
ancestry  that  have  long  and  prominently  been 
connected  with  the  historj'  of  New  England. 
The  Ward  family  was  founded  in  America  during 
Colonial  days,  and  during  the  Revolutionary 
era,  the  period  of  the  fonnation  of  republican 
government  and  'through  the  years  that  have 
since  passed,  its  representatives  have  done  eflfect- 
ive  service  in  affairs  of  the  State,  and  have  arisen 
to  positions  of  honor  and  trust  at  the  bar,  in  the 
jnilpit  and  in  literarj'  circles.  An  Eastern  bio- 
grapher states  that  Judge  Smith  has  descended 
on  the  maternal  side  from  William  Ward  of  Sud- 
bury, Massachusetts,  and  more  immediately  from 
Sylvanus  Ward,  of  Orange,  Massachusetts.  Wil- 
liam Ward,  virites  the  historian,  settled  in  Sud- 
bury about  1639,  and  his  descendants  are  num- 
erous and  are  notable  people  in  Massachusetts 
and  elsewhere.  The  collateral  branches  of  the 
dififerent  generations  which  have  passed  away  and 
many  which  still  live  have  been  and  are  uni- 
formly substantial  and  upright  people  whose  ca- 
reers are  intensely  interesting  to  the  student  of 
the  present,  since  their  fame  lives  in  history  and 
the  deeds  are  chronicled  in  story.  The  numerous 
family  lines  of  subsequent  offspring  have  spread 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country  and 
liave  been  an  honor  and  a  credit  to  so  excellent  a 
family. 


When  the  Judge  was  a  child  his  father  removed 
to  Middlebury,  \>rmont,  that  in  the  schools  of 
that  State  his  large  family  of  children  might  have 
better  educational  privileges.  His  elementary- 
education  was  acquired  in  the  common  schools, 
and  subsequently  he  was  graduated  at  Middle- 
bur)-  College  with  the  class  of  1866.  The  "boy 
is  father  to  the  man,"  is  a  truth  certainly  demon- 
strated in  the  career  of  Mr.  Smith.  His  early 
life  and  character  gave  indications  of  his  future 
usefulness,  and  it  is  said  of  Mr.  Smith  by  an  as- 
sociate of  his  college  days  that  "when  in  college 
Abner  Smith  was  a  candid,  earnest,  substantial 
and  reliable  young  man  and  student,  and  has 
maintained  that  character  to  this  day.  He  evi- 
denced in  college  the  possession  of  abilities  which 
would  enable  him  to  rise  to  and  above  the  aver- 
age in  whatever  profession  he  might  choose  to 
follow,  which  he  has  done  in  the  profession  of 
the  law.  He  has  never  aimed  at  ephemeral  bril- 
liancy or  signal  momentary  results,  but  at  a 
thoughtful  and  careful  avoidance  of  fatal  mis- 
takes and  at  permanent  achievements.  He  has 
succeeded  in  all  respects  which  constitute  success 
as  an  attorney  at  law,  a  result  attained  by  a  devo- 
tion to  his  profession  and  close  attention  to  his 
business.  The  outcome  is  not  the  result  of 
chance  but  eventuates  from  his  native  abilities 
which  he  has  cultivated  and  given  direction  to, 
and  he  has  made  good  use  of  his  opportunities. 
In  the  walks  of  life  where  intelligence,  honor  and 
manliness  are  regarded  for  what  they  are  worth, 
he  has  by  the  practice  of  these  virtues  attained  an 
honorable  position  at  the  bar  and  in  the  com- 
munity and  won  the  respect  of  all  who  know 
him.  He  is  a  noteworthy  and  creditable  alunnius 
of  his  a/iiia  mater.  " 

The  work  upon  which  Judge  Smith  entered 
upon  leaving  college,  was  that  of  the  principal- 
ship  of  the  Newton  Academy  of  Shoreham,  Ver- 
mont, where  he  continued  until  1867.  It  was 
that  year  in  which  he  became  identified  with  Chi- 
cago and  her  interests.  It  was  his  earnest  desire 
to  enter  the  legal  profession,  and  time  has  fully 
demonstrated  the  wisdom  in  his  choice  of  a  life 


384 


BIOCRAPmCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POItTIiAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


work.  ITe  became  a  student  in  tlie  office  of  J-  L. 
Stark,  a  well-known  attorney,  formerly  of  \''er- 
niont,  and  a  descendant  of  Colonel  Stark  of  Rev- 
olutionary fame,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  war 
for  independence,  w-ith  his  gallant  Green  Moun- 
tain boys,  went  to  the  aid  of  ]\Ir.  Smith's  ancestor, 
Major  General  Ward.  With  an  earnest  purpose 
that  could  not  content  itself  with  mediocrity  but 
must  rise  above  the  average  in  a  chosen  field  of 
labor,  Mr.  Smith  entered  upon  his  studies,  and 
after  a  steady  and  rapid  progress  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1868.  His  preceptor  then  demon- 
strated his  appreciation  of  the  young  man's  char- 
acter and  abilities  by  admitting  him  to  a  partner- 
ship in  the  business,  which  connection  continued 
until  the  death  of  Mr.  Stark  a  few  years  later. 
He  then  settled  up  his  late  partner's  estate  and 
succeeded  to  the  business  of  the  firm.  In  1877 
he  entered  into  a  partnership  with  John  H.  M. 
Burgett,  under  the  name  of  Smith  &  Burgett, 
which  existed  for  ten  years.  He  has  also  been 
associated  with  other  partners,  but  since  1887  has 
been  practically  alone  in  business.  He  has  been 
retained  as  counsel  on  many  of  the  most  im- 
portant cases  that  have  come  up  for  trial  in  the 
courts  of  Chicago.  He  is  a  most  able  lawyer, 
thoroughly  read  in  his  profession,  a  faithful 
counselor  and  a  fine  speaker.  His  methods  are 
well  worthy  of  emulation,  and  he  enjoys  the  high- 
est confidence  of  his  clients.  His  advancement 
in  his  profession  has  been  steady  and  sure.  He 
has  made  a  specialty  of  corporation  law  and  has 
been  retained  as  the  attorney  of  the  National 
Life  Insurance  Company  of  Vermont,  and  of  the 
Life  Indemnity  and  Investment  Company  of 
Iowa,  now  the  Iowa  Life  Insurance  Company,  of 
which  he  is  a  director.  He  was  also  the  at- 
torney of  the  Lakeview  Telephone  Exchange, 
which  formerly  covered  the  northern  por- 
tion of  the  city  of  Chicag'o.  He  was  formerly 
one  of  the  directors  of  the  North  Star  Construc- 
tion Company,  which  built  and  is  operating  the 
Winnipeg  Railroad.  His  business  methods  are 
frank  and  honest  and  characterized  by  that  high 
sense  of  honor  which  comes  to  him  as  a  second 
nature  from  a  long  line  of  high-bred  New  England 
ancestry.  In  the  trial  of  a  case  he  sees  quickly 
every  advantage  and  disadvantage,  notes  the  ef- 
fect of  any  argument  with  remarkable  rapidity, 


and  is  recognized  as  possessing  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent the  qualities  which  go  to  make  up  the  suc- 
cessful advocate.  He  has  a  verj-  eloquent  and 
forceful  manner,  which,  together  with  his  strong 
personality  and  strength  of  character,  have 
placed  him  where  he  stands  to-day,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  members  of  the  Chicago  bar. 

The  political  support  of  Judge  Smith  is  given 
the  Republican  party,  yet  he  has  never  entered 
into  political  work  to  any  extent.  At  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  a  party  of  leaders  and  numerous 
friends,  many  of  whom  were  allied  with  the  op- 
position party,  he  consented  to  become  a  candi- 
date for  the  ofifice  of  circuit  judge  in  the  autumn 
of  1893.  Many  of  the  most  eminent  members  of 
the  bar  of  both  parties  rallied  to  his  support, — 
men  who  recognized  his  superior  ability  and  fit- 
ness for  the  position.  With  one  exception  he 
received  the  largest  majority  given  to  any  can- 
didate on  the  ticket.  In  December  he  took  his 
seat  upon  the  bench,  and  his  course  has  com- 
manded the  admiration  and  respect  of  all  who 
are  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  circuit 
court.  He  is  absolutely  fearless  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duties,  and  favor  cannot  tempt  him  from 
the  straight  path.  He  possesses  a  mind  particu- 
larly free  from  judicial  bias,  and  he  brings  to  his 
duties  a  most  thorough  knowledge  of  the  law  and 
of  human  nature,  a  comprehensive  mind,  and  calm 
and  deliberate  judgment.  His  sentences  are  models 
of  judicial  fairnes,  and  he  is  a  type  of  the  law  that 
respects  and  protects,  not  condems  humanity. 

In  1869  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Judge 
Smith  and  Miss  Ada  C,  daughter  of  Serene 
Smith,  of  Shoreham,  Vermont.  They  reside  at 
No.  15  Aldine  square,  where  they  have  a  beau- 
tiful and  tasteful  liome,  supplied  with  all  the 
appointments  and  adornments  that  indicate  re- 
finement and  culture.  A  large  and  well-chosen 
library  attests  the  literary  taste  of  the  owner,  and 
the  fine  arts  and  music  add  their  delights  to  the 
pleasures  that  are  found  at  his  fireside.  The 
Judge  is  a  genial,  courteous  gentleman,  a  pleas- 
ant, entertaining  companion,  and  has  many 
staunch  and  admiring  friends  among  all  classes  of 
men.  As  an  energetic,  upright  and  conscientious 
lawyer,  and  a  gentleman  of  attractive  social  qual- 
ities, he  stands  high  in  the  estimation  of  the  en- 
tire communitv. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


nt 


KICKHAM  SCANLAN, 


CHICAGO  numbers  tliis  able  lawyer  among 
her  native  sons,  as  he  was  born  in  this  city 
C.)ctober  23,  1864.  His  father,  i\Iichael  Scanlan, 
of  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  is  well 
known  as  a  writer  of  both  prose  and  poetry  and  a 
composer  of  music.  During  his  childhood  he  ac- 
companied his  parents  to  \\^ashington,  attended 
the  public  and  high  schools  of  the  capital  city,  and 
afterward  entered  the  University  of  Notre  Dame, 
at  South  Bend,  ImHana,  where  he  completed  his 
studies. 

Returning  to  the  city  of  his  birth,  he  entered 
the  employ  of  Colonel  W.  P.  Rend,  the  well  known 
coal  dealer  and  mine-owner,  in  whose  service  he 
remained  for  four  years,  gaining  a  practical  busi- 
ness knowledge.  Taste,  talent  and  inclination, 
however,  seemed  to  fit  him  for  the  legal  profes- 
sion, and  in  1886  he  entered  the  law  office  of 
Luther  Laflin  Mills  and  George  C.  Ingham, 
also  attended  the  Chicago  College  of  Law,  and 
was  graduated  in  its  first  class.  He  developed  an 
aptness  for  that  branch  of  the  legal  profession 
which  has  made  Mr.  Mills  famous  in  the  handling 
of  criminal  cases.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
and  continued  his  connection  with  the  firm  with 
which  he  began  his  studies  for  seven  years.  Dur- 
ing that  time  he  assisted  Mr.  Mills  and  Mr.  Ing- 
ham in  the  trial  of  all  the  famous  cases  in  the 
courts  of  this  city  with  which  they  were  connected, 
including  the  "boodle"  cases,  the  first  trial  of  the 
Cronin  case,  the  Ohio  tallv-sheet-fraud  case  in 
Columbus  in  1888,  where  he  was  associated  with 
Mr.  Mills  and  Allen  G.  Thurman  for  the  prose- 
cution, and  many  others.  His  ability  and  industry 
soon  made  his  services  valuable,  and  he  has  for 
some  years  been  repeatedly  called  to  assist  the 
State's  attorney  of  Cook  county  in  the  prosecution 
of  difficult  criminal  cases.  In  argument  he  is 
logical  and  eloquent,  and  his  words  always  carry 
weight  with  judge  and  jury,  seldom  failing  to  re- 
sult in  victory.  He  was  retained  as  counsel  on  the 
celebrated  Millington  prison  case  in  1891,  was  one 
of  the  counsel  for  the  State  in  the  Graham-Hank 
bribery  case  in  Chicago,  and  was  one  of  the  coun- 
sel for  the  defense  in  the  McGarigle  case,  which 


he  handled  with  consummate  skill.  His  coimec- 
tion  with  the  two  Cronin  cases  is  well  known 
throughout  the  country,  where  his  keen  logic,  his 
masterly  argument  and  brilliant  eloquence  car- 
ried conviction  and  made  him  widely  known.  In 
the  second  trial  he  made  the  opening  speech  for 
the  prosecution,  which  consumed  three  days.  His 
aiialysis  and  presentation  of  the  case  was  acknowl- 
edged on  all  hands  as  one  of  the  most  masterly 
and  convincing  in  the  history  of  the  Chicago  bar. 
That  the  prosecution  won  its  case  is  the  general 
verdict  of  the  public,  though,  as  was  not  then  un- 
expected, the  jury  rendered  a  verdict  of  acquittal. 
Mr.  Scanlan  also  served  on  the  prosecution  in  the 
Hanks-O'Donnell  case,  in  which  the  first  convic- 
tion of  jury-bribing  was  obtained  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  Mr.  Scanlan  was  counsel  for  Louis  Ja- 
cobson  in  the  recent  trial  of  five  men  in  Kenosha, 
Wis.,  for  arson,  the  charge  growing  out  of  the 
burning  of  the  great  plant  of  the  Chicago  Bed- 
ding Co.  at  Kenosha.  In  this  famous  trial  all 
the  defendants  were  found  guilty  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Mr.  Scanlan's  client. 

In  1893  Mr.  Scanlan  opened  an  office  in  the 
Ashland  block,  in  Chicago.  He  is  a  man  who 
thoroughly  loves  his  profession,  and  is  eminently 
gifted  with  the  capabilities  of  mind  which  are  in- 
dispensable at  the  bar.  In  preparing  a  case  for 
trial  every  fact,  however  insignificant,  is  carefully 
studied  and  its  possible  relevancy  to  the  merits  of 
the  case  weighed  and  considered.  He  is  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  authority,  and  never  at  a  loss 
for  a  precedent.  He  is  broad-minded,  free  from 
the  fault  of  laying  too  much  stress  on  technical 
points,  and  deservedly  enjoys  a  large  practice, 
much  of  which  is  in  civil  as  well  as  in  criminal 
cases. 

C)n  the  2il  of  January,  iS'p,  Mr.  Scanlan  w'as 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Sadie  Conway, 
daughter  of  Michael  W.  Conway,  of  Chicago,  and 
they  have  two  little  daughters.  Their  home  is 
]jleasantly  located  at  No.  85  Ewing  Place,  where 
literature,  music  and  art  add  their  attractions  and 
indicate  the  refined  an<l  cultured  taste  of  the  in- 
mates.   Mr.  Scanlan's  political  support  is  unswerv- 


886 


liioanAPincAr.  dictionary  and  portrait  oallery  of  the 


ing:ly  sjivcn  tlic  Republican  party.  An  honor 
worthily  distinctive  was  conferred  on  him  by  the 
Chicago  College  of  Law  alumni  recently,  when 
he  was  elected  president  for  the  ensuing  year, 
lie  is  an  associate  member  of  Columbia  Post, 
G.  A.   R.,   that  was  the  guard   of  honor  to  the 


commander-in-chief  at  the  national  encampment 
which  was  held  in  Louisville  in  1895.  He  has 
a  large  circle  of  warm  personal  friends,  the  re- 
gard of  the  entire  profession  and  has  won  the  re- 
spect of  all  with  whom  business  or  social  relations 
have  brought  him  in  contact. 


WALTER  J.  ENTRIKIN, 


WALTER  JUDSON  ENTRIKIN  was 
born  at  Salem,  Columbiana  county,  Ohio, 
February  8,  1846,  and  is  the  eldest  of  the  five 
children  of  Brinton  and  Elisa  J-  (McCracken) 
Entrikin,  the  former  a  native  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  latter  of  Ohio. 

Walter  passed  his  boyhood  at  Salem,  where  he 
attended  the  local  school  until  he  was  fifteen 
years  of  age,  at  which  time  he  removed  with  his 
parents  to  Geneseo,  Henry  county,  Illinois,  arriv- 
ing there  in  March,  1861.  He  continued  his 
studies  at  Geneseo  for  several  years,  and  then 
took  the  classical  course  at  Oberlin  College, 
Ohio,  graduating  there  in  August,  1870.  In 
the  spring  of  1871  he  removed  to  Moline,  and 
having  previously  read  law  in  the  office  of  Wait 
&  Moderwell  at  Geneseo,  during  his  vacations, 
he  continued  his  studies  in  his  new  home,  being 
a  student  in  the  office  of  the  Hon.  John  T. 
Browning.  In  October,  1871,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  remained  in  the  office  with  ^Ir. 
Browning  until  1875,  at  which  time  Mr.  W.  R. 
Moore  became  associated  with  him.  This  con- 
nection was  broken  in  July,  1876,  and  he  and  Mr. 
Browning  became  partners.  In  1884  the  latter 
named  gentleman  retired  from  active  practice,  for 
health  and  recreation,  and  since  that  time  Mr. 
Entrikin  has  been  practicing  alone,  although  the 
firm  name  of  Browning  &  Entrikin  was  contin- 
uetl  until  as  recently  as  January  i,  1893. 

Mr.  Entrikin's  practice  is  a  general  one 
and  he  has  appeared  as  counsel  in  many  cases 


of  importance  that  have  been  tried  in  the  county, 
circuit,  appellate  and  supreme  courts.  He  is  at- 
torney for  the  First  National  Bank  of  Moline,  and 
also  for  nearly  all  of  the  many  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments of  that  city.  Such  endorsement  of 
his  legal  ability  speaks  with  more  force  than  could 
be  expressed  in  merely  commendatory  words, 
and  renders  it  unnecessary  in  this  article  to  en- 
large upon  what  are  well-known  facts  in  the  com- 
munity wherein  he  has  resided  for  so  many  years. 

In  political  belief  Mr.  Entrikin  is  a  strong 
Republican,  and  was  elected  by  his  party  as  city 
attorney  of  Moline  for  three  terms,  and  as  State's 
attorney  from  1884  to  1888.  Fraternally  he  is 
a  member  of  the  iVncient  Order  of  United  Work- 
men and  the  Alodern  Woodmen  of  America. 

While  making  no  ostentatious  parade  of  his 
religious  views,  he  is  nevertheless  a  firm  believer 
in  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  as  taught  by  the 
Congregational  Church,  of  which  he  is  a  mem- 
ber, and  for  eighteen  years  has  been  one  of  its 
trustees.  He  was  also  for  about  ten  years 
superintendent  of  its  Sunday  school. 

August  18,  1870,  Mr.  Entrikin  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Julia  A.  Chamberlin,  a 
native  of  Vermont.  Of  this  union  have  been 
born  five  children:  Eva  M.,  Will  B.,  who  mar- 
ried Miss  Bertha  C.  Farris,  of  Moline;  Fred  C; 
Roy  J.,  and  Ada  L. 

Mr.  Entrikin  is  a  man  who  by  patient  striving 
has  worked  out  for  himself  a  solid  reputation  as  a 
man  and  as  a  lawver. 


^^. 


^^^^^^-^^-^^-^ 


^. 


^^^V- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


3^7 


HENRY  CORWITH, 


HENRY  CORWITH  was  numbered  among 
the  pioneer  settlers  and  business  men  of 
nortliern  Illinois,  and  aided  greatly  in  the  devel- 
opment of  this  section  of  the  State.  He  was  born 
in  Bridgehampton,  Long  Island,  on  the  13th  of 
June,  1813,  and  was  a  son  of  Gurdon  and  Susan 
(White)  Convith.  The  father  was  of  Welsh  line- 
age and  the  mother  was  a  representative  of  one 
of  the  old  families  of  the  Knickerbocker  State. 
On  his  father's  farm  Henry  spent  the  days  of  his 
boyhood  and  youth  and  the  common  schools  af- 
forded him  his  educational  privileges.  When 
about  nineteen  years  of  age  he  went  to  New  York 
city  and  secured  a  position  in  the  general  mercan- 
tile house  of  Mr.  Rogers.  There  he  displayed 
such  marked  business  ability  and  sterling  worth 
that  he  was  selected  by  his  employer  to  take  charge 
of  the  establishment  which  ^Ir.  Rogers  was  to 
found  in  the  West. 

This  led  to  Mr.  Corwith's  connection  with  Illi- 
nois. Soon  after  a  settlement  had  been  made  by 
a  few  white  men  on  the  Bean  river  at  a  point  six 
miles  above  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi,  there 
arrived  in  their  midst  a  young  man  from  New 
York,  about  twenty  years  of  age,  energetic,  en- 
terprising and  industrious,  whose  intention  was 
to  establish  a  mercantile  store,  which  he  at  once 
proceeded  to  do.  For  a  year  he  worked  on  a 
salary,  the  second  year  his  employer  divided  with 
him  the  profits  of  the  business,  and  the  third  year 
he  became  a  full  partner  in  the  concern.  Single- 
ness of  purpose,  combined  with  intelligence  and 
ability  to  seize  opportunities,  were  among  his  most 
marked  characteristics.  He  soon  saw  that  large 
profits  could  be  realized  by  purchasing  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  Galena  lead  mines  and  shipping  them 
to  New  York.  The  first  shipments  were  made 
by  way  of  the  Mississippi  river  and  New  Orleans 
to  the  Eastern  metropolis  and  aftenvard  by  way 
of  Chicago.  This  business  steadily  and  con- 
stantly increased,  and  for  many  years  the  firm  of 
Rogers  &  Corwith  handled  and  sent  to  the  market 
three-fourths  of  the  lead   of  the  Galena  mines. 

This  also  led  to  another  business  being  estab- 
lished.    New  York  exchange  was  then  in  great 


demand  in  the  West,  and  the  proceeds  of  sales 
were  allowed  to  accumulate  in  New  York  to  be 
drawn  against  by  the  Western  traders.  This  new 
undertaking  soon  developed  into  a  regular  bank- 
ing business,  which  was  established  in  1842.  The 
firm  was  now  carrying  on  operations  as  bankers, 
lead  dealers  and  merchants,  and  their  trade  in 
the  two  former  lines  rapidly  and  prosperously  in- 
creased, so  that  in  1847  t^i^y  retired  from  mer- 
chandising in  order  to  give  their  whole  attention 
to  the  other  interest.  In  1853,  associated  with  his 
brother  Nathan,  Mr.  Corwith  founded  the  Bank 
of  Galena,  which  became  one  of  the  strongest 
financial  concerns  of  the  West;  and  even  during 
the  financial  panic  of  1857,  when  bank  after  bank 
went  to  the  wall,  it  paid  out  dollar  for  dollar  and 
continued  to  operate  under  the  State  laws  until 
1865,  when  it  was  reorganized  as  a  national  bank. 
On  the  expiration  of  its  charter,  Mr.  Corwith 
severed  his  connection  with  it  in  order  to  give 
his  attention  to  other  lines  of  business  which  he 
had  developed. 

In  the  meantime  he  had  purchased  many  val- 
uable tracts  of  pine  lands  in  southern  Wisconsin, 
and  was  well  known  among  the  lumbermen  of 
that  district,  who  relied  upon  him  largely  for  the 
means  to  operate  and  develop  the  lumber  indus- 
try. While  living  in  Galena  he  made  large  in- 
vestments in  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  property, 
and  was  the  owner  of  much  valuable  real  estate. 
He  came  to  this  city  in  1873  to  look  after  his  in- 
terests here,  for  the  great  Chicago  fire  had  de- 
stroyed many  of  his  buildings  and  he  wished  to 
give  his  personal  supervision  to  his  propert}-. 
From  that  date  he  did  not  actively  engage  in 
business,  but  confined  himself  to  the  management 
of  his  own  large  private  interests. 

Mr.  Corwith  was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss 
Isabelle  Soulard,  and  to  them  were  born  three 
sons  and  four  daughters.  Mrs.  Corwith  still  sur- 
vives her  husband,  who  died  in  Chicago  in  1888. 
He  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  able  busi- 
ness men  of  the  West.  His  sagacity  and  fore- 
sight enabling  him  to  make  judicious  investments, 
while  his  diligence,  indomitable  energy  and  un- 


338 


nKtaUM'iIK'M.  mCTIONAUY  AND  POHTUAIT  GALLEliY  OF  THE 


daunted  perseverance  won  him  a  prosperity  that 
numbered  him  among  Chicago's  most  substan- 
tial citizens,  he  not  only  advanced  his  individual 
interests,  but  did  much  toward  promoting  the 
general  welfare  by  encouraging  western  trade  and 
commerce.     His  career,  both  public  and  private, 


was  marked  by  the  strictest  integrity  and  faithful- 
ness to  every  tinist  reposed  in  him.  The  record 
of  his  life  is  unclouded  by  shadow  of  wrong  or 
suspicion  of  evil.  He  was  known  as  an  honor- 
able man,  a  pleasant  social  companion  and  a  de- 
voted husband  and  father. 


JAMES  W.  ATKINSON, 


JA1\IES  WILLI.AM  ATKINSON  was  bom 
August  26,  1839,  in  Whiteside  county,  Illinois. 
His  parents  were  Joshua  T.  and  Emeline  At- 
kinson. His  father,  a  sketch  of  whose  life  appears 
elsewhere  in  this  work,  was  one  of  the  pioneers 
of  the  .State,  as  well  as  one  of  her  most  honored 
citizens. 

James  was  reared  and  attended  school  in 
Whiteside  county,  and  afterward  attended  the 
Galesburg  (Illinois)  and  Denmark  (Iowa)  Acad- 
emies. At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  left  school  and 
from  that  time  until  his  twenty-eighth  year  he  as- 
sisted his  father  on  his  farm.  Part  of  this  time — 
five  years — he  rented  and  cultivated  the  farm 
himself.  In  1868  he  came  to  Moline,  where  he 
worked  for  his  uncle,  Charles  Atkinson,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  men  of  that  city,  as  a  general 
clerk.  He  continued  in  this  capacity  until  1874, 
and  then  accepted  a  position  with  the  Moline 
Wagon  Company  as  traveling  salesman,  his  ter- 
ritory being  in  the  Northwest.  After  two  years 
of  such  servicei  he  resigned  the  position  and 
started  an  insurance  agency,  which  he  conducted 
successfully  for  a  year  or  so,  or  until  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  great  corporation  of  The  Deere  & 
Mansur  Manufacturing  Company.     He  was  ten- 


dered the  position  of  secretary  and  manager,  which 
he  has  held  continuously  ever  since.  Since  the 
volume  of  the  business  has  so  largely  increased 
he  shares  the  duties  of  the  management  with  Mr. 
John  Goode.  The  Deere  &  Mansur  Company  is 
too  well  known  to  need  detailed  mention  here. 
Its  sales  aggregate  a  million  dollars  per  annum; 
the  market  for  its  product  is  all  over  this  country-, 
and  a  considerable  market  abroad  also,  and  it 
employs  four  hundred  men.  Mr.  Atkinson  has 
labored  earnestly  and  zealously  for  the  upbuilding 
of. this  business,  and  should  be  accorded  high 
praise  for  the  results  he  has  been  enabled  to  ac- 
complish. 

Mr.  Atkinson  has  neither  the  time  nor  the 
inclination  to  devote  to  politics:  is  independent 
in  his  views,  and  has  never  held  or  aspired  V^ 
hold  public  office.  He  has  given  the  closest  at- 
tention to  business,  and  his  vacations  during 
seventeen  years  have  aggi-egated  not  more  than 
three  months. 

He  was  married  to  Aliss  Sarah  ^I.  Savage,  a 
member  of  an  old  New  England  family,  at  Mor- 
rison, Illinois,  June  3,  1874.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alki  ;- 
son  have  had  one  son,  George  L.,  whose  death 
February  4,  1892,  was  a  severe  blow  to  them. 


/  /  ^-<c^n 


f 


"—4^-^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


339 


BENJAMIN  GEORGE, 


TIIllRE  may  be  found  in  almost  all  Ameri- 
can communities  quiet,  retiring  men,  wlio 
never  ask  public  office  or  appear  prominent  in 
public  affairs,  yet  who  nevertheless  exert  a  widely 
felt  influence  in  the  community  in  which  tliey  live 
and  help  to  construct  the  proper  foundation  upon 
which  the  social  and  political  world  is  built. 
Such  a  man  is  Benjamin  George,  of  Aurora,  who 
came  West  when  Illinois  was  just  merging  from  its 
swaddling  clothes  of  Statehood  to  take  its  stand 
as  one  of  the  most  important  connnonwealths 
in  the  Union. 

Benjamin  George  comes  of  one  of  America's 
earliest  families  and  bears  the  name  of  its  founder, 
Benjamin  George,  one  of  three  brothers  who 
settled  in  the  New  England  States  many  years 
before  the  Revolutionary  war,  in  which  two  of 
the  brothers,  Isaac  and  Benjamin,  prominently 
figured. 

Ht"  wnsi  born  in  Sliaron,  Windsor  county, 
Vermont,  November  30,  1825.  There  his  parents, 
Ebenezer  and  Betsy  (Kibling)  George,  had  moved 
from  New  Hampshire  during  the  early  days  of 
their  married  life.  To  New  Hampshire  the 
father  came  from  Manchester  and  the  mother 
from  Kcene,  both  being  descendants  of  the  early 
pioneers  of  that  State. 

The  educational  advantages  of  Vernujut  in 
those  early  days  were  not  of  the  best,  but  of  such 
as  they  were  Mr.  George  received  the  full  benefit. 
The  "  litde  red  schoolhouse  "  was  then  the  only 
road  to  knowledge  and  fame  for  the  boys  of  the 
New  England  States,  and  was  eagerly  attended 
when  the  pupils  were  not  otherwise  engaged, 
either  on  the  farm,  at  logging  in  the  sawmill,  or 
in  the  sugar-camp.  These  occupations  in  their 
season  were  then  of  greater  importance  than  the 
studying  of  books.  Young  George  grew  to 
manhood  in  Orange  county,  and  from  his  earliest 
recollection  his  occupation  was  farming.  Upon 
leaving  school  and  home  Mr.  George  secured 
employment  on  a  farm,  having  a  hotel  attached, 
and  remained  about  six  years.  The  salary  in 
those  days  was  about  one  hundred  dollars  per 
year,  but  the  special  interest  which  he  displayed  in 


his  occupation  secured  him  a  stipend  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  dollars  per  annum.  Stock- 
raising  was  his  favorite  employment,  and  his  em- 
ployer allowed  him  a  special  interest  in  its  pecu- 
niary result.  By  old-fashioned  industry  and 
economy  Mr.  George  made  and  saved  money. 
With  his  little  store  he  purchased  an  equity  in 
three  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  on  a  branch 
of  the  Connecticut  river  from  Mr.  Justin  S.  ^lor- 
rill,  the  present  United  States  senator  from  \er- 
mont,  and  engaged  in  stock  raising  for  the  fol- 
lowing three  years,  which  was,  as  usual,  suc- 
cessful. Having  accunndated  some  money  he 
came  West  in  March,  1856,  and  settled  in  Sugar 
Grove,  Kane  county,  Illinois,  where  he  became 
the  possessor  of  a  farm  of  three  hundred  acres  of 
land.  While  his  principal  occupation  was 
farming,  lie,  however,  did  not  limit  himself  exclu- 
sively thereto.  He  purchased  and  sold  farms 
whenever  opportunity  offered,  and  at  times  owned 
over  a  thousand  acres  in  Kane  county.  He  also 
extended  his  operations  to  Nebraska,  and  was 
successfid  in  all  his  operations,  which  he  con- 
ducted skillfully  and  carefully. 

As  his  means  rapidly  increased  he  did  not 
feel  the  necessity  of  continuing  the  hardships 
whicli  farming  usually  entails,  and  in  1884  he 
removed  to  Aurora,  from  which  place  he  conducts 
his  business  fully  as  successfully  as  fon'merly. 
Upon  his  removal  to  Aurora  Mr.  George  be- 
came interested  in  many  enterprises.  For 
fifteen  years  he  has  been  one  of  the  directors  in 
the  Second  National  Baidc  of  Aurora,  which  in 
the  year  1891  was  changed  to  the  Old  Sec- 
ond National  Bank,  with  a  capital  of  two  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  He  has  always  taken 
a  great  interest  in,  and  extended  a  helping  hand 
to,  young  men  just  beginning  life,  not  forget- 
ting his  own  early  struggles  for  advancement. 
He  also  became  interested  in  theAurora  Cotton 
Mills,  the  Aurora  Silver  Plate  Manufacturing 
Company,  and  always  was  ready  with  his  means 
when  a  new  industiy  was  to  be  established  in 
that   city. 

In  1853  Mr.  George  was  married  to  Miss  Mar- 


340 


BinaitM'iiicAr  DimoyAnr  Axn  ponTUArr  (lALi.EitY  of  the 


cia  Roliinson,  of  Straffdrd,  \crniont.  Thuy  have 
no  children. 

In  R'hgious  lite  Mr.  George  is  a  Congregation- 
alist  and  an  attendant  of  the  New  England  Con- 
gregational Church,  of  Aurora,  to  the  support  of 
which  he  and  his  brother,  Alonzo  George,  have 
been  particularly  devoted. 

While  a  resident  of  Sugar  Grove  he  rather 
avoided  public  offices,  but  served  the  township 
creditably  for  eight  years  as  supervisor,  and  for 
several  years  he  served  on  the  school  board,  be- 
ing an  important  factor  in  the  establishment  of 
good  schools  there. 


Mr.  Cjeorgc  is  a  modest,  even  a  diffident  man, 
and  uniformly  bears  himself  as  a  gentleman,  never 
being  heard  to  give  expression  to  a  vulgar 
phrase  or  sentiment.  Mentally  he  has  grown 
to  be  very  strong  without  becoming  a  great 
student  of  liooks.  He  is  quick  of  apprehen- 
sion, and  intricate  business  affairs  he  com- 
prehends in  a  moment.  ^Mr.  George  is  do- 
mestic in  his  habits  and  provides  liberally  for 
rhose  dependent  upon  him,  and  though  he 
is  closely  nearing  the  life  line  allotted  to 
man  he  nevertheless  preserves  the  sprightliness 
of  vouth. 


JOHN  A.  PRICKETT, 


EDWARDSVILLE. 


THERE  is  particular  satisfaction  in  reverting 
to  the  life  history  of  the  honored  and  ven- 
erable gentleman  whose  name  initiates  this  re- 
view, since  his  mind  bears  the  impress  of  the 
historical  annals  of  the  State  of  Illinois  from  the 
early  pioneer  days,  and  from  the  fact  that  he  has 
been  a  loyal  son  of  the  Republic  and  has  attained 
to  a  position  of  distinctive  prominence  in  the 
thriving  little  city  where  he  was  born  and  where 
he  has  retained  his  residence  until  the  present 
time,  being  now  one  of  the  revered  patriarchs 
of  the  community. 

A  native  of  Edwardsville,  John  A.  Prickett  was 
born  on  the  4th  of  May,  1822,  being  one  of  the 
twin  sons  of  Abraham  and  Martha  (Harris)  Prick- 
ett, the  other  twin  being  Thomas  J.  The  par- 
ents were  among  the  early  pioneers  of  Illinois, 
tracing  their  lineage  back  to  worthy  families  who 
had  been  long  settled  in  the  State  of  Maryland. 
Their  father  was  a  merchant  after  coming  to  the 
West,  and  was  also  a  government  officer.  He 
was  born  in  July,  1788,  and  his  death  occurred 
in  1836.  His  wife  was  born  in  the  first  year  of 
the  present  century,  and  she  passed  into  eternal 
life  in  October,  1823. 

Our  subject  was  enabled  to  secure  such  edu- 
cational discipline  as  was  afforded  by  the  private 
or  subscription  schools  of  the  pioneer  period, 
devoting  himself  to  his  studies  until  he  had  at- 
tained the  age  of  seventeen  years,  after  which  he 


passed  three  years  in  acquiring  the  saddler's  trade. 
In  his  early  youth  he  was  elected  county  clerk 
and  recorder,  and  showed  a  remarkable  execu- 
tive capacity,  discharging  the  duties  of  these  of- 
fices with  signal  ability  and  fidelity.  He  event- 
ually became  prominently  concerned  in  agricul- 
tural operations  and  merchandising,  and  there- 
.after  was  identified  witli  the  operation  of  the 
flouring  mill  at  Edwardsville,  being  the  propri- 
etor of  the  same  from  1863  until  1873,  when  the 
property  was  destroyed  by  fire.  In  the  meantime* 
he  had  discerned  the  necessity  for  better  bank- 
ing facilities  in  the  town,  and  accordingly  he  es- 
tablished a  private  banking  institution,  which  has 
been  consecutively  and  successfully  conducted  un- 
til the  present  time,  its  affairs  still  being  under  his 
direction,  though  the  practical  executive  details 
are  entrusted  to  the  efficient  management  of  his 
sons.  The  bank  was  established  in  November, 
1S69,  and  its  history  has  been  one  of  wise  and 
conservative  management,  while  tlie  correct  meth- 
ods and  absolute  integrity  brought  to  bear  have 
gained  and  retained  to  it  the  confidence  and  sup- 
port of  the  local  public. 

Air.  Prickett  was  an  active  participant  in  the 
war  with  Mexico,  having  enlisted  in  1846,  as  a 
member  of  Company  E,  Second  Illinois  Volun- 
teers. He  proceeded  with  his  command  to  the 
scene  of  action,  and  became  first  lieutenant  of 
his  company,   acting  as  captain  in  the  engage- 


REPRESEN^TATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


:u] 


nicnts  ill  wliich  it  took  part.  He  received  a  se- 
vere wound  in  the  shoulder,  and,  being  thereby 
incapacitated  for  further  service,  he  returned  to 
his  home  in  April,  1847. 

In  his  fraternal  relations  Mr.  Prickett  has  long 
been  prominently  identified  with  the  Masonic  or- 
der, into  whose  mysteries  he  was  initiated  in  1843. 
He  has  held  many  of  the  chairs  in  his  order  and 
has  been  Master  of  his  chaijHer.  He  has  advanced 
to  the  Knights  Templar  degree.  He  has  passed 
the  chairs  of  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fel- 
lows, having  been  the  able  incumbent  as  Noble 
Grand,  and  is  also  identified  with  the  Knights 
of  Pythias.  Mrs.  Prickett  is  a  member  of  the 
Daughters  of  Rebekah. 

The  marriage  of  our  subject  was  solemnized 
November  4,  1847,  when  he  was  united  to  Eliza- 


beth I'larnsback.  They  have  had  five  children, 
of  whom  we  make  brief  record  as  follows:  Clara 
is  the  wife  of  W.  PI.  Jones;  Minna  is  the  wife  of 
Cyrus  Happy;  and  Jessie  E.,  Julius  and  Harris  E. 
are  at  home.  The  two  sons  were  accorded  the 
exceptional  privilege  of  passing  two  years  in 
Europe,  where,  with  their  sister  Jessie,  they  trav- 
eled quite  extensively,  devoting  themselves  to 
stufly  and  recreation.  Minna  is  a  graduate  of  the 
Monticello  Seminary. 

?ilr.  Prickett  is  not  ideulilied  with  any  re- 
ligious organization,  but  he  gives  an  inter- 
ested and  tangible  support  to  the  Episco- 
palian and  Methodist  Churches,  being  held  in 
the  highest  respect  and  esteem  in  the  commu- 
nity wlicrc  his  long  and  useful  life  has  been 
passed. 


FRANCIS  T.  COLBY, 


WHILE  for  some  years  Colonel  Colby  has 
been  a  prominent  figure  at  the  bar  of 
Cook  county,  and  Chicago  numbers  him  among 
her  leading  realty  and  probate  lawyers,  he  be- 
came more  widely  known  to  the  people  of  Illi- 
nois and  the  entire  country  in  connection  with 
the  riots  of  June  and  July,  1894.  Labor  and 
capital  had  largely  become  opposing  interests. 
In  the  summer  of  1894  the  laboring  men  at  Pull- 
man, believing  that  they  were  oppressed,  went  out 
on  a  strike,  and  labor  organizations  throughout 
the  country,  in  sympathetic  movement,  laid  down 
their  tools,  resolved  to  stand  by  those  of  their 
own  station.  Out  of  this  there  arose  a  disturl)- 
ancc,  the  history  of  which  is  familiar  to  the 
country.  There  is  always  a  lawless,  reckless 
clement  ever  ready  to  join  in  and  push  forward 
a  disturbance,  and  this  element,  joining  the 
"strikers,"  succeeded  in  i^roducing  riots  which 
the  military  forces  were  at  length  forced  to  ciuell. 
As  commander  of  the  Seventh  Regiment  Infantry, 
Illinois  National  Guard,  Colonel  Colby  was  a 
prominent  factor  in  suppressing  the  disturbance. 
In  commanding  his  men  he  displayed  firmness 
tempered  by  justice,  power  limited  by  discretion, 
and  force  was  only  used  to  protect  life  and  prop- 


erty. His  course  commanded  the  respect  of  his 
troops  and  the  admiration  of  all,  and  increased 
the  confidence  of  the  public  in  the  military  forces 
of  the  country. 

Colonel  Colby  is  a  native  of  Chicago,  bom  Sep- 
tember 27,  i860,  to  Andrew  J.  and  Mary  (Whe- 
lan)  Colby.  His  father  is  a  descendant  of  a 
prominent  New  England  family,  tracing  his  an- 
cestry from  Anthony  Colby,  bom  at  Beccles, 
England,  in  1590.  He  and  his  wife,  Susannah, 
sailed  for  America  April  30,  1630,  in  Governor 
Winthrop's  company,  and  landed  at  Salem,  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  June  or  July  following.  He  lived 
in  Boston,  Cambridge,  'Rowley,  Ipswich  and 
Salisbury.  At  the  latter  town  Isaac  Colby  was 
born  in  1640.  The  latter,  with  his  wife,  Martha 
Colby,  lived  at  Rowley  and  Haverhill.  To  them 
was  born  at  Rowley,  in  1680,  Isaac  Colby,  who 
married  Mary  Fowler,  had  a  son  named  Isaac, 
born  in  1709  and  died  at  West  Amesbury  in 
1726.  Isaac  Colby  and  his  wife  Sarah  lived  at 
''vndover  and  Haverhill,  East  Parish.  Their  son, 
William  Davis  Colliy,  was  born  at  Haverhill, 
March  15,  1742.  He  was  engaged  in  the  Colo- 
nial wars  in  1762  and  afterward  married  Eliza- 
beth Straw  (born  December  22,  1753),  the  daugh- 


342 


niOOUAl'lIICAh  DICTWNAUr  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLEUT  OF  THE 


ter  of  Ca|itain  Jonathan  Straw,  who  died  Jan- 
uary 6.  ijgi,  aged  sixty-seven  years.  William 
Davis  Colby  and  his  wife  removed  to  Hopkinton, 
New  Hampshire,  in  1769,  where  he  died  Jan- 
uary 12,  1812.  There  also  was  born  to  them 
Isaac  Colby,  on  May  22,  1780,  who  married 
Eunice  Flagg,  October  9,  1803,  removed  to  Bos- 
ton, and  from  thence  to  Amherst,  New  Hamp- 
shire, where  he  died  May  19,  1840.  Eunice 
Flag-g  was  born  in  W'altham,  Massachusetts, 
May  25,  1778,  and  died  January  15,  1858.  The 
oldest  child  of  Isaac  and  Eunice  Colby  was 
^^'illiam,  who  was  born  at  Boston,  September 
15,  1804.  He  lived  in  Goffstown  and  Amherst 
and  died  in  Detroit,  May  27,  1875.  At  Goffstown 
he  married  Sarah  Clogston,  June  25,  1825,  and 
tlieir  tifth  child  was  Andrew  J.  Colby,  who  was 
born  at  Amherst,  August  28,  1834.  He  took  up 
his  residence  in  Chicago  in  1850,  when  the  city 
was  a  mere  village,  and  remained  there  until 
1885,  when  he  removed  to  San  Francisco,  where 
he  now  resides. 

Colonel  Colby's  education  was  obtained  in 
the  public  schools,  and  he  was  graduated  at  the 
high  school  in  the  class  of  1876.  The  following 
year  he  entered  the  Chicago  University,  taking 
a  special  course,  which  was  completed  by  his 
graduation  in  1880,  when  he  carried  off  the  hon- 
ors of  the  class.  His  tastes  had  already  led  him 
to  make  choice  of  a  profession  which  he  wished 
to  make  his  life  work,  and  ere  leaving  the  uni- 
versity he  had  begun  the  study  of  law  under  the 
preceptorship  of  Judge  James  Goggin,  of  Chi- 
cago. As  soon  as  he  had  sufficiently  mastered 
the  science  he  opened  an  oiV.ce  and  began  prac- 
tice in  a  profession  which  now  numbers  him 
among  its  honored  members.  He  has  been  very 
successful  in  practice,  his  merits  winning  him  a 
liberal  clientage,  and  by  the  members  of  the 
bar  as  well  as  the  public  he  is  accounted  a  lead- 
ing realty  and  probate  lawyer  as  well  as  an  able 
advocate  and  counselor.  He  has  been  particu- 
larly successful  in  that  department  of  law  which 
relates  to  examination  of  titles  to  real  estate  and 
probate  matters,  and  his  specialty  has  brought 
him  a  high  reputation. 

The  Colonel  has  traveled  considerably  both 
in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  finds  therein 
one  of  his  chief  sources  of  rest  and  recreation. 


With  many  societies,  both  fraternal  and  benevo- 
lent, he  is  connected,  and  has  been  especially 
honored  with  prominent  positions  in  the  Catho- 
lic Order  of  Foresters,  Benevolent  and  Pro- 
tective Order  of  Elks,  Ancient  Order  of  United 
Workmen,  Independent  Order  of  Foresters,  Cath- 
olic Benevolent  Legion,  Royal  Arcanum,  Royal 
League  and  L^nited  Irish  societies.  In  1892  he 
was  elected  supreme  commander  of  the  Ll^niform 
Rank,  Catholic  Order  of  Foresters.  He  has  also 
been  active  in  societies  connected  with  his  pro- 
fession, having  been  identified  for  a  number  of 
years  with  the  American  Bar  Association,  the 
Chicago  Bar  Association  and  the  Chicago  Law 
Tiistitute. 

The  ColcMiel's  connection  with  the  military 
service  of  the  State  began  in  1889.  when  he  was 
appointed  inspector  of  rifle  practice  with  the 
rank  of  captain  in  the  Hibernian  Rifles,  subse- 
quently being  elected  colonel,  to  which  position 
he  was  again  elected  in  January,  1893.  On  the 
2 1  St  of  June  of  the  same  year  this  regiment  was 
mustered  into  the  service  of  the  State  as  the 
Seventh  Infantrj',  Illinois  National  Guard,  and 
at  that  time  he  was  unanimously  elected  colonel 
and  duly  commissioned  by  Governor  John  P. 
Altgeld.  He  is  the  senior  colonel  of  the  First 
Brigade,  Illinois  National  Guard,  thus  giving 
the  Seventh  Infantry  the  right  of  the  line  of  the 
brigade.  With  his  troops  he  is  most  popular, 
a  commander  beloved  and  respected,  as  is  shown 
bv  the  fact  of  his  unanimous  re-election. 

Colonel  Colby  has  never  taken  an  active  part 
in  politics  and  has  uniformly  declined  offers  of 
political  preferment.  In  1888,  however,  he  was 
nominated  by  the  Workingmen's  party  for  State's 
attorney,  and  though  he  declined  the  nomination 
in  writing  they  retained  his  name  upon  the  ticket 
and  more  than  12,000  votes  were  cast  for  him. 
He  has  always  taken  an  active  interest  in  public 
affairs,  and  his  voice  and  pen  have  not  been  idle 
during  the  discussions  of  the  cjuestions  of  the 
relations  of  labor  and  capital,  of  municipal  re- 
forms and  of  finance. 

On  the  30th  of  November,  1882,  Colonel  Colby 
married  Miss  Rose  L.  Sullivan,  of  Chicago,  and 
tliey  have  had  six  cliildren:  Frances  Everett, 
Francesca  Beatrice,  Rosita  Marie,  Evelyn  Flor- 
ence   Cecelia,   Genevieve    Lucile  and    Imogene 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


843 


Helen.     Of  this  iiunihcr.  tlie  eldest  and  the  third 
child  are  deceased. 

The  Colonel  has  made  judicious  investments 
of  his  income  in  real  estate,  which  is  rapidly  in- 
creasing in  value.  He  has  thus  become  the  pos- 
sessor of  considerable  means,  and  is  enabled  to 
surround  his  family  with  all  the  comforts  and 
nianv  of  the  luxuries  of  life.     Nothing:  afifords 


him  greater  hapi)incss  than  to  minister  to 
them,  and  he  cannot  do  too  nuich  in  enhance 
their  welfare.  He  is  truly  domestic  in  liis 
tastes,  and  though  he  is  an  honored  and 
leading  menil)er  of  various  societies  and  or- 
ganizations he  finds  his  greatest  joy  in  the 
midst  of  the  little  hand  that  clusters  around  his 
fireside. 


HIRAM  WILSON, 


HIRAM  WILSOX  was  born  in  Onondaga 
county.  New  York,  Sejiteniber  16,  1S21. 
His  parents,  Ansyl  and  Roxa  (Benedict)  Wilson, 
were  natives  respectively  of  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts.  The  former  in  early  life  was  a 
wmilen  manufacturer,  and  later  a  farmer  in  w  Iiat 
is  now  Lake  county,  Ohio,  to  which  point  he  re- 
moved with  his  family  in  1S26,  when  Hiram, 
who  was  the  second  of  a  fann'ly  of  three  children, 
was  but  five  years  of  age.  In  his  new  home 
our  subject  received  his  primary  education  in  the 
local  district  schools,  and  during  the  summer 
seasons  assisted  his  father  at  whatever  his  age 
and  strength  would  permit.  Later  he  attended 
the  academy  at  Parkman,  Ohio,  leaving  that 
institution  when  about  twenty  years  old,  and  en- 
gaging as  a  teacher  in  Wayne  county.  After  a 
year's  service  he  removed  to  a  point  near  Mount 
Venion.  Indiana,  where  he  taught  for  the  subse- 
(|uent  two  years. 

E'>ut  to  a  man  of  his  ambition,  industry  and 
energy,  teaching  school  was  an  uncongenial 
task,  and,  casting  around  for  a  profitable  voca- 
tion, he  decided  to  engage  in  the  notion  business, 
which  he  did,  and  for  four  years  traveled  with  his 
pack  all  over  the  country,  from  Halifax  to  New 
Orleaais,  with  most  satisfactory  results.  Thus 
was  laid  the  foundation  for  his  future  successful 
career  as  a  merchant  and  financier.  About  the 
year  1845  'i^  engaged  in  the  general  mercantile 
business  at  Urbana,  Ohio,  in  company  with  a  Mr. 
Hitt,  and  for  seven  years  the  firm  of  Hitt  &  Wil- 
son continued  what  was  a  most  prosperous  busi- 
ness. Mr.  Wilson  then  sold  his  interest  and 
turne  1  his  attention  to  the  bankinq-  business,  lo- 


cating at  I-'aribault,  Minnesota,  and  organizing 
the  baid<ing  house  of  11.  Wilson  iv  Company. 
]"or  the  next  seven  years  he  remained  in  Fari- 
bault, and  then,  his  father  having  died  in  1862, 
he  disposed  of  his  interests  there  and  returned  to 
Ohio,  where  in  company  with  his  brother  he  dis- 
posed of  the  farm  and  then  moved  to  Jackson- 
ville, Illinois,  and  started  the  First  National  Bank 
of  that  city,  with  a  capital  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.  For  two  years  he  filled  the  office 
of  cashier  in  that  institution,  and  then  came  to 
Geneseo,  purchasing  an  interest  in  the  First 
National  Bank  and  becoming  its  cashier,  a  posi- 
tion he  has  most  ably  filled  ever  since.  He  is  one 
of  the  bank's  largest  stockholders,  and  ever  since 
his  connection  with  it  has  taken  active  charge 
over  all  of  the  details  of  its  business.  The  bank's 
capital  stock  is  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  and 
the  surplus  and  undivided  profits  an  equal  amount. 
It  is  the  leading  financial  institution  of  Geneseo, 
and  its  success  is  due  to  the  careful  and  conserva- 
tive methods  employed  by  Mr.  Wilson  during  the 
many  years  he  has  devoted  to  its  interests.  He 
has  always  avoided  speculation,  and  has  been  con- 
tent to  carry  on  a  sotmd,  safe  and  legitimate  bank- 
ing business. 

Mr.  ^\'ilson  is  a  strong  Republican,  but 
has  always  kept  out  of  active  politics,  and 
would  never  c(>nsent  to  become  a  candidate  for 
office. 

Mr.  W'ilson  has  been  twice  married,  and  has 
a  (laughter,  Jennie,  by  his  first  wife.  His  pres- 
ent wife,  to  whom  he  was  united  in  1864,  was 
formerly  Miss  Mary  C.  Dewey,  of  Middletov.n. 
Connecticut. 


344 


BIOaUAPIIICAL  DICTrONAEY  AND  POllTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


ROGER  ENOS, 


COLCHESTER,  CONNECTICUT. 


THE  ancestors  of  the  American  family  of  Enos 
were  very  probably  Huguenots,  although 
the  direct  emigration  to  this  country  was  from 
England.  The  name  was  originally  spelled  Eno, 
and  some  branches  of  the  family  still  adhere  to 
the  original  orthography.  The  first  one  of  the 
name  of  whom  we  have  any  record  in  America 
was  James  Eno,  who  was  in  Windsor,  Connecti- 
cut, as  early  as  1646.  One  of  his  descendants  was 
the  famous  soldier  and  patriot,  General  Roger 
Enos,  a  man  whose  memory  has  been  more  ma- 
ligned and  abused  without  cause  than  that  of 
probably  any  other  man  of  his  generation.  Had 
a  detailed  ami  truthful  account  of  his  life  and 
services  been  accessible  to  the  historical  writers 
of  later  days,  it  would  have  saved  them  some  la- 
mentable and  grievous  errors  and  the  descend- 
ants of  General  Enos  many  a  blush  of  shame.  The 
mistakes  and  misstatements  of  Bancroft,  Loss- 
ing  and  others,  as  regarding  General  Enos,  have, 
however,  been  productive  of  one  good  result: 
they  stimulated  inquiry  and  research  into  the 
official  record  of  his  career,  which  research  re- 
sulted in  a  complete  vindication  of  the  charges 
made  against  him  and  removed  the  stigma  so  un- 
justly and  unfortunately  placed  upon  his  honor. 
This  should  have  the  effect  of  impressing  on  the 
minds  of  future  historians  the  importance  of  care- 
ful investigation  before  putting  their  pens  to  paper 
to  blast  the  fame  of  loyal  and  honorable  men. 
What  more  consistent  in  this  connection  than 
to  leave  a  perpetual  record  touching  the  life  of 
this  noble  patriot,  and  offering  in  the  brief  space 
at  our  command  a  refutation  of  the  charges  made 
against  him.  Such  a  summary  can  not  do  full 
justice  to  his  memory,  and  yet  here  will  be  in- 
scribed the  words  which  prove  conclusively  that 
rcver  was  there  placed  by  him  a  single  blot  on  the 
rioble  escutcheon  which  he  bore. 

Roger  Enos  was  the  son  of  David  and  Mary 
((Jilk't)  Enos,  and  great-grandson  of  James  Eno, 
the  Colonial  pioneer.  He  was  born  at  Simsbury, 
Connecticut,  in  the  year  1729.  At  an  early  age  he 
entered  the  military  scr\'icc  of  the  English  crown, 
participating  in  the  Erench  war.    His  name  heads 


the  list  of  volunteers  from  his  native  town  for 
the  Ginada  campaign  of  1759-60.  The  assembly 
of  Connecticut  successively  promoted  him  for  his 
service  in  the  field  as  follows:  Ensign  of  the  first 
company,  1760;  adjutant  and  captain  lieutenant, 
1 761 ;  first  lieutenant,  1762;  captain  in  Israel  Put- 
nam's regiment,  1764.  He  was  in  the  expedition 
against  the  Indians,  served  in  the  Havana  cam- 
paign in  1762,  and,  with  Israel  and  Rufus  Putnam 
and  Phineas  Lyman,  was  a  member  of  the  com- 
^,li^siun  sent  by  the  colony  of  Connecticut  to  sur- 
vey the  lands  in  the  Mississippi  valley  that  had 
been  given  by  the  crown  to  those  who  served  in 
the  I'Vench  war  and  the  Havana  campaign.  He 
was  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Twenty-second  Regi- 
ment in  Arnold's  expedition  to  Canada  in  1775, 
and  with  his  command  he  returned,  October  25th 
of  that  year,  in  order  to  avoid  starvation.  On 
December  ist  of  the  same  year  he  was  tried  by 
court  martial,  on  the  charge  of  "cjuitting  without 
leave,"  and  was  honorably  acquitted.  It  is  cer- 
tainly germane  that  a  more  complete  record  of 
this  court  martial  be  incorporated  in  this  con- 
nection, as  offering  evidence  of  tardy  justice  to  a 
name  vilified  without  cause. 

General  Enos  was  tried  before  President  Brig- 
adier-General John  Sullivan  and  twelve  field 
(iffictrs.  The  result  is  recorded  in  E'orce's 
Archives,  Volume  III,  page  1709;  and  in  ^Nlun- 
sell's  edition  of  Henry's  Journal,  as  follows: 

The  court,  after  mature  consideration,  are 
unanimously  of  the  opinion  that  Colonel  Enos 
was  under  necessity  of  returning  with  the  division 
under  his  command,  and  therefore  acquit  him  with 
honour. 

John  Sui.ijvan,  F resident. 
Attest : 

(A  true  cop}-  of  the  proceedings.) 
W.  Tudor,  Judge  Advocate. 

Still  further  evidence  of  confirmation  of  the 
above  and  of  the  high  respect  in  which  General 
Enos  was  held  by  his  associates,  is  extant,  and  is 
duly  offered  in  this  connection: 

New  York,  April  28,  1776. 

I  hereby  certify  that  I  was  president  of  a  court 
r.iartial,  in  Cambridge,  when  Colonel  Enos  wa.s 


'^^ 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES:  ILLIXOIS  VOLVME. 


345 


tried  for  leaving  Colonel  Arnold  with  the  rear 
division  of  the  detachment  under  his  command, 
bound  for  Qucbeck;  upon  the  trial,  it  clearly  ap- 
peared to  me,  as  well  as  to  the  other  members  of 
the  court,  that  Colonel  Enos  was  perfectly  justi- 
fiable in  returning  with  the  division,  being  clearly 
proved,  bv  the  testimony  of  witnesses  of  un- 
doubted veracity  (some  of  whom  I  have  been  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  for  a  number  of  years, 
and  know  them  to  be  persons  of  truth),  that  so 
much  provision  had  been  sent  forward  to  support 
the  otlier  divisions  as  left  them  so  small  a  quan- 
tity that  their  men  were  almost  famished  with 
hunger  on  their  return :  and  some  would  undoubt- 
edlv  have  staned,  had  they  not,  by  accident,  come 
across  and  killed  a  large  moose.  Upon  their  evi- 
dence, there  remained  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of 
myself,  or  anv  of  the  members,  that  the  return  of 
the  division  was  prudent  and  reasonable,  well  con- 
vinced that  they  had  not  provision  sufficient  to 
carry  them  half  way  to  Queheck,  and  that  their 
going  forward  would  only  have  deprived  the  other 
division  of  part  of  theirs,  which,  as  the  event  has 
since  shown,  was  not  enough  to  keep  them  all 
from  perishing:  we  therefore  unanimously  acquit- 
ted C(^lonel  Enos  with  honour.  T  further  certifv 
that,  by  a  strict  inquiry  into  the  matter  since,  T 
am  convinced  that  had  Colonel  Enos,  with  his  di- 
vision, proceeded,  it  would  have  been  a  means  of 
causing  the  whole  detachment  to  have  perished 
in  the  woods,  for  want  of  sustenance. 

I  further  add.  that  T  have  been  informed,  by  per- 
sons acquainted  with  Colonel  Enos.  that  he  lias 
ever  conducted  as  a  good  and  faithful  officer. 

John  Sui-ILVAN,  President. 

The  estimation  in  which  Colonel  Enos  was  held 
by  the  officers  of  the  arniv  is  shown  by  the  follow- 
ing testimony: 

To  the  Impartial  Public: 

The  case  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Enos  having 
engaged  the  attention  of  many  officers  of  the 
army,  as  well  as  others,  and  as  we  are  infomied 
he  is  nuich  censm-ed  by  many  persons  for  return- 
ing back  from  the  expedition  to  Canada,  under 
the  conmiand  of  Colonel  Arnold,  by  which 
Colonel  Enos'  character  suffers  greatly,  we  think 
it  onr  duty  to  certify  that  some  of  us,  from  our 
own  personal  knowledge  of  the  military  abilities 
of  Colonel  Tmios.  and  others  of  us  from  informa- 
tion, hilly  convinced  that  he  is  a  gentleman  fully 
acquainted  with  his  duty  as  an  officer,  a  man  of 
fortitude  and  prudence,  and,  in  our  opinion,  well 
calculated  to  sustain,  with  honour,  any  military- 
character:  and,  from  the  fullest  inquiry,  wc  are 
satisfied  that  (whatsoever  different  representations 
may  be  made)  in  returning  to  camn  with  the  di- 
vision under  his  command,  he  is  justifiable,  and 


contlucted  as  an  understanding,  prudent,  faithful 
officer,  and  deserves  applause  rather  than  censure; 
and  we  can  safely  recommend  him  as  a  person 
worthy  to  be  employed  in  any  military  depart- 
ment. 

William  Heath,  B)ii;aJitr  General. 

James  Reed,  Colonel. 

J.  Brewer,  Colonel. 

Samuel  H.  Parson,  Colonel. 

Joseph  Reed,  Colonel. 

Jonathan  Nixon,  Colonel. 

Charles  Webb,  Colonel. 

Daniel  Hitchcock,  Colonel. 

John  Stark,  Colonel. 

Levi  Wells,  Major. 

Samuel  Wvllvs,  Colonel. 

William  Shepard,  Lieutenant  Colonel. 

Andrew  Colburn,  Major. 

Joel  Clark,  Lieutenant  Colonel. 

Ebenezer  Sprout,  Major. 

Ebenezer  Clap,  Lieutenant  Colonel. 

Samuel  Prentice,  Major. 

Calvin  Smith,  Major. 

Josiah  Havden,  Major. 

John  li\i\^\,  Colonel. 

John  Tyler,  Lieutenant  Colonel. 

Thomas  Nixon,  Lieutenant  Colonel. 

LoAM.Mi  Baldwin,  Colonel. 

James  Wesson,  Lieutenant  Colonel. 

Isaac  Sherman,  Major. 

Colonel  Enos  resigned  his  commission  in  the 
army  on  the  i8th  of  January,  1776.  In  May  of 
the  following  year  he  served  on  a  committee  of 
Windsor  citizens  to  secure  a  bounty  of  thirty 
pounds  to  each  man  who  would  enlist  in  the  Con- 
tinental service.  He  was  colonel  of  one  of  the 
regiments  thus  raised,  which  command  he  re- 
signed in  1779,  and  removed  to  Vermont,  where 
he  became  one  of  the  original  founders  of  the 
town  of  Enosbun'.  In  1781  he  was  commissioned 
brigadier-general  and  was  placed  in  command  of 
all  the  Vermont  troops  then  in  service.  In  1787 
he  was  elected  major-general  of  the  First  Divi- 
sion of  the  State  of  Vermont.  He  resigned  his 
commission  in  1791,  after  thirty-two  years  of 
almost  continuous  service  to  his  country.  From 
1 78 1  to  1792  he  was  a  member  of  the  Vermont 
Board  of  War.  He  was  a  member  of  the  general 
assembly,  and  was  on  the  committee  appointed 
to  settle  the  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  con- 
troversy. He  was  a  trustee  of  the  University  of 
Vermont,  and  was  one  of  the  committee  to  con- 
sider the  Vermont  Resolutions,  passed  by  the 
Continental  Congress.  From  1779  to  1792  he  was 
one  of  the  most  prominent  and  honored  citizens 


346 


lUtxiHAI'IIK'AL  DWTIONAHY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


of  Vermont,  wlu-ro  no  one  ever  doubted  his  loy- 
alty to  the  united  colonies,  his  military  capacity, 
his  moral  or  physical  courage,  or  his  entire  trust- 
worthiness and  integrity. 

In  1792,  at  the  age  of  sixty-three  years,  wearied 
with  long  and  arduous  public  service,  he  resigned 
all  his  official  positions,  retired  to  Connecticut, 
the  State  of  his  nativity,  where,  with  his  daughter, 
Mrs.  Ira  Allen,  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  were 
passed  in  peace  and  quietude. 

Well  did  the  bard  of  Avon  understand  human 
nature  when  he  said:  "Be  thou  as  chaste  as  ice, 
as  pure  as  .snow,  thou  shalt  not  escape  calumny ;'" 
and  all  the  calumny  that  has  been  in  later  days 
heaped  upon  the  memory  of  this  truly  great  and 
noble  man  has  been  the  resuk  of  one  expression 
in  the  journal  of  Judge  Henry,  where  he  alluded 
to  General  Enos  as  a  "deserter."  This  was  written 
by  Judge  Henry  before  he  came  into  the  posses- 
sion of  the  facts  in  the  case, — the  official  corre- 
spondence between  Washington  and  Arnold,  and 
the  result  of  the  court  martial  where  all  facts  bear- 
ing on  the  case  were  fully  explored.  The  fact  of 
his  honorable  acquittal  of  the  charges,  and,  most 
of  all,  the  trust  afterward  reposed  in  him,  and  his 
capable  discharge  of  every  duty  incumbent   on 


him  in  the  various  positions  in  which  he  was  after- 
ward placed,  all  go  to  prove  that  he  acted  honor- 
ably and  with  prudence  and  discretion.  The  May 
issue  (1885)  of  the  Magazine  of  American  His- 
tory contains  an  exhaustive  review  of  the  whole 
matter,  and  to  that  article  would  we  refer  the 
future  student  or  writer  of  history. 

March  10,  1763,  General  Enos  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Jerusha  Hayden,  daughter  of  Daniel 
and  Esther  Hayden,  of  Windsor,  Connecticut,  and 
to  them  were  bom  five  children,  concerning  one 
of  whom,  Pascal  Paoli  Enos,  one  of  the  four 
original  proprietors  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  spe- 
cific mention  is  made  in  an  article  ai)pearing  else- 
wliere  in  this  volume. 

General  Roger  Enos  passed  into  the  life  eternal 
on  the  6th  of  October,  1808,  his  demise  occurring 
at  Colchester,  Connecticut.  To  his  memory  all 
succeeding  generations  owe  a  tribute  of  venera- 
tion and  honor,  and  history  must  bow  its  head  in 
shame  that  years  should  have  thus  passed  into 
the  great  realm  of  yesterday  ere  yet  had  full  justice 
been  done  to  this  remarkable  man,  this  leal  and 
loyal  soldier,  this  unflinching  patriot,  this  noble 
citizen,  over  whose  memory  was  so  long  flaunted 
the  ignoble  flag  of  unmerited  rebuke  and  calumny. 


EDWIN  F.  SIMONDS, 


CHICAGO. 


A  NATIVE  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Simonds 
was  born  in  Fitchburg,  Worcester  county, 
October  22,  1849,  and  is  a  son  of  Abel  Simonds, 
who  was  of  Scotch  ancestry.  His  lineage  can  also 
be  traced  back  indirectly  to  Pocahontas.  His 
mother,  whose  name  before  marriage  was  Jane 
Todd,  was  a  native  of  New  England.  In  early 
life,  Abel  Simonds  displayed  much  natural  ability 
as  a  machinist,  and,  developing  his  talents  and 
making  the  most  of  his  opportunities,  became 
the  head  of  one  of  the  largest  manufacturing  com- 
panies in  the  country.  He  was  the  founder  of 
the  Simonds  Manufacturing  Company,  manu- 
facturers of  saws  and  machine  knives,  which  was 
established  in  1832.  The  main  plant  is  still  in 
Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  but  the  business  has 
increased  so  rapidly  and  extensively  that  in  order 


t(3  meet  the  demands  of  the  trade  and  more  quickly 
supply  the  various  portions  of  the  country  branch 
establishments  have  been  located  at  Chicago,  San 
Francisco,  Portland,  Oregon,  and  New  Orleans. 
In  Chicago  there  is  a  plant,  and  at  the  other 
places  repair  shops  only.  After  forty-two  years' 
connection  with  manufacturing  business,  during 
which  time  he  saw  it  grow  from  a  small  begin- 
ning to  an  extensive  establishment,  the  founder 
passed  away,  in  1874. 

Of  his  five  sons,  four  are  still  engaged  in  carry- 
ing on  the  enterprise  which  he  established,  en- 
larging it  and  extending  the  field  of  operations  as 
they  deem  advisable.  Two  of  them  remain  to 
take  charge  of  the  original  plant  in  Fitchburg, 
while  another  looks  after  the  San  Francisco 
liranch.  and  Edwin  F.  controls  the  Chicago  inter- 


J^ 


nHriiEsEyTATivt:  mkn  of  the  u.mticd  sta  ti-:s:  illimus  voi.vMh:. 


Ht7 


osts.  One  other  son  is  a  manufacturer  of  Dayton, 
Ohio,  but  his  business  is  in  no  way  related  to  that 
of  the  Sinionds  Manufacturing  Company. 

Edwin  F.  Sinionds  in  his  early  boyhood  a^ 
tended  the  Fitcliburg  schools,  and  during  vaca- 
tions spent  much  of  his  time  in  his  father's  shop, 
and  before  his  literary  education  was  completed 
lie  had  become  familiar  with  every  part  of  the  ma- 
cliiner)'  of  the  plant,  knowing  the  use  of  each  part 
and  its  function.  He  went  at  his  own  expense  to 
the  Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute,  at  which  he 
was  graduated  in  the  class  of  1873.  Inuiiediately 
afterward  he  returned  to  his  home  in  Fitchburg 
and  joined  his  lirothers  in  business,  becoming  a 
.'.tockholder  in  the  Sinionds  Manufacturing  Com- 
panv.  Seven  years  later,  in  1880,  he  came  to 
Chicago  and  established  a  plant  which  has  since 
been  the  headquarters  for  the  western  trade.  At 
the  Centennial  held  in  1876,  their  manufactures 
which  were  there  on  exhibition  attracted  wide- 
spread attention  and  most  favorable  commenda- 


tion, not  only  from  people  of  this  country  but 
also  from  those  of  European  countries  as  well. 
As  a  result  a  Swedish  gentleman  purchased  the 
right  to  manufacture  for  his  country,  and  E.  F. 
Sinionds  went  abroad  to  establish  the  plant  and 
put  it  in  working  order.  At  the  Columbian  Ex- 
])()sition  in  1893  another  large  and  splendid  exhibit 
of  the  company's  product  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  world  to  the  superiority  of  the  Simonds 
manufactures.  He  has  since  made  several  trips 
aljroad,  for  pleasure  and  instruction. 

In  1882  Mr.  Sinionds  married  Miss  M\ra  C. 
Flangher,  of  Columliiana,  Ohio,  and  they  have 
li;iil  three  children,  one  of  whom  is  now  deceased. 
In  demeanor  he  is  (|uiet  and  unostentatious,  in 
manner  is  pleasant  and  genial, — an  approachable 
gentleman  who  enjoys  the  friendship  of  a  select 
circle  of  acquaintances.  In  politics  he  is  a  Re- 
publican, but  aside  from  casting  his  vote  fur  the 
candidates  of  his  party  he  is  not  actively  interested 
in  political  affairs. 


WALTER  REEVES, 


RISING  above  the  head  of  the  mass  are 
many  men  of  sterling  worth  and  value,  who 
by  sheer  perseverance  and  pluck  have  con- 
quered fortune,  and  by  their  own  unaided  efforts 
have  risen  from  the  ranks  of  the  commonplace 
to  eminence  and  positions  of  respect  and  trust; 
but  the  brilliant  qualities  of  mind  and  brain  which 
mark  the  great  lawyer  are  to  a  certain  extent 
God-given. 

It  is  to  his  perseverance  and  indoniita1:)Ie  energy 
that  Walter  Reeves  owes  his  success  in  life,  as 
well  as  to  his  keen  and  brilliant  mind.  He  is  of  a 
sanguine  temperament,  large-hearted,  and  a 
genial  and  ])olishcd  gentleman,  and  one  who  is 
expected  to  distinguish  himself  in  the  halls  of  Cimi- 
grcss.  He  carries  with  him  into  his  new  field  of 
labor  the  good  wishes  and  hopes  of  his  many 
friends  and  fellow-townsmen,  as  well  as  the  regard 
and  good-will  of  the  Republican  party  all  over 
the  State.  If  health  and  length  of  years  are  given 
him  there  arc  still  greater  honors  in  store  for  Wal- 
ter   Reeves,  and    no  one  more    richly  deserves 


them,  or  will  carry  them  with  inore  becoming 
dignity  and  modesty,  while  in  his  integrity  and 
honesty  of  purpose  his  party  can  rest  secure. 

Walter  Reeves,  member  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
Congress,  son  of  Harrison  Reeves  and  Maria 
(Leonard)  Reeves,  was  born  near  Brownsville, 
Pennsylvania,  September  25,  1848.  He  came  to 
La  Salle  county,  Illinois,  in  1856,  passing  his  boy- 
hood on  a  farm.  He  received  his  early  educa- 
tion in  the  common  schools  of  La  Salle  county, 
and,  becoming  a  teacher,  he  followed  the  peda- 
gogic vocation  in  La  Salle  and  adjoining  coun- 
ties, at  the  same  time  studying  law. 

He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1S75,  in  which 
year  he  settled,  and  commenced  the  practice  of 
law  in  Streator,  Illinois,  where  he  soon  rose  into 
prominence  in  his  profession,  being  admitted  to 
practice  before  the  United  States  supreme  court 
in  1885.  Mr.  Reeves  has  become  one  of  the 
most  prominent  lawyers  of  La  Salle  county  and 
the  State.  He  has  always  been  a  strong  Repub- 
lican, and  has  ever  labored  for  the  interests  of 


348 


BIonilAl'lIffAL  DTCriOXAUr  AND  PonTRAIT  OAI^LERY  OF  THE 


his  ])aiiy,  always  rcftisiiiL;  t(i  run  for  office,  until 
tlic  year  1895,  when,  upon  the  death  of  Captain 
Fullerton,  he  was  nominated  for  representative 
in  Congress  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Repub- 
lican convention,  which  nomination  he  accepted 
with  reluctance  owing  to  his  disinclination  to 
accept  public  office,  and  to  the  fact  that  the  ten- 
ure of  office  implied  his  leaving  a  lucrative  law 
practice. 

He  was  tendered  the  nomination  for  Congress 
in  1890,  but  declined.  There  is  no  more  promi- 
nent man  in  Streator  or  La  Salle  county  than 
Walter  Reeves,  he  having  retained  the  confidence 
and  esteem  of  all  parties,  notwithstanding  his 
partisan  Republicanism.  The  city  of  Streator 
is  justly  proud  of  him  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  law- 
yer. He  has  done  much  to  make  Streator  what 
it  is,  one  of  the  most  flourishing  towns  of  the 
State. 

In  1876  Mr.  Reeves  married  Miss  M.  M.  Cogs- 
well, of  Washington,  Connecticut,  at  her  sister's 
home  in  Guilford,  Connecticut.  Mrs.  Reeves  is 
a  member  of  one  of  the  oldest  New  England  fam- 
ilies, and  counts  among  her  relatives  both  United 
States  senators  and  judges.  She  is  a  graduate 
of  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  Massachusetts.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Reeves  have  no  children. 


It  is  but  just  and  merited  praise  to  say  that 
as  a  lawyer  our  subject  ranks  among  the  ablest 
in  the  West,  as  a  citizen  he  is  honorable,  prompt 
and  true  to  every  engagement,  and  as  a  hus- 
band a  model  worthy  of  all  imitation.  His  char- 
acteristics are  a  modesty  of  demeanor  and  en- 
tire absence  of  all  parade  and  ostentation,  and 
a  simple  dignity  born  of  innate  virtue  and  self- 
respect.  Mr.  Reeves  has  an  educated  conscience, 
a  large  heart  and  a  practical  sympathy  and  a 
tender  regard  for  all  young  men  who  are  strug- 
gling for  an  education  and  a  higher  life.  It  is 
not  because  of  special  prominence  in  public  af- 
fairs that  Mr.  Reeves  has,  and  is  justly  entitled 
t(\  the  respect  and  confidence  of  his  fellow-men, 
lor  his  personal  qualities  are  such  as  to  make 
men  esteem  and  honor  him. 

As  a  lawyer  he  is  noted  for  his  integrity;  he 
prides  himself  upon  ne\er  uri;ing  a  client  inti) 
a  suit  for  the  sake  of  fees,  and  will  not  prose- 
cute a  case  unless  he  has  every  reason  to 
believe  he  will  win  it;  but  he  claims  the 
right  to  defend  any  cause  in  any  court.  He 
is  a  representative  man  of  a  class  to  whom 
more  than  to  any  other  is  due  the  continued 
growth  and  prosperity  of  the  many  thriving  cities 
of  the  West. 


ORRIN  DAY  HOWELL,  M.  D., 


THE  various  Howell  families  in  America 
nearly  all  trace  their  ancestry  back  to 
Edward  Howell,  of  Marsh  Gibbon,  Bucking- 
hamshire, England,  who  in  1639  disposed  of  ex- 
tensive estates  in  England,  among  which  was  the 
manor  of  Westbury,  in  Marsh  Gibbon,  purchased 
by  his  grandfather,  William  Howell,  in  1536. 
The  old  stone  manor  house  is  still  standing,  al- 
though the  remains  of  an  old  foimdation  near  it 
show  that  some  portions  of  it  have  been  torn 
down.  Edward  Howell,  having  disposed  of  this 
property,  braved  the  dangers  of  an  ocean  voyage 
in  those  days,  and  with  his  family  sought  a  home 
in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  where  he  was  made  a 
freeman  on  the  14th  of  March,  1640.  He  soon 
removed  to  the  present    site    of    Lynn,    Massa- 


chusetts, where  he  located  a  grant  of  land  of  five 
hundred  acres.  During  the  winter  of  1649-50  a 
new  settlement  on  Long  Island  was  projected,  of 
which  Mr.  Howell  seems  to  have  been  the  leader, 
as  the  compact  or  agreement  of  terms  founding 
the  plantation  is  in  his  handwriting  as  well  as 
laws  adopted  by  the  first  settlers,  and  to  the  last 
day  of  his  life  he  was  a  magistrate  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Colonial  legislature  at  Hartford.  The 
manner  in  which  his  name  is  mentioned  in  the 
Colonial  records  of  New  England  point  to  the 
same  conclusion. 

The  anns  of  the  family  as  found  on  an  old 
family  seal  now  in  possession  of  one  of  the  de- 
scendants, and  on  several  tombstones  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  in  Southampton,  are  as  follows: 


RErRESENTAriVK  MEN  OF  VnE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


349 


Gules,  three  towers,  triple-towered,  argent;  crest 
used  by  some  branches, — out  of  a  ducal  crown, 
or,  a  rose  argent,  stalked  and  leaved  vert  be- 
IVvcen  two  wings,  indorsed  of  the  last.  Motto, 
Teiiax  propositi. 

One  of  the  descendants  of  Edward  Howell, 
Horace  by  name,  was  a  resident  of  Rushville, 
Yates  county,  New  York,  near  Seneca  lake.  His 
son,  Elisha  Carpenter  Howell,  removed  from 
Ovid,  Seneca  county,  New  York,  and  from  him 
Dr.  Howell,  of  Aurora,  descended. 

The  Doctor  was  bom  in  Tompkins  county,  near 
Seneca  lake,  New  York,  on  the  i8th  of  May,  1818, 
and  was  a  son  of  Benjamin  and  Jane  (Moffat) 
Howell.  He  acquired  his  literary  education  in 
the  common  schools  and  remained  at  home  until 
eighteen  years  of  age,  when,  with  a  cousin,  he 
drove  from  Elmira,  New  York,  across  the  country 
to  Aurora,  Illinois,  where  they  remained  through 
the  following  winter.  In  that  city,  which  was 
then  in  the  days  of  its  infancy  and  an  unpreten- 
tious place  upon  the  western  frontier,  the  Doctor 
engaged  in  school-teaching  and  in  boyish  mood 
he  delivered  there  the  first  temperance  lecture  ever 
given  in  the  town.  Returning  to  New  York  the 
following  summer  he  entered  the  Albany  Medical 
College,  where  he  was  graduated  in  the  class  of 
1838.  He  began  practice  in  West  Dryden,  New 
York,  where  he  remained  for  a  year,  after  which 
he  went  to  Saugerties  on  the  Hudson,  where  he 
lived  for  a  year  and  a  half. 

While  at  West  Dryden  the  Doctor  was  united 
in  marriage,  October  27,  1839,  with  Miss  Cor- 
nelia ^lore,  of  ]\Ioresville,  New  York,  and  to  that 
place  he  removed  from  Saugerties,  where  he  re- 
mained until  1854.  The  West,  however,  had  left 
an  indelible  impression,  and,  seeking  a  broader 
field  of  labor,  he  bethought  himself  of  the  little 
city  in  which  he  had  once  taught  school  and  re- 
solved to  establish  himself  in  that  place.  So  in 
1854  he  again  located  in  Aurora,  where  he  en- 
tered upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  and  soon 
became  the  foremost  physician  there, — a  position 
he  continuously  occupied  until  his  death.  He  was 
a  man  of  deep  research,  a  close  student,  and  his 
skill  and  ability  were  widely  recognized,  and  the 
confidence  of  the  public  in  his  superiority  as  a 
physician  and  surgeon  was  manifest  in  his  ex- 
tensive practice,  which   constantly  grew  until  it 


had  assumed  large  proportions.  During  his  en- 
tire residence  in  Aurora  his  home  w'as  upon  the 
same  site, — the  site  which  is  now  occupied  by  the 
fine  residences  owned  by  his  two  daughters. 

In  addition  to  his  practice  Dr.  Howell  became 
interested  in  financial  matters  in  the  county.  He 
was  a  stockholder  in  the  private  banking  house 
of  Bishop  &  Coulter,  and  when  it  was  merged 
into  the  Union  National  Bank  he  was  made  vice- 
president.  The  bank  has  since  liquidated.  He 
also  became  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Aurora 
National  Bank  in  1883  and  was  its  first  president, 
ser\-ing  thus  until  his  life's  labors  were  ended. 
He  possessed  superior  ability  as  a  financier  and 
made  this  the  most  popular  banking  institution 
of  Aurora. 

The  Doctor  possessed  many  of  the  traits  of  the 
early  Howells,  was  prepossessing  in  appearance 
and  his  executive  force  was  remarkable.  He  was 
a  man  of  strong  will  and  would  tolerate  no  in- 
terference with  whatever  he  thought  was  right 
and  honest.  His  firmness  of  character,  however, 
never  degenerated  into  stubbornness  or  impul- 
sive haste.  He  was  a  man  of  keen,  clear  judg- 
ment, giving  opinions  only  after  careful  reflec- 
tion; but  when  once  his  mind  was  made  up  that 
he  was  right,  nothing  could  swerve  him  from 
his  honorable  course  of  upholding  his  opinions, 
unbiased  by  fear  or  favor.  This  made  him  in 
business  somewhat  austere,  but  in  private  life 
and  among  his  friends  and  family  he  was  a  most 
genial,  agreeable  and  companionable  gentleman, 
kind,  tolerant  and  loving;  and  it  seemed  that  he 
could  not  do  too  much  to  promote  the  welfare 
or  enhance  the  happiness  of  his  family. 

The  Doctor's  only  grown  son  was  his  greatest 
pride,  and  certainly  he  deserved  his  father's  ad- 
miration. Edwin  Ben  Howell  was  born  in  Mores- 
ville.  New  York,  September  17,  1852,  was  grad- 
uated at  the  Chicago  Medical  College,  and  began 
the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Aurora  and  be- 
came eminent  as  a  surgeon.  He  was  thoroughly 
devoted  to  his  chosen  work  and  was  always  a 
deep  student.  In  order  to  perfect  himself  more 
thoroughly  in  the  science  of  medicine,  he  went 
a1)road  and  studied  in  Vienna,  Paris,  Prague  and 
London.  While  in  Vienna  he  was  married  to 
Etoile  Coulter,  of  Aurora,  whom  he  wedded  No- 
vember 18,  1875.     Failing  health  caused  him  to 


350 


BronilAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


go  to  California  in  liopc  that  the  mild  climate  of 
the  Pacific  slope  would  prove  beneficial,  but  all 
to  no  avail,  and  he  passed  away  February 
4,  1887.  The  untimely  death  of  the  son  was 
keenly  felt  by  the  father,  and  probably  hast- 
ened his  own  death,  which  resulted  from  pneu-      ing  jurists. 


monia,  April  19,  1887.  The  surviving  chil- 
dren of  Dr.  Howell  are  Marion,  wife  of  T. 
N.  Holden,  a  prominent  business  man  of  Aurora, 
by  whom  she  has  two  sons,  Frank  and  Ben;  and 
Annie,  wife  of  Frank  Annis,  one  of  Aurora's  lead- 


JOHN  P.  HOPKINS, 


CHICAGO. 


CHICAGO'S  well-known  and  popular  ex- 
mayor,  has  a  remarkable  record;  and  from 
the  study  of  his  life  history  one  may  learn 
valuable  lessons.  The  spirit  of  self-help  is 
the  source  of  all  genuine  worth  in  the  indi- 
vidual and  is  the  means  of  bringing  to  man 
success  when  he  has  no  advantages  of  wealth 
or  influence  to  aid  him.  It  illustrates  in  no 
uncertain  manner  what  it  is  possible  to  ac- 
complish when  perseverance  and  determination 
form  the  keynote  to  a  man's  life.  Depending 
on  his  own  resources,  looking  for  no  outside  aid 
or  support,  he  has  risen  from  comparative  ob- 
scurity to  a  place  of  prominence  both  in  the  com- 
mercial and  political  world.  The  town  of  Pull- 
man owes  much  to  him  on  account  of  his  con- 
nection with  her  business  interests,  and  Chicago 
is  indebted  to  him  for  much  that  he  has  done  in 
her  behalf.  Though  the  rivalry  and  strife  of  po- 
litical life  will  always  cause  strong  opposition, 
there  are  many  who  are  opposed  to  Mr.  Hopkins 
politically  that  are  generous  and  just  enough  to 
acknowledge  his  merit. 

,  A  native  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  he  was  born 
on  the  29th  of  October,  1858,  and  is  the  seventh 
in  a  family  of  twelve  children,  whose  parents 
were  John  and  Mary  (Flynn)  Hopkins.  He  ac- 
quired his  primary  education  in  the  public  and 
private  schools  of  his  native  city  and  then  en- 
tered St.  Joseph's  College,  which  he  left  in  the 
year  1871.  He  had  no  capital  with  which  to 
make  a  start  in  a  business  career,  but  possessed  a 
commendable  ambition  and  resolved  to  win  suc- 
cess. For  two  and  a  half  years  he  served  an  ap- 
prenticeship to  the  David  Bell  Company,  of  Buf- 
falo, learning  the  machinist's  trade,  and  from 
there  he  transferred  his  energies  to  the   Evans 


Elevator  Company,  with  which  he  continued  for 
two  years,  serving  in  the  capacity  of  weighniaster. 
Mr.  Hopkins'  connection  with  Chicago  began 
in  December,  1880,  and  in  IMarch,  1881,  he  se- 
cured a  position  as  requisition  clerk  in  the  store- 
room of  the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company.  With 
immense  corporations  of  this  character  promotion 
is  obtained  only  through  ability  and  integrity, 
and  after  two  months  ]\Ir.  Hopkins  was  advanced 
to  the  position  of  timekeeper.  Three  months  later 
he  was  made  general  timekeeper  and  three  months 
later  became  paymaster,  which  position  he  held 
until  September,  1888,  when  he  was  compelled  to 
resign  on  account  of  other  pressing  duties.  In 
1885  he  established  a  store  in  the  Arcade.  The 
business  was  organized  under  the  name  of  the 
Arcade  Trading  Company,  with  a  capital  stock 
of  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  Mr.  Hopkins  was 
elected  its  secretary  and  treasurer.  The  capital 
has  since  been  increased  to  fifteen  thousand  dol- 
lars and  eight  large  stores  are  now  conducted  un- 
der the  name  of  the  Secord  &  Hopkins  Company. 
The  business  has  been  conducted  on  system- 
atic, methodical  principles,  and  an  idea  of  the 
success  which  has  attended  the  enterprise  is  in- 
dicated by  the  greatly  increased  facilities.  It  is 
frequently  said  that  a  good  politician  cannot  be 
a  good  business  man,  but  Mr.  Hopkins  is  a  strik- 
ing contradiction  of  this  idea,  for  he  is  equally 
prominent  in  both  lines. 

His  connection  with  the  Democratic  party  has 
continued  over  several  years  in  this  city,  and  he 
has  made  his  way  to  the  foremost  ranks  of  De- 
mocracy in  Cook  county.  He  organized  the  an- 
nexation movement  and  conducted  the  campaign 
which  resulted  in  the  annexation  to  the  city  of  the 
towns  of  Hvde  Park,  Lake,  Cicero,  Jefiferson  and 


)/^_  »  ^  ^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


nr.i 


Lake  \'ie\v,  whereby  the  area  of  the  citv  was  in- 
creased by  150  square  miles  and  265,000  people 
were  added  to  the  population.  This  splendid  re- 
sult was  largely  accomplished  through  the  earnest 
and  untiring  efforts  of  the  mayor,  who  acted  as 
chairman  of  the  annexation  committee.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  Democratic  campaign  committee 
in  1890,  1891  and  1892,  and  in  the  last  named 
year  was  a  delegate  to  the  national  convention 
and  was  assistant  sergeant-at-arms  in  that  as- 
sembly. He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 
Cook  County  Democratic  Club,  and  for  four  years 
served  as  its  president.  He  has  served  as  school 
U'easuriT,  and  in  various  other  ways  has  been 
promiiu'utlv  connected  with  official  interests. 
Upon  the  death  of  Hon.  Carter  Harrison,  when 
the  mayoralty  chair  was  left  vacant,  he  came  be- 
fore the  people  on  the  Democratic  ticket  as  a 
candidate  for  the  office  and  won  the  election,  thus 
becoming  Chicago's  chief  magistrate.  His  con- 
nection with  political  affairs  had  hitherto  been  of 
rather  a  c|uiet  nature,  but  the  leaders  of  the  De- 
mocracy recognized  his  intrinsic  worth  and  the 
ability  which  would  enable  him  to  control  the 
destinies  of  the  second  city  of  the  Union. 


Mr.  Hopkins  is  an  honored  and  popular  mem- 
ber of  the  following  social  clubs:  The  Iroquois, 
Columbus,  Sunset,  Waubansee,  the  Jeffers<jn  As- 
sociation, the  Roseland,  the  Pullman  AiliKtic, 
the  Chicago  Athletic  and  the  Pullman  Cricket 
Clubs.  He  w-as  also  one  of  the  organizers  and  a 
leading  member  of  both  the  Sheridan  and  the 
Sumner  Clubs.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Ancient 
Order  of  United  Workmen,  the  Catholic  Onler 
of  Foresters,  the  Catholic  Benevolent  Association, 
the  Royal  Arcanum  and  various  others.  He  is  a 
colonel  on  the  governor's  staff,  and  wherever  he 
is  found  he  is  a  sociable,  affable,  genial  gentle- 
man, whose  friends  are  legion,  and  all  honor  and 
esteem  him  for  his  many  virtues  and  genuine 
worth.  As  the  record  of  a  young  man,  it 
is  one  of  which  he  may  justly  be  proud. 
Success  is  not  measured  by  the  heights  which 
one  may  chance  to  occupy,  but  by  the  dis- 
tance lictween  the  starting  point  and  the  al- 
titude he  has  reached;  therefore  Mr.  Hop- 
kins has  gained  a  most  brilliant  success, — a 
just  reward  of  meritorious,  honorable  effort, 
which  comniands  the  respect  and  admiration  of 
all. 


BENJAMIN  L.  ULEN, 


MOUND  CITV. 


THE  gendeman  named  above,  who  is  now 
the  Circuit  Clerk  of  Pulaski  county  and  a 
leading  citizen  of  Mound  City,  Illinois,  is  a 
native  of  Greenup  City,  Kentucky,  where  he  was 
bom  on  February  5,  1837,  the  son  of  Samuel 
Ulen,  who  was  born  in  Mrginia  on  December 
20,  1798,  of  German  descent.  The  latter  moved 
to  Scotland  county,  JMissouri,  when  our  subject 
was  very  young,  and  from  there  to  Alexander 
county,  Illinois,  where  they  lost  everything  by  a 
great  overflow  and  was  compelled  to  encamp 
with  about  three  hundred  other  families  in  a  small 
gulch  at  a  little  distance  from  the  river.  While 
there  the  cholera  broke  out,  destroying  whole 
families.  Those  living  moved  back  into  the  hills 
near  Steward's  mill,  where  they  found  employ- 
ment, though  at  very  small  wages.  Gathering 
at   length    a   little  property   around    them,    they 


finally  came  to  Pulaski  county,  Illinois,  where 
Mr.  Ulen  died,  on  his  farm  near  Ullin,  April  6, 
1 866-  He  had  married  Margaret  Thompson,  a  na- 
tive of  Mason  county,  Kentucky,  born  Novem- 
ber I,  1810.  She  became  the  mother  of  eight 
sons  and  four  daughters,  and  died  July  14,  1866, 
but  a  few  weeks  after  her  husband. 

Mr.  Benjamin  L.  Ulen  attended  school  in 
Pulaski  county,  afterward  taught  school  two 
winters,  and  finally,  through  the  kindness  of 
Lieutenant  Governor  Dougherty,  received  a 
scholarship  in  the  Anna  high  school,  which  he 
attended  until  some  time  in  October,  1861,  when 
he  left  school  to  enlist  in  the  Ninth  Regiment  of 
Illinois  Infantry,  as  a  private  in  Company  K. 
For  strict  attention,  ability  and  bravery  he  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  Corporal,  and  in  succes- 
sion to  that  of  Orderly  Sergeant  and  finally  to 


352 


njoanAPinvAL  dictiuxart  and  roRTRAir  gallery  of  the 


that  of  Second  Lieutenant.  He  participated  in 
many  engagements,  was  wounded  twice, — the 
last  time  at  Salem,  Mississippi,  in  1863.  He  was 
mustered  out  in  August,  1S64,  at  Springfield, 
Illinois. 

After  the  war  he  taught  school  for  several 
years,  and  in  1872  he  was  elected  Circuit  Clerk 
of  Pulaski  county,  and  has  been  re-elected  to  that 
office  at  each  of  the  six  ensuing  elections.  At  the 
expiration  of  his  present  term  he  will  have  held 
the  office  twenty-four  years.  In  1876  he  was  also 
appointed  Master  in  Chancery  by  Judge  John 
Dougherty,  and  re-appointed  by  Judge  D.  J. 
Baker.  For  eight  years  he  has  also  served  as 
Treasurer  of  his  township,  declining  a  re-election 
at  the  expiration  of  his  last  term. 

In  1892  he  organized  the  first  Board  of  Edu- 
cation of  Mound  City,  and  was  elected  president 
of  the  board,  serving  two  terms. 

j\Ir.  Ulen  was  married  on  October  26,  1867,  in 
Jonesboro,  Union  county,  Illinois,  to  Miss  Ella 
Ilerrick.  who  was  born  in  Bangor,  Maine,  May 
16,  1850.  All  of  their  five  children  are  living, 
namely:  George  A.,  born  September  24,  1871; 
Eva  Maud,  November  29,  1874;  Olive  Grace, 
October  25,  1880;  Lotta  B.,  September  2,  1882; 
and  Jerome,  October  11,  1886.  In  1863  the 
mother  of  these  children,  before  her  marriage, 
came  West  to  join  her  parents,  George  R.  and 


Mary  C.  (Nichols)  Herrick.  Her  father  was 
born  May  10,  181 2,  at  Hampden,  Maine,  and  her 
mother  in  Nobleboro,  same  State. 

The  Herrick  family  is  of  English  descent, 
its  progenitor  in  England  having  been  one  Henry 
Eyryk,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Eric  the  forester, 
a  great  commander  who  opposed  William  the 
Conqueror.  His  grandson,  Robert  Eyryk,  died  in 
1385;  he  was  chaplain  to  Edward  the  Black 
Prince,  LL.  D.,  and  finally  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
Litchfield.  The  history  of  the  Herrick  family  in 
the  LTnited  States  commenced  with  Henerie  Her- 
rick, born  in  1604,  in  England,  who  settled  in 
Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  June,  1629.  The  grand- 
father of  Mrs.  Ulen,  Jedediah  Herrick,  settled  in 
Hampden,  Maine,  November  5,  1800,  and  is  the 
author  of  the  genealogical  registry  of  the  Her- 
rick family,  whose  coat  of  arms  is  yet  in  exist- 
ence. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  LHen  are  members  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church.  He  is  a  member  of  the  I.  O.  O.  F., 
to  which  fraternal  and  benevolent  order  he  has 
belonged  for  the  last  seventeen  years.  In  his 
views  of  national  questions  he  is  a  Republican, 
and  is  prominent  in  his  advocacy  of  his  principles 
and  in  political  influence.  He  owns  consid- 
erable valuable  property  in  Mound  City  and 
in  the  country  around,  both  improved  and  unim- 
proved. 


ARTHUR  L.  CONGER, 


AKRON.  OHIO. 


COLONEL  CONGER  makes  his  home  in 
Akron,  Ohio,  but  the  boundaries  of  the 
Buckeye  State  are  too  limited  for  the  capabili- 
ties of  such  a  man.  He  is  a  man  of  the  nation, — 
a  typical  representative  of  the  American  spirit 
which  within  the  past  century  has  achieved  a 
work  that  arouses  at  once  the  astonishment  and 
admiration  of  the  world.  Chicago  is  fortunate 
that  he  has  allied  his  interests  with  hers,  and 
though  Ohio  now  numbers  him  among  her 
sons,  the  Garden  City  claims  him,  too,  on  ac- 
count of  his  connection  with  her  manufacturing 
enterprises.  The  mar\'elous  development  of  the 
West  is   due   to   such   men,   whose   indomitable 


energy  and  progressive  spirit  have  overcome  all 
obstacles  and  reached  the  goal  of  success.  He 
is  not  so  abnormally  developed  as  to  be  called  a 
genius,  but  is  one  of  the  strongest  because  one 
of  the  best  balanced,  the  most  even  and  self- 
masterful  of  men,  and  he  has  acted  so  well  his 
part  in  both  public  and  private  life  that  Chicago, 
as  well  as  Ohio,  has  been  enriched  by  his  ex- 
ample, his  character  and  his  labor. 

A  native  of  Boston,  Summit  county,  Ohio, 
his  early  youth  was  there  passed  in  the  home 
of  his  parents,  who  had  removed  hither  from 
St.  Albans,  ^'t.,  in  1831.  They  descended  from 
sturdy   New    England    ancestry,   and   with  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUB  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


353 


thrift  of  the  locality  struggled  to  overcome  the 
disadvantages  with  which  they  were  surrounded, 
— poverty  and  the  hardships  of  frontier  life. 
They  instilled  into  the  minds  of  their  children 
lessons  of  industry,  frugality  and  perseverance, 
and  though  the  mental  training  of  Arthur  was 
somewhat  limited  he  was  well  drilled  in  the  lines 
just  mentioned. 

From  early  youth  he  learned  to  become  de- 
pendent upon  his  own  resources,  and  w-e  find 
him  while  yet  a  child  working  for  the  meager 
sum  of  ten  cents  per  day.  He  afterward  re- 
ceived twenty-five  cents  per  day  for  his  services 
in  a  flouring  mill,  and  later  his  wages  were  in- 
creased to  fifteen  dollars  per  month.  He  was 
then  employed  as  a  farm  hand  and  in  a  brick- 
yard. While  yet  a  boy  he  also  embarked  in  a 
venture  of  his  own,  for,  in  connection  with  a 
neighbor  boy,  he  purchased  a  canalboat,  which 
they  operated  for  several  years  on  the  Ohio 
canal.  His  next  independent  venture  was  as  a 
school  teacher,  and  the  steady  application  and 
persistence  which  has  always  characterized  him 
then  won  him  success.  He,  too,  w^as  learning 
valuable  lessons  in  the  school  of  experience  ajid 
developing  a  self-reliance  and  force  of  character 
which  have  proven  of  incalculable  benefit  to  him 
in  his  contact  with  the  world. 

From  the  schoolroom,  Mr.  Conger  went  to 
the  field  of  battle.  His  patriotic  spirit  aroused, 
he  could  no  longer  confine  his  attention  to  the 
work  of  instnicting  children  in  the  rudimentary 
branches  of  English  learning  when  his  country 
was  engaged  in  a  struggle  that  meant  the  de- 
struction or  preservation  of  the  greatest  republic 
the  sun  ever  shone  upon,  and  which  was  also 
destined  to  strike  the  shackles  from  the  limbs  of 
4,000,000  slaves.  He  became  a  private  in  Com- 
pany G,  One  Hundred  Fifteenth  Ohio  Lifantry, 
and  upon  the  organization  of  the  company  was 
elected  second  lieutenant.  Meritorious  conduct 
won  him  promotion  to  the  rank  of  first  lieuten- 
ant, and  ere  the  w-ar  closed  he  was  made  cap- 
tain, thus  serving  until  July,  1865,  w'hen  hostil- 
ities had  ended  and  he  was  honorably  discharged. 
On  tlie  field  of  battle  he  was  ever  brave  and 
fearless,  and  his  caution  and  unusual  foresight 
often  called  him  to  be  selected  for  some  special 
service.    He  was  for  some  time  acting  adjutant 

23 


of  the  regiment,  served  as  acting  assistant  adju- 
tant-general on  the  stafif  of  Brigadier  General 
Jacob  Ammon;  was  provost  marshal  under  Gen- 
eral J.  D.  Cox;  and  was  assistant  inspector  of 
railroad  defenses  of  the  Department  of  the  Cum- 
berland, under  General  George  H.  Thomas,  a 
position  requiring  marked  executive  ability  and 
mental  grasp.  The  details  of  this  important  and 
responsible  position  were  administered  with  such 
skill,  intelligence  and  promptitude  as  to  com- 
mend him  to  the  personal  attention  of  General 
Thomas,  whose  congratulator}-  letters,  as  w^ell 
as  those  of  many  other  distinguished  oiT.cers, 
he  now  has  in  his  possession.  He  thus  for  some 
time  had  charge  of  the  office  of  the  railroad  de- 
fenses of  the  Department  of  the  Cumberland,  lo- 
cated at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  Uiiider  the  immedi- 
ate charge  of  Major  James  R.  W'illett,  of  the  First 
United  States  Veteran  Volunteer  Engineers,  to 
whom  commissioned  ofificers  of  that  branch  of 
service  of  the  department  made  their  reports. 
Upon  the  termination  of  the  war  he  resumed  the 
pursuits  of  civil  life. 

It  is  impossible  to  keep  the  man  of  merit  in 
the  background,  although  his  early  surroundings 
are  those  of  poverty,  where  rigid  economy  and 
self-denial  must  be  practiced  and  where  few  in- 
deed are  the  advantages  enjoyed.  A  progressive 
spirit  knows  no  bounds  and  ability  has  no  lim- 
itations of  time,  place  or  space.  The  fellow-citi- 
zens of  Colonel  Conger  called  him  to  the  office 
of  treasurer  of  Summit  county,  and  he  was  re- 
elected for  a  second  term.  He  was  city  treasurer 
of  Akron,  secretary  of  the  board  of  education, 
president  of  the  Business  Men's  Club  of  that 
place,  and  was  a  recognized  leader  in  social, 
commercial  and  political  life.  From  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Republican  party  he  espoused  its 
cause,  and  had  he  cared  to  do  so  might  have  won 
high  honors  as  an  ofitice-seeker,  but  he  was  con- 
tent to  be  a  leader  of  public  opinion,  not  a  "  poli- 
tician "  in  the  modem  sense  of  the  term.  No 
man  has  labored  more  earnestly  or  effectively 
for  the  adoption  and  advancement  of  his  party 
principles,  and  for  twenty  years  he  has  done  val- 
uable service  as  a  member  of  the  Republican 
committees  of  the  State.  He  served  three  times  as 
chairman  of  the  State  Republican  committee  of 
Ohio,  and    as  one  of   the    national    Republican 


;^54 


DIOaliM'IIICAr.  DICTIOXART  AXD  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


executive  coniinittee  iov  eight  years.  He  is  cer- 
tainly a  true  exponent  of  the  party  that  has 
brought  about  all  the  great  reforms  of  our 
countns  and  of  late  years  he  has  made  a  ])ro- 
found  study  of  economic  cjuestions  of  national 
importance,  and  is  considered  a  just  and  dis- 
criminating critic  of  many  of  the  most  subtle 
and  perplexing  branches  of  the  tariff  and  finan- 
cial problems.  In  November,  1893,  the  Mail  and 
Express,  of  New  York,  aware  of  his  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  solicited  his  opinion  of  the  effect 
likely  to  result  to  American  laborers  from  the 
passage  of  the  Wilson  bill,  and  in  his  reply  his 
points  were  so  well  taken  that  his  views  were 
indorsed  by  all  the  leading  men  of  his  party,  and 
he  is  to-day  recognized  as  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  practical  of  financiers  and  politicians  be- 
longing to  the  class  of  manufacturers  of  the 
United  States. 

In  1870  Colonel  Conger  became  a  traveling 
salesman  for  the  Whitman  &  Miles  Manufactur- 
ing Company,  which  had  plants  at  Fitchburg, 
IMassachusetts,  and  Akron,  Ohio,  and  was  the 
first  company  in  the  world  to  make  a  specialty  of 
the  manufacture  of  mower  knives,  reaper  sickles 
and  sections,  beginning  operation  in  1850  and 
since  maintaining  the  lead  in  the  trade.  The 
Colonel  was  soon  made  a  director  of  the  com- 
pany, a  little  later  its  vice-president,  and  later 
president  of  the  new  or  consolidated  company. 
In  1877  the  company  perfected  a  consolidation 
with  George  Barnes  &  Company,  of  Syracuse, 
New  York,  and  for  some  years  the  business  was 
handled  only  from  the  Akron  and  Syracuse  fac- 
tories, but  owing  to  its  great  increase  a  plant 
was  established  at  St.  Catharines,  Ontario,  and 
later  one  at  Canton,  Ohio.  Other  specialties  for  the 
agricultural  trade  in  this  countr}'  and  abroad  were 
also  added  to  their  listof  manufactures,  and  branch 
houses  have  been  established  in  New  York,  Phil- 
adelphia, Cincinnati,  Chicago,  Kansas  City,  San 
Francisco,  London  and  Paris,  thus  providing 
more  direct  communication  with  consumers. 
The  trade  so  rapidly  grew  that  the  capacity  had 
to  be  greatly  enlarged,  and  for  this  purpose 
twenty  acres  of  land  were  purchased  at  West 
Pullman,  Illinois,  between  One  Hundred  Nine- 
teenth and  One  Hundred  Twentieth  streets,  on 
which  to  erect  thcii'  fifth   plant.     The  buildings 


erected  already  cover  about  ten  acres,  having 
over  two  hundred  thousand  scjuare  feet  of  floor 
space.  All  the  buildings  are  of  Marion  (Indiana) 
red  brick,  the  woodwork  throughout  the  factors- 
was  built  on  the  mill-construction  plan,  the  steam 
power  consists  of  five  two-hundred-horse-power 
Stirling  water-tube  boilers,  and  everj-thing  in 
connection  with  the  plant  is  most  complete  and 
constructed  after  the  most  improved  and  modern 
methods.  This  factory  is  equipped  for  the  larg- 
est niowing-macliine-knife  plant  in  the  world; 
also  the  largest  wrench  manufactory,  with  am- 
ple capacity  for  other  specialties  that  the  com- 
pany think  of  manufacturing  in  the  future.  It 
is  the  intention  of  the  company  to  extend  the 
plant  as  business  increases,  erecting  new  build- 
ings and  providing  in  other  ways  for  meeting 
the  demand.  In  all  the  goods  which  are  manu- 
factured the  company  has  a  reputation  for  their 
excellence,  the  products  of  their  factories  be- 
ing of  acknowledged  superiority.  This  comes 
through  the  constant  endeavor  to  improve  the 
goods,  and  no  other  company  can  compete  with 
many  of  their  articles  as  regards  excellence.  This 
immense  concern  has  constantly  increased  and 
the  volume  of  the  business  has  constantly  grown. 
At  its  head  is  a  man  whose  managerial  ability 
enables  him  to  control  its  interests  with  a  steady 
guiding  hand  that  insures  prosperity  to  the  un- 
dertaking, and  that  man  is  Colonel  Conger, 
who  is  known  as  the  president.  The  other  of- 
ficers are  George  E.  Dana,  vice-president;  C.  E. 
Sheldon,  general  manager;  I.  C.  Alden,  treas- 
urer; W.  W.  Cox,  assistant  treasurer;  James 
Barnes,  secretary;  Frank  H.  Hiscock,  general 
counsel.  Though  the  above  mentioned  business 
forms  one  of  the  most  important  and  extensive 
industries  in  the  whole  country,  the  capabilities 
of  Colonel  Conger  are  not  limited  to  it  alone. 
He  was  president  of  the  Diamond  Plate  Glass 
Company,  operating  second  to  the  largest  plants 
in  the  world  in  the  manufacture  of  plate  glass, 
at  Kokomo  and  Elwood,  Indiana.  The  great 
plants  have  recently  been  consolidated  with  the 
Pittsburg  Plate  Glass  Company,  of  Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania,  with  a  capital  stock  of  ten  million 
dollars,  and  Colonel  Conger  has  been  made  the 
vice-president  of  the  company.  He  is  also  pres- 
ident of  the   Hartford   City   Glass   Company,  of 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


355 


Hartford  City,  Indiana,  one  of  the  largest  plants 
in  existence  for  the  manufacture  of  window  glass 
by  the  tank  process.  He  established  the  Amer- 
ican Tin  Plate  Company,  of  Ehvood,  Indiana, 
and  was  for  several  years  its  president,  and  dem- 
onstrated the  fact  that  for  the  future  tin  plate 
would  be  manufactured  in  America.  The  Amer- 
ican Tin  Plate  Company  is  the  largest  concern 
of  the  kind  in  the  country.  He  sen'es  in  the 
same  capacity  the  Akron  Steam  Forge  Company 
with  plants  at  Akron,  Ohio,  and  Ehvood,  Indiana. 
He  is  connected  as  director  with  various  other 
industries  and  enterprises,  and  his  efforts  have 
given  to  a  multitude  of  men  the  means  of  a  live- 
lihood. Thus  he  has  been  a  public  benefactor. 
The  man  who  helps  others  to  help  themselves 
is  deserving  of  all  thanks,  for  he  thereby  pro- 
motes a  self-reliance  and  manhood  in  others 
which  make  good  citizens  and  thus  promote  the 
interests  of  the  nation.  He  was  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal promoters  and  vice-president  of  the  Pjtts- 
burg,  Akron  &  Western  Railroad,  running  from 
Akron  to  Delphos,  Ohio,  and  in  the  reorgani- 
zation of  that  road  into  the  line  of  the  Northern 
Ohio  Railway  Company  he  was  made  vice-pres- 
ident of  the  new  company,  whose  line  has  now 
become  a  part  of  the  Lake  Erie  &  Western 
system. 

Colonel  Conger  was  luiited  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Emily  llronson,  daughter  of  H.  V.  Bron- 
son,  of  Peninsula,  Ohio,  whose  father,  Hiram 
Bronson,  was  one  of  the  partners  who  purchased 
the  Western  Reserve.  Their  children  are  Ken- 
yon  B.  Conger,  who  is  with  his  father  in  busi- 
ness: Arthur  L.,  who  is  now  in  Harvard  Uni- 
versity; Erastus  Irving,  deceased;  and  Latham 
H.  Their  beautiful  home,  one  of  the  most  ar- 
tistic and  magnificent  homes  to  be  imagined, 
is  called  Irving  Lawn,  in  memory  of  the  de- 
ceased son.  j\Irs.  Conger  is  a  lady  of  high  in- 
tellectual attainment  and  culture,  and  has  truly 
been  a  companion  to  her  husband. 

Colonel  Conger  is  a  member  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  and  is  serving  as  vestryman 
of  the  congregation  in  Akron,  Ohio.  He  has 
long  been  president  of  the  Union  Charity  Asso- 
ciation of  Akron  and  is  a  man  of  great  benevo- 
knce,  touched  by  the  story  of  suffering  and  sor- 
row, and  always  ready  to  extend  a  helping  hand 
to  the  needy  and  distressed.     The  nobler  quali- 


ties of  manhood,  the  charity  that  recognizes  the 
brotherhood  of  mankind,  win  him  the  love,  while 
his  most  honorable  business  career  gains  him  the 
respect,  of  all.     He  won  the  title  by  which  he  is 
usually    known — "Colonel  " — by   being    elected 
to  the  conmiand  of  the  Eighth  Regiment  of  the 
Ohio  National  Guards  in  1882,  serving  thus  for 
eight  years,  within  which  time  he  held  the  po- 
sition of  honor  at  the  public  square  of  Cleveland 
during  the  funeral  obsequies  of  President  Gar- 
field.     In    1885,   in   Ashland,   Ohio,   he   held   in 
check  an   excited   mob  of  nearly  ten   thousand 
at  the  time  of  the  execution  of  Horn  and  Grin.n, 
and    without  firing  a   shot,   thus    preventing   a 
scene  of  bloodshed  and  horror.    He  received  the 
highest  praise  of  Governor  Hoadley  and  other 
high  officials  for  his  gallant  services.     He   has 
always  taken  an  active  part  in  the  work  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the   Republic,   was  department 
commander  of  Ohio  in   1886,  and  is  a  member 
of  the  ( )iiio  Ciinimandery  of  the  Loyal  Legion. 
Tile   mind   of   Colonel   Conger  is   many-sided 
and  no  side  is  abnormally  developed,  but  all  is 
harmonious  and  even,  and  to  whatever  he  gives 
Ills  time  and  attention  he  carries  through  to  suc- 
cessful completion.     He  has  the  dignity  of  the 
statesman   of  the   old  irgii/ie,     yet  the   pleasant, 
genial  manner  of  the  most  free.     He  is  ever  just 
and  also  generous;  others  must  do  the  part  they 
agree  with  him  to  do,   and  never  has   he  been 
known  to  fail  in  his  j)art.     He  is  modest  and  un- 
assuming,  and    indisposed   to   attract    attention 
either  to  his  success  in  business  or  to  his  deeds 
of  charity,  and  from  him  few  would  learn  how 
important  he  has   been   in   the   world   of  manu- 
facture, or  how  nuich  he  has  (l(jne  for  the  poor 
and  lowly.     He  is  an  example  of  the  boys  who 
educate  themselves  ami   secure   their  own   start 
in   life — determined,   self-reliant  boys,  willing  to 
work  for  advantages  which  other  boys  secured 
through  inheritance,  destined  by  sheer  force  of 
character  to  succeed  in  the  face  of  all  opposition 
and  to  push  to  the  front  in  one  important  branch 
of  enterprise  or  another..    As  a  man  his  business 
ability  has  been   constantly   manifested   in   one 
phase   or  another,   showing  unlimited   possibili- 
ties, nothing  too  great  to  grasp  and  master;  and 
the  extensive  concerns — some  of  the  largest  in 
the  world — of  which  he  is  now  the  head  are  mon- 
uments to  his  wonderful  power. 


5^50  BIOORArmCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 

JOHN  J.  MCGRATH, 


CHICAGO. 


JOHN  J.  McGRATH  was  born  in  the  village 
of  Stone  Park,  county  Mayo,  Ireland,  on 
February  15,  1835.  As  a  boy  of  eight  years 
he  came  with  his  widowed  motlier  to  New  Jer- 
sey, locating  on  a  farm  which  was  owned  by  a 
relative.  After  spending  some  time  in  various 
rural  occupations  the  two  removed  to  Philadel- 
phia, where  the  son  in  his  fifteenth  year  was  ap- 
prenticed to  a  manufacturer  and  hanger  of  wall 
paper.  When  the  young  man  became  of  age, 
or  at  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  service,  he 
secured  a  good  position  in  a  large  manufactory 
of  wall  paper,  but  was  soon  called  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Chicago,  as  manager  of  the  most  ex- 
tensive retail  house  of  that  article  then  in  the 
West.  Later  Mr.  McGrath  was  sent  to  Mil- 
waukee, Wisconsin,  to  take  entire  charge  of  a 
branch  establishment. 

When  financial  reverses  came  to  the  firm  with 
which  he  was  associated,  and  the  business  was 
sold,  the  energetic  and  faithful  young  manager 
was  enabled  to  purchase  the  branch  house.  This 
he  operated  for  some  time,  but  realizing  that 
Chicago  would  give  him  a  broader  scope  for 
his  activities  he  established  himself  in  the  old 
line  at  No.  78  Randolph  street.  Having  thor- 
oughly mastered  every  detail  of  the  business, 
including  paper  manufacturing,  paper  hanging 
and  paper  selling,  and  being,  moreover,  a  man 
of  intense  application,  with  a  genial  presence,  it 
is  little  wonder  that  Mr.  I\IcGrath  succeeded  in 
founding  the  largest  house  for  the  retailing  of 
wall  paper  in  the  West.  While  at  the  height  of 
his  prosperity,  however,  the  great  fire  of  1871 
swept  away  nearly  all  his  property;  but  as  he 
retained  something  more  substantial  than  cap- 
ital alone — the  confidence  of  his  business  asso- 
ciates— he  started  anew,  with  all  the  vigor  of  his 
virile  manhood,  refusing  to  settle  with  his  cred- 
itors upon  any  other  basis  than  that  of  one  hun- 
dred cents  on  a  dollar.  In  due  time  his  credit 
became  unlimited,  and  he  was  enabled  to  sub- 
scribe himself  as  the  proprietor  of  tlie  greatest 
jobbing,  importing  and  retail  wall  paper  estab- 
lishment in  the  world.     In  fact,  for  manv  years 


before  he  retired  from  business  Mr.  McGrath 
was  often  spoken  of,  by  the  trade,  as  the  Wall 
Paper  Prince. 

He  was  located  iov  a  lung  time  at  Nos.  174 
and  176  State  street,  but  the  remarkable  expan- 
sion of  his  interests  found  him  cramped  even  in 
these  imposing  quarters.  In  1880,  therefore,  he 
removed  to  the  spacious  building  at  Nos.  106-112 
Wabash  avenue,  which  in  1887  was  entirely 
destroyed  by  fire,  with  all  its  contents.  About 
a  year  previous  he  had  suffered  from  a  severe  at- 
tack of  typhoid  fever,  and  upon  the  night  of  the 
fire  (April  12)  had  but  recently  returned  from 
a  Southern  trip,  taken  for  the  benefit  of  his 
health.  When  the  news  of  this  calamity  was 
brought  to  him  he  was  still  far  from  strong,  and 
the  shock  was  so  great  that  he  suffered  a  relapse, 
from  which  he  never  fully  recovered. 

Upon  the  advice  of  his  physicians,  but  some- 
what to  the  surprise  of  the  trade,  of  which  he 
had  so  long  been  the  leader,  Mr.  McGrath  now 
withdrew  entirely  from  business.  Realizing  that 
this  first  real  sickness  of  his  life  had  sapped  his 
strength,  he  set  out  on  a  vain  search  for  lost 
health,  and  although  he  spent  some  eight  years 
in  travel  and  recreation,  free  from  every  finan- 
cial care,  he  at  length  passed  away,  after  a  short 
illness,  on  July  6,  1895.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
Mr.  McGrath  was  sixty  years  of  age,  and  there 
were  few  figures  which  were  more  familiar  on 
the  streets  of  Chicago  than  his,  and  few  wliich 
will  be  more  sorely  missed.  Although  he  was 
primarily  a  business  man,  no  charitable  appeal 
which  he  considered  just  was  ever  thrust  aside, 
and  many  institutions,  not  only  in  Chicago,  but 
also  throughout  the  country,  have  cause  to  re- 
member him  with  gratitude.  Especially  was  he 
interested  in  assisting  the  aged  and  the  orphaned. 

Mr.  McGrath  was  a  member  of  several  of  Chi- 
cago's leading  clubs,  such  as  the  Union  League, 
Iroquois,  Columbus  and  Washington  Park 
Clubs  and  the  Citizens'  Association.  Identified 
also  with  tlie  First  National,  Chicago  National 
and  Fort  Dearborn  National  Banks,  with  other 
financial  institutions  of  the  city,  the  result  of  his 


REPRESENT ATTVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


357 


enterprise  was  a  part  of  that  development  whicli 
lias  made  this  metropolis  a  wonder  of  the  world. 
And  with  all  his  great  practical  force  of  char- 
acter he  placed  all  at  ease  with  the  gentleness  of 
his  manners,  being,  in  truth,  a  gentleman  and  a 
universal   favorite.      But,   of  course,   this   gentle 


and  affectionate  side  of  his  nature  was  best  shown 
in  his  domestic  life,  a  widow  and  five  children  now 
mourning  the  departure  of  that  kindly  presence. 
His  death,  however,  carries  to  them  the  comfort 
that  he  leaves  behind  him  a  career  in  which  they 
can  take  unalloyed  satisfaction. 


JAMES  CLARK, 


THE  specific  history  of  the  West  was  made 
by  tlic  pioneers;  it  was  emblazoned  on  the 
forest  trees  by  the  strength  of  sturdy  arms  and 
gleaming  ax,  and  written  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth  by  the  track  of  the  primitive  plow.  These 
were  strong  men  and  true  who  came  to  found 
the  empire  of  the  West — these  hardy  settlers  who 
buildcd  their  rude  domiciles,  grappled  with  the 
giants  of  the  forest,  and  from  the  sylvan  wilds 
evolved  the  fertile  and  productive  fields  which 
have  these  many  years  been  furroughed  and  re- 
furroughcd  by  the  plowshare.  The  red  man, 
in  his  motley  garb,  stalked  through  the  dim, 
woody  avenues,  and  the  wild  beasts  disputed  his 
dominion.  The  trackless  prairie  was  made  to 
yield  its  tribute  under  the  effective  endeavors  of 
the  pioneer,  and  slowly  but  surely  were  laid  the 
steadfast  foundations  upon  which  has  been 
builded  the  magnificent  superstructure  of  an 
opulent  and  enlightened  commonwealth.  To 
establish  a  home  amid  such  surroundings,  and 
to  cope  with  the  many  privations  and  hardships 
which  were  the  inevitable  concomitants,  de- 
manded an  invincible  courage  and  fortitude, 
strong  hearts  and  willing  hands.  All  these  were 
characteristic  of  the  pioneers,  whose  names  and 
deeds  should  be  licld  in  peipctual  reverence  by 
those  who  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  toil. 

People  of  the  present  end-of-the-century  period 
can  scarce  realize  the  struggles  and  dangers 
which  attended  the  early  settlers;  the  heroism 
and  self-sacrifice  of  lives  passed  upon  the  borders 
of  civilization ;  the  hardships  endured,  the  difficul- 
ties overcome.  These  tales  of  the  early  days 
read  almost  like  a  romance  to  those  who  have 
known  only  the  modern  prosperity  and  con- 
venience.    To  the  pioneer  of  the  early  days  the 


struggle  for  existence,  far  removed  from  the 
privileges  and  conveniences  of  city  or  town,  was 
a  stern  and  hard  one,  and  these  men  and  women 
must  have  possessed  wisdom,  immutable  ener- 
gies and  sterling  worth  of  character,  as  well  as 
marked  physical  courage,  when  they  thus  volun- 
tarily selected  such  a  life  and  successfully  fought 
its  battles  under  such  circumstances  as  prevailed 
in  the  West. 

These  pioneers  were  not  unaccustomed  to  more 
pleasing  environments,  and  to  one  who,  like  the 
subject  of  this  memoir,  came  hither  from  the 
older  civilization  and  the  more  perfectly  developed 
and  more  consistent  manners  of  life  of  an  old 
English  town,  the  radical  change  was  one  which 
must  have  been  endured  only  by  one  who  had 
the  courage  of  his  convictions  and  who,  looking 
to  the  ultimate  results,  was  willing  to  sow 
that  others  might  reap;  was  willing  to  be  an 
organizer,  a  builder  and  an  institutor.  To  James 
Clark  is  there  particular  congruity  in  directing 
attention  in  this  connection,  for  he  was  one  who 
lived  and  labored  to  goodly  ends  and  who  gained 
not  only  a  position  of  distinctive  prominence  in 
the  State  which  he  had  aided  to  develop,  but 
who  stood  "four-square  to  every  wind  that  blows" 
atid  held  the  respect  and  esteem  which  is  never 
denied  tn  a  man  whose  integrity  and  honor  are 
beyond  question. 

James  Clark  was  born  in  Ashburnham  parish, 
Sussex  county,  England,  on  the  9th  of  Septem- 
ber, 181 1,  being  the  son  of  James  and  Ann 
(Westen)  Clark,  the  former  of  whom  was  a  pros- 
perous liveryman.  Our  subject  was  reared  in 
his  native  country,  and  was  eventually  appren- 
ticed to  learn  the  coach-maker's  trade.  He  was 
a  young  man  of  alert  mentality  and  ambitious 


358 


nioaUAPIHCAL  DTCrrONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


nature,  and  this  ambition  soon  licgan  to  strain  at 
its  fetters  as  he  I)esan  to  outline  his  plans  for  a 
career  of  usefulness  and  success.  He  became 
convinced  that  in  America  were  ofTcred  better 
opportunities  for  advancement  and  for  securing 
due  returns  from  individual  effort,  and  accord- 
in,f^l\-,  in  1830,  he  set  sail  from  the  land  of  his 
nativity  and  was  soon  en  route  to  the  United 
States.  His  voyage  was  uneventful,  being 
marked  by  but  one  notable  incident, — the  time 
made  in  crossing  the  ocean  being  sixteen  days, 
and  the  boat  being  a  sailing  vessel.  Tliis 
lowered  the  time  record  of  the  day  in  a  very  con- 
siderable degree.  He  landed  in  New  York 
city  on  the  i6th  of  April,  1830,  with  only  one 
shilling  in  his  pocket,  and  realizing  his  some- 
what precarious  situation  as  a  stranger  in  a 
strange  land  he  immediately  cast  about  for  em- 
ployment, having  in  the  meantime  pawned  his 
overcoat  in  order  to  secure  food  and  lodging. 
In  a  few  days  he  secured  a  situation,  receiving 
in  reconiipense  for  his  services:  his  board  and 
lodging,  but  at  the  end  of  one  month  he  had 
proved  himself  of  sufficient  value  to  his  employer 
to  insure  him  the  additional  pay  of  seventy-five 
cents  per  diem.  The  extent  to  which  accident 
or  circumstances  shapes  a  man's  career  was  soon 
given  exemplification  in  the  life  of  our  subject. 
A  Mrs.  Luellum  and  two  nieces  came  to  New 
York  from  England,  the  eldest  of  the  ladies  having 
known  l\Ir.  Clark  in  his  native  parish.  Upon  her 
arrival  here  she  made  a  successful  efifort  to  find 
him,  and  thereupon  prevailed  upon  him  to 
accompany  her  to  the  West,  where  she  wished 
to  purchase  a  farm,  having  four  hundred  dollars 
which  she  desired  to  invest  in  this  way.  She 
agreed  to  pay  Mr.  Clark  ten  dollars  per  month 
and  his  expenses  if  he  would  go  with  her  and 
advise  her  in  regard  to  pre-empting  a  farm  and 
assist  her  in  its  cultivation.  Tlie  overtures  were 
accepted  by  ]\lr.  Clark,  and  in  company  with 
Mrs.  Luellum  and  one  of  her  nieces,  he  started 
for  that  section  of  the  Union  which  was  to 
tigure  as  the  scene  of  his  earnest  and  success- 
ful endeavors.  The  other  niece  remained  in 
New  York,  where  she  had  secured  a  situation. 
The  three  made  their  way  Westward  to  Graf?- 
ton,  Lorain  county,  Ohio,  and  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  Mrs.  Luellum  pre-empted  one  hundred 


and  sixty  acres  of  land.  .Mr.  Clark  staked  out 
the  claim  and  cut  logs  to  build  the  primitive 
cabin  which  should  serve  as  a  home  and  shelter 
fur  the  little  party.  While  this  work  was  being 
accomplished  the  ladies  slept  in  their  wagon  and 
our  subject  took  the  "lower  berth,"  that  is,  he 
made  his  bed  beneath  the  wagon.  After  securing 
her  farm  Mrs.  Luellum  had  only  sufficient  funds 
left  to  purchase  a  yoke  of  oxen,  a  cow,  a  pig,  and 
the  most  primitive  farming  implements.  Under 
these  conditions  was  instituted  the  work  of  clear- 
ing and  cultivating  the  pioneer  farm,  but  ill 
fortune  attended  the  efforts  of  the  members  of 
the:  little  household.  Their  stock  was  lost 
through  an  epidemic  of  scurvy,  and  they  were 
reduced  eventually  to  the  direst  financial  ex- 
tremitv.  Nothing  daunted  by  the  unpropitious 
outlook,  young  Clark  proved  himself  a  master 
of  expedients.  He  cut  down  ten  acres  of  timber, 
burned  it  into  charcoal  and  for  this  produce 
found  a  ready  sale,  thus  recuperating  the  re- 
sources of  the  family  of  which  he  was  a  member. 
During  this  time  INIrs.  Luellum  had  been  unable 
to  pay  Clark  his  wages,  and  finally  she  offered 
to  settle  with  him  by  transferring  to  him  her 
right,  title  and  interest  in  her  pre-emption  claim; 
and  he  sold  this  for  thirty  dollars.  After  this  he 
covered  their  wagon  with  unbleached  cotton  and 
they  prepared  to  utilize  the  same  for  continuing 
their  journey  still  further  West.  In  September, 
1830,  Air.  Clark  had  been  united  in  marriage  to 
Mrs.  Luellum's  niece,  Charlotte  Sargent,  and 
now,  with  his  wife,  two  children,  and  Mrs.  Luel- 
lum, he  started  for  Illinois.  On  the  way  he 
traded  his  oxen  for  a  good  team  of  horses,  and 
with  this  superior  equipment  the  party  contin- 
ued their  way  to  Peoria,  Illinois,  where  Mr. 
Clark  loft  his  family  and  proceeded  thence,  on 
horsejjack,  to  Utica  township,  where  he  paid  a 
man  named  Croisar  the  sum  of  ten  dollars  to 
advise  him  as  to  an  eligible  location  where  he 
might  "squat"  on  Government  land,  the  result 
being  that  he  located  on  section  4,  Utica  town- 
ship. He  then  brought  his  family  from  Peoria 
and  settled  down  to  pioneer  life.  He  operated  a 
primitive  stage  line  between  Peoria  and  Utica 
and  later  from  Utica  to  Chicago,  and  as  this  was 
the  only  method  of  transportation  in  tlie  early 
days   he  made   money   through   this   enterprise. 


^  Wm 


^k'7^-n^^<^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


359 


At  the  land  sales  in  1835  lie  effected  the  pur- 
chase of  two  hundred  and  forty  acres,  and  from 
time  to  time  added  to  the  area  of  his  possessions 
until  he  was  the  owner  of  two  thousand  four  hun- 
dred acres  of  the  most  productive  land  in  this 
section  of  the  State.  His  first  home  in  La  Salle 
county  was  a  log  house.  In  1837  j\Ir.  Clark  took 
a  contract  on  the  construction  of  the  Illinois  and 
Michijran  canal,  his  contract  providing  for  the 
extending  of  the  canal  through  two  miles  of 
solid  rock.  The  work  was  completed  in  1848. 
In  1S45  he  had  erected  a  substantial  and  hand- 
some residence,  and  this  is  still  pointed  out  as 
one  of  the  finest  in  this  section  of  the  State. 

.\  man  of  marked  ability,  indefatigable  indus- 
try and  utmost  probity,  it  was  but  natural  that 
Mr.  Clark  should  soon  become  a  man  of  dis- 
tinctive prominence  and  iutlucncc  in  the  com- 
iiiunitN'.  He  was  the  tirst  postmaster  of  IJtica, 
and  was  the  incumbent  in  this  office  for  the  long 
pLtiod  o[  fourteen  years.  There  had  been  es- 
tablished ill  L'tiea  an  enterprise  for  the  manu- 
facture of  cement  to  be  used  in  the  construction 
of  the  locks  of  the  canal,  the  projectors  of  this 
undertaking  having  been  George  Steele  and 
Hiram  Norton,  who  had  come  hither  from  Can- 
ada, but  who  had  conducted  operations  upon  a 
very  modest  scale.  Mr.  Clark  purchased  the 
cement  works  and  in  1845  ''^  began  the  manu- 
facture of  hydraulic  cement.  The  investment 
plroved  a  profitable  one;  and  constituted  the 
nucleus  of  the  large  fortune  which  our  subject 
acciuired.  The  great  industry,  which  he  founded 
so  many  years  ago,  has  now  grown  to  be  one 
of  the  most  extensive  of  the  sort  in  the  Union, 
from  three  to  five  hundred  thousand  barrels  of 
cement  being  turned  out  each  year.  His  wisdom 
and  mature  judgment  were  shown  not  alone  in  the 
establishing  of  this  enterprise,  but  in  conducting 
its  affairs  consecutively  toward  the  maximum  of 
success,  his  business  and  executive  ability  having 
been  of  the  most  pronounced  type.  In  188,^, 
Mr.  Clark  decided  that  it  was  expedient  to  ex- 
pand the  business  facilities  by  the  organization  of 
a  joint-stock  company,  and  this  was  effected. 
He  became  president  of  the  company  and  N.  J. 
Cary  secretary  and  treasurer.  The  business  was 
pushed  forward  with  increased  vigor  and  became, 
and  is,  one  of  the  most  important  industries  of 
the  State. 


Mr.  Clark  was  the  first  agent  of  the  Rock 
Island  Railroad  at  Utica,  and  this  position  he  re- 
tained until  the  time  of  his  death.  He  v.as  a 
member  of  the  board  of  supei^visors  of  the  county 
for  eleven  years.  During  the  war  Mr.  Clark 
was  a  member  of  the  ciiunty  conimitcee,  and  in 
1870  he  was  granted  distinguished  honor  and 
preferment  in  the  gift  of  the  people  of  La  Salle 
county,  being  elected  to  membership  in  the  lower 
house  of  the  State  legislature.  In  this  body  he 
served  as  a  member  of  the  committee  on  canals 
and  on  three  others  of  equal  importance,  bring- 
ing to  bear  in  this  capacity  the  same  practical 
business  ability  and  sturdy  common  sense  which 
had  characterized  his  career  in  private  life,  and 
lie  thus  was  a  power  in  insuring  wise  legislation, 
gaining  the  heart\'  endorsement  of  his  con- 
stituents, lia\  ing  been  a  stanch  supporter  of  the 
1  'eriioeratic  party,  while  in  his  fraternal  relations 
he  was  prominently  identified  with  the  Masonic 
order. 

His  wife,  after  having  shared  with  him  the 
trials  and  vicissitudes  of  pioneer  life,  and  having 
seen  her  children  well  settled,  was  summoned 
into  eternal  rest  on  the  12th  of  August,  1877. 
She  left  two  children  to  iiKnirn  her  loss.  In  1877 
was  consummated  the  marriage  of  Mr.  Clark  to 
Mary  J.  Cary,  widow  of  Charles  A.  Cary.  She 
was  born  in  Jefferson  county,  New  York,  on 
Christmas  day,  1833,  and  in  1843  she  accom- 
panied her  fatlier,  a  clergyman  of  the  Latter  Day 
Saints'  Church,  to  Illinois,  and  while  living  in 
Hatavia  was  united  in  marriage  to  Mr.  Can-, 
the  date  of  this  ceremonial  having  been  in  1850. 
They  became  the  parents  of  two  children — Nor- 
man J.  and  Charles  A.  Cary.  Mr.  Clark's  second 
marriage  proved  a  wise  one  in  all  that  makes 
the  married  state  beautiful  and  happy.  His  wife 
was  a  true  helpmeet  in  every  sense  of  the  term 
and  by  her  tender  solicitude  and  ministrations 
made  his  declining  days  happy  and  serene.  His 
death  occurred  on  the  2nd  of  July,  1888,  after  a 
long  life  of  prominence  and  consecutive  prog- 
ress. His  pathway  was  ever  upward,  both  in 
a  spiritual  and  a  temporal  sense.  As  this  re- 
view shows  he  was  distinctively  a  self-made  maji 
— one  of  nature's  noblemen  whom  no  force  of 
circumstances  could  prostrate  or  draw  into  ob- 
scurity. His  friends  were  many  and  on  the  list 
were  immbcred  many  of  the  representative  men 


360 


BIOGRAPIHCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


of  the  State,  and  his  demise  was  the  cause  of 
wide-spread  regret,  while  a  community  mourned 
the  loss  of  one  of  its  truest  and  best  citizens. 
After  liberally  providing  for  his  children  he  left 
the  major  jmilion  of  his  large  fortune  to  his 
widow. 

IVfary  Gary  Clark  is  a  remarkably  gifted 
woman.  She  is  a  poetress  of  marked  ability, 
and  is  also  the  author  of  prose  works  of  high 
standard  of  excellence.  She  possesses  a  bril- 
liant intellectuality  and  a  charming  personality, 
being  a  woman  of  great  spirituality  and  one  who 
has  made  deep  researches  into  the  great  truths 
of  life.  Such  a  woman  could  not  but  be  an  able 
and  devoted  helpmeet  for  even  the  most  exalted  of 
mankind,  and  the  afifection  existing  between 
]Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clark  was  a  deep  and  abiding  one. 


Mrs.  Clark  is  an  excellent  business  woman,  as 
well  as  a  brilliant  writer,  and  during  her  hus- 
bands life  she  was  confidential  adviser  and  his 
helper  in  all  his  complicated  business  affairs, 
and  he  held  her  judgment  and  opinions  in  the 
highest  estimation.  Since  his  death  she  has  ably 
carried  on  the  business  of  the  Utica  Cement 
Works  and  has  also  worthily  used  the  large 
fortune  left  her  by  her  devoted  husband.  She 
still  retains  her  abode  in  the  beautiful  Clark 
homestead,  which  is  picturesquely  located  upon 
the  blufif  overlooking  the  town  of  Utica.  The 
home  is  a  most  attractive  one  and  is  a  landmark 
for  the  surrounding  country.  Mrs.  Clark  enjoys 
the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  people  of  Utica 
and  worthily  bears  the  honors  of  an  honored 
namt. 


JOHN  H.  WILSON, 


ROCK  ISLAND. 


T 


OHN  HOLjNIES  WILSON  was  born  in  Mer- 

I    cer  county,  Pennsylvania,  October  22,  181 7, 

and  is  the  son  of  George  and  Mary  (McFet- 

rich)  Wilson,  the  former  a  well-to-do  farmer  of 

that  section. 

Our  subject  spent  the  early  days  of  his  life  at 
home,  working  on  his  father's  farm  in  the  sum- 
mer and  attending  the  district  school  during  the 
winter.  Later  he  spent  some  time  at  Allegheny 
College,  Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  which  institu- 
tion he  left  when  about  eighteen  years  of  age 
and  returned  to  his  father's  farm,  where  he  re- 
mained until  after  he  had  attained  his  majority. 
He  then  started  out  for  himself  and  engaged  in 
merchandising  at  Greenville,  a  small  village  in 
his  native  county,  to  which  shortly  afterward  he 
added  the  coal  business.  Later  he  was  in  the 
coal  business  at  Clarksville,  Pennsylvania,  and 
when  the  oil  fever  struck  the  country  that  also 
attracted  his  attention,  and  he  entered  into  it, 
with  successful  results. 

He  remained  in  Pennsylvania  until  the  spring 
of  1865,  and  having  in  the  meantime  purchased 
some  valuable  coal  lands  south  of  the  city  of 
Rock  Island,  Illinois,  he  removed  to  that  city, 
which  has  since  been  his  home.  The  interest  in 
these  lands  he  still  retains,  and  for  some  years  he 
occupied  the  property  for  farming  purposes.     He 


was  also  for  a  number  of  years  engaged  in  the 
lumber  business.  About  nine  years  ago  he  pur- 
chased the  business  of  the  Moline  Buggy  Com- 
pany, and  bringing  his  keen  business  judgment 
and  sagacity  to  bear  upon  its  affairs  and  by  cease- 
less devotion  to  its  management,  he  brought  it  to 
a  commanding  position  among  the  many  manu- 
facturing enterprises  of  the  city.  The  company 
now  employs  sixty-five  hands  and  has  a  capacity 
of  two  thousand  buggies,  carriages,  etc.,  per  an- 
num, which  find  a  market  in  Illinois  and  the 
West  generally.  It  has  been  eminently  success- 
ful, a  result  due  entirely  to  Mr.  Wilson's  able 
management  of  its  affairs.  In  addition  to  the 
foregoing,  our  subject  is  a  director  and  vice- 
president  of  the  Rock  Island  National  Bank,  one 
of  the  strong  financial  institutions  of  the  State, 
whose  capital  and  surplus  now  aggregate  $180,- 
000,  with  an  average  deposit  account  of  about 
$200,000. 

Politically  Mr.  \\'ilson  is  a  strong  Republican, 
but  has  no  ambition  for  public  office.  All  he  asks 
of  the  government  is  a  sound  currency.  With 
that  assured,  he  can  and  will  take  care  of  himself 
and  his  interests. 

In  religion  he  is  a  believer  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Methodist  Church,  of  which  he  is  a  prominent 
member  and    supporter.     To   the    cause   of  the 


d-rrnj 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


3r>i 


Youns:  Men's  Christian  Association  he  is  warmly 
attaclied  and  has  devoted  much  time  to  its  inter- 
ests, and  contributed  Hbcrally  toward  its  advance- 
ment. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  united  in  marriasrc  to   Miss 
S.  A.   lioxie,   of  Erie  county,   Pennsvlvania,   in 


1850,  who  died  in  1882.  Their  three  children 
were:  Clara  J.,  the  wife  of  G.  W.  Kretzinger,  the 
well-known  lawyer  of  Chicago;  Mary,  now  de- 
ceased, who  was  the  wife  of  F.  A.  Head,  of  Rock 
Island:  and  Annetta  M.,  now  Mrs.  W.  A.  Ross, 
who  resides  with  her  father. 


HENRY  C.  STAVER, 


CHICAGO'S  enterprise  and  commercial  ac- 
tivity, which  characterize  both  the  city  and 
the  jicople,  naturally  cause  one  to  ask  what  are  a 
man's  business  connections.  The  business  historv 
of  Hcnrv-  C.  Staver  is  one  well  known  to  the  pub- 
lic, for  the  house  of  Staver  &  Abbott  has  a  national 
reputation:  but  by  no  means  are  the  energies  of 
the  man  who  stands  at  its  head  devoted  entirely 
to  trade.  Family,  friends,  church  and  State  claim 
his  attention,  and  he  is  widely  known  as  an  ear- 
nest worker  for  the  advancement  of  all  that  will 
promote  the  interests  of  city,  State  and  nation. 
He  discharges  every  church  and  social  obliga- 
tion with  a  fidelity  that  is  above  question,  and  in 
the  home  life  he  is  a  pleasant,  genial  gentleman, 
whose  social  qualities  have  endeared  him  to  many 
friends. 

A  native  of  Pennsylvania,  Mr.  Staver  was  born 
in  Loganton,  Clinton  county,  in  1844,  but  early 
became  identified  with  the  West,  the  family  lo- 
cating upon  a  farm  in  Green  county,  W^isconsin, 
during  the  pioneer  days  of  that  region.  He  de- 
scended from  Holland  and  Scotch  ancestry,  the 
former  crossing  the  Atlantic  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  He  was  reared  amid  the 
wild  scenes  of  frontier  life,  and  after  a  few  winter 
weeks  or  perhaps  months  spent  in  the  district 
school,  with  the  advent  of  spring  he  would  begin 
work  on  the  farm  and  has  aided  in  clearing  many 
an  acre  of  wild  land.  He  manifested  considerable 
mechanical  ability,  and,  his  father  purchasing  a 
threshing-machine  when  he  was  sixteen  years  of 
age,  he  began  its  operation  and  successfully  con- 
tinued it  until  he  left  the  old  homestead,  on  at- 
taining his  majority. 

There  is  no  indecision  in  his  character,  and 
though  he  is  not  over-hasty  in  reaching  a  conclu- 


sion when  he  arrives  at  a  determination  he  at  once 
acts  upon  it.  He  resolved  to  leave  the  farm — 
wishing  to  enter  into  other  lines  of  business — and 
did  so.  In  1865  he  went  to  Warren,  Illinois,  where 
he  met  an  agent  for  an  Eastern  firm  who  was  sell- 
ing a  patent  clothes-line  and  engaged  with  him  to 
sell  the  line  on  conunission.  He  was  successful 
in  making  sales,  but  unsuccessful  in  collecting 
his  commission  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars  from  the  agent,  who  left  leaving  many 
debts  behind.  Mr.  Staver  was  thus  left  without 
a  cent  to  meet  his  board  bill,  but  undiscouraged 
he  sought  other  employment. 

Not  long  afterward  he  noticed  some  men  trving 
tmsuccessfully  to  put  together  a  reaper  in  front 
of  a  warehouse  of  an  implement  dealer  of  the 
towti.  The  important  events  of  life  often  hinge 
on  little  things,  and  this  was  the  turning  point 
in  his  destiny.  After  watching  the  endeavors  of 
the  men  for  a  few  minutes  he  remarked  that  he 
could  set  up  that  machine,  and  the  dealer  replied, 
"If  you  can,  set  it  up;  go  ahead."  Here  the  knowl- 
edge of  farm  machinery  which  he  had  acquired 
in  his  youth  was  brought  into  requisition,  and 
the  machine  was  soon  in  position.  The  dealer 
then  inquired  what  he  would  work  for,  and  Mr. 
Staver  said  that  he  would  work  for  his  board  un- 
til his  employer  could  see  what  he  could  do.  For 
five  months  he  continued  in  that  line  of  business, 
acting  as  salesman  among  the  farmers,  and  when 
the  season  closed  the  dealer  gave  him  two  hun- 
dred dollars  for  the  five  months'  work,  besides 
crediting  to  his  account  sixty-seven  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  that  had  been  advanced  to  help  him 
along, — an  evidence  not  only  that  his  work  was 
successful  but  that  it  was  appreciated. 

Mr.  Staver  resolved  to  continue  in  tlic  imple- 


362 


BIOORAPIIICAL  DICTIONAIiY  AXD  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


ment  V'lisiiicss  and  entered  tlie  employ  of  a  well- 
known  implement  house  of  Monroe,  Wisconsin, 
acting  as  field-man  and  salesman  and  meeting 
with  signal  success.  He  has  the  splendid  power 
of  reading  character,  which  greatly  aided  him  in 
his  sales,  and  he  continued  in  the  employ  of  that 
firm  until  the  spring  of  1871,  when  the  firm  of 
Staver  Brothers  was  organized  and  began  doing 
business  in  IMonroe.  In  the  succeeding  autumn 
they  consolidated  their  business  with  that  of  John 
Harper,  under  the  firm  name  of  Harper  &  Staver 
Brothers,  which  was  continue<l  until  1874,  at 
which  time  Mr.  Staver  withdrew  and  connected 
himself  with  the  Adams  &  French  Harvester 
Company  of  Sandwich,  Illinois,  as  field  and  trial 
expert.  There  he  proved  his  ability  to  success- 
fully cope  with  competitors  without  resorting  to 
the  trickery  or  schemes  of  that  time,  when  there 
was  great  rivalry  between  manufacturers  and  be- 
tween their  representatives. 

Steadily  he  was  working  his  way  upward.  He 
had  already  gained  an  enviable  reputation  as  a 
successful  salesman  and  manager,  and  in  the  fall 
of  1875  became  half  owner  of  the  Kansas  City 
Implement  Company,  of  Kansas  City,  Missouri, 
with  which  he  continued  his  associations  until 
1879,  when  he  sold  out  and  removed  to  Racine, 
Wisconsin,  to  become  secretary  of  the  J-  I-  Case 
Plow-  Company.  On  the  failure  of  the  company 
in  1884,  Mr.  Case  purchased  the  plant  and  Mr. 
Staver  was  offered  and  accepted  the  position  of 
manager,  in  which  capacity  he  continued  until 
the  establishment,  on  the  ist  of  September  of  that 
year,  of  the  Staver  Implement  Company,  the  pred- 
ecessor of  the  Staver  &  Abbott  Manufacturing 
Company.  The  original  members  of  the  company 
were  Mr.  Staver,  W.  H.  Swarthout  and  F.  H. 
McAdow.  Tlieir  headquarters  were  in  a  small 
building  on  Canal  street,  and  they  did  a  general 
jobbing  business;  but  their  trade  constantly  in- 
creased and  facilities  were  enlarged  until  the  house 
became  an  extensive  one  and  a  retail  store  and 
carriage  factory  were  added,  the  wholesale  busi- 
ness being  located  at  from  15  to  19  West  Lake 
street,  the  retail  store  at  Van  Buren  street  and 
Wabash  avenue,  and  the  factory  at  Sacramento 
and  Can-oll  avenues.  The  original  capital  stock 
of  thirty  thousand  dollars  was  also  increased  to 
one    hundred    thousand    dollars    in     188S,    and 


Colonel  Lowe  Emerson  and  j.  II.  Parvis,  of  Cin- 
ciimati,  became  interested  in  the  business.  The 
name  of  H.  C.  Staver  Manufacturing  Company 
was  assumed  on  the  ist  of  January,  1889,  and  they 
began  the  manufacture  of  the  Staver  road  cart. 
At  this  time  employment  was  furnished  to  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  for  the  business  had 
steadily  grown,  owing  to  the  capable  management 
and  superior  business  methods  of  the  gentleman 
at  its  head.  The  Staver  &  Abbott  Manufacturing 
Company  came  into  existence  by  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  H.  C.  Staver  Manufacturing  Company 
with  the  Abbott  Buggy  Company  on  the  ist  of 
November,  1890.  The  latter  company  was  en- 
gaged in  the  manufacture  of  fine  carriages  and 
all  kinds  of  light  road  wagons  for  city  and  coun- 
try use.  It  had  in  its  employ  about  three  hundred 
men  and  its  manufacturing  plant  was  as  complete 
as  any  of  its  class  in  the  country. 

Since  the  organization  of  the  present  company 
its  officers  have  been  H.  C.  Staver,  president  and 
treasurer,  and  F.  H.  McAdow,  secretary.  The 
company  now  manufactures  at  least  one  Imndred 
and  fifty  different  styles  and  grades  of  buggies, 
from  the  cheapest  to  the  finest,  besides  nearly  as 
many  more  specialties  in  buggies  which  it  manu- 
factures exclusively,  also  twenty-five  different 
styles  and  gradesof  phaetons, twenty-five  different 
styles  and  grades  of  surreys  and  two-seated  phae- 
tons; jump-seat  buggies,  spring  wagons  and  carts, 
a  full  line  of  farm,  wagons,  express  and  delivery 
w-agons  and  almost  everything  which  may  be 
termed  a  vehicle.  The  company  also  manufac- 
tures harness,  and  in  the  implement  department 
a  large  line  of  feed-mills  and  powers  combined, 
feed  cutters,  corn-shellers,  wood-saws,  seeders  and 
other  specialties.  Many  of  these  are  the  outcome 
of  the  inventive  genius  of  Mr.  Staver,  and  many 
of  the  fine  implements  which  go  from  the  com- 
pany's manufactory  bear  his  name.  The  ware- 
house, which  is  one  of  the  best  appointed  and  most 
extensive  in  the  city,  is  at  381,383  and  385  Wabash 
avenue,  and  the  manufacturing  plant  is  at  Sixty- 
seventh  and  Wallace  streets.  It  is  one  of  the 
largest  in  the  country,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most 
comprehensive,  and  one  of  the  most  thoroughly 
equipped. 

The  da_\  of  little  things  in  Chicago  has  long 
since  passed,  and  in  this  metropolis  of  one  million 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


3fi8 


and  six  liuiidred  thousand  inhabitants,  an  enter- 
prise or  industPi'  is  nothing  if  not  gigantic.  The 
Staver  &  Abbott  Manufactory  ranks  among  the 
largest  of  the  nation,  and  the  trade  extends  to  all 
parts  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a  master  mind 
that  can  plan,  execute  and  control  a  mammoth 
institution  of  this  character,  and  the  gentleman 
who  stands  at  its  head  well  deserves  to  be  ranked 
among  the  most  prominent  business  men  of  his 
adopted  city,  where  only  ability  of  a  very  su- 
perior order  is  now  recognized.  From  a  lowly 
po^ition  has  he  climbed  to  the  heights  of  pros- 
perity, and  the  road  has  often  been  a  rugged  one. 
Mr.  Staver  is  also  associated  with  the  Great  West- 
ern Canal  &  Improvement  Company,  of  which 
he  is  president  and  director.  He  is  also  presi- 
dent of  the  Chicago  \'ehicle  and  Implement  Club, 
organized  for  the  promotion  of  Chicago  interests 
along  those  lines  of  trade. 

Mr.  Staver  was  paid  the  honor  of  Ijcing  sent 
as  a  delegate  to  the  convention  of  the  National 
Association  of  Traveling  Men,  held  at  Baltimore, 
in  Februan,^,  1895,  where  he  responded  to  a  toast 
that  clearly  set  forth  the  position  of  employer  and 
employee  in  the  era  immediately  following  the 
financial  depression  of  1893.  He  said:  "The  sub- 
ject of  'the  relations  and  duties  of  the  traveling 
man  to  his  employer'  is  one  that  has  been  and 
is  canvassed  more  closely  by  all  employers  of 
traveling  men  for  the  past  two  years  than  prob- 
ably for  the  preceding  twenty-five.  Economy 
has  had  more  attention  paid  to  it  during  the  last 
two  }ears  than  in  thirty  years  before.  Ever}' 
business  man  has  been  compelled  to  call  a  halt, 
and  the  halt  was  so  sudden  that  many  of  us  went 
over  the  dashboard,  receiving  wounds  which  in 
many  cases  have  proved  fatal,  and  others  will 
be  crippled  for  life:  and  still  there  are  those  who 
are  hanging  on  in  hopes  that  the  wagon  will 
soon  start,  and  that  the  reaction  will  have  a  heal- 
ing influence  and  restore  once  more  a  sound  body. 

'■Fc(pnomy  is  the  sole  topic  under  discussion, 
and  employers  are  trying  to  cut  down  expenses. 
The  largest  item  of  expense  is  being  considered  at 
nearly  every  gathering  of  manufacturers  and  job- 
bers, and  that  item  is  the  selling  of  goods  through 
traveling  men.  The  employer  hires  the  travel- 
ing man  and  pays  for  his  time.  The  present  con- 
dition of  business  is  somewhat  peculiar.     Up  to 


the  year  1S92  it  was  not  difficult  to  sell  goods.  The 
salesman  was  almost  sure  to  do  a  satisfactory 
amount  of  business,  but  the  cry  of  hard  times 
was  heard  throughout  the  land,  and  the  salesman 
met  with  excuses  from  the  dealer  instead  of  re- 
ceiving orders.  Fie  would  get  through  the  week 
and  be  obliged  to  make  a  report  on  the  condi- 
tion of  business  instead  of  sending  in  the  usual 
bunch  of  orders.  During  the  last  two  years  there 
have  been  many  times  when  the  employer  would 
have  made  money  if  he  had  laid  off  the  salesman." 

Mr.  Staver  then  clearly  showed  that  after  send- 
ing in  blank  reports  for  some  weeks  the  traveling 
men  became  accustomed  to  it  and  would  not  put 
forth  the  effort  that  they  should  dn  in  hard  times 
to  make  their  orders  what  they  had  once  been. 
He  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  employer's  suc- 
cess was  their  success,  and  that  the  traveling  man 
who  wanted  best  to  live  up  to  his  obligations 
v.ould  ask  himself  if  he  was  making  money  for  his 
employer,  and  also  if  he  would  follow  the  same 
course  if  he  were  working  for  himself  and  not 
for  another.    He  then  continued: 

"Gentlemen,  the  relationship  and  the  duty  of 
the  traveling  man  to  the  employer  is  to  put  your- 
self in  the  place  of  the  employer.  If  you  can  do 
that  and  do  it  successfully  )'ou  have  accomplished 
a  great  deal.  Get  away  from  self.  Get,  as  it  were, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  fence  and  look  at  yourself 
and  see  if  yoti  cannot  find,  instead  of  making 
excuses  about  hard  times,  some  faults  in  your.self. 
What  little  business  experience  I  have  had  has 
been  by  observation,  and  my  aim  is,  whenever  any- 
thing does  not  go  right,  instead  of  trying  to  find 
an  excuse,  to  blame  myself,  and  by  doing  that  I 
often  find  a  remedy. 

"I  have  always  had  and  have  now  a  wann  side 
for  the  traveling  men.  I  ap])reciate  the  disadvan- 
tages they  labor  under,  but  that  jiart  \\c  cannot 
control :  \  et  I  do  expect  that  every  man  in  my 
(uiploy  for  1895  will  not  only  work  but  even  now 
is  working  hard,  actually  taking  some  of  the  ad- 
vice wiiich  I  have  set  forth  in  this  address  and  is 
being  benefited  thereby.  I  believe  your  aim  is 
to  rise  a  step  higher,  that  your  aim  is  not  to  grow 
old  as  traveling  men  but  on  the  contrary  put  your- 
self in  the  front  ranks  and  allow  no  young  men  to 
supersede  you.  If  you  have  this  aim,  I  wish  you 
success. 


364 


BIOaUAPinCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTUAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


"Keep  pusliing:  'tis  wiser  than  sitting;  aside 
And  sig;hing' and  watcliintf  and  waiting  the  tide; 
In  life's  earnest  battle  they  only  prevail 
Who  daily  march  onward  and  never  say  Fail." 

At  the  annual  convention  of  the  National  As- 
sociation of  Implement  and  Vehicle  Manufactur- 
ers, one  of  the  most  aggressive  and  representa- 
tive associations  in  America,  held  in  Chicago, 
October  23,  1893,  Mr.  Staver  was  elected  presi- 
dent by  acclamation.  This  organization  came 
into  existence  two  years  ago,  and  it  is  largely 
due  to  his  untiring  efforts  and  indefatigable  en- 
ergy that  this  association  owes  its  phenomenal 
growth,  and  the  results  which  have  been  attained 
in  the  way  of  correcting  unjust  tariff  legislation, 
in  demonstrating  before  our  courts  the  unconsti- 
tionality  of  unjust  anl  vicious  laws  and  in  se- 
curing fair  traffic  rates  from  the  great  lines  of 
transportation. 

J\lr.  Staver  has  a  beautiful  home  in  Eggleston, 


where  with  his  wife,  two  sons  and  a  daughter 
he  extends  a  warm-hearted  hospitality  to  his  many 
friends.  With  his  family  he  holds  membership  in 
the  Methodist  Church,  and  his  charity  and  be- 
nevolence are  well  known,  the  poor  and  needy 
never  being  turned  from  his  door  empty-handed, 
while  many  a  worthy  one  has  received  from  him 
the  aid  that  enabled  him  to  start  with  renewed 
courage  on  life's  journey.  A  temperance  man  in 
theory  and  in  practice,  he  has  been  a  leader  in  the 
work  of  preventing  the  saloons  from  encroaching 
upon  the  prohibited  districts.  He  belongs  to  the 
Union  League  Club  and  is  a  valued  member  of 
the  Washington  Park  and  Harvard  Clubs.  A 
stalwart  support  he  gives  to  the  Republican  party, 
being  a  tireless  worker  in  its  interests  and  ener- 
getic in  its  campaigns.  He  is  president  of  the 
South  End  Republican  Club.  He  has  never  sought 
or  desired  office,  yet  his  leadership  and  promi- 
nence are  recognized  in  the  councils  of  his  party. 


WILLIAM  KERNS, 


WILLIAM  KERNS  was  born  in  East  Alarl- 
borough,  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania, 
July  4,  1820,  and  is  the  son  of  Simon  and  Elizabeth 
(Ocheltree)  Kerns,  the  former  a  native  of  that 
town,  the  latter  of  Nevv-castle  county,  Delaware. 

Thomas  Kerns,  the  great-grandfather  of  our 
subject,  emigrated  from  Ireland  and  settled  in 
Chester  county,  wliere  he  was  married  and  where 
his  son  William — for  whom  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  was  named — was  born.  The  family,  being 
Quakers,  took  no  part  in  the  Revolutionary  war 
of  1775.  The  maternal  grandfather  of  Elizabeth 
Ocheltree,  Dr.  Robert  Bines,  was  however  a  sur- 
geon in  the  Continental  army. 

Young  William  attended  the  common  schools 
of  his  native  county,  and  supplemented  the  in- 
struction received  there  with  private  study.  In 
1834  he  accompanied  his  parents  to  Salem,  Co- 
lumbiana county,  Ohio,  where  he  engaged  in 
farming  until  he  was  thirty-three  years  of  age. 
In  the  autumn  of  1853  he  came  still  further  West, 
and  after  prospecting  in  Iowa  for  a  short  time  de- 
cided to  locate  at  Aloline,  to  which  city  he  brought 
his  family  December  10,  1853. 


He  had  brought  with  him  from  Ohio  a  team 
of  horses,  and  being  ambitious  and  industrious, 
was  ready  to  work  at  any  honest  labor.  He  com- 
mencel  teaming,  and  among  other  things  helped 
to  deliver  ties  on  seven  miles  of  the  west  end  of  the 
Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railroad,  then  almost 
completed.  His  father,  who  was  a  mechanic  as 
well  as  a  farmer,  had  taught  him  carpentering, 
and  he  busied  himself  more  or  less  at  that  occu- 
pation for  a  few  years.  From  1858  to  1861  Mr. 
Kerns  was  clerk  of  the  village  of  Moline,  and  in 
tlie  latter  year  \\'as  appointed  by  President 
Lincoln  as  postmaster  of  the  city, — an  office  he 
held  continuously,  with  the  exception  of  twenty 
months,  during  the  early  part  of  Johnson's  ad- 
ministration, until  August,  1869.  Later  he  was 
appointed  by  Governor  Cullom  a  member  of  the 
State  Board  of  Equalization,  of  which  body  he 
was  a  faithful  member.  Since  then  he  has  not 
held  any  public  position. 

In  1865  Mr.  Kerns  became  connected  with 
Candee,  Swan  &  Company,  afterward  the  Moline 
Plow  Company,  working  in  the  shops,  traveling, 
collecting  and  attending  to  all  of  its  legal  business, 


^-r-  /(jL<^-u.i^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


865 


which  was  very  important.  During  his  connec- 
tion witli  the  company  he  had  charge  of  the  de- 
fense in  some  of  the  most  important  suits  ever 
instituted  before  the  Ilhnois  and  Federal  courts, 
involving  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars, — a 
majority  of  them  for  alleged  infringement  upon 
patents  anil  trademarks.  It  may  here  be  stated 
that  while  Mr.  Kerns  attended  to  this  business 
the  plow  company  for  which  he  was  defendant 
never  had  a  decree  against  it. 

In  i8Si  he  disposed  of  his  stock  in  the  corpora- 
tion and  retired  from  its  afTairs.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, remain  idle.  Mr.  R.  K.  Swan,  of  the  plow 
coi:i])any  mentioned,  who  died  in  1878,  made  Air. 
Kerns  his  executor  and  trustee,  and  until  Octo- 
ber 15,  1890,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  manage- 
ment of  that  estate,  and  did  it  so  well  that  it  paid 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousaaid  dollars; 
whereas,  when  Mr.  Kerns  assumed  the  manage- 
ment it  was  doubted  very  much  whether  as  large 
an  amount  as  sixty  thousand  dollars  would  be 
realized. 

In  political  belief  Mr.  Kerns,  ever  since  the 
formation  of  the  Republican  party,  has  been  one 
of  its  strongest  adherents.  He  had  always  been 
interested  in  politics,  and  was  a  Free-soiler  from 
the  time  slavery  began  to  be  a  prominent  question. 
He  inilorsed  the  Buffalo  platform  in  1848,  and 
voted  for  Van  Buren  and  Adams  that  year  and 
for  John  P.  Hale  in  1852,  and  with  the  Republi- 
cans since  that  time  except  in  1872,  when  he  voted 
for  Greeley.  The  cause  of  temperance  also  has 
found  him  a  warm  advocate. 

Mr.  Kerns  has  materially  aided  many  of 
his  friends  in  buying  their  homes,  advancing 
money  and  practically  giving  them  their  own 
time  in  which  to  repay  him.  In  this  fact  he 
takes  a  pride  that  is  as  commendable  as  it  is 
just. 

Mr.  Kerns  was  married  in  1842  to  Miss  Beulah 
Shinn,  of  Salem,  Ohio.  Of  this  union  were  born 
four  children,  two  of  whom  are  deceased.  Anson, 
the  third  child,  was  taken  sick  while  the  family 
were  moving  to  Illinois  and  died  at  Alassillon, 
Ohio.  George  H.,  the  eldest  son,  was  never  heard 
from  after  the  battle  of  Stone  river  in  1862,  in 
which  he  participated,  and  is  therefore  supposed 
to  have  lost  his  life  there.  Simon  A.,  who  mar- 
ried Clara  M.  Martin,  of  Muscatine,  Iowa,  May 
14,   1868,  is  superintendent  of  the  Rock   Island 


Plow  Company;  and  Charles  S.  has  for  twelve 
years  past  been  connected  with  the  First  National 
Bank  of  Moline,  latterly  as  teller.  The  latter 
married  Elizabeth  M.  Vernon,  June  6,  1889;  and 
while  on  the  way  to  that  lady's  home,  where  the 
ceremony  was  to  be  performed,  in  company  with 
his  mother,  was  detained  and  cut  of?  from  all 
conmninication  w'ith  the  world  by  the  great  Johns- 
town ficod,  and  it  was  a  week  before  his  father  re- 
ceived any  word  from  him  whatsoever.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Kerns  celebrated  their  golden  wedding  May 
17,  1892,  and  the  occasion  was  a  happy  one  and 
long  to  be  remembered. 

Though  now  seventy-five  years  of  age,  Mr. 
Kerns  bears  his  years  lightly,  and  by  the  casual 
observer  would  be  considered  at  least  ten  years 
yomiger.  He  is  a  man  of  very  strong  individu- 
ality, and  in  expressing  himself  does  so  in  a  plain, 
sti-aightforward  manner  that  might  be  termed 
blunlness.  No  one  can  doubt  the  honesty  of  his 
convictions. 

The  above  oudine  of  his  career  shows  that  Mr. 
Kerns  has  been  an  active  man;  and  detailed  men- 
tion of  other  avenues  through  which  he  has  made 
himself  felt  is  needless.  With  a  capacity  and  ex- 
perience that  would  enable  him  to  fulfill  any  trust 
to  vvliich  he  might  be  chosen,  he  has  never  sought 
to  advance  himself  in  office,  but  has  been  content 
to  d<3  his  duty  where  he  could,  and  leave  the  self- 
seeking  to  others.  Viewed  in  a  personal  light, 
he  is  a  strong  man,  of  excellent  judgment,  fair 
in  his  views,  but  strong  in  advancing  ideas  which 
lie  believes  to  be  right,  and  is  highly  honorable 
in  his  relations  with  his  fellow  men.  He  is  a  man 
of  very  strong  convictions,  and  his  integrity  stands 
as  an  unquestioned  fact  in  his  career.  He  has 
always  been  a  student,  and  the  scope  and  ampli- 
tude of  his  knowledge  render  him  a  most  charm- 
ing conversationalist.  He  is  in  full  sympathy 
with  all  the  great  movements  of  the  world  about 
him,  and  watches  the  progress  of  events  with  the 
keenest  interest.  Though  severe  at  times  toward 
men  and  measures  deserving  criticism,  he  is  never- 
theless a  generous  friend  and  warm  advocate  of 
those  who  arc  battling  for  the  right,  amd  of  prin- 
ciples and  policies  for  the  public  good.  He  is 
recognized  by  those  who  know  him  well  as  a  man 
of  most  kindly  heart,  of  sterling  worth  and  integ- 
rity, and  pure  and  incorniptible  in  all  his  business 
and  social  relations. 


366 


BIOGRAPHICAL  niCTIONART  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


ABRAM  M.  ROTHSCHILD, 


CHICAGO. 


THE  name  nf  Rothschild  bears  weight 
througliout  the  world,  a  power  that  has 
been  felt  in  almost  every  part  of  the  globe.  The 
crowned  heads  of  Europe  have  at  times  depended 
upon  it,  and  the  financial  world  has  been  largely 
controlled  by  it.  In  the  commercial  center  of 
America — Chicago — the  name  is  also  in  a  posi- 
tion of  commanding  pre-eminence.  When  Chi- 
cago was  rising  from  the  ruins  of  one  of 
the  most  destructive  fires  the  world  has  ever 
known,  he  became  identified  with  its  business 
interests  and  is  now  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
largest  retail  stores  not  only  in  this  country 
but  in  the  old  countries  as  well.  '"We  build 
the  ladder  by  which  we  rise,"  is  a  truth  which 
certainly  applies  to  him,  being  a  true  type  of  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  that  spirit  which  has  given 
America  pre-eminence  along  its  various  business 
lines;  and  the  undaunted  enterprise,  indomitable 
perseverance  and  resolute  purpose  which  have 
ever  characterized  him  have  been  the  means  of 
raising  him  from  a  position  of  comparative  ob- 
scurity to  an  eminence  which  commands  the  ad- 
miration of  the  commercial  world. 

The  records  of  our  forefathers  are  of  interest 
to  the  modern  citizen  not  alone  for  their  histor- 
ical value  but  also  for  the  inspiration  and  ex- 
ample they  afford;  yet  we  need  not  look  to  the 
past.  Although  surroundings  may  differ  the 
essential  conditions  of  human  life  are  ever  the 
same,  and  a  man  may  learn  from  the  success  of 
those  around  him  if  he  will  heed  the  obvious  les- 
sons contained  in  their  history.  No  more  en- 
couraging example  can  be  placed  before  the 
yoimg  man  of  to-day  than  the  record  of  A.  AI. 
Rothschild.  He  was  born  in  the  little  German 
village  of  Nordstetten,  in  1853,  and  his  early 
boyhood  days  were  spent  in  the  Fatherland  un- 
marked by  any  event  of  special  importance.  His 
parents  were  only  in  moderate  circumstances,  and 
in  consequence  the  advantages  of  his  youth  were 
only  tliose  usual  to  his  condition.  His  educa- 
tional privileges  were  obtained  from  the  public 
school. 

At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  crossed  the  Atlantic 


to  America.  His  brother  Emanuel  had  setded 
here  several  years  previous,  and  Abram  joined 
him  in  his  home  in  Davenport,  Iowa,  and  began 
clerking  for  him  in  his  store.  He  was  willing  to 
work,  energetic  and  ambitious, — but  who  would 
have  dreamed  that  the  boy  thus  employed  would 
one  day  be  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  largest  retail 
stores  in  the  world  and  be  numbered  among  the 
millionaires  of  his  adopted  land?  His  success  as 
a  salesman  was  soon  demonstrated,  however,  and 
in  1871,  when  only  nineteen  years  of  age,  he  was 
admitted  to  a  partnership  in  the  business  under 
the  name  of  E.  Rothschild  &  Brothers.  Thus 
employed  during  the  day,  he  spent  his  evenings 
in  attendance  upon  a  night  school,  perfecting  him- 
self in  the  English  language.  As  in  his  work,  he 
applied  himself  diligently  to  his  studies  and  ob- 
tained in  a  few  months  an  education  such  as 
many  have  taken  years  to  acquire. 

In  1871  the  city  of  Chicago  was  almost  swept 
out  of  existence  by  a  fire  almost  without  a  parallel 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  but  from  its  ashes  it 
rose  to  a  position  of  growth  and  prosperity'  most 
marvelous.  In  the  year  of  its  destruction,  Mr. 
Rothschild,  with  a  foresight  seldom  equaled,  saw- 
in  fancy  its  brilliant  future  and  believed  it  would 
be  a  splendid  business  opening.  Accordingly 
the  firm  opened  a  branch  house  here  and  from  the 
start  success  attended  their  efforts,  so  that  in  1875 
they  retired  from  the  retail  trade  and  began  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  clothing  on  an  extensive 
scale.  In  1875  Mr.  Rothschild  left  Davenport 
altogether  and  located  permanently  in  this  city, 
devoting  himself  with  characteristic  energy  and 
enthusiasm  to  the  development  of  the  business. 
The  large  building  on  Madison  street,  near  Mar- 
ket, which  they  first  occupied,  soon  became  too 
small,  and  accordingly  the  firm  leased  more  com- 
modious quarters  on  Wabash  avenue,  but  soon 
the  limits  of  this  building  also  were  too  constricted 
for  their  rapidly  growing  trade,  and  a  large  double 
building  was  erected  by  the  firm  on  Monroe 
street  for  their  exclusive  use.  Again  in  1895  a 
manifest  change  in  the  business  interests  of  Mr. 
Rothschild   was  resolved  upon,   which   indicates 


^^C//^/u^i.:i^c/.vLiL^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


H(M 


the  marvelous  success  and  prosperity  he  has  at- 
tained. On  the  1st  of  May,  of  that  year,  as  the 
liead  of  tile  firm  of  A.  M.  Rothschild  &  Company, 
he  moved  into  the  fine  large  store  which  had 
been  recently  erected  at  the  comer  of  State  and 
Van  Buren  streets,  which  has  one  of  the  largest 
floor  spaces  in  the  world  for  a  retail  store. 

After  the  fire  the  business  center  of  the  city 
was  changed  to  State  street  in  the  vicinity  of 
Lake,  but  has  been  steadily  moving  south,  and 
the  new  store  is  now  in  the  very  center  of  the 
business  portion.  In  this  advanced  age  of  gi- 
gantic stores  and  commercial  enterprises  it  is  but 
fitting  that  this  immense  concern  should  be  here 
located.  Eventually  they  will  occupy  the  entire 
block  from  Jackson  to  \^an  Buren  streets,  save 
the  comer  now  occupied  by  the  Spaulding  jew- 
elry store,  utilizing  the  additional  space  as  soon 
as  the  leases  now  in  force  expire.  The  building 
is  erected  after  the  most  approved  style  of  modern 
architecture,  seven  stories  in  height  with  a  base- 
ment. Excepting  a  part  of  the  seventh  floor, 
reserved  as  a  lunch  room,  and  the  necessary  space 
in  the  basement  for  machinery,  all  the  rest  of  the 
space  will  be  devoted  to  the  selling  of  merchandise 
of  every  possible  description.  Tlie  interior  of  the 
store  is  beautifully  finished  in  oak,  it  is  lighted 
with  electricity,  generated  by  their  own  plant, 
and  all  the  fixtures  and  conveniences  are  of  the 
most  approved  style.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
suggest  further  improvement.  The  electric  tower 
on  the  corner  has  attracted  attention  and  com- 
ment throughout  the  United  States,  it  being  the 
only  construction  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  It 
is  filled  with  incandescent  lights  of  all  colors  and 
moves  automatically,  somewhat  similar  to  the 
one  which  was  at  the  World's  Columbian  Expo- 
sition. Two  thousand  persons  are  now  em- 
ployed in  this  establishment,  and  this  number  will 
soon  be  doubled  as  the  additional  space  is  secured, 
— an  army  of  employees  who  obtain  the  means 
of  livelihood  from  a  man  who  less  than  a  third  of 
a  century  ago  came  to  this  country  a  poor  boy! 

The  firm  of  A.  M.  Rothschild  &  Company 
comprises,  besides  the  gentleman  whose  name 
stands  at  the  head.  Nelson  Morris  and  H.  Laz- 
arus,— well  known  in  the  business  world.  The 
latter  is  to  be  general  manager  of  the  store, 
and  his  years  of  connection   with  a  large   retail 


house  well  fit  him  for  this  position.  His  success- 
ful experience  is  now  proving  of  incalculable 
benefit  to  the  interests  of  the  new  store,  and  it 
seems  that  everything  has  combined  to  make  this 
one  of  the  most  flourishing  and  extensive  estab- 
lishments that  has  ever  been  known. 

j\[r.  Rothschild's  abilities  are  not  limited  to 
one  line  of  enterprise.  He  is  a  many-sided  man 
in  his  powers,  but  of  single-mindedness  as  to  hon- 
esty of  purpose  and  the  straightforward  business 
methods  which  he  follows.  In  addition  to  his 
connection  with  the  clothing  house  of  E.  Roth- 
schild i.'t  P.rothcrs  and  the  firm  of  A.  M.  Roth- 
sciiiid  it  Company,  he  was  the  organizer  and  is 
tile  president  of  the  Palace  Clothing  Company  of 
Minneapolis,  Minnesota,  of  Kansas  City  and  other 
Western  cities.  As  a  banker  he  is  widely  known, 
being  vice-president  and  an  active  factor  in  the 
National  Bank  of  the  Republic,  a  new  financial 
institution  which  has  a  capital  of  one  million  dol- 
lars. He  is  a  director  in  the  National  Stockyards 
of  East  St.  Louis,  the  Fairbanks  Canning  Com- 
pany of  Chicago,  and  other  ccsrporations. 

In  March,  1891,  Mr.  Rothschild  was  chosen  to 
serve  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of 
the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  and  in  that 
capacity  his  extensive  commercial  knowledge  and 
his  wide  general  information,  gained  through 
travel,  proved  very  beneficial.  He  showed  that 
he  was  a  man  of  affairs,  full  of  public  spirit  and 
proud  of  the  city  in  which  he  has  builded  his 
fortune.  That  great  monument  to  American 
genius  and  enterprise,  whose  like  was  never 
known  and  which  was  largely  a  product  of  Chi- 
cago's progressiveness,  owed  not  a  little  to  Mr. 
Rothschild,  who  did  all  in  his  power  to  make  it 
the  most  beautiful  and  memorable  exposition  the 
world  has  ever  known.  He  is  public-spirited  in 
an  eminent  degree:  national  progress  and  local 
advancement  are  causes  both  dear  to  the  heart 
of  this  adopted  and  thoroughly  loyal  son  of  the 
Republic.  Kindness,  amiability  and  courtesy 
not  only  characterize  his  social  relations  but  are 
a  marked  feature  in  his  business  life,  and  the 
humble  employee  never  sees  a  trace  of  the  over- 
bearing taskmaster  in  him.  His  devotion  to  his 
adopted  country  is  above  question,  and  no  native 
son  of  America  is  more  true  to  her  institutions 
or    more    faithful    to    his    duties    of    citizenship. 


nioauAriiWAL  dictioxart  and  ronTiiAiT  gallery  of  tile 


"From  the  little  German  home  across  the  sea"  he 
made  his  way  to  the  New  World  and  entered 
upon  a  career  which  seems  most  marvelous;  yet 
it  is  not  the  outcome  of  propitious  circumstances, 
but  the  honest  reward  of  labor,  good  manage- 
ment, ambition  and  energy,  without  which  no 
man  can  win  prosperity.  What  praise  is  too  great 
for  tlie  man   wlio   has   entered  the  lists  against 


poverty,  obscurity  and  a  lack  of  education  and 
has  come  off  conqueror  in  the  strifL'? 

In  December,  1882,  Mr.  Rothschild  was  uni- 
ted in  marriage  with  Miss  Gusta  Morris,  daugh- 
ter of  Nelson  Morris,  whose  name  is  one 
of  the  most  familiar  in  the  world  of  trade. 
They  have  one  child,  Melville  Nelson  Roth- 
schild. 


LOUIS  FRANK, 


THE  growth  of  Chicago  is  one  of  the  miracles 
of  the  age,  and  its  industries  and  enteiprises 
keep  pace  with  its  marvelous  development.  Its 
mercantile  establishments  rival  the  finest  in  the 
world,  and  among  the  chief  of  these  is  that  car- 
ried on  under  the  name  of  Frank  Brothers.  We 
wonder  at  the  growth  of  those  immense  mercan- 
tile houses  that  were  started  in  the  early  days 
of  the  city  and  have  grown  as  Chicago  has  devel- 
oped, enlarging  their  facilities  as  the  population 
of  the  city  has  increased ;  but  it  requires  far  greater 
power  to  control  and  successfully  manage  a  busi- 
ness that  has  been  started  in  recent  years,  tliat 
must  compete  with  flourishing  establishments 
that  have  made  a  name  and  won  a  patronage. 
It  must  build  up  a  trade,  secure  its  reputation  and 
win  its  place  among  established  and  successful 
institutions.  This  almost  herculean  task  has 
been  accomplished  by  the  firm  of  Frank  Brothers 
and  to-day  they  are  numbered  among  the  lead- 
ing merchants  of  the  metropolis  of  the  West.  The 
study  of  biography  yields  in  point  of  interest  and 
profit  to  no  other,  and  in  the  record  of  the  life 
of  the  gentleman  whose  name  heads  this  sketch 
there  is  much  to  learn  and  much  that  may  prove 
of  value  in  indicating  to  others  the  plans  aud 
methods  which  he  has  followed  to  win  the  bril- 
liant success  which  has  crowned  his  undertak- 
ings. 

Louis  Frank  was  born  in  Hopkinsville,  Ken- 
tucky, October  23,  1848,  and  is  the  second  in  a 
family  of  six  children,  whose  parents  were  Abra- 
ham and  Branetta  (Wiel)  Frank.  The  father 
came  to  this  country  from  Germany,  where  he  was 
bom  in  1820.  He  became  a  dry-goods  merchant 
and  after  following  that  business  for  some  time  in 


Kentucky  removed  to  Peoria,  Illinois,  where  he 
opened  a  store  which  he  conducted  until  1867, 
with  excellent  success.  He  won  a  liberal  patron- 
age, and  wishing  for  broader  fields  of  labor  he 
resolved  to  engage  in  business  in  St.  Louis.  Ac- 
cordingly he  went  to  that  city  and  opened  a  large 
dry-goods  store  which  he  carried  on  until  1886, 
when  he  retired  from  active  business  life  and 
his  sons  assumed  the  management  of  the 
store.  He  then  enjoyed  the  rest  which  should 
always  crown  years  of  toil,  and  died  on  the 
30th  of  January,  1895,  at  tlie  age  of  seventj'- 
five.  His  wife  died  in  1890,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
nine.  * 

At  the  age  of  one  year,  Louis  Frank  was  taken 
by  his  parents  in  their  emigration  to  Peoria, 
where  his  childhood  days  were  passed.  He  began 
his  education  in  its  public  schools  and  at  the  age 
of  fourteen  entered  Lombard  University  at  Gales- 
burg,  Illinois,  at  which  he  was  graduated  in  the 
class  of  1864.  He  then  entered  his  father's  store, 
and  his  entire  life  has  been  devoted  to  merchan- 
dising. He  learned  the  business  under  his  fa- 
ther's direction  and  became  familiar  with  every 
detail.  The  successful  manager  of  any  enterprise 
is  he  who  fully  understands  every  department, 
being  therefore  able  intelligently  to  direct  those 
who  are  doing  any  branch  of  the  business.  This 
thoroughness  has  been  one  of  the  important  fac- 
tors in  the  prosperity  of  Mr.  Frank.  When  the 
removal  to  St.  Louis  occurred  he  was  admitted 
to  a  partnership  in  the  business,  and  at  the  time 
of  his  father's  retirement,  in  connection  with  his 
brothers,  August  and  Joseph,  he  assumed  the 
management  of  the  store,  which  was  carried  on 
until  1 89 1. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


•6m 


In  this  year  they  came  to  Chicago.  Thoug-h 
they  realized  that  they  would  be  called  upon  to 
compete  with  houses  long  established  with  an 
assured  trade,  they  felt  that  there  was  still  room  in 
this  imperial  city  for  well  conducted  general  stores 
and  on  disposing  of  their  interest  in  St.  Louis 
established  their  new  store  at  Nos.  138-144  State 
street.  In  the  very  licart  of  the  commercial  cen- 
ter of  Chicago,  they  began  business  and  began  it 
in  a  way  to  command  the  confidence  of  the  public, 
which  when  once  gained  insures  trade.  For  four 
years  they  continued  at  their  first  location,  but 
their  quarters  had  then  become  too  small  for  their 
constantl}'  increasing  business  and  they  removed 
to  their  large  store  at  the  corner  of  State  and 
Monroe  streets,  where  they  carry  an  immense 
stock  of  dry  goods,  hardware,  clothing,  furniture, 
queensware,  carpets  and  everything  found  in  a 
first-class  establishment  of  the  kind.  Louis  Frank 
acts  in  the  capacity  of  manager  of  the  office  de- 
partment and  Joseph  as  manager  of  the  retail  de- 
partment. They  have  six  hundred  employes  and 
command  their  respect  and  admiration  by  their 
considerate  treatment.  While  faitlifulness  in  the 
performance  of  duty  is  required  and  system  pre- 
vails, there  is  nothing  of  the  overbearing  task- 
master in  !\Ir.  Frank  or  his  brother;  on  the  other 
hand,  they  are  quick  to  note  merit  in  an  employee 
and  as  opportunity  presents  to  reward  this  by 
promotion.  The  business  policy  which  Mr.  Frank 
has  always  followed  has  been  most  commendable. 
He  is  methodical,  careful,  and  thorough,  requir- 
ing that  the  strictest  honesty  must  prevail  in  his 
establishment,  which  has  won  him  the  respect  of 
his  business  associates  and  all  with  whom  he  has 
had  dealings. 

On  the  21  St  of  November,  1878,  Mr.  Frank 
was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Emma  Kohn,  of 
St.  Louis,  and  they  have  one  son,  Marcus.  Mrs. 
Frank  is  a  lady  of  refinement  and  culture,  who 
presides  with  grace  over  their  beautiful  home, 
which  is  located  at    No.    3614    Prairie    avenue. 


lividence  of  the  literary  taste  of  the  inmates  is 
shown  in  their  magnificent  library  of  miscella- 
neous standard  volumes.  She  belongs  to  many 
musical  and  literary  organizations  and  is  a  fine 
perfoniier  on  the  piano.  She  also  takes  a  deep 
interest  in  other  lines  of  art  and  holds  membership 
in  the  Woman's  Club.  She  is  a  patroness  of 
many  charitable  and  lx'nev(jlent  societies  and 
takes  pleasiu'e  in  ministering  to  the  needs  of 
the  unfortunate.  Of  kindly  and  sympathetic  dis- 
position she  gives  freely  and  generously,  and  from 
a  real  interest  in  those  to  whom  her  aid  is  ex- 
tended. Her  friends  are  many,  and  all  who  know 
her  esteem  her  highly  for  her  lovable  disposition. 
Uoth  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frank  hold  membership  in 
Dr.  Hirsch's  congregation  and  are  numbered 
among  its  liberal  donors. 

Mr.  Frank  belongs  to  various  social  organiza- 
tions. He  is  a  blue  lodge  and  chapter  Mason,  has 
taken  several  degrees  in  the  Scottish  Rite,  is  an  ac- 
tive member  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  of  the 
Royal  League  of  Chicago,  Royal  Arcanum  and 
the  Standard  Club.  He  aids  his  estimable  wife 
in  all  her  charities  and  contributes  liberally  to 
deserving  objects.  All  is  done,  however,  quietly 
and  unostentatiously,  for  he  seeks  not  notoriety 
in  his  beneficence.  In  manner  he  is  retiring,  but 
possesses  that  true  worth  which  cannot  be  hid, 
and  which  is  always  recognized  by  people  of  su- 
licriority.  He  indeed  deserves  mention  among 
the  most  prominent  of  Chicago's  merchants  and 
among  her  representative  citizens,  and  should  find 
a  place  in  the  history  of  the  men  of  business  and 
enterprise  in  the  great  West,  whose  force  of  char- 
acter, sterling  integrity,  control  of  circumstances 
and  whose  marked  success  in  estaljlishing  great  in- 
dustries have  contributed  in  such  an  eminent  de- 
gree to  the  solidity  and  progress  of  the  entire  coun- 
try. His  life  has  been  manly,  his  actions  sincere, 
his  manner  unaffected  and  his  example  is  well 
worthy  of  emulation. 


370 


DIOORAl'IIICAL  DICTIONAUY  AND  POU TRAIT  GALLEUT  OF  TUB 


CHARLES  PERLY  LIBBY, 


TPIE  Chicago  of  to-day,  the  urban  marvel  of 
the  world,  stands  as  a  monument  to  the 
enterprise,  intelligence  and  commercial  acumen 
of  its  merchants  and  manufacturers.  No  other 
city  in  the  world's  history  can  boast  of  such  won- 
derful results  in  such  a  brief  period  of  time,  and 
the  history  of  its  founders  and  builders  will  al- 
ways be  regarded  w'ith  more  than  ordinary  atten- 
tion and  interest.  Tli'ese  life  histories  will  not 
only  be  interesting  but  instructive,  as  illustrating 
the  possibilities  offered  under  our  institutions  and 
environment  for  advancement  and  success. 

The  great  interests  represented  by  that  class  of 
our  business  men  to  which  Mr.  Libby  belonged, 
and  among  whom  he  was  so  conspicuous  a  figure, 
have  contributed  quite  as  much,  to  say  the  least, 
to  the  upbuilding  of  the  city  as  any  one  class  of 
men  within  her  gates.  In  their  particular  sphere 
of  labor  they  made  Chicago  the  dominant  power 
in  the  markets  of  the  world.  They  made  it  pos- 
sible and  practical  to  place  fresh,  appetizing  and 
wholesome  meats  upon  the  tables  of  people  in  the 
remote  parts  not  only  of  our  country  but  also  of 
the  world;  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in 
this  particular  field  of  endeavor  Mr.  Libby  did 
perhaps  more  than  any  other  man. 

Charles  Perly  Libby  came,  as  did  many  of  our 
most  successful  men,  of  Puritan  ancestry.  He 
was  born  October  lo,  1838,  at  Portland,  Maine, 
and  was  the  third  child  of  Abraham  and  Hannah 
(Hancock)  Libby.  Soon  after  attaining  his  ma- 
jority, he  determined  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the 
rapidly  growing  West.  He  came  to  Chicago  in 
1855  and  found  his  first  employment  as  salesman 
and  clerk  with  the  firm  of  Craig  &  Company 
(his  uncle,  John  L.  Hancock,  being  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal partners  in  the  firm),  and  remained  with 
them  about  twelve  years. 

In  1867,  in  company  with  his  brother,  A.  A. 
Libby,  he  undertook  the  curing  of  summer  meats. 
The  experiment  proving  successful,  on  April  i, 
1868,  A.  McNeill  became  also  a  member  of  the 
firm,  the  style  of  the  firm  being  A.  A.  Libby  & 


Company.  They  began  in  a  small  way  on  State 
street,  near  I'^ifteenth  street.  In  the  spring  of 
1870  they  found  their  business  so  increased  that 
larger  quarters  were  necessary.  Consequently 
they  moved  south  of  Fifteenth  on  State  and  soon 
occupied  half  that  block  and  all  of  the  building 
at  State  and  Sixteenth  now  occupied  by  the  Union 
Cold  Storage  Company.  In  1876  the  firm  name 
was  changed  to  Libby,  McNeill  &  Libby  (same 
individuals),  and  they  added  to  their  business  the 
canning  of  meats.  They  did  a  large  and  con- 
stantly increasing  business  and  the  firm  name  be- 
came a  household  word  throughout  the  country. 

In  the  spring  of  1888  they  found  another  change 
of  quarters  necessary,  owing  to  the  enormous 
increase  of  their  business.  This  time  they  moved 
to  the  Union  Stock  Yards,  where  they  incor- 
porated the  firm  under  the  same  name.  That 
year  and  previous  to  removal  Mr.  McNeill  retired 
on  account  of  ill  health,  and  about  the  same  time 
Mr.  A.  A.  Libby  withdrew  for  the  same  reason, 
thus  leaving  the  entire  management  of  the  busi- 
ness to  Mr.  C.  P.  Libby.  That  he  proved  to  be 
equal  to  his  task  is  best  evidenced  by  the  fact  that! 
under  his  control  and  management  the  business 
was  constantly  and  steadily  increased,  until  at  the 
time  of  his  death  he  found  hunself  at  the  head  of 
the  leading  canning  establishment  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Libby  married  May  26,  1864,  Jennie  S., 
daughter  of  Elisha  and  Margaret  Taylor,  of 
Westbrook,  Maine,  and  they  have  one  child,  a 
daughter,  ]\Iiss  Una  Libby. 

Mr.  Libby  died  June  24,  1895.  He  was  an  en- 
terprising, intelligent,  honest  man.  Starting  in 
life  poor,  he  became  one  of  the  leading  business 
men  of  one  of  the  leading  cities  of  the  world. 
His  career  was  not  marked  by  business  failures 
and  vicissitudes,  but  by  steady  progress  onward 
and  foj-ward.  The  methods  wdiich  he  was  the 
first  to  adopt  and  popularize  are  now  in  use  by 
canning  establishments  throughout  the  world,  and 
his  connection  with  Chicag'o's  business  life  will 
always  be  remembered. 


0^,/v.^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TEE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


371 


GEORGE  LAWSON  WRENN, 

CHICAGO. 


GEORGE  LAWSON  WRENN  was  born  in 
Middletown,  Ohio,  on  the  9th  of  August, 
1836,  and  is  the  eldest  son  of  George  L.  and  Mary 
J.  (Uuffield)  Wrenn.  The  father  was  a  \'irginian. 
born  in  Loudoun  county  in  1808.  In  early  life  he 
removed  to  Middletown,  where  in  the  various  oc- 
cupations of  mercliant,  packer  and  paper  manu- 
facturer he  did  much  to  establish  the  great  in- 
dustries of  southern  Ohio,  and  at  his  death  in 
i860  left  behind  him  the  enviable  record  of  a 
thoroughly  liDUorable  and  eminently  successful 
business  man.  His  wife,  born  in  1813,  in  Bustle- 
ton,  a  village  that  has  been  absorbed  in  the  growth 
of  Philadelphia,  is  still  living  upon  the  old  home- 
stead in  the  Ruck  eye  State. 

With  a  thorough  preparation  received  in  the 
common  schools  of  his  native  town,  Mr.  Wrenn 
entered  the  class  of  1857  in  Georgetown  College, 
Kentucky,  and  was  duly  graduated.  He  then  spent 
one  year  at  Brown  University,  in  Rhode  Island, 
and,  having  decided  later  to  enter  the  ministry, 
began  preparation  therefore  at  Rochester  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  at  which  institution  he  gradu- 
ated in  the  class  of  1861.  The  following  year  Mr. 
Wrenn  made  an  extended  tour  in  Europe,  and  be- 
ing naturally  possessed  of  good  facilities  of  obser- 
vation and  memory  he  added  much  to  the  fund  of 
information  which  he  had  already  acquired.  The 
attritions  of  travel  gave  the  proper  finish  to  pre- 
vious attainments  of  study,  and  this  enlarging  ex- 
perience, superadded  to  his  knowledge  of  books 
the  greater  knowledge  of  men. 

In  the  year  1S62  Mr.  Wrenn  came  to  Chicago, 
and  in  the  autumn  took  charge  of  the  North  Star 
Baptist  Mission,  of  which  he  continued  pastor  for 
seven  years.  L'nder  his  wise  and  efficient  control 
this  interest  greatly  prospered,  gaining  in  num- 
bers and  influence  and  becoming  one  of  the  strong 
churches  in  the  city.  He  was  very  successful  in 
his  ministry,  for  his  earnest  and  forceful  ex])Osi- 
tion  of  the  Word,  which  he  so  fully  believed,  won 
an  influence  ujion  the  minds  of  men,  while  his 
kindliness  and  thoroughly  consistent  life  exhibited 
one  of  those  "living  epistles"  which  in  this,  as  in 
earlier  ages,  are  "known  and  read  of  all  men." 

On  leaving  Chicago  Mr.  Wrenn  removed  to 


Highland  Park  and  took  charge  of  a  union  re- 
ligious organization  there,  and  after  a  few  years 
organized  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  that  place 
and  accepted  a  call  to  its  pastorate.  Here  he 
found  use  for  all  his  sturdy  good  sense  and  robust 
Christianity,  for  the  upbuilding  of  a  new  church 
and  the  construction  of  its  edifice  alike  called  for 
■'patient  continuance  in  well  doing,"  and  the  work 
he  accomplished  was  commensurate  therewith.  In 
1879  Mr.  Wrenn  retired  from  the  active  ministry 
and  turned  his  attention  to  the  insurance  business, 
witli  which  he  has  since  been  identified.  In  1881 
he  removed  to  Boston,  engaging  there  in  the  same 
line  of  effort  until  1888,  when  he  detemiined  to 
return  to  Illinois  and  has  since  resided  perma- 
nently at  Highland  Park.  For  the  past  seven 
}'ears  Air.  Wrenn  has  held  the  responsible  position 
of  Chicago  general  agent  of  the  State  Mutual 
Life  Assurance  Company  of  Worcester,  Massa- 
chusetts, whose  western  business  he  has  largely 
developed. 

He  also  devotes  considerable  attention  to  real 
estate  in  Highland  Park,  having  a  number  of 
years  ago  purchased  sixty-two  acres  within  the 
corporate  limits  of  that  picturesque  suburban  city. 
I'or  several  years  Mr.  Wrenn  ocupied  this  land 
as  a  stock  fami,  being  the  first  person  to  introduce 
into  this  section  thorough-bred  Jersey  cattle.  His 
herd  of  Jerseys,  widely  known  as  the  Burr-Oaks 
Herd,  was  one  of  the  finest  in  the  country,  several 
of  the  animals  taking  rank  among  the  great  but- 
ter-makers, and  to  this  day  the  effect  of  this  enter- 
prise is  felt  in  the  dairy  interests  of  northern 
Illinois.  Later,  as  the  growth  of  Highland  Park 
demanded  it,  Mr.  Wrenn  subdivided  his  tract  of 
land  and  greatly  improved  it  until  it  is  now  one  of 
tile  most  beautiful  sections  of  that  beautiful  city. 

In  December,  1863,  Mr.  Wrenn  married  Miss 
Eliza  Everts,  daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  W.W.  Everts, 
and  to  this  union  have  been  born  eight  children, 
two — Sidney  and  Gilbert — -dying  in  infancy.  The 
six  surviving  children  are:  Stella,  now  the  wife  of 
Warner  J.  Banes,  of  Philadelphia;  Margaret,  wife 
of  Robert  C.  Banes  ,  of  the  same  city;  Everts,  who 
is  now  engaged  in  business  with  his  father;  Philip 
W.,  who  is  now  residing  in   Sydney,   .Xustralia, 


372 


IHOGHAPinOAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


where  he  is  engaged  in  the  emplo}-  of  D.  !\I.  Os- 
bom  &  Company,  of  Auburn,  New  York;  Robert 
D.,  who  gra(hiated  at  Harvard  University  in 
the  class  of  1895;  and  George  L.,  Jr..  who  is 
now  a  member  of  the  senior  class  in  Han'ard 
University,  where  all  the  sons  have  been  educated. 
AH  have  taken  an  active  part  in  athletics  and 
gained  a  high  reputation  for  skill  in  that  line. 
Robert  D.,  the  third  son,  for  two  years  held  the 
tennis  championship  of  the  United  States,  and  in 
his  last  year  at  Har\'ard  was  quarter  back  on 
the  '\'^arsity  Football  Eleven  and  second  baseman 
on  the  'Varsity  Nine,  doing  reputable  work  in 
both  positions.  The  daughters  were  educated  in 
Wellesley  College.     Being  fully  aware  of  the  ad- 


vantages of  a  thorough  education,  by  reason  of 
that  personal  experience  which  teaches  as  no 
other  teacher  can,  Mr.  Wrenn  spared  no  expense 
ill  i)roviding  the  best  instruction  for  his  children 
and  has  fitted  them  by  culture  and  refinement  to 
grace  the  social  positions  to  which  they  arc 
called. 

Mr.  Wrcnn  is  a  man  of  pleasing  address, 
courteous  manner,  unflinching  principle  and  un- 
questioned integrity,  amd  yet,  witJi  all  of  that  prac- 
tical common  sense  wdiich  never  runs  to  extremes; 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  wherever  he  goes  he  wins 
friends.  His  life  has  been  w-ell  spent  and  his 
honorabe  and  useful  career  is  worthy  of  emu- 
lation. 


F.  H.  COOPER, 


THIS  name  at  once  suggests  a  power  in  the 
world  of  trade, — a  power  that  to  a  large  de- 
gree controls  and  directs  the  commercial  inter- 
ests of  the  West  and  will  soon  be  felt  as  a  dom- 
inant force  in  the  East.  The  day  of  small  un- 
dertakings, especially  in  cities,  seems  to  have 
passed  and  the  era  of  gigantic  enterprises  is  upon 
us.  In  control  of  mammoth  concerns  are  men 
of  master  minds,  of  almost  limitless  ability  to 
guide,  of  sound  judgment  and  keen  discrimina- 
tion. Their  progressiveness  must  not  only  reach 
the  bounds  that  others  have  gained,  but  must 
even  pass  beyond  into  new  and  broader,  untried 
fields  of  operation;  but  an  unerring  foresight 
and  sagacity  must  make  no  mistake  by  venturing 
upon  uncertain  ground.  Thus  continually  grow- 
ing, a  business  takes  leadership  in  its  special  line 
and  the  men  who  are  at  its  head  are  deservedly 
eminent  in  the  world  of  commerce,  occupying  a 
position  that  conunands  the  respect  while  it  ex- 
cites the  admiration  of  all.  We  gaze  with  wonder 
at  the  gigantic  establishment  known  as  the  gen- 
eral mercantile  store  of  Siegel,  Cooper  &  Com- 
pany, knowing  that  it  is  the  outcome  of  the  en- 
ergy, enterprise  and  business  ability  of  Mr.  Henry 
Siegel  (whose  sketch  appears  elsewhere  in  this 
volume)  and  F.  H.  Cooper,  of  this  review. 

We  marvel  at  the  success  of  a  native  Ameri- 


can, who  knows  the  language,  the  manners,  the 
customs  and  business  methods  of  the  country, 
and  who  works  his  way  upwai^d  from  limited 
circumstances  to  afHuence;  but  when  a  man  of 
foreign  birth  seeks  a  home  in  the  New  World 
and  rises  by  his  own  merits  to  an  exalted  posi- 
tion, still  greater  credit  is  due  him,  for  he  has 
greater  difficulties  to  overcome,  being  unfamiliar 
with  all  the  ways  of  his  adopted  home.  Mr. 
Cooper  was  born  inAkkrum,Friesland,the  north- 
west province  of  the  Netherlands,  October  23, 
1843,  and  is  a  son  of  William  H.  and  letje 
(De  Vries)  Cooper,  whose  family  numbered 
eleven  children,  and  of  these  he  was  the  fourth  in 
order  of  birth.  The  father  was  a  cooper  by  trade 
and  the  family  had  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  followed  that  business  and  were  an  indus- 
trious people.  In  common  accordance  with  the 
customs  of  the  country,  they  had  no  surname, 
and  when  Napoleon  subdued  Holland  and  com- 
pelled even,'  one  to  take  a  family  name  they 
adopted  that  of  their  trade,  and  thus  the  "Cooper" 
family  became  known.  It  was  the  grandfather 
of  our  subject  who  thus  honored  his  chosen  call- 
ing. 

F.  H.  Cooper  attended  the  common  schools 
of  his  native  land  until  ten  years  of  age,  when  he 
entered  a  select  French  school  and  studied  French, 


4UA^  tl^j    ^/c-LC^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


nrs 


Englijli  and  German.  He  was  then  and  has  since 
been  much  interested  in  the  study  of  languages, 
and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  he  found  employment  as 
interpreter  for  four  gentlemen  who  were  trav- 
eling through  France,  England  and  Belgium. 
Thus  through  travel  he  added  to  his  knowledge 
a  practical  e.xperience  that  helped  to  prepare  him 
for  his  future  labors.  He  first  began  work  for 
others  when  fifteen  years  of  age,  when  his  father 
permitted  him  to  enter  a  dry  goods  house  in 
Letuwarden.  He  wished  to  become  familiar  with 
this  business,  but  it  was  a  vcrj'  difficult  thing  to 
secure  entrance  into  that  establishment,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  board  and  room  in  the  store, 
while  his  father  paid  for  the  privilege  of  having 
him  drilled  into  the  ways  of  the  trade  three  hun- 
dred florins  the  first  year,  two  Inmdred  the  second 
year  and  one  hundred  the  third  year.  In  order  to 
get  back  what  had  thus  been  spent  he  was  obliged 
to  work  for  six  years  and  he  continued  in  the 
store  for  a  year  longer,  or  until  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  had  received 
four  hundred  florins. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  ^Ir.  Cooper  decided 
to  seek  a  home  in  the  United  States,  and  from 
the  old  City  of  Paris  he  landed  at  New  York, 
in  1866.     He  had  not  a  friend  on  this  side  the 
Atlantic  and  was  unsuccessful  in  finding  employ- 
ment in  the  metropolis  of  the  East,  so  went  to 
Buffalo,  Xew  York,  where  he  secured  a  clerk- 
ship in  the  store  of  A.  Warner  at  five  dollars  per 
I      week.     After  six  weeks  thus  passed  a  neighbor 
I      offered  him  ten  dollars  per  week  and  he  at  once 
accepted  the  situation,  thinking  it  an  excellent  one, 
the  wages  seeming  quite  numificent.  After  he  had 
spent    a    yeai-  in  that    employ  he  was    married, 
and  a  week  later  the  finn  failed  and  he  was  thus 
:      thrown  out  01  employment.    His  wife  was  a  vest- 
'      maker,  and  dismissing  her  assistant  Mr.  Cooper 
performed  that  service  and  thus  they  managed 
to  get  along  until  the  following  spring,   when 
1      the  fimi  started  in  business  again  and  he  returned 
I      to  his  old  position.     A  few  months  later,  how- 
ever, disaster  again  overtook  the  house  and  he 
I      was  once  more  out  of  emiiloyment.     About  this 
;      time  their  eldest  son  was  born,  and  with  a  wife 
I      and  baby  dependent  upon  him  for  support  and 
I      nothing  to  do  the  days  seemed  dark ;  but  he  reso- 
}      lutely  set  to  work  to  secure  a  position  and  found 


it  in  the  drv  goods  house  of  Adam  Meldrum  & 
Company,  with  whom  he  remained  for  five  years. 
His  fidelity  to  the  interests  of  the  house  and  his 
faithful  service  won  him  promotion,  and  when 
he  left  that  employ  he  was  buyer  and  manager 
of  the  shawl  department. 

Mr.  Cooper's  career  as  a  merchant  began  in 
1872  and  the  hardest  part  of  the  straggle  was 
now  over.  The  ascent  to  the  plains  of  prosperity 
is  usually  most  difficult  in  the  beginning,  and 
from  this  on  the  career  of  Chicago's  prominent 
merchant  was  to  be  an  easier  one.  With  some 
assistance  from  the  firm  with  which  he  had  been 
connected  he  associated  himself  with  a  partner 
and  began  business  as  a  merchant  on  his  own 
account  in  Toledo,  Ohio,  opening  a  dry  goods 
house,  which  he  successfuly  conducted  until 
1879,  when  he  sold  his  interest  to  parties  in  Buf- 
falo, Xew  York,  and  spent  the  following  winter, 
1879-80,  in  traveling  over  the  countn,-  in  search 
of  another  location.  The  West  with  its  enter- 
prise and  development  attracted  him,  for  it  was 
in  accord  with  his  own  progressiveness,  and  he 
located  in  Peoria,  Illinois,  where  he  soon  estab- 
lished a  reputation  as  one  of  the  leading  mer- 
chants of  the  place.  While  carrying  on  the  dry 
goods  business  there  he  formed  an  acquaintance 
that  has  resulted  in  establishing  the  mammoth 
dry  goods  house  of  Chicago.  He  became  ac- 
quainted with  Henry  Siegel,  and  ultimately  a 
partnership  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  lo- 
cating a  dry  goods  house  in  Chicago,  which  plan 
v,as  carried  out  in  1887.  Mr.  Cooper  disposed 
of  his  interests  in  Peoria  and  on  the  28th  of  May, 
1887,  the  firm  of  Siegel,  Cooper  &  Company 
opened  its  doors  to  the  public  at  the  corner  of 
State  and  Adams  streets. 

From  the  beginning  success  attended  the  new 
enterprise  and  business  increased  until  it  was 
soon  acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the  best  general 
stores  in  the  city;  but  it  was  destined  to  still  more 
brilliant  achievements  in  the  future.  On  the  2d 
of  August,  1890,  the  store  and  its  contents  were 
entirely  destroyed  by  fire;  but  as  Chicago  rose 
from  its  ashes  to  become  grander  and  more  beau- 
tiful than  ever  before,  so  the  store  of  Siegel,  Cooper 
&  Company  arose  to  new  magnificenjce.  Within 
two  weeks  new  goods  were  purchased  and  thev 
were  again  ready  for  business,  at  the  comer  of 


374 


BIOGIiAPlIlCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Wabasli  avenue  and  Adams  street,  prepared  to 
carry  on  opi-rations  on  a  more  extensive  scale  than 
before. 

But  a  new  plan  was  forming  in  the  minds  of  the 
enterprising  proprietors,  which  took  form  in  ac- 
tion in  March,  1891,  when  they  leased  the  new 
Leiter  building,  situated  on  State  street,  and  ex- 
tending from  Van  Buren  street  to  Congress  street. 
At  that  time  the  business  center  of  the  city  seemed 
to  be  farther  north  and  many  friends  predicted 
failure  on  account  of  the  distance  of  the  new  es- 
tablishment from  the  so-called  center;  but  in- 
stead of  this  afifecting  their  business  they  drew 
the  trade  to  them  and  the  business  center  has 
since  been  gradually  moving  south.  They  now 
have  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  stores  in  the 
countrv,  a  block  in  length  and  a  half  block  in 
width,  and  their  goods  occupy  nine  stories.  They 
keep  everything  that  is  found  in  a  general  mer- 
chandise establishment,  have  medical  and  dental 
departments,  grocery  and  meat  market,  a  pho- 
tograph gallery,  an  animal  and  bird  store  and 
everything  that  it  seems  man  could  want.  Its 
success  was  soon  assured  and  conservative  friends 
soon  ceased  to  talk  of  failure  and  extended  con- 
gratulations instead.  The  arrangement  of  the 
store  is  unique  but  most  complete  and  perfect, 
and  shows  careful  designing.  Goods  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  prices  are  carried  to  meet 
the  wants  of  all  classes  of  patrons  which  a  met- 
ropolitan city  like  Chicago  brings,  and  a  verita- 
ble army  of  employees,  outnumbering  a  regiment 
of  soldiers,  attend  to  the  wishes  of  the  patrons 
that  throng  this  busy  field  of  commerce. 

The  gentlemen  who  are  at  the  head  of  this  suc- 
cessful establishment  have  followed  a  business 
policy  most  commendable.  They  have  pursued 
a  course  characterized  by  straightforward  deal- 
ing, and  while  careful  in  looking  after  their  own 
interests,  as  every  successful  business  man  is,  they 
have  been  most  careful,  also,  not  to  encroach  on 
the  rights  of  others.  This  has  won  them  the 
highest  confidence  and  esteem.  In  their  employees 
thev  are  quick  to.  recognize  faithfulness  and 
merit,  and  to  reward  it  when  the  proper  time 
comes.  This  firm  expects  soon  to  open  a  house 
in  New  York  city  a  third  larger  than  the  one  in 
Chicago.  It  will  be  the  largest  mercantile  estab- 
lishment in  the  world  and  the  buildings  are  now 
being  constructed.    Mr.  Cooper  is  .the  vice-presi- 


dent of  the  company  and  gives  to  the  business 
much  of  his  personal  supervision.  He  retains 
the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  employees, — a 
fact  which  speaks  volumes  in  his  praise  as  a  just 
and  considerate  employer. 

Mr.  Cooper  was  married  in  1867  to  Miss  Nettie 
De  GratT,  and  their  five  children  are  William  H., 
Edward  C,  Charles  A.,  Garrett  D.  and  Eda.  Mrs. 
Cooper  died  in  1879,  and  in  1888  he  married 
Miss  Winnefred  Barry,  of  Sheldon,  Illinois,  a 
lady  of  culture  and  refinement,  who  presides  with 
grace  over  their  beautiful  home.  In  his  native 
land  Air.  Cooper  joined  the  Masonic  fraternity 
and  is  now  a  thirty-second-degree  Scottish-rite 
Mason  and  Knight  Templar,  and  also  belongs 
to  the  Medina  Temple  of  the  Mystic  Shrine.  He 
takes  quite  an  active  interest  in  the  fraternity  and 
is  one  of  its  honored  and  valued  members. 

He  has  traveled  to  a  considerable  extent,  hav- 
ing several  times  crossed  the  water  to  visit  his 
father,  who  is  still  living  in  Holland.  He  has  vis- 
ited many  of  the  most  noted  points  of  Europe,  and 
in  1894  he  and  his  wife  spent  a  considerable  period 
abroad  on  an  extended  trip  through  Europe. 

He  is  a  charitable  man,  has  aided  many  worthy 
benevolent  institutions,  both  of  a  public  and  pri- 
vate character,  and  in  manner  he  is  pleasant  and 
genial  and  very  approachable,  not  hedging  him- 
self about  with  a  reserve  such  as  many  men  do 
who  have  become  wealthy.  When  we  stop  to 
consider  that  thirty  years  ago  he  came  to  this 
country  a  poor  man,  with  no  capital  whatever, 
his  success  seems  most  marvelous;  but  it  is  the 
outcome  of  his  own  efforts.  The  spirit  of  self- 
help  is  the  source  of  all  genuine  worth  in  the  in- 
dividual. When  a  youth  Mr.  Cooper  read  a  vol- 
ume entitled  "Self-Help,''  by  Smiles,  which  im- 
pressed him  greatly,  and  has  had  a  marked  influ- 
ence on  his  career,  stimulating  his  independent 
and  self-reliant  spirit.  Steadily  pursuing  his  way, 
undeterred  by  the  obstacles  and  difficulties  in  his 
path,  he  has  achieved  a  prosperity  of  which  he, 
perhaps,  even  did  not  dream  two  decades  ago. 
Steady  application,  careful  study  of  business  meth- 
ods and  plans  to  be  followed,  close  attention  to 
details,  combined  with  an  untiring  energy,  di- 
rected by  a  superior  mind, — these  are  the  traits 
of  character  which  have  brought  to  him  success 
and  made  him  one  of  the  foremost  merchants  of 
the  nation. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOISVOLUME. 


875 


LEVI  WATERMAN, 


LEVI  WATERMAN  was  born  at  Diinsbach, 
Wihtemberg,  Germany,  March  5,  1836,  be- 
ing the  youngest  and  only  sur\'iving  child  of  Felix 
and  Sarah  (Xeuberger)  Waterman,  the  former  a 
cattle  dealer  of  that  village. 

The  first  seventeen  years  of  our  subject's  life 
were  passed  in  his  native  town,  and  varied  in  no 
respect  from  the  ordinary  boyhood  life  of  a  quiet 
German  village.  During  this  time  he  attended 
the  local  schools  and  received  instruction  in  the 
elementary  educational  branches. 

A  brother  had  emigrated  to  America,  and  in 
1853  Levi  set  out  to  join  him,  in  Kentucky.  Upon 
his  arrival  there  he  attended  school  and  also  as- 
sisted his  brother  in  his  store;  and  in  this  way  he 
passed  the  subsequent  four  years.  When  his 
brother  and  his  partner  decided  to  remove  to  St. 
Joseph,  Missouri,  Levi  was  tendered  a  partner- 
ship interest  in  the  business;  but  he  declined,  as 
he  did  not  wish  to  go  into  another  slave  State. 
He  therefore  started  out  for  himself,  seeking  a 
location  to  embark  in  the  clothing  business.  With 
this  object  in  view  he  visited  various  cities  and 
towns  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  finally 
decided  to  locate  at  Geneseo.  In  company  with 
a  friend  from  his  native  town,  a  Mr.  Herman,  he 
established  the  firm  of  Herman  &  Waterman,  in 
1857,  and  success  resulted  from  the  start.  For 
thirty-seven  years  this  connection  remained  un- 
changed, that  is,  until  1894,  when  Mr.  Waterman 
purchased  his  partner's  interest,  and  has  since 
conducted  it  alone.  In  1867  Herman  &  Water- 
man bought  an  interest  in  the  brewery  at  Geneseo, 
and  twelve  years  later  organized  it  as  a  corpora- 
tion, under  the  title  of  the  Geneseo  Brewing  Com- 
pany, and  Mr.  Waterman  was  elected  its  presi- 
dent and  general  manager,  and  Mr.  Herman  sec- 
retary and  treasurer.  In  December,  1894,  the 
company's  plant  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  business  was  an  uncongenial 
one,  lliey  decided  not  to  rebuild  or  to  continue  the 
business. 

In  1876  Mr.  Waterman  was  one  of  the  prime 
movers  in  the  organization  of  the  Fanners' 
National  Bank  of  Geneseo,  with  a  capital  stock 


of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  has  been  its  presi- 
dent from  that  date.  The  surplus  of  the  bank  is 
now  an  amount  equal  to  its  capital,  and  it  is  one 
of  the  sound  financial  concerns  of  that  section  of 
the  State. 

Through  Mr.  Waterman's  efforts  the  present 
system  of  electric  lighting  in  Geneseo  was  adopted, 
and  he  is  one  of  the  largest  stockholders  of  that 
company  as  well  as  a  director  and  its  treasurer. 

Other  local  enterprises,  calculated  to  benefit  the 
city,  he  has  invested  in  at  various  times,  and 
always  does  more  than  an  average  share  of  help- 
ing new  projects  along.  He  has  been  an  invalu- 
able factor  toward  the  prosperity  of  Geneseo,  and 
is  never  appealed  to  in  vain  when  any  public  en- 
terprise is  under  way. 

Politically  Mr.  Waterman  is  a  Democrat,  and 
has  been  a  decided  believer  in  the  policies  of  that 
party  ever  since  he  has  been  old  enough  to  have 
an  understanding  of  politic*!  affairs.  Beginning 
in  1870,  he  was  elected  for  six  consecutive  terms 
as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors;  but  that 
is  the  only  elective  office  he  would  ever  ac- 
cept or  would  even  allow  his  name  to  be  con- 
nected with.  In  January,  1893,  1'^  was  appointed 
Ijy  Governor  Altgeld  a  commissioner  of  the  Illi- 
nois State  Penitentiary  at  Joliet,  and  by  his  fel- 
low members  of  the  board  was  paid  the  high 
compliment  of  being  elected  president  o{  the  com- 
mission. 

In  former  years  Mr.  Waterman  dealt  largely 
in  cattle,  wool  and  furs,  but  latterly  has  given  no 
attention  to  those  lines  of  trade.  He  has  always 
been  closely  attentive  to  the  details  of  his  business. 

On  the  26th  day  of  January,  1868,  Mr.  Water- 
man was  married  to  Miss  Matilda  Dryfus,  of  New 
York.  Of  the  five  children  of  this  union  three  are 
living,  namely:  Felix,  who  is  in  the  employ  of  the 
extensive  house  of  Dryfus  Brothers,  of  New  York ; 
Henry,  who  graduated  in  the  class  of  1895  at 
Cornell  University,  and  is  now  a  student  at  Yale 
Law  School,  New  Flaven,  Connecticut;  and 
Samuel,  who  is  with  his  father  in  his  store  at 
Geneseo;  Sidney,  a  son,  died  in  infancy;  and 
their  daughter  Jennie  in  1876. 


370 


niOGUAPJIICAL  DICTIONAUT  AND  POETUAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


JOHN  NEWTON  GAGE, 


TIIK  late  Jolm  N.  (iai^'c,  one  of  Cliicago's 
Icacliii!^  merchants,  was  born  at  Pclham, 
Ne^v  Hampshire,  May  30,  1825.  For  several 
generations  his  ancestors  had  been  among  the 
sturdy  yeomanry  of  New  England.  Both  his 
grandfathers,  Woodbury  and  Gage,  served  in  the 
Revolutionary  war.  His  father  was  a  farmer, 
who,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  brought 
up  his  sons  to  labor,  but  allowed  them  to  attend 
school  during  the  winters.  In  rural  life  the  lad 
grew  to  manhood,  with  habits  of  industry  and 
economy,  and  acquired  a  good  English  educa- 
tion. 

As  he  came  to  maturity  a  desire  to  belter  his 
condition  impelled  him  to  forsake  the  life  which 
iiis  forefathers  had  led  in  the  seclusion  of  their 
inland  country  homes,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
he  obtained  employment  in  a  cotton  mill  in  Wal- 
tham,  Massachusetts.  He  was  ambitious  to  im- 
prove his  mind  as  w^ll  as  to  obtain  a  knowledge 
of  the  manufacturing  business,  and  took  the  op- 
portunity which  the  town  afforded  to  attend  lec- 
tures and  apply  himself  to  special  studies.  He 
acquired  among  other  arts  a  practical  knowledge 
of  bookkeeping,  which  perhaps  led  him  at  a  later 
period  to  enter  a  mercantile  life.  During  the 
fourteen  years  that  young  Gage  spent  in  the  fac- 
tor)' at  Waltham,  he  passed  through  all  grades 
of  promotion  that  mill  life  afiforded  until  he  be- 
came overseer  of  the  works.  When  he  had  been 
six  years  at  the  factory,  he  felt  able  to  take  upon 
himself  the  responsibility  of  a  family.  On  De- 
cember 15,  1849,  lie  married  Miss  Martha  Web- 
ster, who  was  a  native  of  the  same  New  Hamp- 
shire town  with  himself.  Eight  years  later  he 
decided  to  try  a  new  field  of  enteqjrise.  Before 
leaving  Waltham  he  had  established  such  cordial 
relations  with  all  with  whom  he  had  been  associ- 
ated that  they  united  in  presenting  to  him  a  valu- 
able watch  and  chain  as  a  token  of  their  esteem 
and  a  memento  of  fi-iendship  gained  through 
years  of  association  in  the  common  life  of  a  fac- 
tory town.  He  left  his  friends  and  associates  with 
the  most  sincere  regret,  but  the  same  impulse 
which  had  led  him  to  abandon  the  farm  \iOw 


urged  him  to  a  wider  field  and  more  enlarged 
enterprise. 

He  came  to  Chicago  in  the  spring  of  1857, 
and  in  connection  with  C.  C.  and  D.  Webster 
established  the  firm  of  Webster  &  Gage.  The 
business  entered  upon  was  that  of  wholesale  deal- 
ers in  millinery  and  fancy  goods.  A  store  was 
opened  at  No.  1 14  Lake  street,  and  stocked  with 
goods  purchased  with  the  earnings  of  many  years 
of  steady  and  laborious  industry.  The  business 
had  been  established  but  a  few  months,  when, 
on  the  iQth  of  October  of  the  year  of  their  arrival 
in  Chicago,  the  store,  with  its  stock  of  goods, 
>vas  destroyed  h\  fire.  The  blow  was  a  stagger- 
ing one,  for  the  firm  lost  all  the  capital  which  they 
had  brought  with  them.  Though  disheartened, 
tlie  young  merchants  were  not  dismayed.  They 
soon  re-established  their  business,  having  the 
credit  which  industry  and  integrity  always  bring. 
They  had  imbibed  with  the  broader  and  freer  life 
of  the  West,  that  indomitable  spirit  of  enterprise 
which  has  characterized  the  people  of  Chicago 
and  enabled  them  to  build  up  a  metropolis  whose 
record  is  uncqualed  by  that  of  any  other  Ameri- 
can city. 

The  business  prospered  under  prudent  and 
sagacious  management  and  the  enterprising 
partners  gained  a  high  standing  in  the  busi- 
ness circles  of  the  city.  They  brought  to 
the  conduct  of  the  business  that  fairness 
and  care  for  the  interest  of  their  custom- 
ers which  enabled  them  to  consult  as  wcil 
the  advantage  of  the  buyer  as  that  of  the  seller, 
so  that  trade  became  mutually  advantageous.  In 
1870  the  style  of  the  firm  was  changed  to  that  of 
Gage  Brothers  &  Company,  Mr.  Webster  retir- 
ing, and  Seth  and  Albert  S.  Gage,  a  brother  and 
nephew  of  the  senior  proprietor,  being  admitted. 
A  second  time  disaster  overtook  the  business,  in 
the  destruction  of  the  store  and  stock  by  the  great 
fire  of  1871.  The  experience  in  the  past  now 
stood  the  subject  of  our  sketch  in  good  stead, 
and  the  insurance,  which  was  ample,  had  been 
chosen  with  such  care  and  judgment  that  it  paid 
eighty-five  cents  on  the   dollar, — a  phenomenal 


^£//^^^^.^- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


:r, 


record  in  that  unparalleled  disaster,  and  the  firm 
was  enabled  to  pay  all  its  indebtedness  and  re- 
sume active  business  ten  days  later  in  new  quar- 
ters taken  immediately  in  the  residence  district 
and  fitted  for  their  requirements  in  that  short 
time. 

For  the  next  fourteen  years  die  business  went 
on  with  unvar>-ing  success.  In  1S70,  immedi- 
ately after  graduation  at  the  Chicago  high  school, 
Frank  X.  Gage,  a  son  of  our  subject,  became  con- 
nected with  it,  and,  with  growing  experience  and 
successful  application,  manifested  ability  to  di- 
rect operations,  enabling  Mr.  Gage,  senior,  to 
give  his  personal  attention  more  to  his  now  large 
estate  and  less  to  the  affairs  of  the  store,  and  in 
1881  to  retire  entirely,  the  business  continuing, 
however,  under  the  same  name  and  style  until 
1885,  when  the  son  also  severed  his  connection 
and  engaged  in  other  matters. 

^Ir.  Gage  established  a  character  for  business 
lionor  and  integrity.  While  attentive  to  his  af- 
fairs, and  thoroughly  engrossed  in  their  manifold 
details,  he  was  not  unmindful  of  the  duties  which 
society  and  citizenship  imposed  upon  him.  He 
was  kind,  considerate  and  helpful  to  the  poor  and 
unfortunate,  not  only  in  extending  pecuniary  aid 
in  cases  of  need,  but  in  entering  into  their  lives 
with  the  sympathy  and  personal  help  which  the 
claims  of  a  common  humanity  exact  from  kind 
and  generous  souls. 

Mr.  Gage  was  connected  with  St.  Paul's  Uni- 
versalist  Church,  in  whose  welfare  and  work  of 
religion  and  charity  he  was  an  active  worker,  and 
of  which  his  son  is  now  a  trustee. 

His  death  occurred  June  11,  1887.  He  was 
mourned  not  only  by  his  surviving  family,  but 
by  all  who  had  the  privilege  of  being  associated 
with  him,  and  not  least  by  the  poor  and  unfor- 
tunate, who  had  been  sharers  in  his  kindness  and 
bounty,  and  who  looked  upon  him  as  a  friend 
indeed. 

From  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  honored  of 
England's  families  Mr.  Gage  descended,  his  an- 
cestors dating  their  connection  with  England 
from  the  days  of  the  conquest  when  William  the 
Conqueror  left  his  home  in  Xormandy  and  won 
dominion  over  the  "Merry  Isle."  Among  his 
followers  was  the  founder  of  the  Gage  family  in 
England,  and  for  the  part  which  he  took  in  the 


war  he  was  given  a  large  grant  of  land  in  the  for- 
ests of  Dean,  Gloucester  county.  In  that  locality 
he  established  the  family  abode,  having  a  fine  old 
mansion  at  Clerkenwell  in  the  midst  of  the  forest. 
He  also  had  a  home  in  the  town  of  Chichester, 
and  in  that  abode  his  life's  labors  were  ended  and 
he  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  neighboring  abbev.  His 
descendants  lived  for  many  generations  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  old  mansion  which  he  built  and 
flemished  two  baronial  representatives  to  Parlia- 
ment during  the  reign  of  King  Henni-  II.  They 
were  honored  by  their  sovereign  and  were  recog- 
nized leaders  in  the  political  life  of  the  new  king- 
dom. 

Thus  they  lived  in  Gloucester  county  until  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  history 
mentions  John  Gage,  an  honored  resident  of  that 
locality.  He  had  a  son,  John,  who  was  bom  in 
1408  and  married  Joan  Sudgrove.  They  became 
the  parents  of  a  son  to  whom  they  gave  the  name 
of  John,  and  who  won  favor  with  his  sovereign. 
By  the  latter  he  was  knighted  and  henceforth 
known  as  Sir  John.  He  married  Eleanor  St. 
Clere,  and  departed  this  life  September  30,  i486. 
Thirty  years  previous  his  son,  William  Gage, 
Esquire,  was  born,  and  married  Agnes  Bolney, 
by  whom  he  had  a  son  that  bore  the  old  family 
name  of  John.  He  was  bom  in  1480,  and  be- 
came a  knight  of  the  realm  in  1541.  He  married 
Phillippa  Guilderford,  and  died  April  28,  1557. 
His  eldest  son  bore  the  title  of  Sir  Edward,  being 
knighted  by  Queen  Mar\'.  He  wedded  Eliza- 
beth Parker  and  the  eldest  of  their  nine  sons 
was  Esquire  John,  who  at  his  father's  death  fell 
heir  to  fifteen  manors  and  other  Sussex  land. 
Another  member  of  the  family,  a  nephew,  John, 
was  made  a  baronet  on  the  26th  of  ^farch,  1622, 
and  married  Penelope,  widow  of  Sir  George 
Trenchard.     His  death  occurred  October  3,  1633. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  representatives  of  the 
family  left  the  mother  land,  and  the  Gages  be- 
came connected  with  American  history.  John, 
the  second  son,  lived  in  Stoneham,  Suffolk  county, 
England.  The  era  of  American  colonization  had 
now  come  and  John  Gage  sailed  for  the  New 
World,  in  company  with  John  Winthrop,  Jr. 
The  dangers  of  the  ocean  voyage  were  at  length 
passed  and  New  England's  shores  welcomed  the 
strangers,  who  landed  at  Salem  on  the  12th  of 


378 


BIOaiiAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


luiic,  1630.  Three  years  later  John  Gage  be- 
came one  of  the  twelve  proprietors  of  Ipswich. 
His  wife  Anna  died  in  June,  1658,  and  in  Novem- 
ber of  that  year  he  wedded  Mary  Keyes,  remov- 
ing with  his  family  to  Rowley,  Massachusetts,  in 
1664.  He  became  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  public 
affairs  of  the  colony  and  was  honored  with  many 
responsible  positions  in  that  place  and  in  Ipswich. 
His  death  occurred  in  1673.  His  second  son, 
Daniel,  was  married  in  1675  to  Sarah  Kimball, 
and  died  November  8,  1705.  Their  son,  Daniel, 
born  March  12,  1676,  married  Martha  Burbank, 
on  the  9th  of  March,  1697,  and  made  a  home  on 
the  bank  of  the  Merrimac  river  on  the  main 
road  to  Methuen.  The  residence  which  he  erected 
is  still   standing,  the  oldest  h   use  in   the  town. 


ror  almost  two  centuries  it  has  looked  down  upon 
many  of  the  scenes  that  go  to  form  American 
history,  long  out-living  its  founder,  who  died 
]\Iarch  14,  1747.  The  third  son  of  his  family  also 
bore  the  name  of  Daniel,  and  was  born  April  22, 
1708.  He  became  a  resident  of  Pelham,  New 
Hampshire,  and  died  there  September  24,  1775. 
His  fourth  son,  David,  was  born  on  the  9th 
of  August,  1750,  and  became  the  father  of 
Nathan,  who  was  the  fifth  child  of  the  fam- 
ily and  the  father  of  the  gentleman  whose 
name  heads  this  review.  Nathan  Gage  was 
born  May  27,  1791,  and  on  the  29th  of  May, 
1817,  was  united  in  marriage  with  Mehitable 
Woodbury.  His  death  occurred  February  20, 
i860. 


WILLIAM  R.  PRICKETT, 


EDWARDSVILLE. 


WE  are  now  permitted  to  touch  briefly  upon 
the  life  history  of  one  who  has  retained 
a  personal  association  with  the  affairs  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  for  a  ntmiber  of  years,  and  one 
whose  ancestral  line  traces  back  to  the  Colonial 
epoch.  His  life  has  been  one  of  honest  and  earn- 
est endeavor  and  due  success  has  not  been  denied 
him. 

Mr.  Prickett  is  a  native  son  of  the  little  city 
where  he  still  retains  his  residence.  His  parents, 
Isaac  and  Nancy  (Lamkin)  Prickett,  came  to  Illi- 
nois in  181 8,  from  Kentucky.  The  father  be- 
came a  man  of  much  prominence  and  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  his  section,  and  other  members 
of  the  family  also  rose  to  distinguished  prefer- 
ment. 

Tlie  early  education  of  our  subject  was  received 
in  the  subscription  schools  of  Edwardsville, 
which  he  attended  until  he  had  attained  the  age 
of  fifteen  years,  and  then  he  was  sent  to  the  West- 
ern Military  Institute  in  Kentucky,  where  Gen- 
eral Bushrod  R.  Johnson  (afterward  celebrated 
as  a  Confederate  officer)  was  president.  After 
two  years'  attendance  at  this  school  he  returned 
to  his  home  in  Illinois  and  entered  Illinois  Col- 
lege, at  Jacksonville,  where  he  completed  his 
studies  in   1856.     After  returning  home  he  was 


employed  at  different  times  in  the  offices  of  both 
the  county  and  circuit  clerk,  previously  having 
been  for  a  time  a  clerk  in  a  mercantile  establish- 
ment. 

Mr.  Prickett  has  been  twice  married,  his  first 
wife  being  the  daughter  of  Hon.  Edward  M. 
West  and  his  second  wife  the  daughter  of  Judge 
Joseph  Gillespie.  Of  his  first  marriage  four 
children  were  born,  three  of  whom  are  living. 

In  1859  Mr.  Prickett  became  identified  with 
real  estate  operations  and  the  extending  of  finan- 
cial loans,  and  this  enterprise  he  conducted  with 
such  discernment  and  discrimination  that  his  ef- 
forts were  remarkably  successful. 

He  was  elected  major  of  the  One  Hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry  and  served 
until  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  enlistment. 
He  became  associated  with  E.  M.  West  in  the 
establishment  of  a  private  banking  house  in  Ed- 
wardsville in  1868,  and  this  was  successfully  con- 
ducted under  the  firm  name  of  West  &  Prickett 
until  the  death  of  Mr.  West,  on  the  30th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1887,  since  which  time  the  bank  has  been 
conducted  by  our  subject  and  his  son,  imder  the 
title  of  William  R.  Prickett  &  Company. 

Mr.  Prickett  became  identified  with  the  Ma- 
sonic order  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years.     He 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUB  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


37'J 


is  also  a  member  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland, 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repubhc,  and  the  Loyal 
Legion  of  the  United  States.  For  twenty-five 
vears  he  has  been  an  influential  factor  in  the 
political  afYairs  of  the  coimty,  being  a  stalwart 
Democrat,  and  having  served  with  signal  ability 
as  a  member  of  the  county  committee.  He  has 
twice  been  sent  to  the  Illinois  General  Assem- 
bly, was    presidential    elector    from    his    district 


in    1892,    and   is   now    serving   as   mayor  of   his 
native  city. 

A  man  of  unswerving  integrity  and  honor, 
one  who  has  a  perfect  appreciation  of  the  higher 
ethics  of  life,  jNIajor  Prickett  has  gained  and  re- 
tained the  confidence  and  respect  of  his  fellow 
men,  and  is  distinctively  one  of  the  leading  citi- 
zens of  the  thriving  city  of  Edwardsville,  with 
whose  interests  he  has  alwavs  been  identified. 


PHILIP  C  HAYES, 


TOLIET. 


THIRTV-l'Ol'R  years  have  passed  since 
I'ort  Sumter  was  fired  upon,  l)ut  time  will 
never  serve  to  dim  the  brilliant  record  made  by 
lite  heroes  wlio  wore  the  blue  and  preserved  the 
natirm  as  an  unbroken  L^nion.  Prominent  among 
these  is  niunbered  General  Philip  C.  Hayes,  one 
of  Illinois'  most  honored  and  esteemed  sons.  He 
was  bom  February  3,  1833,  in  Granby,  Connecti- 
cut, and  comes  of  a  family  of  Scotch  origin  which 
was  founded  in  America  in  1680  by  George 
Hayes,  who  located  in  Windsor,  Connecticut. 
Of  the  same  branch  of  the  family  to  which  the 
General  belongs  was  President  R.  B.  Hayes,  the 
relationship  of  third  cousins  e.xisting  between 
them.  They  are  both  direct  descendants  of 
Ezekiel  Hayes,  the  third  son  of  Daniel  Hayes, 
who  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  founder  of  the  fam- 
ily in  America.  The  parents  of  our  subject  were 
Gaylord  and  Mary  Goodrich  (Humphrey)  Hayes. 
The  family  has  been  noted  for  its  loyalty  and  pat- 
riotism from  its  earliest  settlement  in  this  country, 
and  among  the  heroes  of  the  Revolution  was  num- 
bered the  great-grandfather  of  our  subject,  who 
served  with  distinction  in  that  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence, while  Gaylord  Hayes  and  his  brother 
Ezekiel  were  both  soldiers  of  the  American  army 
in  the  war  of  181 2. 

In  the  fall  of  1833  General  Hayes  of  this  re- 
view was  brought  by  his  parents  to  the  West, 
who  located  near  Ottawa,  La  Salle  count>',  Illi- 
nois, where  the  father  engaged  in  farming.  There 
the  General  spent  his  early  childhood,  and  at  the 
tender  age  of  twelve  years,  being  left  an  orphan, 
he  was  forced  to  enter  life's  battle  for  himself. 


Necessity  demanded  that  he  should  earn  his  own 
living,  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  we  find  him  work- 
ing as  a  farm  hand  for  the  meager  compensation 
of  eight  dollars  per  month.  In  the  winter  season 
he  worked  for  his  board  and  the  privilege  of  at- 
tending the  country  schools  of  the  neighborhood. 
Thus  he  acquired  a  good  English  education,  and 
at  the  age  of  nineteen  began  teaching  school, 
which  profession  he  followed  a  portion  of  the  time 
for  several  years.  In  the  meantime  he  continued 
his  studies  privately,  thus  preparing  to  enter  col- 
lege. Realizing  the  need  and  value  of  an  educa- 
tion, he  determined  to  grasp  every  opportunity 
that  would  enable  him  to  secure  it,  and  eventually 
he  became  a  student  in  Farmridge  Seminary  of 
La  Salle  county,  Illinois.  On  the  ist  of  Septem- 
ber, 1855,  he  entered  the  preparatory  school  at 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  and  a  year  later  became  a  regular 
student  in  the  college  at  that  place,  graduating  in 
September,  i860.  He  had  determined  to  devote 
his  life  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and  when  his 
literary  education  was  completed  he  took  up  the 
study  of  theology-,  which  he  was  diligently  pur- 
suing at  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the  Civil  war. 
General  Hayes  had  watched  with  consternation 
and  interest  the  threatening  aspect  of  the  South 
and  the  progress  of  events  which  preceded  the 
struggle,  and  resolved  that  if  war  was  begun  he 
would  strike  a  blow  in  defense  of  the  Union. 
Therefore,  on  the  first  call  of  President  Lincoln 
for  seventy-five  thousand  troops,  General  Hayes 
responded,  enlisting  as  a  private.  When  the 
company  was  formed  he  was  elected  its  captain, 
but  the  State  had  alrcad)-  furnished  more  troops 


380 


DlOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


than  its  regular  <|u<ita  and  his  regiment  was  there- 
fore not  accepted.  In  1862  he  made  another  at- 
tempt to  enlist.  He  raised  a  company  and  was 
mustered  into  the  United  States  service  on  the 
i6th  of  Jul)'  at  Columbus,  Ohio.  He  was  made 
captain  of  his  company  which  was  assigned  to  the 
One  Hundred  and  Third  Ohio  Infantry  as  Com- 
pany F.  The  regiment  was  armed  at  Cincinnati, 
then  crossed  the  river  to  Covingfton,  where  it  was 
uniformed  and  furnished  with  other  necessary 
supplies.  Thus  equipped  it  marched  to  Fort 
Mitchell  on  the  6th  of  September.  The  people 
of  Cincinnati  and  vicinity  were  at  that  time 
greatly  excited  over  the  threatened  invasion  of 
the  enemy  under  the  connnand  of  Kirby  Smith. 
The  One  Fltmdred  and  Third  took  an  active  part 
in  checking  the  advance  of  the  foe,  and  in  fact 
greatly  assisted  in  forcing  the  rebel  troops  to  beat 
a  retreat.  After  pursuing  the  enemy  for  some 
distance,  the  command  returned  and  went  into 
camp  at  Snow  Pond,  where  nearly  half  of  the 
regiment  were  prostrated  with  sickness.  Subse- 
quently the  One  Hundred  and  Third  was  de- 
tached from  the  brigade  and  moved  to  Frankfort, 
where  it  went  into  camp  on  the  bank  of  the  Ken- 
tucky river. 

In  the  early  part  of  April,  1863,  it  was  ordered 
out  after  independent  squads  of  freebooters  and 
marauding  bands  of  mounted  men.  About  the 
middle  of  August  the  national  forces  under  Gen- 
eral Burnside  moved  from  Danville,  Kentucky, 
across  the  mountains,  to  take  part  in  the  Ten- 
nessee campaign,  going  by  way  of  Stanford,  Crab 
Orchard,  Cumberland,  Burnside  Point,  Mont- 
gomery, Lenoir  and  Concord.  At  that  time 
Knoxville  was  the  stronghold  of  the  enemy,  but 
on  learning  of  the  approach  of  the  Union  army 
they  abandoned  their  fortifications  there,  which 
were  quickly  in  possession  of  the  advanced  forces 
of  Burnside.  That  march  over  the  mountains 
was  a  most  arduous  one  and  pen  cannot  portray 
the  sufferings  of  the  Union  troops  while  thus 
engaged.  The  One  Hundred  and  Third,  with 
other  regiments,  was  placed  on  cars  and  passing 
through  Knoxville  moved  on  to  Henderson  Sta- 
tion, and  subsequently  to  Greenville,  where  later 
it  joined  the  general  advance  against  the  enemy, 
then  assembling  at  Jonesboro.  The  rebels  were 
routed  but  made  another  stand  at  Blue  Springs, 


where  they  were  attacked  by  the  Union  forces. 
Other  gray  regiments  came  up  to  bear  their  part 
in  the  encounter  and  a  hot  battle  ensued  which  re- 
sulted in  the  defeat  of  the  enemy.  In  the  early 
part  of  November  the  brigade  to  which  the  One 
Hundred  and  Third  Ohio  belonged  returned  by 
rail  to  Knoxville,  and  during  the  siege  of  that 
place  by  Longstreet  suffered  the  greatest  hard- 
ships and  privations.  There  the  regiment  took 
])art  in  the  sanguinary  battle  of  Annstrong's  Hill, 
resulting  in  the  repulse  of  the  rebels.  The  loss 
of  the  One  Hundred  and  Third  amounted  to 
thirty-five  men  killed  and  wounded. 

On  the  approach  of  General  Sherman  the 
enemy  withdrew  and  the  regiment  went  to  Straw- 
berry Plains  and  afterward  to  Bean  Station, 
whence  it  soon  returned  to  Strawberr)'  Plains. 
On  the  I2th  of  March,  1864,  it  was  ordered  to 
join  the  pursuit  of  Longstreet  and  proceeded  to 
Morrison,  then  to  ]\[ossy  Creek  and  later  with  the 
army  advanced  to  Bull's  Gap.  Longstreet  hav- 
ing been  driven  from  east' Tennessee,  the  One 
Hundred  and  Third  was  ordered  to  Chattanooga 
to  join  the  forces  under  Sherman  for  service  in 
the  Atlanta  campaign.  They  arrived  on  the  13th 
of  ]\Iay  in  front  of  Resaca  and  the  following  day 
the  General  commanded  his  troops  in  the  charge 
against  the  enemy's  works,  which  were  carried. 
His  regiment  fought  gallantly  and  effectively,  but 
in  the  desperate  encounter  lost  one-third  of  its 
available  force.  It  joined  in  pursuit  of  the  de- 
feated army,  marching  through  Cartersville  and 
across  the  Chattahoochie  river,  and  later  contin- 
ued on  the  steady  and  persistent  advance  to  At- 
lanta, taking  part  in  all  the  engagements  of  the 
brigade  leading  up  to  the  fall  of  the  rebel  strong- 
hold. The  next  move  of  General  Hayes'  regi- 
ment was  to  accompany  the  Twenty-third  Army 
Corps  to  Decatur,  where  it  went  into  camp.  The 
regiment's  loss  in  that  campaign  was  as  heavy 
as  its  service  was  effective.  For  one  hundred 
days  it  was  almost  constantly  under  fire,  losing 
large  numbers  of  both  officers  and  men. 

After  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  General  Hayes  was 
appointed  provost  marshal  general  on  the  staff 
of  General  J.  M.  Schofield,  which  po^sition  he  hold 
until  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  service.  With 
his  command  he  moved  back  to  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, marched  to  Pulaski,  took  part  in  the  bat- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


381 


ties  of  Franklin  and  Nashville,  and,  after  the 
defeat  of  Hood's  army,  accompanied  General 
Schoficld  to  Alexandria,  \"irginia,  and  thence  to 
Fort  Fisher,  North  Carolina.  On  the  24th  of 
Februar}-,  1865,  the  corps  to  which  the  General's 
regiment  belonged  arrived  at  Wilmington,  and 
after  remaining  there  for  a  few  days  proceeded 
through  Kingston  to  Goldsboro,  where  it  met 
Sherman's  army,  and  a  reunion  of  the  soldiers 
was  held.  Thence  the  army  resumed  its  march, 
and  on  the  13th  of  April  reached  Raleigh,  where 
the  One  Hundred  and  Third  remained  until  the 
I2th  of  June,  when  it  was  ordered  to  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  and  there  mustered  out  June  22,  1865. 
General  Hayes  then  at  once  returned  to  his  home. 
His  record  as  a  soldier  is  a  brilliant  one.  He 
was  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  in  many  of  the 
most  important  engagements  of  the  service,  but 
was  fortunate  in  that  he  escaped  all  injun,-.  On 
the  5th  of  December,  1864,  he  was  promoted 
from  the  rank  of  captain  to  that  of  lieutenant 
colonel.  Meritorious  service  later  won  him  the 
rank  of  colonel,  and  on  the  13th  of  March,  1865, 
he  was  brevetted  brigadier  general.  Fearless 
and  true  he  led  his  men  in  many  a  gallant  charge 
and  won  the  love  of  those  who  served  under  him 
and  the  confidence  and  respect  of  his  superior 
officers.  Two  of  his  brothers,  Timothy  E.  and 
James  H.,  were  also  in  the  army  and  the  latter  was 
severely  wounded.  The  One  Hundred  and 
Third  Ohio  Regiment  was  at  the  front  during  the 
entire  Atlanta  campaign,  and  that  its  service  was 
arduous  is  manifest  by  its  heavy  losses.  It  had 
five  hundred  men  when  it  entered  the  campaign 
and  at  its  close  there  remained  only  one  hundred 
and  ninety-six  who  were  able  to  enter  upon  field 
service ! 

The  following  letter  was  WTitten  by  General 
Cameron,  the  brigade  commander,  and  fully  tes- 
tifies to  the  high  standing  of  General  Hayes  in 
the  army: 

HEADQU.IRTERS    SECOND  BRIG.^DE. 

THIRD    DIVISION,    TWENTV-THIRD    CORPS,     BEFORE 

ATL.\NT.\,     GEORGIA,    July    30,     1864. 

Hon.  John  Brough,  Goi<enwr  of  Ohio,  Co/iiml'iis, 

Ohio. 

Governor: — I  have  much  pleasure  in  recom- 
mending to  the  favorable  consideration  of  your 
Excellency,  Captain  P.  C.  Hayes,  One  Hundred 
and    Third    Ohio    Volunteer   Infantry.     Captain 


Hayes  is,  in  my  opinion,  one  of  the  best  officers 
in  this  army.  I  have  been  familiar  with  the  serv- 
ices rendered  by  him  in  the  present  campaign 
and  in  eastern  Tennessee.  I  have  always  found 
him  energetic,  intelligent  and  faithful  in  the  dis- 
charge of  every  duty.  At  two  difTerent  times  I 
have  had  occasion  to  commend  him  to  the  notice 
of  my  militan-  superiors  as  most  worthy  of  pro- 
motion for  gallant  service  rendered  on  the  field. 
I  can  consistently  recommend  Captain  Hayes  as 
worthy  and  well  qualified  to  fill  a  higher  position 
than  his  present  one.  His  experience  and  effi- 
ciency as  an  officer  would  be  of  great  value  in 
any  organization  now  forming,  and  as  several 
new  regiments  are  said  to  be  raising  in  Ohio 
I  ask  for  the  Captain  your  Excellency's  most 
favorable  consideration. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be. 

Your  E.xcellency's  obedient  servant, 
Daniel  Cameron, 
Colonel  Commaiuiini^  Brigade. 

From  General  Grant  he  received  the  following 
letter: 

Brigadier  General  Philip  C.  Hayes: — 
You  are  hereby  informed  iJiat  the  President  of 
the  United  States  has  appointed  you,  for  gallant 
and  meritorious  services  during  the  war,  a  Brig- 
adier General  of  Volunteers  by  brevet. 

U.    S.    Grant,    General. 

After  the  war,  General  Hayes  remained  for 
some  time  in  Ohio,  his  first  occupation  being  that 
of  superintendent  of  public  schools  at  Mt. 
\'ernon,  a  position  which  he  acceptably  filled  un- 
til the  fall  of  1866,  when  he  went  to  Circleville, 
Ohio,  and  purchased  a  newspaper,  the  Circleville 
Union.  He  thus  entered  upon  his  journalistic 
work,  which  has  since  been  his  chosen  field  of 
labor  with  slight  interrupdon.  He  conducted 
that  paper  until  the  spring  of  1869,  when  he  sold 
out  and  purchased  the  Brj-an  Press,  whidi  he 
edited  until  1874.  In  that  year  he  became  a  res- 
ident of  Illinois  and  purchased  the  Morris  Her- 
alil,  of  ^Morris,  that  State,  which  he  successfully 
published  until  1892,  when  he  enlarged  his  field 
of  labor  by  buying  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
Republican  of  JoHet,  one  of  the  most  capably 
edited  sheets  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  He  had 
from  its  organization  been  an  active  and  promi- 
nent Republican,  recognized  by  his  party  as  an 
able  leader  and  wise  counselor.  In  1876  he  was 
honored  by  a  nomination  on  that  ticket  as  Rep- 
resentative in  Congress  for  the  Seventh  District, 
embracing    the    counties    of    Grundy,    La  Salle, 


382 


BIOORAPIIWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  TEE 


Kendall  and  ^^'ill.  He  took  his  seat  in  the  house 
on  the  4th  of  March,  1877,  and  retired  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1881,  after  the  expiration  of  his  second 
term,  to  which  he  had  been  elected  as  the  result 
of  his  efificienit  and  faithful  service  durinig  his 
first  term.  He  was  a  wise  legislator,  studying 
closely  the  questions  of  the  day  and  giving  his 
conscientious  support  to  those  measures  which 
he  believed  were  calculated  to  promote  the  gen- 
eral welfare  of  the  nation.  He  is  a  man  of  strong 
convictions,  fearless  in  expressing  his  ideas  un- 
der all  proper  circumstances,  yet  al-ways  ready  to 
hear  and  weig'h  the  views  of  those  who  differ 
from  him.  The  predominant  trait  in  his  char- 
acter is  his  absolute  honesty  and  uprightness, 
and  his  course  in  Congress  was  one  that  reflected 
credit  upon  both  himself  and  his  constituents. 

Genera]  Hayes  was  married  in  Oberlin,  Ohio, 
on  the  25th  of  January,  1865,  to  Miss  Amelia 
Estelle  Johnson,  daughter  of  Dr.  Homer  and 
Ann  Johnson,  representatives  of  old  and  re- 
spected New  England  families.  General  and 
]\Irs.  Hayes  are  the  parents  of  six  children, — 
Carl  J.,  Jessie,  Ralph  W.,  Georgie,  Milo  C.  and 
Mary, — Carl  and  Georgie  having  died  some  years 
ago. 

While  living  in  Morris,  Illinois,  the  General 
held  membership  with  Darveau  Post,  No.  329, 
and  was  for  some  years  its  commander.     He  is 


now  a  member  of  Bartleson  Post,  No.  6,  G.  A.  R., 
of  Joliet,  and  is  connected  with  the  Loyal  Legion. 
While  his  military  and  political  careers  are  quite 
well  known  to  the  public,  much  less  has  been 
said  about  his  social  and  business  life,  which  are 
alike  honorable.  He  is  a  loyal,  patriotic  Amer- 
ican, devoted  to  the  interests  of  his  native  land 
and  his  community,  and  the  columns  of  his  pa- 
per ever  unswervingly  support  the  American  insti- 
tutions. He  possesses  superior  business  and  ex- 
ecutive ability  and  considers  no  detail  of  his  busi- 
ness too  insignificant  to  claim  his  attention  and 
general  supervision.  His  life  has  been  a  straight- 
forward, honorable  and  upright  one.  Indolence 
is  utterly  foreign  to  his  nature,  and  his  enterprise, 
perseverance  and  capable  management  have  been 
the  stepping-stones  by  which  he  has  risen  from 
an  humble  to  an  eminent  position.  He  is  a  ver- 
satile, fluent  and  easy  writer  and  is  an  orator  of 
no  mean  ability,  his  services  being  constantly  in 
demand  on  Decoration  Day  and  other  memorial 
occasions.  His  best  v\'ork  as  an  orator,  however, 
is  perhaps  in  the  political  field.  In  every  cam- 
paign since  the  war  he  has  faithfully  shared  in 
the  labors  of  his  party,  and  his  unanswerable 
logic,  his  forcible  argument  and  telling  repartee 
have  borne  not  a  little  weight  and  influence  in 
keeping  his  district  and  State  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Republican  party. 


WILLIAM  VVINKELMANN, 


BELLEVILLE. 


FOR  thirty-two  years  this  gentleman  has  en- 
joyed a  successful  and  lucrative  practice  at 
the  bar  of  Belleville,  and  as  the  result  of  his  untir- 
ing labors,  his  ambition,  his  energy  and  well 
directed  efforts  he  is  to-day  the  possessor  of  a 
handsome  competence  and  a  beautiful  home, 
where  he  spends  his  leisure  hours,  enjoying  the 
society  of  his  family  and  friends  in  the  midst  of 
all  the  comforts  that  go  to  make  life  worth  the 
living. 

William  Winkelmann  was  born  in  Destel, 
Prussia,  on  the  28th  of  February,  1830,  and  is 
the  second  in  the  family  of  five  children  whose 
parents  were  Christian  and  Wilhelmina  (Schweat- 


mann)  Winkelmann.  The  father  was  a  lawyer, 
merchant,  farmer  and  mill  owner.  His  business 
life  was  an  honorable  one,  he  was  pre-eminently 
public-spirited  and  was  a  loyal,  patriotic  citizen 
who  won  the  high  regard  of  all  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  His  death  occurred  in  1851, 
at  the  age  of  fifty  years,  and  his  wife  passed 
away  in  1872,  at  the  age  of  sevent3--two  years. 
The  subject  of  this  sketch  acquired  his  early  edu- 
cation in  the  common  schools,  which,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  customs  of  his  native  land,  he  at- 
tended for  seven  years.  His  life,  however,  has 
been  an  education,  and  in  the  school  of  experience 
he    has    learned    many    valuable    lessons,    while 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


383 


through  reading,  travel  and  observation  he  has 
become  a  man  of  broad  miml,  thoroughly  well 
informed.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  resolved  to 
seek  a  home  and  fortune  in  the  New  World. 

Crossing  the  Atlantic  he  located  in  St.  Louis, 
Missouri,  where  he  secured  employment  as  a 
teamster  at  ten  dollars  per  month.  He  fully 
recognized  the  fact  that  to  live  he  must  work, 
for  he  had  no  friends  or  capital  to  aid  him  on 
life's  journey.  He  followed  teaming  for  four 
years  in  the  employ  of  others,  and  then  purchased 
a  team,  which  he  used  for  eighteen  months  in 
hauling  iron  ore  from  the  Iron  mountains  to  the 
river  at  .St.  Genevieve.  This  business,  however, 
proved  unprofitable;  so  he  exchanged  his  team 
for  a  saloon,  which  he  conducted  for  six  years 
with  success. 

By  this  time  he  had  accumulated  some  money, 
and  it  was  his  desire  to  enter  another  and  broader 
field  of  labor.  Accordingly  he  began  the  prac- 
tice of  law  before  a  justice  court,  and  at  the  same 
time  applied  himself  diligently  to  legal  studies 
and  other  branches  of  learning,  which  would  en- 
able him  to  fight  the  battles  of  life  more  success- 
fully. Finding  his  efforts  well  rewarded  in  this 
direction  and  wishing  to  tiioroughly  infomi  him- 
self in  matters  of  the  law  before  beginning  his  work 
at  the  bar,  he  entered  the  office  of  Hon.  Joseph 
B.  Underwood,  at  that  time  one  of  the  ablest 
lawyers  at  the  Belleville  bar,  under  whose  direc- 
tion he  continued  his  studies  until  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  at  Mt.  Vernon,  Illinois,  in  1863. 
He  immediately  began  practice  and  has  won  not 
only  a  large  and  lucrative  patronage,  but  has  also 
gained  a  reputation  of  standing  at  the  head  of  the 
profession  in  this  section  of  Illinois. 

He  has  been  connected  with  many  celebrated 
criminal  and  civil  cases  and  for  thirty-two  years 
has  enjoyed  uninterrupted  success.  His  practice 
extends  over  St.  Clair,  Monroe,  Randolph,  Wash- 
ington and  Clinton  counties,  and  embraces  cases 
which  come  before  both  the  appellate  and  supreme 
courts.  He  possesses  superior  power  in  sifting 
the  evidence  of  a  case,  and  gathering  therefrom 
those  points  which  carry  weight  with  judge  and 
jury.  He  is  a  wise  counselor,  an  able  advocate, 
and  his  high  reputation  is  justly  deserved. 

Politically,  Mr.  Winkclmann  is  a  Democrat, 
not  through  any  selfish  motives  or  desire  to  hold 


office — which  has  frequently  been  tendered  him 
but  always  refused — but  because  it  is  his  firm 
conviction  that  the  principles  of  his  party  are 
for  the  best  interests  of  the  people.  In  1869  he 
began  speculating  in  land,  and  is  now  the  owner 
of  thirty-eight  hundred  acres  of  farm  lands,  of 
which  thirty-five  hundred  acres  is  located  in  Mon- 
roe, St.  Clair  and  Clinton  counties,  and  is  as  fine 
farming  land  as  can  be  found  in  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois. In  1882  he  purchased  the  fair  grounds 
near  Belleville,  for  seven  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars,  and  at  once  began  the  improvement  of 
the  same,  at  an  outlay  of  forty-two  thousand  dol- 
lars, for  tlie  comfort,  convenience  and  beauty  of 
the  place.  The  grounds  have  been  thoroughly 
transformed  and  present  more  the  appearance 
of  a  fine  park,  so  exquisitely  are  they  adorned 
with  flowers  and  shrubs.  Without  doubt  the 
Belleville  fair-grounds  are  the  finest  in  the  State>- 
Mr.  Winkelmann  is  a  member  of  the  County 
Fair  Association,  and  takes  a  most  commend- 
able interest  in  ever\-thing  pertaining  to  the  pro- 
motion, upbuilding  and  welfare  of  his  adopted 
city. 

The  residence  of  Mr.  Winkelmann,  located  at 
No.  212  Abend  street,  is  the  finest  in  Belleville. 
The  building  is  eighty  feet  long  and  contains 
eighteen  rooms,  richly  furnished  and  handsomely 
adorned  with  all  the  beautiful  works  that  wealth 
can  procure  and  artistic  taste  devise.  The 
grounds,  ninety  by  two  hundred  and  forty-seven 
feet  in  area,  are  handsomely  ornamented  with 
flowers  anrl  trees.  The  well  kept  outbuildings 
include  a  large  stable  ami  carriage  house,  in 
which  is  the  finest  turnout  to  be  seen  in  Belle- 
ville, consisting  of  a  magnificent  carriage,  a 
splendid  pair  of  bays  and  silver-mounted  harness, 
always  at  the  disposal  of  Mrs.  Winkelmann. 

In  1855  Mr.  Winkelmann  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Elizabeth  Hanger,  of  Missouri, 
daughter  of  Judge  David  Hanger.  They  had 
one  son,  William,  who  died  in  1884,  at  the  age  of 
thirtv-two  years.  The  mother  passed  away  in 
1882.  On  the  5th  of  December,  1883,  our  sub- 
ject was  again  married,  his  second  union  being 
with  Mrs.  Lucretia  J.  Shook,  widow  of  Isaac 
Shook.  Their  tastes  are  so  similar  that  the 
union  is  a  perfectly  harmonious  one,  and  their 
home  life   might    well    be    termed    ideal.     Mrs. 


384 


nroanAPJiTCAL  nwrioNAnT  and  PoiiTiiAir  oallery  of  the 


Wiiikelmann  is  a  lady  of  culture  aiul  refinement 
who  presides  with  gracious  dignity  over  her 
beautiful  home,  extending  a  wami-hearted  hospi- 
tality to  her  many  friends.  She  finds  her  great- 
est ha])i)iness  in  devoting  herself  to  her  husband, 
and  her  many  virtues  have  won  her  the  warm  re- 
gard of  many  friends.  Laying  aside  the  cares 
and  responsiljilitics  of  business  life,  Mr.  Winkcl- 
mann  finds  his  greatest  happiness  in  returning  to 
his  home,  where  joy  and  contentment  reign 
supreme  and  all  his  leisure  hours  are  spent  in  the 
companionship  of  her  who  is  indeed  his  helpmeet. 


A  good  library,  containing  the  standard  English 
works,  indicates  a  high  literary  taste.  His  law 
library  is  the  finest  in  southern  Illinois,  and  num- 
bers two  thousand  volumes  of  State  reports,  of 
eight  different  States,  together  with  a  large 
number  of  textbooks.  After  a  pure,  honor- 
able and  useful  life,  actuated  by  unselfish 
motives,  promj)ted  by  patriotism  and  guided 
by  truth  and  justice,  he  may  rest  assured  that 
the  people  of  his  county  are  not  unmindful 
of  him  who  has  devoted  himself  to  their  in- 
terests. 


JAMES  P.  BUCK,  A.  M.,  M.  D., 


AMONG  those  who  devote  their  time  and  en- 
ergies to  the  practice  of  medicine  and  have 
gained  a  leading  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  profes- 
sion is  Dr.  Buck.  He  was  born  on  the  19th  of 
Februaiy,  1856,  in  Cambria  county,  Pennsylvania, 
and  descended  from  German-American  ancestry, 
the  family  having  been  established  in  northern 
Cambria  county  during  pioneer  days.  His  par- 
ents were  John  and  Rachel  (Sherry)  Buck.  The 
father  served  as  sheriff  of  his  county  for  a  term  of 
three  years,  and  afterward  was  honored  by  an 
election  to  represent  his  district  in  the  State  leg- 
islature during  the  years  1874-5-6.  In  the  family 
were  ten  sons  and  two  daughters.  Two  of  the 
brothers  became  bankers,  two  entered  the  med- 
ical profession  and  others  were  engaged  in  mer- 
cantile pursuits,  while  both  sisters  were  quite  ac- 
complished as  musicians. 

From  humble  surroundings  our  subject  has 
risen  to  his  present  position  of  eminence.  He 
acquired  his  early  education  in  the  district  schools, 
but  subsequently  entered  St.  Vincent  College  of 
Latrobe,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  graduated 
with  the  degree  of  ^Master  of  Arts  in  1876.  He 
then  turned  his  attention  to  teaching,  which  he 
followed  for  two  seasons,  but  it  was  his  desire  to 
engage  in  the  practice  of  medicine  and  during 
that  time  he  began  private  study.  In  1877  he  en- 
tered Jefferson  Medical  College,  of  Philadelphia, 
from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1879.  Immedi- 
ately afterward  he  opened  an  ofifice  in  western 


Pennsylvania,  where  for  five  years  he  engaged  in 
the  prosecution  of  his  chosen  calling;  but  he  was 
ambitious  to  advance,  for  there  w^as  something  in 
his  nature  that  never  could  be  content  with  medi- 
ocrity. He  desired  to  gain  perfection  as  nearly 
as  possible,  and  to  this  end  resolved  to  take  a  trip 
abroad  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  further 
opportunity  and  superior  character  of  study  of 
the  medical  schools  of  A^ienna  and  Heidelberg. 
He  also  visited  the  universities  of  Berlin  and 
Prague  and  engaged  in  practice  in  the  various 
hospitals  of  the  alxive  named  cities.  On  com- 
pleting his  studies  the  Doctor  entered  the  Servian 
army,  then  at  war  with  Bulgarian-Roumania, 
as  surgeon  with  the  rank  and  title  of  captain. 
His  time  was  thus  passed  through  1885  and  1886, 
and  then  he  resigned  his  commission.  His  spe- 
cialty has  always  been  surgery,  and  his  army  serv- 
ice gave  him  ample  opportunity  in  this  line.  He 
received  many  tokens  of  esteem  from  the  officers 
and  others  high  in  rank,  and  won  the  love  of  all 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  In  company 
with  Dr.  Bridges  he  also  had  charge  of  a  military 
hospital.  When  he  resigned  his  commission  he 
became  assistant  to  Professor  Hock,  lecturer  on 
the  diseases  of  the  eye  at  the  Vienna  Polyclinic. 
While  attending  the  university  of  Vienna  he 
was  elected  as  president  of  the  American  Club  of 
Physicians  then  visiting  in  that  city.  It  was  or- 
ganized to  promote  the  interests  of  American 
students,  but  on  account  of  the  fact  that  it  did  not 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


385 


come  under  the  rules  of  the  university  the  author- 
ities caused  it  to  disband. 

In  the  autumn  of  1887,  after  an  extended  stay 
in  Europe,  during  which  lie  had  advanced  by 
rapid  strides  in  his  profession,  Dr.  Buck  returned 
to  his  native  land,  and  came  to  Chicago,  where 
he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  medicine,  rapidly 
acquiring  a  large  and  distinctive  patronage  which 
he  now  enjoys.  He  has,  however,  made  a  specialty 
of  surgery,  and  has  performed  almost  every  oper- 
ation known  to  the  science,  meeting  with  most 
excellent  success  and  thereby  gaining  the  repu- 
tation second  to  none  in  the  city.  His  kindly  and 
benevolent  spirit  is  manifest  by  the  readiness  with 
which  he  responds  to  a  call  that  comes  from  one 
from  whom  he  knows  he  can  receive  no  possible 
remuneration.  His  home  is  now  adorned  with 
many  decorations  received  from  institutions  and 
individuals  in  acknowledgment  of  favors  ren- 
dered. He  has  that  true  love  for  his  work  with- 
out which  there  can  be  no  success,  and  has  always 
been  a  progressive  physician,  constantly  improv- 
ing on  his  own  and  others"  methods  and  gaining 
further  encouragement  and  inspiration  from  the 
performance  of  each  day's  duties.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Chicago  Medical  Society,  of  the  Na- 
tional Medical  Society  and  of  the  Chicago  Ger- 
niania  Mjennerchor. 

Since  his  boyhood  the  Doctor  has  manifested 
an  inventive  genius,  but  his  great  love  for  and 
steady  application  to  his  chosen  profession  over- 
shadowed and  kei)t  dormant  his  resourceful  cre- 


ative faculties;  and  although  he  was  ever  willing 
to  extend  his  aid,  which  always  proved  valuable 
in  such  cases,  to  those  who  came  to  him  for  help 
in  perfecting  some  invention,  he  has  never  until 
lately  given  his  attention  to  inventing  on  his  own 
account.  Recently,  however,  he  has  perfected 
and  patented  many  valuable  instruments  and  ap- 
pliances especially  adapted  to  various  departments 
of  medical  operation.  He  is  an  ardent  and  de- 
voted student  of  modem  medical  and  surgical 
methods  and  essays,  ever  desirous  of  improving 
with  the  years  his  knowledge  of  his  profession, 
also  of  general  subjects  and  of  sciences.  He  is 
in  every  way  a  student,  and  his  researches  have 
by  no  means  been  confined  to  the  line  of  his  pro- 
fession, but  have  been  carried  far  and  wide  into 
other  fields  of  investigation.  Nature  in  its  vari- 
ous aspects  has  a  great  charm  for  him  and  es- 
pecially is  he  interested  in  animate  creation.  He 
is  a  great  lover  of  birds  and  animals,  and  his 
elegant  home  and  spacious  reception  rooms  re- 
sound with  the  music  of  sweet-singing  birds,  of 
varied  and  valuable  species. 

Dr.  Buck  is  a  man  of  medium  height,  of  genial 
manner  and  pleasing  disposition,  and  is  very  pop- 
ular with  all  classes  of  people.  While  in  school 
and  college  he  was  a  general  favorite  with  the 
students  as  well  as  the  teachers.  Wherever  he 
goes  the  Doctor  wins  friends  and  has  the  happy 
faculty  of  being  able  to  retain  them.  His  pop- 
idarit\-  has  made  him  a  great  favorite  in  all 
circles. 


VESPASIAN  WARNER, 


CLINTON. 


HON.  VESPASIAN  WARNER,  a  member 
of  Congress  from  the  Thirteenth  District 
of  Illinois  and  an  honored  citizen  of  Clinton, 
was  bom  in  Mt.  Pleasant,  now  Farmers'  City, 
De  Witt  county,  Illinois,  on  the  23d  of  April, 
1842,  and  is  a  son  of  John  and  Cynthia  A.  (Gard- 
iner) Warner.  On  the  father's  side  the  family 
is  of  German  ancestry,  while  his  mother's  people 
were  of  Scotch  lineage.  In  1843  John  Warner 
removed  with  his  family  to  Clinton,  and  Ves- 
pasian attended  the  common  and  select  schools 
25 


of  that  city,  after  which  he  further  pursued  his 
studies  in  Lombard  University,  of  Galesburg, 
Illinois.  Determining  to  enter  the  legal  pro- 
fession and  make  the  practice  of  law  his  life  work, 
he  began  studying  in  the  ofifice  of  Hon.  Lawrence 
Weldon,  of  Clinton,  an  eminent  attorney,  now 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  United  States  court  of 
claims. 

Mr.  Warner  continued  there  until  the  13th 
of  June,  1861.  A  month  previous  Fort  Sumter 
had  been  fired  upon  and  the  country  was  now 


38(5 


nwnn.\piiWAT.  nicrioNARr  and  ran  trait  oallery  of  the 


cng'at^'cd  in  civil  war,  wliicli  tlircatciicd  to  dis- 
rupt the  l^nioii.  Prompted  by  a  spirit  of  patri- 
otism, Mr.  Warner  offered  his  services  to  the 
government,  enlisting  as  a  private  of  Company 
E,  Twentieth  Illinois  Infantry.  He  remained  in 
the  ranks  until  February  5,  1862,  when  his  mer- 
itorious conduct  won  him  the  straps  of  a  second 
lieutenant.  He  faithfully  followed  the  old  flag 
until  the  13th  of  July,  1866,  when  he  was  hon- 
orably discharged.  He  had  for  some  time  been 
captain  and  brevet  major,  and  fearlessly  served 
with  his  command  at  the  battles  of  Fredericks- 
town,  Fort  Henry,  Fort  Donelson,  Shiloh,  Cor- 
inth, Port  Gibson,  Raymond,  Jackson,  Cham- 
pion Hills,  Black  river,  the  siege  and  surren- 
der of  Vicksburg  and  the  engagements  of  the 
Georgia  campaign  up  to  the  fall  of  Atlanta.  He 
received  a  gtinshot  wound  at  the  battle  of  Shiloh, 
and  being  disabled  at  Atlanta  was  sent  to  the 
North.  Early  in  1865  he  was  ordered  to  the 
plains,  where  a  campaign  was  being  conducted 
against  hostile  Indians,  and  in  the  arduous  serv- 
ice of  the  frontier  he  was  engaged  until  being 
mustered  out. 

When  Major  Warner  returned  to  his  home 
he  at  once  resumed  his  law  studies,  entering  the 
law  department  of  Harvard  University,  where 
he  was  graduated  in  the  class  of  1868.  Return- 
ing to  his  old  home  in  Clinton,  he  at  once  opened 
an  office  and  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his 
chosen  profession,  forming  a  partnership  with 
Hon.  C.  H.  Moore,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Moore  &  Warner,  which  still  continues.  He 
engages  in  general  practice,  and  his  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  law  and  his  ability  as  an  or- 
ator have  made  him  an  able  advocate,  winning 
him  prominence  in  the  ranks  of  the  profession. 


He  is  always  ready  in  his  application  of  the  fun- 
damental principles  of  law,  exhaustive  in  his 
examinations  of  the  subject,  painstaking  in 
weighing  and  comparing  authorities,  simple  and 
concis;e  in  his  arrangement  of  facts  and  clear 
and  logical  in  his  deductions.  His  statement  of 
the  case  is  natural,  forcible  and  convincing. 

In  political  circles  Mr.  Warner  is  prominent, 
and  is  an  active  and  enthusiastic  worker  in  the 
interests  of  his  party.  His  services  are  in  demand 
as  a  campaign  orator.  He  filled  the  offices  of 
colonel  and  judge  advocate  general  of  Illinois 
through  the  administrations  of  Governors  Ham- 
ilton, Oglesby  and  Fifer.  In  1888  he  was  elected 
a  Republican  presidential  elector,  and  in  1880 
serv'ed  as  a  Grant  delegate  to  the  Republican 
convention  in  Chicago,  which  nominated  Gen- 
eral Garfield  for  the  presidency.  In  1894  he  was 
elected  a  Congressman  from  the  Thirteenth  Dis- 
trict, receiving  twenty  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  ninety-six  votes  against  twelve  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  twenty-five  cast  for  A.  J. 
Barr,   the   Democratic  candidate. 

■Socially  he  is  connected  with  the  Masonic 
fraternit)',  with  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic and  the  Sons  of  Veterans,  his  own  service 
entitling  him  to  membership  in  the  former,  while 
his  father,  having  been  one  of  the  boys  in  blue, 
enables  him  to  hold  membership  with  the  lat- 
ter. Mr.  Warner  is  fond  of  travel  and  has  vis- 
ited Alaska  and  crossed  the  European  conti- 
nent, visiting  Italy,  Germany,  France,  Austria, 
Belgium,  England  and  Ireland. 

In  1868  Mr.  Warner  was  united  in  marriage 
with  Miss  Winifred  Moore,  his  partner's  daugh- 
ter. She  died  in  June,  1894,  leaving  three  sons 
and  two  daughters. 


^^^t^yv-c^^l^y} 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


387 


SAMUEL  WARE  PACKARD, 


CHICAGO. 


TPIE  man  who  wins  prominence  at  the  bar 
in  Cook  county  must  be  possessed  of  far 
more  than  ordinary  abilit}',  for  some  of  the  bright- 
est minds  of  the  legal  world  are  here  found.  He 
must  have  a  thorough  understanding  of  law,  a 
keen  perception,  logical  reasoning,  forcible  argu- 
ment and  above  all  habits  of  painstaking,  patient 
industry.  Not  by  inheritance,  by  purchase  or  l)y 
gift  can  he  win  reputation  in  his  chosen  calling. 
It  must  come  as  the  reward  of  true  merit.  All 
must  begin  on  a  common  plane  and  rise  to  emi- 
nence by  perseverance,  industry  and  ability,  or 
fall  back  into  the  ranks  of  mediocrity.  Like  all 
others,  S.  W.  Packard  started  out  to  win  a  name 
and  a  place  for  himself,  and  his  success  has  made 
him  known  throughout  much  of  the  West. 

Samuel  Packard,  of  Windham,  England, 
crossed  tiie  sea  and  found  a  new  home  at  Hing- 
ham,  in  Plymouth  Colony,  in  1638.  One  of  hi'; 
descendants.  Rev.  Theophilus  Packard,  D.D.,  a 
celebrated  Congregational  minister,  is  known  in 
history  as  one  of  the  founders  of  Amherst  College 
and  for  many  years  was  a  trustee  of  Williams 
College.  For  half  a  century  he  and  his  son,  also  a 
Congregational  mhiister,  preached  to  one  church 
in  Shelbume,  Franklin  county,  Alassachusetts. 

That  son,  Rev.  Theophilus  Packard,  Jr.,  mar- 
ried Elizabeth  Parsons  Ware,  a  daughter  of  Rev. 
Samuel  Ware,  of  Ware,  Massachusetts,  and  they 
are  the  parents  of  Samuel  Ware  Packard,  lawyer 
of  Chicago,  who  was  born  in  Shelbume,  J\Iassa- 
cluisetts,  the  old  home  of  the  Packards,  November 
29,  1847.  These  brief  genealogical  notes  will  ex- 
plain why  ^Ir.  Packard  has,  all  through  his  life, 
exhibited  many  of  the  peculiarities  and  clung 
tenaciously  to  the  tenets  of  the  strictest  sect  of 
New  England  puritans. 

In  sketching  the  principal  events  of  Mr.  Pack- 
ard's life  it  may  be  said  that  he  came  to  Chicago 
young,  and  that  circumstances  compelled  him  to 
look  out  for  himself  when  a  boy  of  only  sixteen. 
In  his  case  his  profession  was  chosen  for  him  by 
his  old  family  physician,  who  met  him  as  he  was 
going  from  place  to  place  seeking  employment, 
and  after  licaring  what  he  had  to  say  for  himself. 


bluntly  informed  young  Packard  that  h.e  was  in- 
tended for  the  law,  and  that  a  place  would  be 
made  for  him  in  the  office  of  the  Doctor's  brother- 
in-law,  Joseph  N.  Barker,  of  the  firm  of  Barker 
&  Tuley.  As  events  have  proved  the  Doctor's 
judgment  was  correct,  and  whatever  other  good 
thing  was  spoiled  when  ]\Ir.  Packard  became  a 
lawyer,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  better  lawyer 
would  have  been  spoiled  had  he  become  that 
"something  else!" 

From  tlie  spring  of  1864  until  the  fall  of  1865 
he  was  a  student  with  this  firm,  and,  aided  by  a 
somewhat  premature  beard  and  considerable  per- 
tinacity (both  of  which  he  may  have  found  it  neces- 
sary to  cultivate !),  he  succeeded  meanwhile  in 
Vi  urking  up  a  little  instructive  and  perhaps  not 
iinremuncrativc  practice,  making  his  first  appear- 
ance as  advocate  in  any  court,  before  a  justice  of 
the  peace,  at  the  age  of  seventeen. 

After  attending  the  Shelburne  Falls  Academy 
and  the  Williston  Seminary,  at  East  Hampton, 
Massachusetts,  he  returned  to  Chicago  in  1866, 
and  after  spending  another  year  in  the  office  of 
his  former  preceptors  he  was,  in  August,  1867, 
w!icn  he  was  nineteen,  admitted  to  practice  before 
tlie  supreme  court  of  Illinois.  In  the  following 
spring  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Colonel  John 
S.  Cooper,  which  existed  for  more  than  ten  years, 
during  a  portion  of  which  period  Judge  Gwynn 
Garnett  and  W.  W.  Gurle}-  were  members  of  the 
firm.  Mr.  Packard's  rise  to  prominence  was  rapid. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-si^^,  in  1874,  he  argued  his 
first  case  in  the  United  States  supreme  court. 
From  1877  to  1882,  as  attorney  for  the  creditors 
of  the  Chicago  &  Illinois  River  Railroad,  he  car- 
ried a  very  complicated  litigation  to  a  successful 
issue,  obtaining  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  for 
clients  who  during  the  preliminary  stages  of  the 
litigation  had  vainly  attempted  to  effect  a  compro- 
mise for  $10,000 1 

The  Yankton  county  (Dakota)  bond  case  be- 
came famous,  not  only  in  the  legal  but  in  the  civil 
and  political  histoiy  of  the  West.  Any  one  man 
who  for  a  considerable  time  could  prevent  the 
recognition  of  one  of  our  great  territories  as  a 


388 


nioanAPiiicAL  dictionauy  and  pouTUAir  gallkry  of  the 


State,  and  that,  too,  net  for  political  but  for  busi- 
ness reasons,  would  surely  deserve  some  praise 
for  his  astuteness,  pertinacit)-  and  power  to  make 
all  means  work  to  an  end  desired.  That  is  pre- 
cisely what  ]\Ir.  Packard  did  a  little  more  than  a 
decade  ago,  in  the  case  of  southern  Dakota,  and 
in  effecting  such  delay  he  not  only  secured  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  his  clients  but 
changed  the  complexion  of  the  Territorial  legis- 
lature and  the  whole  policy  of  the  Territorial  gov- 
ernment; and  it  is  to  l>e  noted,  that,  while  these 
radical  changes  served  the  purpose  of  Mr.  Pack- 
ard and  his  clients,  their  influence  was  for  the 
honor  and  credit  of  the  Territory. 

Yankton  county  had  been  bwidcd  for  $200,000, 
and  after  the  sale  of  the  bonds  the  supreme  court 
of  the  Territory  had  declared  them  invalid.  Mr. 
Packard  took  the  case  to  the  United  States  su- 
preme court,  and  there,  with  Hon.  Matt.  H.  Car- 
penter as  opposing  counsel,  obtained  a  reversal  of 
this  decision.  After  this  he  found  his  way  ob- 
structed by  certain  acts  of  the  Territorial  leg- 
islature which  prevented  him  from  enforcing 
payment  of  the  judgement  for  principal  and  ui- 
terest. 

Shortly  after  this,  in  1882,  a  strong  eFfort  was 
made  by  the  Republican  parly,  then  in  control  of 
both  houses  of  Congress,  to  procure  the  admis- 
sion of  southern  Dakota  as  a  State.  I\Ir. 
Packard  recognized  his  opportunity  and  was 
prompt  to  avail  himself  of  its  advantages.  He 
prepared  a  protest  which  was  presented 
to  Congress  against  the  admission  of  the 
Territory  on  the  ground  that  its  legis- 
lature aided  and  abetted  Yankton  county  in  its 
action  of  repudiation,  and  until  it  purged  its  rec- 
ords of  this  disgrace  he  argued  that  it  ought  not 
to  be  admitted  to  the  sisterhood  of  States.  By 
circulars  and  pamphlets,  which  he  scattered  pro- 
fusely throughout  all  parts  of  the  Union,  he  cre- 
ated so  strong  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  this  claim 
that  it  was  found  impossible  to  obtain  a  vote  for 
the  admission  of  southern  Dakota  while  the  Ter- 
ritory encouraged  repudiation  and  dishonor. 
Upon  the  adjournment  of  Congress  the  delegate 
of  the  Territory  informed  his  constituents  that  the 
Dakota  admission  bill  could  not  be  passed  until 
the  Yankton  bond  matter  was  settled  and  settled 
honorablv.     He  also  advised   the   election   of  a 


legislature  favorable  to  the  payment  of  the  debt. 
This  advice  was  followed,  and  in  the  spring  of 
1883  a  refunding  act  was  passed,  through  the  op- 
eration of  which  the  matter  was  adjusted  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  bondholders.  It  was  not  until 
some  years  later  that  the  Territory  assumed  the 
dignity  of  Statehood. 

Other  cases  of  interest  in  which  Mr.  Packard 
has  won  notable  triumphs  in  the  courts  might 
be  mentioned,  but  these  will  perhaps  suffice 
to  indicate  his  resourceful  ability  and  afford 
a  clue  to  the  success  that  has  attended  him 
throughout  his  precociously  begun  professional 
career. 

He  is  remarkable  among  lawyers  at  this  bar  for 
the  wide  research  and  provident  care  with  which 
he  prepares  his  cases.  In  no  case  has  his  reading 
ever  been  confined  to  the  limitations  of  the  ques- 
tions at  issue;  it  has  gone  beyond  and  compassed 
every  contingency  and  provided  not  alone  for  the 
expected  but  for  the  unexpected,  which  happens 
in  the  courts  cjuite  as  frequently  as  out  of  them. 
He  collected  the  third  largest  and  finest  private 
law  library  in  Chicago,  which  he  lately  disposed 
of  to  the  owners  of  the  Ashland  block  at  their  so- 
licitation, after  it  became  the  custom  of  those  in 
control  of  such  buildings  to  supply  libraries  for 
the  use  of  lawyers  having  offices  in  them,  and 
took  an  office  in  the  building  adjoining  the  library. 
Mr.  Packard's  logical  grasp  of  facts  and  of  law  ap- 
plicable to  them,  as  well  as  his  untiring  industry 
and  principles,  have  been  some  of  the  most  potent 
elements  in  his  success.  In  the  argument  of  a 
case  he  exhibits  a  remarkable  clearness  of  expres- 
sion, an  adequate  and  precise  diction,  which  en- 
ables him  to  make  others  understand  not  only  the 
salient  points  of  his  argument  but  also  to  clearly 
understand  the  very  fine  analytical  distinctions 
which  dilTerentiate  one  legal  principle  from  an- 
other. 

Mr.  Packard  would  doubtless  have  succeeded 
in  politics,  but  he  has  been  too  busy  as  a  lawyer 
to  take  an  exacting  part  in  public  afifairs.  His 
views  upon  questions  of  public  policy  are  very 
pronounced,  however,  and  his  influence  may 
always  be  covmted  upon  in  behalf  of  good  govern- 
ment and  the  advancements  of  the  interests  of  the 
whole  people.  He  is  a  strong  temperance  man, 
and  as  such  opposes  saloon  domination  and  in 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


889 


every  way  exerts  himself  to  hasten  an  era  of  ad- 
vanced temperance  sentiment  which  will  reduce 
the  rum  traffic  to  a  minimum  by  the  rule  of  reason 
and  sobriety  among  the  people  at  large. 


Mr.  Packard  was  married  June  23,  1874.  to  Miss 
Clara  Fish,  of  Lombard,  Illinois,  and  has  five  chil- 
dren: Stella  Emily;  Laura  Elizabeth;  Walter 
Eugene;  Esther;  and  John  Cooper  Packard. 


JOSEPH  FUESS, 


i;elleville. 


ABRILLLA.XT  example  of  a  self-made  Amer- 
ican citizen  and  a  grand  exemplification  of 
the  progress  that  an  ambitious  foreigner  can  make 
in  this  country  of  unbounded  opportunities,  is 
shown  in  the  case  of  Captain  Fuess,  one  of  the 
leading  Gemian-American  residents  of  Illinois. 
His  singular  success  is  due  to  his  own  energy  and 
the  high  ideal  which  his  lofty  and  laudable  am- 
bition placed  before  him.  Success  in  any  walk 
of  life  is  an  indication  of  earnest  endeavor  and 
persevering  effort, — characteristics  that  the  Cap- 
tain possesses  in  an  eminent  degree. 

He  was  born  in  Baden,  Germany,  on  the  loth 
of  March,  1842,  and  is  the  eldest  in  a  family  of 
seven  children  whose  parents  were  Joseph  and 
Margaret  Fuess.  During  his  infancy  his  parents 
crossed  the  Atlantic  to  America  and  located  in 
St.  Louis,  where  the  father  worked  for  a  time  as 
a  laborer.  In  1844  he  moved  to  St.  Clair  county, 
Illinois,  where  he  carried  on  farming  unljl  1857. 

Joseph,  as  soon  as  old  enough  to  handle  the 
plow,  began  work  in  the  fields  and  assisted  his 
father  in  the  labors  of  the  farm  until  sixteen  years 
of  age,  at  the  same  time  pursuing  his  studies  in 
the  common  schools  of  the  neighborhood.  When 
a  youth  of  sixteen  he  entered  the  high  school  of 
Belleville,  where  he  remained  for  one  year,  after 
which  he  obtained  a  clerkship  in  a  store.  He  was 
employed  at  clerical  labor  in  St.  Louis  and  in 
Belleville  until  the  15th  of  April,  1861. 

He  had  been  a  close  student  of  the  events  of 
the  times,  and  had  watched  the  gathering  of  the 
dark  cloud  of  war,  which  threatened  to  bring  de- 
stniction  upon  the  Union.  With  a  loyalty  unsur- 
passed by  many  native  sons  of  the  Republic,  he 
offered  his  services  to  the  Government  and  joined 
Company  A,  Ninth  Illinois  Infantry,  for  three 
months'  service.  Ere  the  expiration  of  that  pe- 
riod both  the  South  and  the  North  found  that 


the  contest  was  to  be  no  mere  holiday  affair,  the 
former  section  being  strongly  determined  to  form 
a  new  nation,  the  latter  equally  determined  that 
the  L^nion  should  remain  one  and  inseparable. 
Now  that  the  stor\-  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  has 
passed  into  history,  the  records  of  the  soldiers  of 
Illinois  are  as  rich  in  deeds  of  daring  and  heroism 
as  any  page  in  the  annals  of  the  Revolution,  and 
their  names  will  live  in  the  affections  of  their  coun- 
trymen "to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time." 
Mr.  Fuess  re-enlisted  for  three  years'  service  in 
Company  H,  Forty-third  Illinois  Infantrj-,  and 
when  that  period  had  passed  veteranized  and  was 
made  captain  of  his  company.  Meritorious  con- 
duct on  the  field  of  battle  won  him  his  promo'ion, 
and  in  November,  1865.  he  received  an  honorable 
discharge  in  Springfield.  He  participated  in 
many  of  the  most  important  engagements  of  the 
war,  including  the  battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing, 
the  siege  of  \"icksburg.  Little  Rock,  Arkansas, 
Jenkins'  Ferry  and  others.  He  went  south  to 
participate  in  the  Banks  expedition  and  also  took 
part  in  what  was  known  as  the  Campdon  expe- 
dition. 

Upon  his  return  home.  Captain  Fuess  em- 
barked in  the  dr}--goods  business  and  still  con- 
ducts one  of  the  leading  stores  in  Belleville.  He 
is  not  only  a  successful  merchant  but  has  been 
the  promoter  of  various  other  enterprises  which 
have  been  of  material  benefit  to  the  city  as  wel! 
as  bringing  to  him  prosperity.  He  is  connected 
with  the  Pump  &  Skein  ^^'orks,  is  a  stockholder 
in  the  Sucker  State  Drill  Works,  and  owns  a  large 
interest  in  the  Malleable  Iron  \\'orks.  Of  the 
First  National  Bank  of  Belleville  he  has  long 
been  a  director  and  has  served  as  its  president 
since  1879,  its  success  being  due  to  his  capable 
management  and  ability  as  a  financier.  This  bank 
has  a  paid  up  capital  of  one  hundred  thousand 


390 


lUOGRArilWAL  DICTtOXAUY  AND  roUTUAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


ddllars,  witli  a  surplus  of  eighty  thousand  dollars. 
It  has  weathered  the  financial  panics,  and  is  con- 
ducted on  a  firm  financial  basis  and  sound  busi- 
ness principles  that  commend  it  to  the  confidence 
and  support  of  all.  The  tide  of  prosperity  has 
been  uninterrupted  and  to-day  it  is  doing  a 
larg-e  business,  which  places  it  among  the  lead- 
ing financial  institutions  in  this  section  of  the 
State. 

The  man  who  makes  liberal  donations  in  money 
whercAvith  to  beautify  and  adorn  the  city  in  which 
he  lives  deserves  great  credit,  but  the  gratitude  of 
the  public  is  due  to  him  who  promotes  commer- 
cial activity^  by  establishing  industries  and  enter- 
prises that  furnish  employment  to  many,  thus 
giving  men  the  means  whereby  to  live,  providing 
for  the  support  of  thertiselves  and  families,  and 
retaining  their  own  self-respect  through  the  con- 
sciousness that  their  labor  requites  their  employers 
for  all  that  they  receive.  Captain  Fuess  has  in 
this  way  done  much  for  the  upbuilding  of  Belle- 
ville, and  the  world  is  certainly  better  for  his  hav- 
ing lived. 

In  politics  Captain  Fuess  is  a  Republican  and 
an  active  party  man,  yet  not  from  any  desire  to 
hold  office,  for  all  public  honors  he  declines.  In- 
vestigation into  political  principles  has  convinced 
him  that  Republicanism  is  best  calculated  to  pro- 
mote the  welfare  of  the  nation,  and  hence  his 
support  is  given  that  party.  He  has  many  times 
been  a  delegate  to  the  State  and  county  conven- 
tions. Socially  he  is  a  member  of  the  Hecker 
Post,  G.  A.  R.,  and  has  served  four  times  as  its 
commander. 

In  May,  1866,  was  consummated  the  marriage 
of   Gaptain   Fuess   and    ]\Iiss    Eliza   Fischer,   by 


whom  he  had  five  children:  Joscphina,  wife  of 
William  P.  Nerck,  a  lumber  dealer  of  Belleville, 
and  vice-president  of  the  State  Lumbermen's  As- 
sociation ;  Edward  J.,  Walter  W.,  Adolph  C.  and 
Ferdinand  L.  The  mother  died  November,  1879, 
at  the  age  of  thirty-five.  In  May,  1881,  the  Cap- 
tain was  joined  in  wedlock  with  Miss  Anna 
Fischer,  a  sister  of  his  first  wife,  and  they  have 
four  children, — Camella,  Elsie,  Harn>'  and  Lillian. 
Mr3.  Fuess  is  a  lady  of  refinement  and  culture 
who  presides  with  grace  and  dignity  over  their 
hospitable  home.  Choice  works,  both  in  German 
and  English,  indicate  the  literary  tastes  of  the 
family,  and  art  and  music  add  their  attractions  to 
the  home. 

In  1881  Captain  Fuess  once  more  crossed  the 
Atlantic  visiting  Germany,  France  and  England, 
and  gazing  upon  the  snow-capped  x\lps  of  Switzer- 
land. The  beauties  of  his  adopted  land  are  also 
familiar  to  him,  and  he  has  visited  most  of  its 
principal  cities.  He  finds  in  travel  his  chief 
source  of  rest  and  recreation,  and  has  become, 
as  every  traveler  does,  a  man  of  broad  mind  and 
liberal  views.  The  Captain  is  easily  approach- 
able, showing  courtesy  to  all  with  whom  he  comes 
in  contact,  and  is  a  companionable,  genial  gen- 
tleman, having  a  host  of  warm  friends.  In  his 
home  he  is  an  indulgent  father  and  kind  and  de- 
voted husband,  and  his  genuine  worth  and  many 
manly  virues  are  widely  recognized.  He  never 
acts  except  from  honest  motives  and  in  all  his 
varied  relations  in  business  affairs  and  in  social 
life  he  has  maintained  a  character  and  standing 
that  has  impressed  all  with  his  sincere  and  manly 
purpose  to  do  by  others  as  he  would  have  others 
do  bv  him. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


m)l 


EDWARD  E.  HOLMAN, 


EDWARD  EA^IES  HOLMAN,  bom  at 
Alillville,  Worcester  county,  Massachusetts, 
December  25,  1854,  at  an  early  agfe  removed  with 
his  parents  to  a  farm  near  Spring  \"alley,  Minne- 
sota; and  at  the  age  of  fourteen  left  the  farm  and 
went  to  work  in  a  printing-office  in  Spring  \'al- 
lev,  where  he  served  an  apprenticeship  for  three 
years,  learning  the  printer's  trade,  and  graduating 
at  the  high  school  in  the  meantime. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  began  teaching  school 
and  studying  medicine,  which  course  he  pursued 
for  three  years,  then  entered  the  Hahnemann 
Medical  College  of  Chicago,  at  which  institution 
he  graduated  with  honors  in  1878.  In  May,  1878, 
he  began  the  jiractice  uf  medicine  at  Warren.  Jo 
Daviess  county,  Illinijis,  where  he  remained  until 
1882,  removing  to  Chicago  to  accq^t  the  chair  of 
medical  jurisprudence  in  the  Hahnemann  Medi- 
cal College,  which  position  he  held  for  three  terms. 
He  has  resided  in  Chicago  (Englewood)  since 
1882.  He  is  general  surgeon  to  the  Englewood 
Union  Hospital  and  a  member  of  several  medical 
societies,  is  past  commander  of  Englewood  Com- 
mandery,  No.  59,  Knights  Templar,  a  thirty- 
second-degree  Mason  and  a  "Shriner;"  also  a 
member  of  the  Chicagci  Athletic  Association.  The 
Doctor  has  traveled  quite  extensively  in  this  coun- 
try and  in  old  Mexico.  At  one  time  he  was  a  con- 
tributor of  humorous  articles  for  Nasby's  paper, 
rhe  Toledo  Blade.  He  enjoyed  the  personal 
triendship  of  Generals  Grant  and  Logan,  also  of 
Senator  William  Windom,  who  w'as  an  intimate 
friend  of  his  parents.  He  can  relate  many  inter- 
esting incidents  of  life  on  the  farm,  in  the  printing- 
office,  as  a  pedagogue  and  of  his  early  struggles 
to  obtain  an  education. 

Benjamin  F.  Holman  (father)  was  born  at  War- 
wick, ]\Iassachusetts,  the  seventh  son;  at  the  age 
of  twelve  he  was  apprenticed  to  learn  the  edged- 
tool  trade;  at  seventeen  he  was  foreman  of  large 
works;  at  twenty-one  he  was  in  partnership  with 
his  brother,  Ansel  Holman,  manufacturer  of  axes 
and  scythes,  at  Slatersville,  Rhode  Island;  suc- 
ceeded in  business,  amassed  a  comfortable  compe- 


tence, and  in  1857  moved  to  Minnesota,  took  up 
a  large  tract  of  land,  engaged  in  general  farming, 
w  as  justice  of  the  peace  and  county  commissioner 
some  fifteen  years,  and  was  a  man  of  sterling  in- 
tegrity and  universally  beloved.  His  sons  say  of 
him,  '"We  never  knew  him  to  tell  a  falsehood.'' 
He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy,  from  a  ruptured 
blood-vessel,  the  result  of  violent  exertion.  One 
brother,  Sewell  Holman,  was  a  literary  genius, 
and  printed  with  his  pen  the  first  paper  ever  pub- 
lished at  Janesville,  Wisconsin.  Another  brother, 
Russell  Holman,  was  also  a  man  of  letters,  a  Bap- 
tist clergyman,  who  founded  the  first  Baptist 
church  in  New  Orleans,  Louisiana.  Another 
brother,  Harvey  Holman,  was  a  merchant  in  St. 
Louis,  Missouri,  next  in  Chillicothe,  Illinois, 
from  which  latter  place  early  in  the  '50s  he  jour- 
neyed to  California  to  regain  his  health,  leaving 
his  lousiness  interests  in  the  care  of  his  partner, 
who  in  tw-o  years  robbed  him  of  all  he  had  and 
left  him  badly  in  debt.  He  returned  in  a  few  years, 
paid  dollar  for  dollar,  engaged  in  mercantile  busi- 
ness again,  was  successful,  and  died  a  few  years 
ago,  aged  seventy-five,  leaving  a  fortune  of  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars. 

Susan  C.  Holman  (mother)  was  born  at  Una- 
dilla,  New  York.  Her  maiden  name  was  Eames. 
Her  father  died  when  she  was  a  child,  and  she 
and  her  mother  removed  to  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  making  their  home  with  Rhodes  Chapman, 
her  mother's  brother,  who  gave  her  a  liberal  edu- 
cation at  Warren  Seminary,  Rhode  Island.  She 
was  a  beautiful  woman,  a  lovely  character,  and 
very  talented.  On  her  mother's  side  she  was  a 
direct  descendant  of  Roger  Williams.  She  died 
of  pneumonia,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine  years. 

The  Doctor  has  a  brother,  five  years  his 
senior,  A.  R.  Holman,  of  Spring  Valley,  Min- 
nesota, who  is  well  know-n  throughout  the  North- 
west as  an  attorney  for  the  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  and  as  a  pol- 
itician. The  Doctor  also  has  two  sisters, 
botli  married  and  living  at  Faribault,  Mii;- 
ncsota. 


392 


DIOOUAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  TllE 


ZIMRI  ALLEN  ENOS, 


Sl'RINCJFIELD. 


ZA.  ENOS  was  born  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri, 
.  September  29,  1821.  His  father,  Pascal 
P.  Enos  (a  biography  of  whom  appears  elsewhere 
in  this  vohmne),  was  the  pioneer  receiver  of  the 
land  office  in  Springfield,  and  was  during-  his  life- 
time the  leading  citizen  of  central  Illinois.  He  was 
one  of  the  four  proprietors  of  the  Springfield 
town-site  and  was  the  leading  spirit  among  the 
early  settlers  nf  Hk-  State.  The  mother  of  our 
subject,  Salome  Enos,  nee  Paddock,  was  born  in 
Woodstock,  Windsor  county,  Vemiont,  March 
12,  1791,  amd  -bore  in  her  veins  some  of  the  best 
blood  of  the  New  England  colonies.  Maternally 
she  was  a  descendant  of  the  Woods  family, 
which  for  several  generations  had  been  active  in 
the  development  of  the  Colonies.  She  was 
indeed  a  remarkabki  woman.  She  was  left  a 
widow  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine  years,  in  1832, 
with  a  family  of  six  children.  When  her  hus- 
band died  he  possessed  a  large  amount  of  real 
estate  heavily  incumbered.  For  many  >-c(ars 
thereafter  she  was  forced  to  use  a  great  amount  of 
business  sagacity  and  prudence  to  retain  the 
property  and  save  it  for  herself  and  children  dur- 
ing many  years  of  financial  depression, — the  dec- 
ade between  1840  and  1850  being  especially  noted 
for  its  lack  of  prosperity.  Mrs.  Enos  bravely  and 
courageously  protected  the  interests  of  herself 
and  children  and  throughout  all  of  her  trials 
displayed  a  charming  womanliness  that  endeared 
her  to  all  with  whom  she  came  in  contact.  She 
died  in  1877,  in  her  eighty-seventh  year  of  age, 
survived  bv  three  children,  her  eldest  son,  Pascal 
P.,  having  passed  away  in  February,  1867,  and 
the  eldest  daughter,  Martha  M.,  liaving  died  in 
1837,  when  hvelve  years  oi  age.  The  surviving 
members  of  the  family  are  Z.  A.,  Susan  P.  and 
Julia  R.,  the  wadow  of  the  late  Hon.  Ozias  M. 
Hatch. 

Mr.  Z.  A.  Enos  came  to  what  is  now  Spring- 
field with  his  parents  in  September,  1823,  when 
two  years  old.  He  has  tlierefore  spent  some 
seventy-two  years  as  a  resident  of  this  vicinity, 
and  can  probably  relate  more  of  the  evaits  of  the 
early  history  of  this  historical  section  of  our  coun- 


try than  any  other  one  of  its  citizens  at  present 
residing  here.  His  recollections  of  the  early 
days  are  full  of  interest  to  all  lovers  of  history, 
and  in  a  few  more  years,  when  the  last  of  the 
early  setders  of  Illinois  will  have  passed  the  dark 
river  of  death,  the  events  of  their  early  lives — the 
pen  pictures  of  themselves  and  their  associates 
and  ancestors — will  live  only  in  books.  The 
body  of  man  is  mortal:  his  histDry,  printed  in 
books,  is  immortal.  Man  dies,  but  what  he 
writes  or  what  is  written  of  him  lives  on  forever. 
The  opportunities  for  obtaining  knowledge 
were  necessarily  very  meager  in  those  days.  The 
schoolteacher  knew  but  little  more  than  a  third 
grade  scholar  of  to-day.  However,  the  mother 
of  our  subject  was  determined  that  he  should  not 
lack  for  opportunity  to  study,  and  after  attending 
the  local  subscription  school  he  entered  the  St. 
Louis  College  and  later  attended  the  IlHnois  Col- 
lege at  Jacksonville.  He  was  desirous  of  be- 
coming proficient  in  those  studies  which  were 
necessary  for  the  pursuit  of  the  profession  of  civil 
engineering,  having  determined  to  follow  that 
profession  during  life.  However,  after  his  elder 
brother,  Pascal  P.,  had  discontinued  the  study 
of  law,  our  subject  began  the  study  of  that  pro- 
fession in  the  law  office  of  Baker  &  Bledsoe,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1845,  ^"cl  began  to 
practice  his  profession  in  Springfield.  At  that 
time  the  bar  of  Springfield  numbered  among  its 
members  some  of  the  most  eminent  members  of 
the  legal  profession  in  the  United  States.  Tlie 
inmiortal  Lincoln,  the  "Little  Giant"  Douglas, 
Stephen  T.  Logan, — a  man  whose  legal  mind 
probably  has  had  no  superiors  in  a  century, — ■ 
Lyman  Trumbull, — still  in  active  practice, — and 
McDougall,  formed  a  bar  that  has  had  no  super- 
iors in  any  city  of  the  United  States. 

In  those  days  wdien  clients  were  fewer  than  at 
the  present  time,  it  was  not  considered  a  bit 
wrong  for  the  leaders  of  the  bar  to  appear  in 
petty  cases  before  justices  of  the  peace.  In  fact 
they  all  accepted  all  kinds  of  legal  business,  pro- 
viding the  fees  were  five  dollars  or  more.  It  was 
therefore  almost  an  utter  impossibility  for  a  newly 


0-' 


IlKPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


393 


admitted  member  of  the  bar  to  become  success- 
ful unless  he  formed  an  association  with  some 
one  of  the  older  members  or  left  the  city  and  es- 
tablished himself  in  some  more  recently  settled 
section  of  the  State.  Mr.  Enos  was  tied  to 
Springfield  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
needed  there  to  assist  his  mother  and  elder 
brother  in  the  management  of  the  estate,  and 
therefore  could  not  leave  to  make  his  home  else- 
where. Having  no  opportunity  to  form  a  part- 
nershiip  with  any  of  the  older  attorneys,  he  de- 
cided to  forego  the  practice  of  the  law  and  for  a 
while  thereafter  engaged  in  business  as  the  pro- 
prietor of  a  warehouse.  He,  however,  deter- 
mined tn  follow  the  profession  which  in  boyhood 
he  liad  most  desired  to  pursue,  and  began  oper- 
ations as  a  surveyor  and  civil  engineer.  In  that 
capacity  he  surveyed  the  larger  part  of  Sanga- 
mon county,  and  at  one  time  had  a  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the 
count}'.  He  has  always  possessed  a  very  re- 
tentive memory,  and  his  mind  is  stored  with  in- 
teresting anecdotes  of  the  early  days  anil  of  the 
early  settlers. 

Mr.  Enos  was  county  surveyor  for  several 
temis,  and,  as  one  of  his  cointemporaries  ex- 
presses it,  knows  every  corner  in  the  county.  His 
son  Allan  is  the  present  county  surveyor. 

Mr.  Enos  is  deeply  interested  as  a  citizen  in 
politics,  and,  although  never  desiring  any  polit- 
ical honors,  has  been  an  alderman  of  the  city 
council.  In  national  afTairs  he  is  strongly  in 
sympathy  with  the  Republican  party.  He  was 
originally  a  Henry  Clay  Whig,  and  was  in  full 


sympathy  with  the  protective  tariff  policy  of  the 
party  and  its  leader.  He  became  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  Republican  party,  and  has  since 
that  organization  been  unswervingly  loyal  to  the 
principles  of  the  part\'.  He  has  examined  closely 
the  causes  for  the  evils  that  are  connected  with 
the  political  organizations  in  municipalities,  and 
believes  that  the  right  to  vote  should  be  restricted 
and  that  only  such  men  as  do  their  duties  as 
citizens  should  be  able  to  cast  a  ballot.  He  is 
also  in  favor  of  "penalizing"  those  who  are  en- 
titled to  vote  and  who  do  not  avail  themselves 
of  the  privilege. 

A  strong  friend  of  education,  Mr.  Enos  has 
been  a  powerful  factor  in  the  management  of  the 
school  system  of  Springfield  and  as  a  member  of 
t1ic  board  of  education  for  ten  years  was  able  to 
use  his  influence  in  the  right  direction. 

For  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  Mr.  Enos 
has  been  a  member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity 
and  has  passed  through  the  various  degrees  up 
to  and  including  the  thirty-second  degree,  Scot- 
tish rites. 

He  was  married  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  June 
TO,  1846,  to  Agnes  D.  Trotter,  a  native  of  New 
York  city.  Mrs.  Enos  is,  by  maternal  connection, 
a  member  of  an  old  New  England  family  and  has 
as  kin  some  of  the  leading  families  of  that  section 
of  our  countn,-.  Her  father  was  a  native  of  Scot- 
land. 

The  children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Enos  numbered 
six,  one  of  whom  is  dead.  They  are  Pascal  P., 
who  died  in  Kansas,  George  T.,  William  P., 
Catherine  I.,  Allen  Z.  and  Louisa  I. 


ROBERT  P.  LANE,  M.  D., 


ROCKFORD. 


ON  the  pages  of  Illinois  history  the  name  of 
Dr.  Lane  stands  conspicuously  forth  as  that 
of  one  of  the  prominent  pioneers  who  opened  up 
to  civilization  the  vast  region  comprised  within  the 
northern  part  of  this  commonwealth.  A  military 
connnander  leading  his  troops  forth  to  battle  is 
deserving  of  great  credit,  but  how  much  more  are 
the  thanks  of  a  grateful  public  due  the  man  who 
leads  the  hosts  of  workmen  to  daily  toil,  giving 


tiicni  the  means  of  sustaining  instead  of  destroy- 
ing life.  This  Doctor  Lane  did.  He  was  practi- 
cally the  founder  of  the  thrifty,  progressive  city  of 
Rockford,  his  name  being  inseparably  connected 
with  its  development  almost  from  the  time  of  its 
inception  until  his  life's  labors  were  ended  and  the 
record  of  his  noble  career  was  closed  with  the 
words  Well  done.  He  possessed  the  power  of 
foresight  which  recognized  the  resources  of  this 


394 


niOdHM'IllCM.  DICTKiNAi:)'  AM)  I-OIITHMT  GALI.FJIV  OF  THE 


region,  and  had  the  executive  power  and  merit 
to  marshal  and  put  in  working  order  the  forces 
of  progress,  development  and  upbuilding. 

Robert   Polk   Lane  was  a  native   of  Bedford 
county,   Pennsylvania,   born    at   Hopewell   Iron 
Works,  on  the  2ist  of  Fcbruarj',  1820,  and  was  the 
eldest   son  of  James   Bean   Lane.     His   father's 
family  descended  from  a  ducal  house  of  England, 
of  considerable  wealth,  a  portion  of  which  was  in- 
vested in  large  landed  estates  in  America.     The 
family  was  founded  on  American  soil  at  the  time 
when  William  Penn  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  its 
representatives  settled  at  Norristown,  on  the  Per- 
kiomen  river  north  of  the  Schuylkill.    The  great- 
grandfather of  Dr.  Lane  died  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  Revolution,  and  the  grandfather,  William 
Lane,  was  too  young  to  enter  the  service.    During 
the  closing  years  of  the  war,  however,  he  was  as- 
sociated with  Commodore  Decatur  in  manufac- 
turing ammunition  in  New  Jersey  for  the  Con- 
tinental ai-my.     Becoming  a  resident  of  Phila- 
delphia, he  engaged  in  merchandising,  but  his 
ships  were  captured  by  the  French,  and  his  busi- 
ness was  thus  destroyed.    In  consequence  he  re- 
moved   from    Philadelphia   to    Bedford    county, 
where  he  engaged  in  iron  manufacture.    Two  iron 
foundries  had  been  erected,  one  at  Hopewell  on 
the  Juniata  river,  and  the  other  on  Yellow  creek, 
a  tributary  of  the  Juniata.    Thus  James  B.  Lane, 
the  father  of  our  subject,  became  connected  with 
the  business,  which  he  carried  on  for  many  years. 
While  thus  engaged  he  met  and  married  IMiss 
Janet  Wishart,  daughter  of  Dr.  David  Wisliart, 
of  Edinburg,  Scotland.     Her  father  served  as  a 
surgeon  in  General  Montgomery's  army,  but  re- 
signed just  before  that  brave  officer  was  ordered 
to  Canada.     He  had  two  sons  who  became  pro- 
fessors in  the  University  of  Edinburg.    The  family 
was  one  of  considerable  prominence,  having  de- 
scended in  direct  line  from  John  Wishart,  the 
Scotch  martyr,  whose  life  was  sacrificed  in  the 
early   days   of  the    Reformation.      Dr.   Wishart, 
crossing  the  Atlantic,  became  a  resident  of  New 
York  city,  but  being  influenced  by  the  restless 
spirit  of  the  times  he  moved  into  central  Penn- 
sylvania, purchased  a  farm  and  spent  a  long  and 
useful  life  there  in  the  practice  of  his  profession. 

Dr.  Lane  of  this  review  spent  his  early  child- 
hood in  the  State  of  his  nativity  and  in  his  younger 
years  gave   great  promise   of  superior  business 


ability.  In  c(-insequcnce  his  father  sent  him  to  an 
uncle  at  Perkiomen,  near  Philadelphia,  to  fit  him 
for  mercantile  life,  but  in  a  few  years  his  health 
began  to  fail.  Neither  was  his  work  congenial 
to  his  taste,  and  in  consequence  he  returned  to  his 
home,  spending  some  time  on  his  father's  farm, 
and  gaining  renewed  strength  and  vigor  from  his 
active  outdoor  life.  His  earnest,  manly  character 
and  happy  temperament  endeared  him  to  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact,  and  he  won  many 
friends. 

The  early  ties,  however,  were  severed  when  Dr. 
Lane  took  his  departure  for  Washington,  Penn- 
sylvania, where  he  entered  college,  pursuing  the 
regular  course.  On  its  completion  he  began  study 
under  his  uncle.  Dr.  John  Wishart,  and  attended 
a  course  of  lectures  in  Philadelphia,  being  gradu- 
ated in  1840,  at  which  time  the  degree  of  M.D. 
was  conferred  upon  him.  He  was  a  most  earnest 
student,  and  his  thorough  and  conscientious  study 
had  prepared  him  for  practice  before  he  had  com- 
pleted his  twenty-second  year.  He  then  located 
in  Washington,  Pennsylvania,  where  for  ten  years 
he  engaged  in  the  active  prosecution  of  his  chosen 
profession.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  however,  his 
health  began  to  fail,  and  he  resolved  to  see  whether 
the  Western  climate  would  not  prove  beneficial. 

While  in  Washington,  Dr.  Lane  was  united  in 
marriage  with  ]\Iiss  Mary  Brice,  daughter  of 
Colonel  James  Brice,  a  wealthy  iron  man  and 
merchant,  who  was  also  one  of  the  first  stockhold- 
ers and  directors  of  the  Washington  Female  Sem- 
inar},-. The  wedding  was  celebrated  in  1850,  and 
they  became  the  parents  of  two  sons,  J.  B.  Lane 
and  W.  S.  Lane, — and  a  daughter,  now  the  wife 
of  R.  L.  Davis,  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade. 

In  1852  Dr.  Lane  came  with  his  family  to  Illi- 
nois an.d  located  in  Rockford,  then  a  little  town 
containing  only  about  one  thousand  inhabitants. 
He  saw  its  natural  advantages  and  with  remark- 
able foresight  predicted  its  development;  and  in 
this  development  he  was  the  most  important  fac- 
tor. It  was  his  intention,  however,  to  engage  in 
the  practice  of  medicine,  and  though  he  continued 
this  to  a  limited  extent  up  to  the  time  of  his  death 
his  energies  were  largely  devoted  to  other  inter- 
ests. Had  he  not  entered  mercantile  life  he  would 
undoubtedly  have  become  one  of  the  celebrated 
physicians  of  the  countn%  as  he  had  a  well-trained 
mind,  was  resourceful,  studious  and  daring. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


395 


Hardly  had  he  taken  up  his  residence  here,  how- 
ever, before  he  began  agitating  the  subject  of  using 
the  water  power  afTorded  by  Rock  river.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  interesting  others  in  this  projected  en- 
terprise, and  organized  the  Rockford  Water 
Power  Association.  It  was  a  tremendous  under- 
taking for  those  days  to  dam  a  stream  as  broad  as 
Rock  river,  but  the  work  was  courageously  under- 
taken and  successfully  completed.  The  Doctor 
supervised  the  building  of  the  first  machine  shop, 
a  structure  100x70  feet  and  four  stories  in  height. 
When  it  was  finished  he  persuaded  John  H. 
Manny,  who  was  then  a  blacksmith  at  the  little 
town  of  Lena,  to  occupy  the  building  as  a  reaper 
factory.  From  this  beginning  sprang  the  im- 
mense manufacturing  importance  of  Rockford. 
The  growth  of  the  city  in  wealth  and  population 
dates  from  the  construction  of  the  dam  and 
the  building  of  that  shop,  and  Dr.  Lane  was 
the  man  who  laid  the  foundation  of  Rock- 
ford's  advancement.  Other  factories  were  erected 
in  quick  succession,  enterprises  of  various  kinds 
were  estaljlished  and  many  of  these  Dr.  Lane 
was  the  organizer  and  leading  promoter. 

His  capabilities  were  by  no  means  confined  to 
one  line  of  undertaking.  He  was  a  man  of  varied 
resources  and  powers,  and  was  equally  successful 
as  a  financier  and  merchant.  He  became  identi- 
fied with  the  banking  interests  of  Rockford  in 
1854,  when  the  banking  house  of  Dickerman, 
Wheeler  &  Company  was  established,  with  Dr. 
Lane  and  G.  A.  Sanford  as  silent  partners.  A 
year  later  they  bought  out  Mr.  Wheeler,  and  the 
firm  name  was  changed  to  Lane,  Sanford  &  Com- 
pany. In  1862  they  merged  their  interests  into 
that  of  the  Second  National  Bank  just  organized, 
and  of  the  new  institution  Dr.  Lane  became  presi- 
dent and  manager.  His  was  the  guiding  hand 
that  directed  the  course  of  the  new  enterprise  to 
the  goal  of  prosperity.  He  made  a  close  study 
of  the  financial  questions  of  the  day,  and  was  a 
most  capable  and  able  financier.  For  many  years 
he  was  connected  with  insurance  business.  He 
organized  the  Rockford  Insurance  Company,  and 
from  1880  until  1885  was  its  president  and  mana- 
ger when  he  retired  from  active  business.  In 
almost  every  enterprise  of  importance  that  was  or- 
ganized in  the  city  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  his 
name  appeared  as  one  of  the  original  stockholders 
and  promoters.   He  was  one  of  the  organizers  and 


the  president  of  the  Graham  Cotton  Mills  Com 
pany,  operating  a  factory  at  Rockford  and  also  at 
Rock  Island.  He  was  connected  with  Dyson's 
woolen  mills,  was  a  stockholder  in  the  watch  fac- 
tory, and  was  one  of  the  heaviest  stockholders  in 
the  Rockford  Register,  when  that  paper  was 
owned  by  a  syndicate.  When  the  question  of 
better  illuminating  facilities  came  up  for  discus- 
sion, he  was  prominent  in  the  furtherance  of  the 
movement  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of 
the  gas  works.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  he  was 
un<loubtedly  the  most  conspicuous  business  man 
in  Rockford, and  thecityisan enduring  monument 
to  his  labors.  He  belcMnged  to  that  class  of  repre- 
sentative Americans,  who,  while  advancing  indi- 
vidual prosperity, also  promote  the  general  welfare. 
As  a  citizen  Dr.  Lane  was  most  loyal  and  patri- 
otic,— a  thorough  American, — upbuilding  with 
ardor  the  principles  and  institutions  of  republican 
government.  During  the  Civil  war  he  was  very 
active  in  establishing  Union  League  societies  in 
Winnebago  county,  and  was  president  of  the  or- 
der in  Rockford.  He  contributed  liberally  of  both 
time  and  money  in  serving  the  L^nion,  and  natur- 
ally became  a  Republican  in  his  political  prefer- 
ences, supporting  that  party  up  to  the  time  of  his 
death.  However,  he  was  never  a  bitter  partisan, 
and  gave  to  others  the  same  freedom  of  opinion 
wdiich  he  reserved  for  himself.  His  church  re- 
lationship was  with  the  Emanuel  Episcopal,  of 
which  he  was  a  devoted  member  for  many  years, 
while  for  twenty  years  he  served  as  senior  warden. 
He  was  charitable  and  benevolent,  possessing  that 
true  spirit  of  Christianity  which  recognized  the 
brotherhood  of  mankind,  and  believed  that  in  all 
individuals  there  is  some  good.  He  was  seldom 
if  ever  known  to  speak  ill  of  any  one,  and  his  high 
moral  sense,  his  unfaltering  integrity  and  his 
known  sympathy  won  him  unqualified  confidence 
and  the  highest  regard  of  all.  He  was  a  man  of 
fine  personal  appearance,  and  though  firm  in  his 
convictions  of  right  and  wrong  possessed  a  gen- 
tleness of  manner  most  commendable.  Again 
and  again  he  gave  aid  to  people  in  their  hour  of 
adversity,  winning  their  lasting  gratitude.  With 
the  passing  years  his  circle  of  friends  constantly 
grew  and  was  limited  only  by  his  circle  of  acquain- 
tances. He  reached  the  age  of  seventy-three 
years,  and  passed  away  on  the  7th  of  March,  1891, 
honored  by  all  who  knew  him. 


396 


inOGRM'IIICAh  DICTIOXAUY  AND  rORTRAir  (iAI.I.ERY  OF  TIIK 


LOUIS  STOSKOPF, 


FREEPORT. 


LOUIS  STOSKOPF  was  born  November  14, 
1842,  in  Stephenson  county,  Illinois,  and 
died  July  13,  i8<)5,  at  his  home  in  Freeport,  the 
county  seat  of  Stephenson  county.  Between 
these  two  dates  lie  more  than  fifty  years  of  a  life 
that  was  singularly  strong,  beneficent  and  modest. 
He  was  the  second  son  of  the  late  Valentine  and 
Catherine  Stoskopf,  pioneer  settlers  of  Stephenson 
county,  who  arrived  here  from  Canada  in  the 
year  1841.  His  father  was  an  honest,  industrious 
man  of  great  force  of  character  and  foresight, 
which  made  him  eminently  successful  in  business, 
and  one  whose  counsels  were  sought  and  relied 
upon  in  the  many  trials  of  the  early  times.  His 
mother  was  an  intelligent,  prudent  Christian 
woman  whose  teaching  fostered  in  the  son  a  rev- 
erence for  uprightness  and  integrity. 

From  his  father  he  inherited  a  mighty  figure, 
which  made  him  a  giant  among  men.  Even  dur- 
ing his  school  days  in  Freeport  he  was  known 
not  only  as  a  deep  and  thorough  student,  but  as  a 
splendid  athlete  as  well.  When  the  National 
game  was  young,  and  the  little  prairie  towns  of 
Illinois  were  unconsciously  harboring  future  cap- 
tains of  league  base-ball  teams.  Dr.  Stoskopf  dis- 
tinguished himself  on  the  "diamond."  He  played 
with  the  famous  old  "Empires"  of  Freeport  as 
second  baseman,  and  he  never  lost  his  interest  in 
the  game. 

It  was  the  pleasure  of  the  parents  to  give  to 
their  son,  whose  taste  for  a  student  life  was  early 
perceived,  all  the  opportunities  possible  for  a 
higher  education.  Leaving  the  public  schools  of 
Freeport,  Dr.,  then  IMr.,  Stoskopf  went  to  Ann 
Arbor,  Michigan,  where  he  entered  the  high 
school  and  prepared  himself  for  the  University  of 
Michigan.  He  spent  two  years  in  the  classical 
department  of  the  University,  maintaining  his 
reputation  as  a  thorough  and  brilliant  student. 

Leaving  Ann  Arbor  at  the  end  of  his  sopho- 
more year,  he  entered  Yale  College  as  a  junior  in 
the  fall  of  1863,  where  he  at  once  took  high  rank 
with  the  sons  of  "Old  Eli."  He  was  almost  im- 
mediately chosen  a  member  of  the  'Varsity  Crew, 
and  as  such  he  assisted  in  defeating  Harvard  in 


1864  and  1865.  Academic  tradition  has  always 
made  this  famous  crew  the  standard  by  which  the 
athletics  of  later  years  are  judged,  and  its  mem- 
bers were  always  heroes  in  the  eyes  of  enthusiastic 
collegians.  To  the  time  of  his  death  Dr.  Stoskopf 
retained  an  active  interest  in  rowing  and  athletics 
generally,  thougli  it  was  difficult  to  get  him  to 
talk  about  his  own  triumphs  on  the  water. 

Besides  his  rank  as  a  scholar  and  athlete.  Dr. 
Stoskopf  was  prominent  in  college  society  circles, 
being  a  member  of  the  famous  "Scroll  and  Key," 
and  no  club  meeting  was  considered  complete 
without  his  presence,  owing  to  his  enthusiasm 
and  genial  disposition. 

Leaving  New  Haven,  he  began  the  study  of 
medicine  in  Chicago,  and  attended  a  course  of 
lectures  at  Rush  Medical  College.  In  1869  he 
was  graduated  in  the  medical  department  of 
Columbia  College,  New  York  city,  where  he  also 
spent  some  time  in  hospital  practice.  Returning 
finally  to  Freeport,  the  city  of  his  birth,  he  took 
up  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century-  he  was  a  power  for  good  in  the  com- 
munity, a  skillful  and  learned  physician,  a  gentle, 
modest,  strong,  and  honorable  man. 

October  i,  1873,  T^r.  Stoskopf  was  married  to 
Miss  Caroline  H.  Brewster,  daughter  of  Mr.  and 
]\Irs.  Daniel  S.  Brewster.  Their  home  life  was 
always  an  ideal  one,  for  the  Doctor  was  a  man  of 
domestic  tastes,  and  found  his  greatest  happiness 
in  the  love  and  companionship  of  his  wife  and 
little  ones.  Three  children  were  born  in  the  fam- 
ily of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Stoskopf.  The  youngest, 
Hilda,  died  in  infancy.  Two,  William  Brewster 
and  Alice  Louise,  survive  their  father.  The  son 
was  a  member  of  the  graduating  class  of  1895, 
at  the  Freeport  high  school,  and,  in  the  graduating 
exercises,  though  ill  at  the  time,  his  father  took 
the  deepest  interest  and  pride. 

Few  people  knew  Dr.  Stoskopf  intimately. 
With  him  there  was  nothing  on  the  surface.  The 
springs  of  his  affection  were  not  easily  touched, 
but,  "The  friends  he  had  and  their  adoption  tried," 
he  "bound  them  to  his  heart  with  hooks  of  steel." 
He  was  a  self-contained  man,  as  most  strong  men 


^^^^<^:?>^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


89- 


are  self-contained.  It  was  a  part  of  his  nature 
that  he  must  go  to  tlie  bottom  of  whatever  inter- 
ested him,  and,  because  he  was  all  his  life  a  stu- 
dent, he  was  spared  any  slightest  trace  of  pedantry 
or  self-consciousness.  Before  him  stretched  away 
always  the  illimitable  fields  of  knowledge,  and  he 
in  his  own  modest  sight  was  only  a  wayfarer,  toil- 
ing constantly  onward,  but  with  the  universe  ever 
ahead. 

He  left  on  one  always  the  impression  of  reserve 
power.  His  quiet,  self-contained  manner  told  of 
the  self-control  which  only  strong  men  are  able 
to  achieve.  In  the  sick-room  his  splendid  phys- 
ique was  in  itself  vitalizing,  while  his  gentle  touch 
A\-as  the  sweeter  because  one  knew  that  mighty 
muscle  and  thews  of  iron  were  behind  it. 

The  charity  of  Dr.  Stoskopf  was  the  stronger 
and  the  more  noble  because  it  was  not  a  spasmod- 
ic, unusual  thing,  showing  itself  in  gifts  to  public 
institutions,  or  colleges,  to  be  heralded  thereafter 
in  the  public  press,  but  an  integral  part  of  his 
daily  life,  a  part  of  his  character,  so  that  to  heal 
the  suffering  ])oor,  without  price,  was  as  natural 


to  him  as  to  breathe.  It  is  true  that  he  entirely 
lacked  the  modem  "virtue"'  of  ostentation,  but 
when  the  strong  man  lay  in  his  coffin  there  came 
a  woman,  white-haired  and  in  ragged  dress,  and 
stood  by  the  side  of  the  bier  and  wept.  "He  saved 
my  husband  and  he  cured  my  son ;  I  had  no  money 
to  pay  him,  and  he  brought  us  food;  and  now 
he  is  dead !"  Into  the  beautiful  house  on  Lincoln 
avenue,  which  the  Doctor  had  built  for  his  family, 
came  on  the  day  of  the  funeral  fifty  other  men 
and  women  bringing  with  them  such  records  of 
the  healing  charity  which  could  see  no  one  suffer 
unaided. 

Dr.  l^toskopf  lived  a  member  of  Grace  Episco- 
pal Church,  which  he  served  as  a  vestryman.  It 
was  perfectly  characteristic  of  the  man  that  his 
religious  life  should  be  simple,  sincere,  and  not 
demonstrative,  but  the  depth  of  his  convictions 
showed  itself  in  his  daily  walk;  and  he  left  to  his 
family  not  only  the  fruits  of  a  splendid  profes- 
sional career  but  also  the  example  of  one  to  whom 
his  own  good  deeds  must  always  be  the  fittest 
monument. 


WILLIAM  GROTE, 


MUCH  of  the  civilization  of  the  world  has 
come  from  the  Teutonic  race.  Continually 
moving  westward  they  have  taken  with  them  the 
enterprise  and  advancement  of  their  Eastern 
homes  and  have  become  valued  and  useful  citi- 
zens of  various  localities.  In  this  country-  es- 
pecially have  they  demonstrated  their  power  to 
adapt  themselves  to  new  circumstances,  retaining 
at  the  same  time  their  progressiveness  and  energy, 
and  have  become  loyal  and  devoted  citizens,  true 
to  the  institutions  of  "the  land  of  the  free"  and  un- 
tiring in  promotion  of  all  that  will  prove  of  benefit 
to  their  adopted  country.  The  German  element 
in  America  forms  an  important  part  of  American 
citizenship,  and  while  they  cannot  attain  to  the 
highest  civil  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people  they 
have  given  ample  evidence  of  their  power  to  sus- 
tain and  ujahold  the  Government  of  the  Republic 
and  to  become  the  factors  in  various  communities 
to  whom  the  locality  owes  its  progress  and  pros- 
perity. 


W'Ikmi  William  Grote  was  born,  in  the  hamlet 
of  Winzlar,  in  the  province  of  Hanover,  Novem- 
ber 22,  1849,  his  parents  might  have  dreamed  of 
a  brilliant  future  for  their  little  son ;  but  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  they  never  thought  he  would  one  day 
become  one  of  the  foremost  citizens  in  the  political, 
financial  and  social  worid  of  northern  Illinois.  He 
has,  however,  been  so  long  and  so  closely  identi- 
fied with  the  history  of  this  region  that  the  time 
seems  never  to  have  been  when  he  was  not  con- 
nected with  public  interests  here.  Real-estate 
dealer,  public  official,  promoter  of  the  city's  wel- 
fare, benefactor  and  an  honored  Christian  gentle- 
man, Elgin  owes  her  material  advancement  largely 
to  his  efiforts.  His  parents  were  German  peasants 
of  thrifty,  careful  and  religious  habits.  His  edu- 
cational privileges  were  somewhat  meager,  but  he 
possessed  a  laudable  ambition  and  early  in  life 
determined  to  grasp  eagerly  every  opportunity  for 
raising  himself  to  the  level  of  the  high  standard 
which  he  set  up.     He  saw  not  much  chance  for 


898 


DIOGIiAPinCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


advancement  for  fanner  lads  in  his  native  land 
and  accordingly  resolved  to  seek  a  home  in  Amer- 
ica. He  landed  at  New  York,  but  desiring  to  see 
the  West,  in  1866,  he  arrived  in  Bartlett,  Du  Page 
county,  Illinois,  where  he  was  employed  as  a  farm 
hand  for  about  a  year,  when  his  parents  joined  him 
in  his  new  home,  and  together  they  purchased  a 
farm  which  they  cultivated  for  nearly  five  years. 

The  business  career  of  Mr.  Grote  really  began 
when  they  left  the  farm  and  came  to  Elgin.  Here 
he  established  a  very  successful  mercantile  busi- 
ness, which  he  caried  on  from  1871  until  1882. 
Though  it  yielded  a  good  income  and  was  a  pay- 
ing investment,  it  did  not,  however,  ofTer  the  scope 
for  extended  operations  which  Mr.  Grote  desired, 
and  he  therefore  disposed  of  his  interests.  Pre- 
vious to  this  time  the  work  of  the  real-estate  agent 
was  considered  largely  unimportant,  demanding 
little  skill  and  ability  and  involving  slight  respon- 
sibility, but  this  view  was  becoming  superseded 
by  a  far  different  idea,  and  Mr.  Grote  did  much 
to  change  this.  Ere  selling  his  store,  he  had  in- 
vested some  capital  in  land,  and  the  years  have 
shown  the  judiciousness  and  foresight  of  these 
purchases.  Time  has  also  shown  that  the  highest 
type  of  business  ability  is  found  in  the  successful 
real-estate  dealer,  who  must  be  able  to  anticipate 
the  rise  or  fall  in  land  values,  must  be  able  to  read 
character,  so  as  to  know  the  individual  with  whom 
he  is  dealing  and  must  so  plan  and  arrange  all 
matters  that  the  persons  who  are  in  search  of  loca- 
tions maybe  induced  to  settle  upon  property  which 
he  controls.  Many  a  city  of  the  West  owes  its 
existence  to  the  enterprise  and  perseverance  of 
some  capable  real-estate  dealer.  They  are  virtu- 
ally the  founders  of  a  town,  and  are  connected  w^ith 
its,  development  from  the  time  of  its  inception. 
Mr.  Grote  has  long  been  a  moving  spirit  in  Elgin's 
growth  and  he  truly  belongs  to  that  type  of  Amer- 
ican citizens  who  promote  public  welfare  while 
enhancing  individual  prosperity. 

As  he  had  not  all  the  capital  he  desired  for  the 
prosecution  of  his  new  enterprise,  Mr.  Grote  as- 
sociated himself  with  E.  D.  Waldron,  who  became 
the  "silent  partner"  of  the  firm.  Their  success 
was  remarkable  from  the  beginning.  Mr.  Grote 
carefully  watched  indications  of  rise  in  land  values, 
and  as  he  thought  investments  could  profitably 
be  made   he   bought  property   and   became   the 


owner  of  extensive  tracts  in  and  around  Elgin,  in 
addition  to  business  property.  This  he  has  di- 
vided into  city  lots,  and  more  than  twenty  large 
additions  to  Elgin  have  been  made,  including  the 
Grote  &  Waldron  Pirst,  Second,  Third,  Central 
Park,  Winzlar,  Boulevard  and  Grand  \'iew  addi- 
tions. Some  time  later  A.  B.  Church  became 
connected  with  Mr.  Grote  upon  the  partial  retire- 
ment from  active  business  of  Mr.  Waldron.  Sub- 
stantial edifices,  which  add  to  the  beauty  and 
attractive  appearance  of  the  city,  stand  as  monu- 
ments to  the  thrift  and  enterprise  of  Mr.  Grote. 

While  associated  with  Mr.  Waldron  Mr.  Grote 
erected  the  Grote,  the  Waldron  and  the  McClure 
blocks,  and  in  1880,  in  association  with  Mr. 
Church,  he  erected  the  Merchants'  Hotel  Block, 
formerly  the  Jennings  House,  in  which  is  located 
the  principal  hotel  of  this  city.  Through  the  in- 
strumentality of  Mr.  Grote  many  industries  have 
been  located  in  Elgin  which  promote  commercial 
activity  and  make  this  one  of  the  thriving  cities 
of  the  Northwest.  It  was  through  him  that  the 
wtll-known  D.  C.  Cook  Publishing  Company  es- 
tablished their  house  here,  also  the  Illinois  Watch 
Case  Company,  the  Ludlow  Shoe  Company,  the 
Cutter  &  Crossett  Company,  manufacturers  of 
gentlemen's  furnishing  goods,  the  Elgin  Silver 
Plate  Company  and  the  Elgin  Sewing  Machine 
and  Bicycle  Company, — all  of  great  importance 
and  value  to  Elgin  and  representing  a  donated 
capital  of  about  $125,000. 

Mr.  Grote  is  a  stalwart  Republican  in  politics 
and  deeply  interested  in  the  growth  and  success 
of  his  party.  He  has  served  as  supervisor  of 
Elgin  for  two  years  and  was  assistant  supervisor 
for  four  years.  For  six  years  he  was  one  of  the 
members  of  the  board  of  education,  working 
earnestly  for  the  advancement  of  the  schools.  In 
1 89 1  he  headed  his  party's  ticket  for  the  position 
of  mayor,  was  elected  and  served  so  acceptably 
that  the  business  and  representative  men  of  tlie 
city  elected  him  for  a  second  term  in  1893.  He 
is  strong  in  all  the  essentials  that  combine  to  make 
a  valuable  and  trustworthy  official.  Whatever  he 
undertakes  to  do  he  does  thoroughly  and  well. 
He  conducted  his  office  as  he  would  manage  his 
own  affairs, — strictly  on  business  principles, — and 
for  this  reason  he  has  given  general  satisfaction. 
The  people  delight  to  honor  such  men, — men  who 


REPItESEXTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES:  ILLIKOIS  rOLU.VE. 


399 


accept  public  office  as  a  public  trust  and  who  bear 
its  responsibilities  and  perform  its  duties  fearlessly 
and  conscientiously,  jealously  guarding  the  sa- 
cred interests  of  the  people  whom  they  have 
called  to  sei"\'e.  During  the  administration  of 
Mr.  Grote  a  new  city  hall  was  built,  and  upon  its 
completion  the  clock  which  adorns  its  tower  was 
donated  by  Mr.  Grote.  Many  improvements  in 
the  way  of  sewerage  and  paving  and  the  light  and 
water  plants  were  largely  increased,  and  other 
improvements  added  during  his  administration, 
which  make  Elgin  one  of  the  most  advanccvl 
cities  in  northern  Illinois. 

In  his  private  life  Mr.  Grote  has  been  most  for- 
tunate. He  lost  by  death  his  mother  in  1879  at 
the  age  of  sixty-seven  years,  and  his  father  on. 
May  27,  1895,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three  years. 
He  was  married  March  10,  1872,  to  Miss  Kate 
Dtuchler,  a  resident  of  Dundee,  Illinois,  and  to 
them  have  been  born  five  children,  two  sons  and 
three  daughters,  of  whom  Augusta,  Anna  and 
William  are  still  living.  In  addition  to  these 
tliey  have  an  adopted  son,  Frank,  whom  they 
are  carefully  and  tenderly  rearing. 

While  ^Ir.  Grote  has  great  capacity  for  work 
and  excellent  business  ability,  his  operations, 
however,  have  all  been  confined  to  Elgin.  He  is 
thoroughly  loyal  to  the  city  which  gave  him  a 
home  and  all  his  energies  are  for  her  upbuilding. 
Among  the  various  concerns  which  have  added 
to  the  material  prosperity  of  the  city  with  which 
he  is  connected  are  the  Elgin  City  Electric  Rail- 
way, of  which  he  is  president;  also  president 
of  the  Elgin  Packing  Company,  secretary  of 
the  Elgin  Lumber  Company,  president  of  South 
Elgin  Stone  Company,  director  of  the  Home 
National  Bank  and  Home  Savings  Bank,  secre- 
tary of  the  Elgin  Brick  and  Tile  Company,  and 
a  stockholder  in  the  Elgin  National  Watch  Com- 
pany; director  in  the  Ludlow  Shoe  Company, 
the  Carpentersville,  Elgin  &  Aurora  Railway 
Company,  and  nearly  every  enteq>rise  of  im- 
portance in  the  city. 

It  is,  however,  as  a  philanthropist  and  bene- 
factor that  Mr.  Grote  is  entitled  to  more  credit 
ihan  he  has  yet  received.  His  charities  have 
ever  been  of  the  most  cjuiet  and  unostentatious 
character,  and  within  a  few  years  he  has  given 


thousands  of  dollars  wth  scarcely  a  comment  be- 
yond those  from  the  people  directly  interested. 

Ele  has  always  identified  himself  with  the  Ger- 
man Evangelical  Association,  which  erected  in 
Elgin  the  finest  church  building  of  the  city,  at  a 
cost  of  about  $30,000,  of  which  Mr.  Grote  gave 
outright  $10,000,  supplemented  by  later  dona- 
tions, enabling  the  church  to  be  dedicated  free 
from  debt.  He  is  a  trustee  of  the  association  and 
for  many  years  has  been  superintendent  of  the 
Sunday-school.  He  also  acted  as  one  of 
tlie  taistees  for  the  Society's  Board  of  Publica- 
tion for  America,  Germany  and  Japan,  which  has 
headquarters  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  as  trus- 
tee for  the  Northwestern  College,  located  at  Na- 
pcrville,  Illinois.  When  the  society  desired  to 
establish  a  mission  in  Lane  Park  addition  to  Lake 
View,  Chicago,  it  was  found  that  no  funds 
were  available,  and  Mr.  Grote  then  set  to 
work.  He  first  secured  two  lots  from  the  own- 
ers and  personally  assisted  in  building  the 
church  and  partially  supported  the  minister  for  a 
period  of  five  years.  This  church  is  now  pros- 
perous and  self-sustaining.  W'hen  the  Sherman 
hospital  was  erected  in  Elgin  he  contributed 
$1,000,  and  in  addition  he  has  given  nuich  and 
often  to  various  other  worthy  charities  and  be- 
nevolences of  which  he  keeps  no  record.  He  gives 
from  a  tnie  Christian  spirit  and  not  from  any 
desire  to  win  the  praise  of  his  fellow  men.  There 
is  nothing  narrow  or  contracted  in  his  nature  and 
he  has  made  generous  donations  to  various  other 
churches,  helping  nearly  all  denominations  in 
Elgin. 

In  1887,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, Mr.  Grote  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Old  World  and  visited  many  parts  of  Europe, 
as  well  as  spending  many  pleasant  hours  amid 
the  scenes  of  his  boyhood.  He  has  also  traveled 
extensively  in  the  United  States  and  finds  in 
travel  his  chief  source  of  rest  and  recreation.  Air. 
Grote  is  a  very  busy  man,  yet  he  is  ever  ready 
to  pause  in  the  midst  of  his  business  duties  to 
distribute  aid  to  those  in  need.  He  is  wholly 
worthy  the  respect  which  is  everjwhere  tendered 
him,  for  his  name  is  synonymous  with  honorable 
dealing  and  with  all  that  is  elevating  and  bene- 
ficial to  the  citv  and  to  the  individual. 


400 


BIOORAl'lIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTKAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


CHARLES  P.  KING, 


CHARLES  P.  KING  was  bom  February  ii, 
1817,  in  the  town  of  Adams,  Jefferson  county, 
New  York,  his  parents  being  Henry  and  Betsy 
(Allen)  King,  the  former  a  caqjenter  and  farmer 
by  occupation. 

When  nineteen  years  of  age  our  subject  bought 
his  time  of  his  father,  paying  therefor  the  sum  of 
twelve  dollars  and  a  half  per  month,  and  having 
learned  the  trade  of  carpentering  \\as  well  fitted 
to  make  his  way  in  the  world.  Leaving  his  native 
State  in  1838  he  came  to  Peoria,  where  he  fol- 
lowetl  his  trade  for  a  year,  when  he  engaged  as 
second  engineer  on  a  steamer  plying  between 
Peoria  and  St.  Louis,  an  occupation  that  conthmed 
during  tlie  subsequent  three  years. 

In  the  meantime  he  was  rapidly  becoming 
prominent,  and,  after  filling  several  minor  posi- 
tions of  trust  and  responsibility,  was  elected,  in 
1853,  a  member  of  the  Illinois  legislature  on  the 
Democratic  ticket. 

At  the  expiration  of  the  term  for  which  he  was 
chosen  he  returned  to  Peoria  and  engaged  as  a 
contractor  and  builder,  and  also  in  the  engineer- 
ing department  of  one  of  the  leading  distilleries, 
and  was  thus  occupied  until  1857.  That  year  he 
associated  himself  in  partnership  with  the  firm  of 
Lightner,  Schimpferman  &  Company,  which  then 
became  the  leading  distillery  company  in  that  sec- 
tion. The  establishment  was  known  as  the  Star 
Distillery,  under  which  title  it  was  successfully 
operated  until  1866,  at  which  time  Mr.  King  with- 
drew from  the  firm  and  became  interested  in  the 
banking  business. 

The  Second  National  Bank  opened  its  doors 
January  i,  1864.  Mr.  King  having  been  for  some 
years  vice-president,  succeeded  to  the  presidency 
on  the  death  of  L.  Howells,  who  had  been  presi- 
dent since  its  organization.  In  this  capacity  Mr. 
King  continued  until  1883,  when,  its  charter  hav- 
ing e^.pired,  the  bank's  affairs  were  wound  up, 
with  a  very  handsome  margin  of  profit  to  the 
stockholders. 

Sliortlv  afterward   the   Peoria   National   Bank 


was  organized,  with  a  capital  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  which  later  was  increased 
to  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  King  was 
chosen  president  and  filled  the  office  with  marked 
ability  until  his  death,  February  17,  1893. 

Mr.  King  was  also  one  of  the  organizers  and  a 
very  heavy  stockholder  of  the  Dime  Savings  Bank 
of  Peoria,  of  which  he  was  vice-president,  and  was 
interested  as  a  stockholder  in  various  manufactur- 
ing concerns. 

He  always  maintained  a  warm  interest  in  edu- 
cational matters,  and  for  several  terms  sensed  as 
school  director  in  his  district.  He  represented 
Peoria  township  in  the  board  of  supervisors  for 
five  or  six  terms,'  and  in  fact  gave  liberally 
of  both  time  and  money  toward  advancing  the 
prosperity  of  the  city  of  his  home.  Every  en- 
terprise calculated  to  benefit  Peoria  found  in 
him  a  hearty  sympathizer  and  a  generous  con- 
tributor. 

He  was  a  loyal  adherent  to  the  principles  of 
Demc)cracy,  and  a  warm  personal  friend  and  ad- 
mirer of  the  lamented  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Dur- 
ing the  war  he  was  an  uncompromising  Union 
man,  and  labored  earnestly  and  zealously  against 
its  disintegration.  His  charities  were  many,  and 
there  are  men  in  Peoria  to-day  who  owe  their 
success  to  timely  assistance  given  by  him. 

Mr.  King  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife, 
to  whom  he  was  united  in  1840,  was  iMiss  Emily 
Jacobs,  who  died  in  1888,  survived  by  two  chil- 
dren: Ada,  the  wife  of  M.  Hufifman,  of  Quincy; 
and  May,  now  Mrs.  W.  M.  Benton,  of  Peoria.  In 
April,  1890,  Mr.  King  was  married  to  Mrs.  Susan 
S.  Clegg,  a  lady  of  many  noble  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart,  who  survives  him. 

Mr.  King's  death  occurred  af  Los  Angeles, 
California,  whither  he  had  gone  on  business,  ac- 
companied by  his  wife.  His  illness  was  brief,  and 
though  the  best  available  medical  skill  was  ob- 
tained, and  the  tenderest  ministrations  of  a  lov- 
ing and  devoted  wife  were  given,  he  passed  away, 
at  the  age  of  seventv-six. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


401 


JAMES  ROOD  DOOLITTLE, 


JAMES  ROOD  DOOLITTLE,  the  subject 
of  our  sketch,  was  born  on  the  western  slope  of 
the  Green  mountains,  in  Washington  county, 
New  York,  January  3,  181 5.  At  four  years  of 
age  he  emigrated  with  his  father's  family  to 
western  New  York,  where  he  was  educated.  He 
graduated  at  Geneva  College  in  1834,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1837,  in  which  year  also 
he  was  married. 

As  a  Democratic  Republican,  brought  up  in 
the  school  of  General  Jackson,  he  was  elected 
district  attorney  of  Wyoming  county — a  Whig 
district — and  served  as  such  from  1845  to  1849. 
In  1851  he  removed  with  his  family  to  Racine, 
Wisconsin;  he  was  elected  circuit  judge  in  1853, 
and  resigned  in  March,  1856. 

In  February,  1857,  he  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  senate,  and  was  re-elected  in  1863,  serving 
twelve  years, — the  most  important  twelve  years 
in  our  national  history,  after  the  Revoluti(inary 
war. 

His  history  during  that  period  is  well  known, 
as  it  is  part  of  the  history  of  the  country.  Since 
retiring  from  the  senate  he  has  been  at  the  head 
of  a  law  firm  in  Chicago. 

Perhaps  most  men  of  his  age,  now  eighty, 
would  seek  retirement;  but  he  does  not.  He  is 
one  of  those  to  whom  the  ordinary  rule  as  to  the 
age  of  retirement  does  not  seem  to  apply.  There 
are  some  well-known  exceptions  to  that  rule,  not 
only  in  Europe  but  also  in  this  country.  Palmer- 
ston  and  Gladstone  in  England,  Bismarck  and 
Von  Moltke  in  Germany,  are  notable  ones.  John 
Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson  among  our  states- 
men, and  Marshall  and  Taney  among  our  chief 
justices,  were  equally  notable.  The  united  testi- 
mony of  the  bar  and  of  his  associates  upon  the 
bench  shows  that  the  latter,  in  his  eighty-seventh 
year  of  age,  presided  with  as  much  dignity  and 
conducted  consultations  and  decisions  with  as 
much  clearness  and  vigor  as  he  did  at  the  age  of 
sixty-five;  and  that,  too,  in  the  highest  judicial 
tribunal  known  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

Mr.  Doolittle  is  also  a  remarkable  instance  of  the 
same  exceptional  mental  and  physical  vigor,  vital- 
ity and  capacity  for  labor  and  endurance.  Not  long 
20 


go,  when  he  ha<l  occasion,  in  answer  to  inqturies 
of  some  devoted  personal  friends,  to  speak  of  him- 
self and  of  his  capacity  for  continuous  labor,  he 
said: 

"It  is  so  purely  personal  that  I  hardly  dare  to 
tell  you  the  simple  truth,  for  fear  of  apparent 
boasting.  So  far  from  boasting,  however,  it  is 
only  with,  the  most  humble  reverence  and  grati- 
tude to  Almighty  God  that  I  can  now  speak  of 
the  greatest  of  earthly  blessings  ever  bestowed 
upon  man,  viz.,  perfect  health  in  a  strong  con- 
stitution, derived  from  a  hardy  and  long-lived 
ancestry. 

"My  father  was  the  fifth  in  descent  from  that 
sturdy  Englishman,  Abraham  Doolittle,  one  of 
the  founders  of  New  Haven,  and  who,  in  1644, 
was  sheriff  of  that  county  in  Connecticut.  From 
that  stock,  intermingled  in  the  line  of  descent 
with  the  blood  of  the  Holts,  the  Lewises,  the 
Munsons  and  the  Bunnells,  my  father  was  bom 
in  the  famous  year  of  1789.  If  it  can  be  truly 
said  of  any  man,  he  was  verily  a  man  of  iron.  He 
was  never  sick  a  day  in  his  life  until  1846, — that 
sickly  season  in  the  West, — when,  before  the  day 
of  railways,  he  rode  on  horseback  through  the 
States  of  Michigan  and  Illinois.  I'^illcd  with  ma- 
laria, he  was  taken  down  with  malignant  fever, 
and  died  at  Waukegan,  at  the  early  age  of  fifty- 
seven.  But  every  tooth  in  his  head  was  sound 
when  he  died. 

"My  mother,  half  Scotch  and  half  English, 
lived  nearly  to  the  age  of  ninety.  She  was  a  great 
reader.  She  read  her  Bible  through  in  course 
twice  each  year,  the  last  five  years  of  her  life; 
and,  what  is  perhaps  more  remarkable,  she  could 
always  read  fair-sized  print  without  the  aid  of 
glasses.  There  is  lying  upon  my  tabic,  as  I  now 
write  you,  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  presented 
by  me  to  her  on  her  eighty-eighth  birthday.  After 
her  decease  it  came  back  to  me  as  a  precious 
memento.  I  quote  from  the  words  of  presenta- 
tion on  a  fly-leaf;  they  speak  for  themselves: 
'JDear  Mother; — God  in  His  great  mercy  has 
spared  you  to  us,  to  this  your  eighty-eighth  birth- 
day, with  sight  and  all  your  faculties  in  full  vigor; 
but  vou  are  so  great  and  constant  a  reader  of  the 


402 


llKtaltAPlIU'M.  DK'TrOXAnY  AND  POUTUAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


New  Testament  that  I  beg  you  to  accept  this  copy 
in  large  print.  It  will  bo  a  little  easier  for  your 
eyes,  especiall\-  when  you  read,  as  you  do,  with- 
out glasses.' 

"rresunii)tions  from  heredity,  'therefore,  my 
friends,  do  not  incline  me  to  give  up  intellectual 
labor.  Is  there  anything  in  my  health,  personal 
history  or  in  my  nervous  or  physical  condition 
to  show  that  I  should  decline  it?  What  are  the 
living  facts?  Thank  God!  I  am  able  to  say,  I  have 
never  had  a  fit  of  sickness,  not  even  a  headache, 
nor  a  backache,  nor  a  toothache  in  my  life. 
Though  actively  engaged  in  the  profession  since 
1837  (except  during  the  twelve  years  of  service 
in  the  senate),  though  in  the  campaign  of  1840, 
and  in  every  presidential  election  since,  except 
that  of  1852,  I  have  taken  active  part;  yet  of  all 
die  thousands  of  political  and  professional  en- 
gagements, I  have  never  failed  to  meet  one  yet, 


either  on  account  of  ill  health  or  fatigue.  It  is 
true,  1  was  thrown  from  a  buggy  the  last  of  Sep- 
tember, 1890;  the  fall  broke  my  arm  and  bruised 
my  leg,  but  in  four  weeks,  with  my  arm  in  a  sling, 
I  was  able  to  argue  two  important  cases  in  die 
supreme  court  of  Illinois.  So  far  as  I  know,  the 
'eye  is  not  dim  or  the  natural  force  abated.'  The 
voice  which  so  many  have  heard  remains,  and 
is  just  the  same  now  that  it  was  twenty  years 
ago." 

Even  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  gives  no  more 
striking  evidence  of  long-sustained  energy  and  vi- 
tality than  does  the  subject  of  our  sketch,  ex-Sen- 
ator Doolittle. 

All  the  judges  of  Chicago,  and  of  the  supreme 
court  of  this  State,  in  speaking  of  him  in  1892, 
united  in  saying,  "If  not  assured  to  the  contrary, 
no  one  would  believe  him  to  be  past  sixty  years 
of  aee." 


ROBERT  H.  MCCLELLAN, 


ROBERT  H.  McCLELLAN  was  born  in 
Washington  county.  New  York,  January  3, 
1823,  and  is  the  son  of  Colonel  William  and  Mar- 
garet (Randies)  McClellan.  The  family  is  of 
Scotch  descent.  Colonel  McClellan  was  by  oc- 
cupation a  farmer,  and  his  boyhood  was  passefl 
upon  his  father's  farm.  His  education  was  ob- 
tained at  the  academies  of  Argyle  and  Cambridge, 
supplemented  with  a  course  at  Union  College, 
Schenectady,  at  which  institution  he  graduated 
in  1847.  Upon  finishing  his  college  course  he 
entered  upon  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  the 
Honorable  Martin  I.  Townsend,  at  Troy,  who  is 
still  living,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-four, 
and  is  a  warm  friend  of  Mr.  McClellan. 

In  December,  1850,  young  McClellan  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  by  the  New  York  supreme  court 
at  Albany,  and,  having  determined  to  cast  his 
lot  in  the  then  far  West,  came  to  Galena,  at  that 
time  the  most  prominent  city  in  the  upper  Mis- 
sissippi valley.  During  the  first  winter  of  his 
residence  he  edited  the  Galena  Gazette,  a  journal 
which  is  still  in  existence,  and  the  following  spring 
formed  a  law  partnership  with  John  M.  Douglas, 
late  of  Chicago,  who  was  one  of  the  ablest  law- 


yers of  the  State,  under  the  firm  name  of  Doug- 
las &  McClellan.  This  connection  continued  un- 
til Mr.  Douglas  removed  to  Chicago  to  become 
the  general  attorney  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company,  he  having  up  to  that  time  been 
the  company's  local  attorney  at  Galena, — a  posi- 
tion to  which  Mr.  McClellan  succeeded  and 
which  he  has  retained  ever  since.  After  Mr. 
Douglas'  departure  our  subject  practiced  alone, 
with  great  success,  being  almost  invariably  re- 
tained in  all  the  important  litigation  in  his  sec- 
tion of  the  State. 

On  the  1st  day  of  January,  1864,  he  became 
president  of  the  Bank  of  Galena, — which  later  be- 
came the  National  Bank  of  Galena, — an  office  he 
continued  to  fill  with  marked  ability  for  over 
twenty  years,  and  from  which  he  retired  about 
five  years  ago  to  give  his  entire  attention  to  his 
personal  business.  His  administration  of  the 
affairs  of  the  National  Bank  was  characterized 
by  conservatism,  and  he  carried  it  successfully 
through  the  various  financial  crises  that  during 
the  years  of  his  connection  with  the  institution 
swept  over  the  country. 

Mr.  McClellan  has  also  been  interested  in  many 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


4(13 


other  business  enterprises,  among  which  may  be 
mentioned  the  Hanover  Woolen  INIill,  of  which 
he  has  been  a  stockholder  and  director  since  its 
organization.  He  is  also  a  large  holder  of  bank 
stocks  in  various  cities,  being  one  of  the  original 
stockholders  of  the  National  Bank  of  Illinois,  of 
whose  stock  he  owns  a  large  amount.  His  real- 
estate  holdings,  though  not  so  large  as  formerly, 
— he  having  sold  a  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
land  in  the  past  five  or  six  years, — are  still  very 
large,  and  are  located  in  several  of  the  Western 
States, 

Politically  JMr.  RlcClellan  is,  and  has  for  years 
been,  a  strong  Republican.  He  was  elected  and 
served  as  a  member  of  the  lower  branch  of  the 
Illinois  legislature  during  the  war  session  of  1861, 
and  later,  from  1876  to  1880,  was  a  member  of  the 
State  senate.  With  these  exceptions  he  has  never 
held  public  ofifice,  though  his  name  has  been 
prominently  mentioned  as  a  gubernatorial  candi- 
date, but  he  has  been  a  leader  in  his  party's  coun- 
sels for  many  years,  and  has  been  a  liberal  con- 
tributor toward  Republican  success. 

While  always  strict  in  his  attention  to  business 
Mr.  McClellan  nevertheless  has  found  time  to 
devote  to  travel,  and  has  visited  all  the  places  of 
note  in  our  country,  averaging  probably  eight  or 
ten  thousand  miles  of  travel,  on  both  business  and 
pleasure,  yearly. 

As  a  public  speaker  Mr.  McClellan  is  clear, 
logical  and  convincing,  and  at  any  public  gather- 
ing is  invariably  in  demand.  Every  event  of  im- 
portance that  has  taken  place  at  Galena  for  many 
years  has  been  made  more  pleasing  and  successful 
by  appropriate  remarks  from  Mr.  McClellan. 
When  General  Grant  returned  to  Galena  after  his 
memorable  tour  around  the  world,  it  was  JNIr. 
McClellan  who  welcomed  him,  on  behalf  of  the 
citizens  of  Galena,  to  his  old  home;  and  when 
the  beautiful  statue  of  the  great  commander,  the 
gift  of  H.  H.  Kohlsaat,  to  the  city  of  Galena,  was 
unveiled  in  Grant  Park,  an  occasion  which  drew 
thousands  of  people  from  all  parts  of  the  countr}', 
and  where  Chauncey  M.  Depew  delivered  a  mas- 
terly oration,  it  was  Mr.  McClellan  who  accepted 
the  magnificent  gift  on  behalf  of  Grant's  loving 
and  grateful  friends  and  neighbors,  in  the  follow- 
ing eloquent  address: 

Afr.  Koh/saiU:      I  am  requested  by  his  Honor, 


the  Mayor,  to  respond,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf 
of  the  citizens  of  Galena,  to  the  eloquent  address 
of  presentation  to  which  we  have  just  listened 
with  intense  interest  and  satisfaction.  This  is  to 
me,  personally,  a  very^  grateful  office,  and  yet  I 
finil  myself  not  a  little  embarrassed,  at  the  outset, 
by  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  personal  allusions 
to  yourself,  especially  flattering  allusions — and  I 
can  make  no  others  on  this  occasion — are  dis- 
tasteful to  you,  that  you  shrink  from  praise,  as 
other  men  do  from  censure.  We  all  know,  sir, 
that  you  are  as  modest  as  you  are  munificent,  and 
while  Fortune  has  showered  her  golden  gifts  upon 
you  with  lavish  profusion,  you  generously  devote 
a  large  measure  of  these  gifts  to  private  charities 
and  to  educational  and  patriotic  objects,  doing 
all  this  in  a  quiet,  unostentatious  way,  neither 
expecting  nor  desiring  praise  or  profit,  admiration 
or  applause.    There  are  those  who 

'  Do  good  by  stealth  and  blush  to  find  it  fame.' 

"The  people  of  Galena  are  not  insensible  to  the 
high  honor  you  have  done  them,  and  the  weighty 
obligations  you  have  laid  them  under,  in  giving 
to  their  city  this  magnificent  statue  of  their  former 
illustrious  fellow  citizen.  They  admire  its  beauty, 
they  appreciate  its  worth  and  significance,  and 
they  accept  it  with  the  profoundest  gratitude. 
They  promise  to  protect  and  preserve  it,  and  to 
forever  guard  it  with  a  vigilant  and  jealous  care. 
They  have  prepared  this  beautiful  park  for  its  re- 
ception, and  they  intend  to  increase  its  attractive- 
ness and  make  it  a  place  to  which,  in  future  years, 
pilgrims  and  patriots  from  all  parts  of  this  great 
country-  may  come,  and  here  at  this  shrine  erected 
by  your  generosity  pay  loyal  homage  to  the  mem- 
ory of  the  eminent  man  it  commemorates. 

"As  a  work  of  art  this  statue  is  a  thing  of  beauty 
and  will  be  to  us  a  joy  forever.  In  form  and  features 
the  i)eoi)le  of  Galena  recognize  it  as  a  true  and 
faithful  likeness  of  'Grant  Our  Citizen'  as  he  was 
wont  to  appear  when  he  lived  in  our  midst,  and 
walked  a  familiar  figure  upon  our  streets.  His- 
torians have  given  us  a  record  of  his  deeds.  You 
have  done  more  and  better:  you  have  given  us 
Grant  himself,  as  he  looked  and  as  he  was. 

"And  whilst  we  give  all  honor  and  heartfelt 
thanks  to  the  liberal  donor,  we  would  not  forget 
the  rising  young  artist  whose  fertile  genius  con- 
ceived   and    whose    skillful    fingers    molded    this 


404 


lllOORAPnif'AL  DICTIONARY  AXD  PORTRAIT  OALLKRY  OF  THE 


splendid  lik-like  cffii^^y.  We  crown  him  here 
to-day  with  the  chaplet  of  our  applause,  and  wish 
him  that  fame  and  fortune  to  which  his  genius  and 
his  art  entitle  him.  In  examining  this  monument 
we  notice  the  name  of  Grant  cut  upon  it  in  bold 
relief,  as  it  should  be;  the  name  of  the  sculptor 
is  also  there,  but  the  name  of  Kohlsaat,  with  char- 
acteristic modesty,  is  not  permitted  to  appear  up- 
on it. 

"But,  sir,  let  me  assure  you  that  though  your 
name  be  not  chiseled  upon  this  marble,  it  is 
deeply  engraven  upon  the  hearts  of  the  grateful 
people  of  Galena,  who  will  never  allow  it  to  be 
disassociated  from  this,  your  princely  gift  to  them. 
Traditions  survive  ages  after  written  records  have 
perished;  and  in  the  remote  future,  when  the 
printed  records  of  this  day's  transactions  shall 
have  faded  into  rayless  oblivion,  the  future  fathers 
of  Galena  will  bring  their  children  to  this  shrine 
and  teach  them  its  history  and  its  lessons;  and 
they  will  tell  them  who  it  was  that  erected  it  and 
gave  it  to  their  city;  and  thus  the  name  of  Kohl- 
saat, associated  with  it,  will  go  down  by  tradition 
from  generation  to  generation  as  long  as  this 
bronze  and  everlasting  granite  shall  endure. 

"But  the  precious  moments  are  vanishing  and 
I  must  stop. 

"And  now,  in  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  for 
this  grand  memorial  of  a  grand  man,  in  the  name 
and  in  behalf  of  all  sfood  and  true  American  citi- 


zens— North  and  South,  East  and  West,  who 
honor  valor  and  patriotism  and  consecrated  de- 
votion to  the  Republic — I  thank  you.  In  the 
name  and  on  behalf  of  these  old,  brave  soldiers — 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic —  who  followed 
their  great  commander  through  perilous  years 
of  bloody  war  to  glory  and  to  victory —  I  thank 
you.  And  finally,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of 
the  citizens  of  Galena,  the  happy  recipients  of  your 
patriotic  benefaction,  whose  hearts  inoiwi  swell 
with  emotions  of  ine.xpressible  gratitude,  I  sin- 
cerely and  emphatically  thank  you." 

Mr.  McClellan  has  been  twice  married,  his  first 
wife,  to  wliom  he  was  united  in  1858,  was  i\Iiss 
Caroline  Sanford,  of  Boston,  who  died  in  1876, 
leaving  three  children,  namely:  George,  now  of 
Chicago,  VI ho  has  but  just  returned  from  an  ex- 
tended European  tour;  Marj',  who  resides  at 
home;  and  Sanford,  who  has  just  entered  the 
freshman  class  of  Union  College,  Schenectady, 
at  which  his  father  graduated  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury ago.  In  1879  j\Ir.  McClellan  married  Clara 
Dennison  Garfield,  of  Jacksonville,  Illinois.  Tlieir 
beautiful  home  is  one  of  the  most  hospitable  in 
the  city. 

In  his  tastes  Mr.  McClellan  is  domestic.  He 
is  a  great  reader,  and  his  well-selected  library 
is  a  source  of  continuous  enjoyment  to  him 
as  well  as  a  means  of  relaxation  from  business 
cai"es. 


I 


MARK  SKINNER, 


IN  the  death  of  Mark  Skinner,  which  occurred 
September  16,  1887,  Chicago  lost  one  of  her 
most  honored  citizens.  He  w'as  a  native  of  Man- 
chester, \'ermont,  and  was  born  September  13, 
1813. 

His  father,  Hon.  Richard  Skinner,  a  celebrated 
lawyer  of  New  England,  was  born  at  Litchfield, 
Connecticut,  in  1778.  In  1802  he  settled  in  i\Ian- 
chester,  Vermont,  and  in  1 814  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress. From  1820  until  1824  he  was  governor  of 
his  State  and  prior  to  that  was  for  five  years  chief 
justice.     His  death  occurred  May  23,  1833. 

( Jur  subject's  mother,  before  her  marriage,  was 


Miss  Fanny  Pierpont.  who  also  belonged  to  a 
noted  New  England  family.  She  was  born  at 
New^  Haven,  Connecticut,  in  1782,  and  traced  her 
genealogy  back  to  one  Sir  Hugh  de  Pierrepont, 
of  Picardy,  France.  The  first  of  the  name  in  this 
country  was  John  Pierpont,  who  settled  near  Bos- 
ton in  1640.  Mrs.  Skinner  was  known  for  her 
many  womanly  virtues  and  her  noble  Christian 
character,  and  from  her  training  and  influence  the 
son  received  many  of  those  manly  traits  and  qual- 
ities that  characterized  his  life ;  while  to  his  father 
he  was  indebted  for  that  legal  acumen  for  which 
he  was  noted. 


REPRESENTATIVE  ME.X  OE  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME 


405 


Nfr.  Skinner  enjoyed  excellent  educational  ad- 
vantages and  early  developed  a  fondness  for 
study.  He  attended  school  at  Bennington,  Ver- 
mont; later  went  to  Troy,  New  York;  prepared 
for  college  at  Pittsfield  (Massachusetts)  Acad- 
emy; and  was  finally  graduated  at  Middlebury 
(\'crmont)  College  in  1833.  He  next  took  up  the 
study  of  law  with  Judge  Ezek  Cowan,  of  Saratoga 
Springs,  Xew  York,  and  t\vo  years  later  con- 
tinued his  law  studies  under  the  instructions  of 
Nicholas  Hill,  of  Albany,  and  then  spent  a  year 
at  the  Xew  Haven  Law  School.  Although  urged 
bv  his  former  preceptor,  Mr.  Hill,  to  join  him  in 
a  partnership.  Mr.  Skinner  declined  the  tempting 
offer  in  order  to  carry  out  his  purpose  already 
formed  of  beginning  his  professional  career  in  the 
growing  town  of  the  West, — Chicago, — where  he 
arrived  in  July,  1836.  In  the  following  autumn 
he  associated  himself  with  George  Anson  Oliver 
Beaumont  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and 
thus  began  his  uniformly  successful  career. 

His  scholarly  attainments,  legal  ability  and  up- 
right, manly  demeanor  soon  brought  him  into 
local  prominence,  and  as  a  natural  result  he  was 
called  to  serve  the  public  in  offices  of  responsibil- 
ity and  trust.  In  1839-40  he  served  as  city  at- 
torney of  Chicago  and  he  was  many  years  master 
in  chancery  of  Cook  county.  When  James  K. 
Polk  came  to  the  presidency,  Mr.  Skinner  had  a 
rival  for  the  office  in  the  person  of  Isaac  N. 
Arnold.  The  contest  between  them  became  so 
strong  that,  in  order  to  satisfy  all  parties,  a  com- 
promise was  finally  effected  and  a  third  person 
appointed.  The  methods  employed  to  secure 
I'ederal  patronage  were  so  opposed  to  ^Ir.  Skin- 
ner's high  sense  of  manliness  and  honor  that  he 
then  resolved  to  never  again  seek  it, — a  resolution 
which  he  scrupulously  kept.  However,  his  fellow 
citizens  required  his  services  in  other  directions, 
and  in  1846  he  was  elected  to  the  general  assembly 
of  Illinois.  He  was  chairman  of  the  committee 
which  prepared  the  bill  for  refunding  the  State 
debt,  a  prominent  feature  of  which  was  reducing 
the  six  forms  of  State  bonds  to  one  convenient 
form.  At  the  constitutional  convention  called 
during  this  session  Mr.  Skinner  took  a  very  active 
part  as  champion  of  the  northern  section  of  the 
State,  in  the  memorable  contest  between  that  and 
the  southern  portion  of  the  State,  growing  out  of 


the  phraseology  of  the  old  constitution  respecting 
the  representation  of  the  two  sections  in  the  con- 
vention. His  skillful  management  carried  the 
day.  Again,  when  there  was  a  strong  inclination 
to  repudiate  the  interest  on  the  State  debt,  which 
was  several  years  in  default,  he  was  largelv  instru- 
mental in  carrying  through  a  bill  providing  for  its 
]>ayment.  In  185 1  Mr.  Skinner  was  elected  judge 
of  the  Cook  county  court  of  common  pleas,  which 
afterward  became  the  superior  court.  The  circuit 
court  then  held  but  two  short  terms  annuallv, 
and  the  principal  part  of  the  commercial  and  civil 
business  devolved  upon  the  common  pleas  court. 

Judge  Skinner  filled  the  office  with  great  satis- 
faction, but  was  compelled  to  decline  a  re-election 
in  1853  because  the  demands  of  the  office  were 
more  than  his  health  could  endure.  In  1854  he 
was  pronounced  in  his  opposition  to  the  course 
pursued  in  Congress  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  par-  . 
ticularly  in  reference  to  the  "Nebraska  Bill,"'  and 
was  one  of  the  foremost  in  the  movement  that 
revolutionized  the  political  sentiment  of  all  north- 
ern Illinois,  and  led  to  the  fusion  of  all  anti-slavery 
people  and  finally  absorbed  the  Whig  and  Free- 
soil  parties. 

His  health  becoming  mucli  impaired  he  was 
obliged  to  abandon  the  practice  of  his  profession ; 
but  as  financial  agent  of  moneyed  men  and  cor- 
porations of  the  East,  he  had  the  handling  of  large 
amounts  of  money,  investing  the  same  in  Chicago 
real  estate,  a  line  of  business  for  which  his  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  law  pertaining  to  real  property 
eminently  fitted  him.  His  long  connection  with 
the  Connecticut  Alutual  Life  Insurance  Company 
is  fittingly  memorialized  in  a  tribute  by  its  pres- 
ident. Colonel  Jacob  L.  Greene,  on  the  occasion 
of  }ilr.  Skinner's  death,  from  which  the  following 
is  quoted: 

"The  directors  of  the  company  having  learned 
of  the  death  of  Hon.  Mark  Skinner,  who  was  for 
more  than  thirty  years  its  financial  correspondent 
and  their  own  trusted  confidential  adviser  at  Chi- 
cago, entered  upon  their  records  this  minute,  de- 
siring thereby  to  recall  and  to  mark  their  sense  of 
the  peculiar  importance  and  value  of  his  sen'ice 
to  it  in  that  relation,  involving  the  investment  of 
over  $27,000,000,  the  acquisition  by  unavoidable 
foreclosure  and  the  subsequent  sale  of  large 
amounts  of  real  estate,  and  the  personal  oversight 


40(5 


BionnArmcAL  DicrioyARY  axd  ronruAir  gallery  of  the 


and  handling:  of  lliosc  great  interests  during  all 
the  dangerous  and  trying  vicissitudes  which  fell 
upon  the  country  at  large,  and  upon  his  own  city 
in  particular,  during  that  most  eventful  period; 
the  singular  intelligence,  foresight,  sound  judg- 
ment, delicacy,  courage,  fidelity  and  single-heart- 
edness with  which  he  treated  every  question, 
faced  every  emergency  and  discharged  every 
duty;  his  untiring  watchfulness  of  every  interest 
involved;  his  equally  wise  and  kindly  zeal  for  the 
welfare  of  the  company's  debtors  in  the  time  of 
financial  distress;  that  unfailing  courtesy  which 
made  a  long  association  with  him  a  pleasure  as 
well  as  a  high  privilege,  and  their  deep  sense  of 
loss  and  their  sympathy  with  his  bereaved  family." 
During  his  busy  active  life,  Judge  Skinner  was 
associated  with  many  prominent  men,  among 
whom  he  always  wielded  a  great  influence.  His 
life  was  filled  with  good  works;  and  his  strong, 
sympathetic  nature  was  enlisted  in  many  noble 
charities  and  benevolent  causes.  Prominent 
among  these  was  the  work  of  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission,  organized  soon  after  the 
opening  of  the  late  Civil  war.  As  a  member  of 
this  organization  he  was  very  active  in  its  afifairs 
and  gave  of  his  time,  energy  and  money  with- 
out stint  to  further  its  interests.  As  president  also 
of  its  northwestern  branch  he  directed  its  work 
until  compelled  to  resign  by  a  protracted  and 
serious  illness  in  1864.  He  was  decidedly  a  man 
of  afTairs;  and  in  all  enterprises  looking  to  the 
welfare  of  his  adopted  city  he  showed  a  commend- 
able interest.  H:e  assisted  in  organizing  the 
Young  Men's  Association,  which  became  the  Chi- 
cago Library  Association,  the  nucleus  of  whose 
library  was  contributed  by  ]\Ir.  Walter  L.  New- 
berry on  April  24,  1841.  In  recognition  of  his 
hearty  co-operation  and  active  service  in  Chi- 
cago's educational  interests,  the  Skinner  school 
at  the  corner  of  Aberdeen  street  and  Jackson 
boulevard  was  named  in  his  honor.  He  was  a 
charter  trustee  of  the  Cook  County  Hospital;  the 
Chicago  Home  for  the  Friendless  was  always  an 
object  of  his  bounty,  and  he  served  as  one  of  its 
earliest  presidents;  he  helped  to  incorporate  the 
Chicago  Relief  and  Aid  Society;  was  the  first  pres- 
ident of  the  Chicago  Reform  School,  which  he 
helped  to  organize,  and  was  also  a  trustee  of  the 
Illinois  Charitable  Eye  and  Ear  Infimiary. 
Among  the  material  interests  of  Chicago  in 


which  he  was  interested  were  the  old  Galena,  and 
the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  Railroads,  the 
State  Insurance  Company,  the  Chicago  Marine 
&  Fire  Insurance  Company,  the  Chicago  Gas 
Light  &  Coke  Company, — in  each  of  which  he 
was  a  director. 

He  was  a  Presbyterian  in  religious  faith,  and  in 
both  the  Second  and  Fourth  Presbyterian 
Churches,  of  which  he  was  a  member  at  different 
times,  he  served  as  an  elder.  He  was  officially 
connected  with  the  Chicago  Historical  Society 
from  its  beginning,  and  one  of  its  most  ardent 
supporters.  He  also  helped  to  organize  the  New 
England  Society  of  Chicago. 

In  political  sentiment  Judge  Skinner  was  in 
early  life  a  Democrat;  he  afterward  became  an 
earnest  advocate  of  the  anti-slavery  cause,  and 
after  the  formation  of  the  Republican  party, 
throughout  his  life,  was  a  firm  supporter  of  its 
principles. 

On  May  21,  1841,  he  married  Miss  Elizabeth 
Magill  Williams.  Richard,  the  only  son  living 
at  the  time  of  the  Civil  war,  fell  on  June  22,  1861, 
in  the  trenches  before  Petersburg.  A  younger 
son,  Evelyn  Pierrepont,  died  in  childhood.  Four 
daughters  are  still  living,  namely:  Elizabeth; 
Frances,  wife  of  Flenry  J.  Willing:  Frederika; 
and  Susan  Pierrepont,  wife  of  Ambrose  Cramer. 

Judge  Skinner  was  a  man  of  domestic  tastes 
and  loved  his  home,  where,  amid  the  choice  books 
of  his  well-selected  library,  surrounded  with  com- 
fort, the  fruits  of  his  well  directed  efforts,  and  in 
the  midst  of  congenial  companionship,  he  found 
his  highest  enjoyment. 

Notwithstanding  his  loyalty  to  Chicago  and  the 
West,  he  always  maintained  a  profound  love  for 
his  native  State,  and  it  was  his  custom  to  visit 
annually  his  native  place,  Manchester,  for  recre- 
ation and  rest.  There  his  death  occurred,  on  the 
i6th  of  September,  1887,  after  a  lingering  illness, 
which  he  bore  with  patience  and  Christian  forti- 
tude. His  remains  were  interred  beside  those  of 
his  father  and  mother, — a  place  he  himself  had 
selected. 

His  life  was  a  blessing;  and  wherever  he  went 
he  made  the  world  better  and  brighter.  He  was 
universally  loved  and  honored,  and  the  memory 
of  his  good  deeds  and  the  influence  of  his  pure, 
unselfish  life  remain  as  the  influence  of  a  holy 
benediction. 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLIXOTS  VOLUME. 


407 


WILLIAM  H.  SNYDER, 


WILLIA^l  HENRY  SNYDER  was  born  m 
Utica,  New  York,  Jainiar)'  i,  1814.  His 
father,  Jacob  Snyder,  was  a  retired  merchant, 
and  his  niotlier,  whose  maiden  name  was  Frances 
Dodge,  was  a  member  of  tlie  prominent  Do<lg'c 
family  of  Boston. 

Our  subject's  early  life  was  quiet  and  unevent- 
ful, and  his  education  was  such  as  he  was  able  to 
obtain  at  the  Utica  Academy  and  high  school. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  he  decided  to  go  West, 
and  accordingly  went  to  St.  Louis,  where  he 
spent  the  winter  of  1834-5.  In  the  spring  of  the 
latter  year  he  made  a  trip  to  Galena,  and  liking 
the  cit)'  and  its  surroundings,  determined  to  make 
it  his  future  home.  He  accordingly  engaged  in 
merchandising  and  continued  therein  for  the  en- 
suing ten  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period 
he  entered  the  banking  house  of  Smith  &  Carter, 
as  cashier.  Mr.  Smith  afterward  retired,  Mr. 
Carter  continuing  the  business  alone.  Mr.  Sny- 
der remained  with  Mr.  Carter  until  1857,  when  he 
became  secretary  of  the  Galena  Marine  Insurance 
Company,  an  institution  that  continued  in  busi- 
ness for  only  five  years,  but  whose  affairs  were 
so  ably  conducted  by  Mr.  Snyder  that  the  stock- 
holders received  fourteen  dollars  for  every  dollar 
invested!  This  remarkable  evidence  of  good 
management  was  the  result  of  Mr.  Snyder's  far- 
seeing  policy,  in  purchasing  gold,  and  holding  it 
until  he  sold  it  at  200,  and  also  in  purchasing 
Government  bonds. 

After  the  Galena  Marine  Insurance  Company 
went  out  of  business,  the  ^Merchants'  National 
Bank  of  Galena  was  organized,  with  Mr.  Snyder 
as  cashier.  Augustus  Estey  was  president  until 
about  twelve  years  ago,  when  he  was  succeeded 
liy  Thomas  Foster,  who  still  holds  the  office.  Mr. 
Snyder  is  the  executive  officer  of  the  bank,  and 
all  its  details  are  controlled  by  him.  The  bank's 
capital  is  one  Inuulrcd  and  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars,  with  a  suq^lus  of  forty-two  thousand  dol- 


lars; and  during  the  thirty  years  of  its  existence 
has  paid  to  its  stockholders  over  a  quarter  of  a 
million  dollars  in  dividends, — nearly  three  times 
their  capital  stock!  In  all  these  years  it  has 
never  passed  a  dividend, — a  record  probably 
unsurpassed  by  any  other  bank  in  Illinois.  These 
few  statistics  tell  the  story  of  the  able  and  con- 
servative management  of  Galena's  foremost  finan- 
cial institution  and  illustrate  most  forcibly  the 
ability  as  financiers  possessed  by  those  who  di- 
rect its  policy.  Every  financial  crisis  has  been 
safely  passed  over,  and  there  is  "no  sounder  mon- 
etary institution  to-day  than  the  Merchants'  Na- 
tional Bank  of  GaJema. 

Mr.  Snyder  is  a  loyal  adherent  to  the  cause  of 
Democracy,  but  would  never  consent  to  become 
a  candidate  for  office  though  he  could  undoubt- 
edly have  been  elected  to  any  office  within  the 
gift  of  his  fellow  townsmen. 

In  1850  he  was  united  in  marriage  to  IMiss 
Lucretia  McLean,  second  daughter  of  Samuel 
McLean,  of  Alexandria,  Virginia,  who  is  now  a 
resideait  of  Galena.  She  is  a  lady  of  much  force 
of  character.  Of  this  union  there  are  three  chil- 
dren: Wilson,  now  cashier  of  a  bank  at  Sno- 
homish, Washington,  who  has  inherited  his  fa- 
ther's financial  ability,  if  the  results  of  the  past 
3-ear's  business  of  his  bank  be  taken  as  a  criterion, 
— the  stockholders  having  divided  t^venty-seven 
per  cent,  amongst  themselves!  The  second  child 
is  a  daughter,  Fannie,  the  wife  of  C.  S.  Merrick, 
who  for  nineteen  years  has  been  teller  of  the 
Merchants'  National  Bank.  Tlic  youngest  child 
is  a  daughter,  Alice,  who  lives  at  home.  Mr. 
Snyder  and  his  family  are  communicants  of 
the  Episcopal  Church,  and  are  among  the 
strongest  supporters  of  the  parish.  In  per- 
sonal appearance  Mr.  Snyder  is  of  medium 
iieight,  with  a  keen  eye  and  a  firm,  decisive 
mouth  indicative  of  much  force  of  character  and 
business   acumen. 


408 


lilOOUAPIHGAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUTIiAIT  QALLERY  OF  THE 


HORATIO  CHAPIN  BURCHARD, 

FREEPORT. 


FEW,  if  anv,  of  our  American  families  can 
trace  their  ancestral  history  farther  hack 
throiig-h  the  chronicles  of  the  dim  and  misty  past, 
through  a  more  honorable  and  exalted  lineage, 
or  to  a  higher  or  nobler  source,  than  can  the 
Burchard  family.  The  records  of  their  family 
name  are  not  shrouded  in  doubt  or  founded  on 
conjecture.  In  the  annals  of  France,  Germany, 
Holland,  Switzerland  and  England  we  find  well 
authenticated  and  almost  continuous  mention  of 
this  family  from  the  seventh  centun,'  down  to  the 
time  of  their  emigration  to  .America. 

The  name  has  been  variously  spelled:  In 
French,  Bouchard  and  Burchard:  in  German, 
Burchard,  Burckard  and  Burckhardt:  in  English, 
Birchard  and  Burchard;  prior  to  the  sixteenth 
century,  it  was  in  conformity  with  the  usage  of 
the  times,  always  written  in  Latin,  and  was 
Burchardus  or  Burcardus.  The  name  is  derived 
from  the  Latin  words  Burgus  Carus. 

The  first  of  the  name  whose  record  is  entirely 
authentic  was  Johannis  Burchardus,  a  Roman 
Catholic  bishop  and  saint,  born  in  England  early 
in  the  seventh  centur}',  and  who  was  sent  as 
a  diplomat  to  France,  in  732,  by  Pepin  the 
Short,  to  depose  Childeric  IIL  This  ambitious 
prelate  went  to  Germany  in  compajiy  with  St. 
Boniface  to  evangelize  the  Germans.  He  was 
made  the  first  bishop  of  Wurzburg  in  Franconia, 
and  is  said  to  have  been  the  father  of  the  Fran- 
conian  dukes.  The  Emperor  Charlemagne  sent 
a  nobleman  of  the  name  of  Burchardus  as  ad- 
miral into  Italy  and  Spain.  The  first  Christian 
Baron  of  France  followed  the  court  of  Hugh  the 
Great,  Duke  of  France.  We  find  his  name  signed 
to  many  important  documents.  This  distin- 
guished man  belonged  to  the  Montmorency  fam- 
ily, which  house  was  the  most  illustrious  in 
France  after  the  royal  famih'.  The  sires  of  Mont- 
morency figure  prominently  in  the  crusades  and 
wars  of  the  middle  ages.  They  were  allied  to 
the  royal  family  of  France  by  marriage.  Henr\' 
IV,  King  of  France,  said:  "If  the  house'  of 
Bourbon  should  perish  none  are  more  worthy 
to  fill  its  place  than  that  of  Montmorency;  i.  e., 
Bouchard  or  Burchard.     In  the  eleventh  century 


we  find  a  P>urchard  as  bishop  of  Worms;  an- 
other of  tlie  name  as  bishop  of  Halbenstadt,  a 
town  of  Prussia;  and  another,  Burchardus  Ab- 
bey, author  of  the  famous  Diarium  Burchardi, 
which  contains  the  history  of  Frederic  I, 
called  Barbarossa.  This  historian  died  1326. 
Johannis  Burchardus,  born  at  Strassburg  1485, 
became  master  of  ceremonies  for  Pope  Alexander 
^T.  He  was  Bishop  De  Citta  di  Castelle.  His 
Diarium  Alexandri  Papje  is  a  complete  history 
of  that  wicked  pope,  and  is  called  the  Diarium 
Burchardi. 

llie  first  of  the  name  who  came  to  America 
\\ns  Thomas  Burchard.  born  in  Roxbury,  Eng- 
land, 15Q5,  came  to  this  countr\'  on  the  ship  True- 
love  and  landed  in  Boston  1635.  He  was  a  man 
of  wealth  and  note.  He  settled  at  Saybrook, 
Connecticut,  and  was  deputy  from  that  town  to 
the  general  court  of  Hartford,  1650-1.  John 
Burchard,  his  son,  was  a  man  of  great  celebrity 
in  his  day.  He  owned  the  island  of  Martha's 
\'ineyard,  and  was  one  of  the  proprietors  of 
Norwich,  Connecticut.  His  plat  of  ground  con- 
tained over  seven  acres,  on  which  he  built  a 
house  which  is  still  standing.  He  held  various 
municipal  offices,  and  died  in  Lebanon,  Connec- 
ticut, 1702. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  all  the  Burchards,  or 
most  of  that  name,  in  America,  trace  their  lineage 
back  to  Thomas  Burchard.  The  line  of  descent 
from  the  pioneer  Thomas  Burchard  to  Hon. 
Horatio  C.  Burchard,  is  as  follows:  Thomas, 
John,  James,  John,  John,  John,  Jonathan,  Hora- 
tio, Horatio  C, — Horatio  C.  thus  representing 
the  ninth  generation  in  America.  Many  of  the 
descendants  of  Thomas  Burchard  have  won  dis- 
tinction in  America, — perhaps  the  most  promi- 
nent among  them  being  the  late  president  of 
the  L^nited  States,  Hon.  Rutherford  B.  Hayes. 
His  mother  was  Sophia  Burchard,  and  he  was 
third  cousin  to  Hon.  H.  C.  Burchard. 

Hon.  Horatio  Chapin  Burchard  was  bom  at 
Marshall,  Oneida  county.  New  York,  September 
22,  1825.  He  attended  the  public  schools  until 
thirteen  years  of  age,  when  his  father  removed 
to  Aurora,  Erie  county,  New  York,  in  1838,  and 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


409 


remained  there  until  1840.  During  this  period 
the  son  was  in  attendance  at  the  Aurora  Acad- 
emy. His  parents  then  removed  to  Beloit,  Wis- 
consin, where  young  Burchard  attended  the 
Beloit  Seminar}',  now  Beloit  College.  In  1847 
he  entered  Hamilton  College,  Clinton,  New 
York.  During  his  collegiate  course  he  studied 
law  under  the  instruction  of  Hon.  Theodore  W. 
Dwight,  then  professor  of  law  at  Hamilton  Col- 
lege, later  of  Columbia  College.  After  gradua- 
tion in  1850  he  continued  the  stud\'  of  law  and 
was  adniited  to  the  bar  at  Monroe,  Green  county, 
Wisconsin ;  and  soon  afterward,  his  health  failing, 
he  took  a  job  in  surveying  the  line  of  railroad 
from  Monroe  to  Dubuque  (now  a  part  of  the 
Chicago,  Milwaukee  &:  St.  Paul).  Operations 
suspended  in  1853  and  he  came  to  Freeport,  and 
in  the  spring  of  1854  took  charge  of  the  schools 
here.  A  year  later  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
the  late  Colonel  Thomas  J.  Turner,  in  the  prac- 
tice of  law,  and  within  a  few  months  the  late 
Judge  E.  P.  Barton  was  admitted  to  the  firm. 
In  1858,  Colonel  Turner  withdrew,  and  two  years 
later  H.  M.  Barnum  was  admitted,  the  firm  being 
Burchard.  Barton  &  Pianium.  which  continued 
until  1874.  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Burchard 
served  as  police  magistrate,  school  commissioner 
three  years. — 1857- 1860, — and  was  also  interested 
from  1862  to  1869,  in  company  with  his  brother, 
in  the  hardware  business.  In  November,  1862, 
he  was  elected  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Illi- 
nois, and  re-elected  again  in  1864.  During  his 
first  term  he  was  a  member  of  the  committee  on 
claims.  This  was  during  the  troublous  times 
when  the  two-thirds  antagonistic  legislature  un- 
der Governor  Yates  sought  to  embarrass  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war, 
by  various  obstructionist  methods.  Mr.  Burch- 
ard was  an  active  member  of  the  minority,  and 
prominent  in  his  opposition  to  the  schemes, 
which  were  finally  brought  to  naught  by  the  pro- 
roguing of  the  legislature.  During  his  second 
term  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee  of  banks 
and  corporations.  Among  tlie  measures  which 
he  introduced  and  which  became  laws  was  one 
providing  for  the  taking  and  counting  of  the  votes 
of  Illinois  soldiers  absent  in  the  United  States 
service,  and  another  for  the  prevention  of  fraud  in 
voting  by  proper  registration,     .\fter  the  expira- 


tion of  his  second  term  in  1865  he  for  four  years 
devoted  himself  exclusively  to  his  legal  and  pri- 
vate business.  In  1869,  however,  when  the  Hon. 
E.  B.  Washburn  became  secretan,^  of  State  and 
resigned  his  position  as  Congressman.  Mr.  Bur- 
chard was  elected  to  the  vacancy,  and  In-  a  suc- 
cession of  four  subsequent  nominations  and  elec- 
tions held  this  honorable  position  the  succeeding 
ten  years.  Upon  his  entrance  into  the  United 
States  Congress,  Mr.  Burchard  began  taking  an 
earnest  interest  in  financial  and  revenue  affairs. 
He  served  on  the  committee  on  banking  and  cur- 
rency, of  w-hich  General  Garfield  was  chairman. 
He  served  subsequently  on  the  ways  and  means 
committee  contemporaneously  with  Blaine,  Gar- 
field, Kelley,  Dawes  and  Banks. 

When  in  1869  came  the  decline  in  the  premium 
on  gold,  Mr.  Burchard  voted  against  the  resolu- 
tion i5resented  in  the  house  advocating  an  increase 
of  fifty  million  dollars  in  the  circulating  cur- 
rency, although  it  received  the  unanimous  vote 
of  the  other  representatives  of  his  State,  and  al- 
most the  solid  vote  of  members  from  the  entire 
Northwest.  He  defended  this  action  in  an  elabo- 
rate speech  vehemently  opposing  an  increase  of 
the  papei-  currency  without  providing  a  coin  re- 
serve, and  urged  a  speedy  return  to  a  system  of 
specie  payments. 

In  1870  General  Grant  called  the  attention  of 
Congress  to  the  necessitv'  of  educating  the  newly 
enfranchised  colored  voters  of  the  South.  A  bill 
w-as  reported  by  the  connnittee  on  education  and 
labor,  proposing  to  place  under  the  charge  of  the 
general  Government  the  education  of  all  children 
in  the  United  States  e.xcept  in  such  States  as  main- 
tained a  system  of  free  schools  for  all  children  of 
the  State.  The  bill  called  for  the  appointment  of 
officei^s  to  carry  out  its  provisions,  and  for  the 
appropriation  of  fifty  million  dollars  a  year  to  de- 
fray the  expense.  ^Ir.  Burchard  doubted  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  Federal  Government  charg- 
ing itself  with  the  education  of  children  in  the 
several  States,  and  introduced  a  substitute  bill, 
providing  for  the  setting  apart  and  dedicating  of 
the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  public  lands  to  aid 
the  establishment  of  a  system  of  free  schools  in  the 
various  States,  and  appropriating  the  annual  pro- 
cee<ls  to  each  State  according  to  the  population. 
This  bill  was  pending  for  two  sessions,  and  the 


410 


BIOORAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


house  comniitttoc  on  education  and  labor  finally 
discarded  the  original  bill  and  reported  one  in- 
corporating the  major  portion  of  Mr.  Burchard's 
idea. 

His  speeches  on  the  revenue  question  during 
his  eight-year  service  on  the  committee  of  ways 
and  means,  are  conspicuous  for  their  comprehen- 
sive, exhausting  and  logical  compilation  of  facts, 
and  their  candid  and  suggestive  argument.  Free 
alike  from  invective  and  sophistical  reasoning, 
they  have  been  freely  quoted  by  the  best  informed, 
of  both  political  parties. 

Near  the  close  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress 
during  the  excitement  consequent  upon  the  close 
presidential  election,  when  the  vote  of  a  single 
State  would  decide,  a  committee  was  appointed 
by  the  house  of  representatives  to  inquire  into 
and  report  on  the  privileges,  powers  and  duties  of 
the  house  of  representatives  in  counting  the  elec- 
toral vote.  Mr.  Burchard  was  made  a  member  of 
that  committee,  and  after  the  taking  of  evidence 
had  been  concluded  he  prepared  a  report  pre- 
senting the  views  of  his  associates, — the  minority 
of  the  committee — which  accompanied  the  ma- 
jority report.  This  report  contained  an  able  re- 
view of  the  powers  of  the  house,  and  showed  a 
sound  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  con- 
stitutional rights  and  privileges  of  the  presiding 
officer  as  established  by  precedence  in  counting 
the  electoral  vote.  The  following  is  the  final  reso- 
lution of  the  minority  report,  viz. : 

"Resolved,  That  in  the  absence  of  legislative 
provision  on  the  subject  or  authoritative  directions 
from  the  senate  and  house  of  representatives,  the 
president  of  the  senate,  upon  opening  the  certifi- 
cates, declares  and  counts  the  electoral  votes  for 
president  and  vice-president  of  the  United  States."' 

This  resolution  met  the  views  of  the  Republican 
members  of  the  house  and  was  voted  for  and  sus- 
tained by  them. 

In  1879  Mr.  Burchard  was  appointed  by  Presi- 
dent Hayes  director  of  the  mint,  being  thus  placed 
in  charge  of  all  the  mints  and  assay  offices  in  the 
United  States,  ten  in  number.  He  proved  his  emi- 
nent fitness  for  this  important  trust  by  an  honest, 
economical  and  intelligent  administration  of  the 
office,  and  proved  himself  to  be  one  of  those  val- 
uable officers  of  our  Government  who  combine 
with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  official  duties  a 
scholarly  education,  the  professional  training  of  a 


law3'er,  the  business  sagacity  and  practical  infor- 
mation of  a  merchant,  and  a  knowledge  of  the 
statutes  and  of  public  affairs  acquired  by  an  ex- 
tended Congressional  service.  Soon  after  his  en- 
tering on  the  office  of  director,  Mr.  Burchard,  in 
addition  to  making  him.'^elf  acquainted  with  the 
business  of  mints  and  metallurgical  processes  em- 
ployed at  the  refineries,  began  perfecting  the  ac- 
counts rendered  to  the  department,  so  as  to  ex- 
hibit more  accurately  the  business  transacted,  and 
succeeded  in  reducing  them  to  an  almost  perfect 
system.  In  1880  he  called  the  attention  of  Con- 
gress to  the  desirability  of  collecting  and  compil- 
ing information  in  relation  to  the  productions  of 
the  precious  metals  in  this  country.  The  wisdom 
of  his  suggestion  was  recognized,  and  an  appro- 
priation of  five  thousand  dollars  was  made  for 
that  purpose  and  the  work  placed  under  his 
charge.  His  reports  on  this  subject  have  been 
very  complete,  and  have  since  become  very  valu- 
able. While  engaged  in  this  work,  Mr.  Burchard 
extended  his  labors  and  investigations  to  the  col- 
lection of  statistics  of  the  production,  coinage  and 
circulation  of  the  various  countries  of  the  world. 
The  results  were  published  in  tables  in  his  annual 
reports  and  atti^acted  the  attention  of  the  savants 
and  statisticians  of  the  world,  from  whom  they 
received  many  complimentary  notices.  They  were 
accepted  as  authority,  and  were  at  the  time  of  their 
publication  the  most  complete  tables  of  the  kind 
extant  in  the  world.  Their  value  was  proven  to 
be  such  that  a  like  system  of  tables  have  been  com- 
piled and  published  annually  by  his  successors 
since. 

As  director  of  the  mint  Mr.  Burchard's  admin- 
istration was  marked  by  a  sound  understanding 
of  the  business  transacted  at  the  mints  and  assay 
offices,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  laws  govern- 
ing them,  and  the  rigid  enforcement  of  the  regu- 
lations based  upon  them.  He  served  the  full 
term  of  five  years,  was  re-appointed  by  President 
Arthur,  and  continued  to  hold  the  office  until  the 
change  of  administration  and  the  close  of  the 
fiscal  year,  1885.  Upon  his  return  home,  a  public 
reception  was  tendered  him  by  the  citizens  of  Free- 
port.  He  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
and  was  soon  after  appointed  a  member  of  the 
revesnue  commission  to  revise  the  revenue  laws  of 
the  State. 

When  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  was 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


411 


1k'1(1  in  Chicago,  Mr.  Burchard  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  mining  department,  Bureau  of 
Awards,  and  gave  this  his  entire  attention  from 
April  until  December,  1893,  whai  he  returned  to 
Freeport  and  once  more  resumed  the  pursuit  of 
his  profession  and  his  private  affairs. 

In  all  of  the  positions  of  honor  and  trust  to 
which  Mr.  Burchard  has  been  called  he  has  dis- 
tinguished himself.  His  honesty  aiid  integrity 
has  been  unquestioned,  while  time  has  proven  the 
soundness  and  wisdom  of  most  of  the  measures 
which  he  advocated.  He  has  been  an  earnest,  in- 
telligent, untiring  worker,  and  the  public  good, 
not  partisan  policy,  has  dominated  his  course.  It 
is  perhaps  safe  to  say  that  no  other  man  in  his 
district  could  have  so  ably  and  fully  filled  Wash- 
burn's place  in  Congress.  He  won  an  honorable 
distinction  in  our  national  councils,  and  his  name 
will  go  do\\  n  in  historv  as  one  of  the  able,  trust- 


worthy, incorruptible,  public  officials  during  a 
period  when  corruption  was  rife  in  the  land, 
and  when  it  required  more  thaji  ordinary  moral 
bravery  and  intellectual  acumen  to  sustain  a  suc- 
cessful conflict  for  the  right. 

Mr.  Burchard  was  married  May  15,  1861,  to 
Miss  Jane  Lawyer,  of  Stephenson  county,  and 
they  have  had  one  child.  Edward  Lawyer  Bur- 
chard, bom  September  5,  1867,  was  graduated  at 
the  Beloit  College  1891,  was  clerk  in  the  Mining 
Department  at  the  World's  Fair,  soon  became 
chief  clerk  of  that  department,  and  after  closing  up 
the  affairs  of  his  department,  was  appointed  re- 
corder and  librarian  of  the  Field  Columbian  Mu- 
seum, which  position  he  now  holds.  He  was  mar- 
ried in  October,  1893,  to  Alice,  daughter  of  Judge 
E.  P.  Barton,  of  Freeport. 

I\Irs.  Burchard,  wife  of  Hon.  Horatio  C,  died 
November  17,  1892. 


MORRIS  ROSENFIELD, 


MORRIS  ROSENFIELD  was  born  De- 
cember 18,  1841,  in  tlie  little  village  of 
Miihringen,  Germany,  and  is  the  eldest  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Jacob  and  Helen  (Ullman)  Rosenfield, 
the  former  a  merchant  of  that  place.  His  boy- 
hood was  passed  in  his  native  town,  where  he 
obtained  his  rudimentary  education,  afterward 
taking  a  course  at  one  of  the  higher  schools  in 
Germany. 

In  1858  he  came  to  America,  and,  having  rela- 
tives in  Rock  Island,  made  that  city  his  home. 
Upon  his  arriving  he  accepted  a  clerical  position 
with  the  hide  and  leather  house  of  J.  &  M. 
Rosenfield,  the  members  of  which  were  his 
uncles,  and  in  1864  was  admitted  to  a  partner- 
ship. Here  he  remained  until  1869,  when  he 
sold  out  and  purchased  an  interest  in  a  small 
hand  wagon  shop  in  Moline.  For  two  years  the 
business  was  carried  on  in  a  comparatively  small 
way,  under  the  firm  name  of  First  &  Rosenfield, 
at  the  expiration  of  which  period  Mr.  First 
retired  and  Mr.  Rosenfield  incorporated  the  busi- 
ness under  the  title  of  The  Moline  Wagon  Com- 
pany, with  a  capital  stock  of  one  hundred  thou- 


sand dollars.  Success  attended  the  business  of 
the  new  concern,  and  it  stands  to-day  one  of 
the  largest  and  best  known  establishments  of 
its  kind  in  the  country.  Its  capacity  is  one  hun- 
dred farm  wagons  daily,  which  find  a  ready 
market  throughout  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada, and  in  the  busy  season  of  the  year  from 
five  hundred  and  fifty  to  six  hundred  men  are 
employed.  Its  plant  is  a  most  complete  one,  and 
covers  an  area  of  about  eight  acres  in  the  heart 
of  the  Moline  manufacturing  district.  Mr.  Rosen- 
field is  the  largest  stockholder  in  the  company, 
and  its  president.  Its  great  success  is  due  no 
less  to  his  close  attention  than  to  his  sound  busi- 
ness methods. 

Mr.  Rosenfield  is  also  a  stockholder  in  the 
Mutual  Wheel  Company  of  Moline,  of  which  he 
is  the  vice-president;  and  he  is  also  a  stockholder 
in  other  manufacturing  enterprises.  He  is  also 
a  stockholder  and  director  of  the  First  National 
Bank  of  Moline,  and  is  the  vice-president  of  the 
People's  Savings  Bank  of  the  same  city. 

He  is  a  strong  Republican,  and  was  a  delegate 
to  the  National  Republican  Convention  at  Min- 


412 


BIOGRAPUICAL  DICriONARY  AND  rOUTUAIT  OALLEItY  OF  THE 


neapolis  in  1892.  Hut  while-  a  strong  partisan, 
he  is  not  an  office-seeker,  and  has  never  allowed 
his  name  to  be  used  in  connection  with  a  public 
office.  The  vast  business  whose  affairs  he 
directs  is  of  too  great  magnitude  to  allow  him  to 
accept  office,  even  if  he  were  ambitious  in  that 
direction. 

Mr.  Rosenfield  was  married  in  1874  to  Miss 
Julia   E.  Ottenheimer,  of  Cincinnati,   a  lady   of 


great  popularity  and  sc)cial  distinction.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Rosenfield  have  three  children:  Irene, 
who  is  attending  Mt.  Vernon  Seminary,  at 
Washington;  Walter  A.,  a  student  at  the  Man- 
lius  (N.  Y.)  Military  Academy,  and  Charles  D., 
who  is  at  home.  The  residence  of  Mr.  Rosen- 
field is  in  Rock  Island,  and  the  new  home,  which 
he  has  recently  erected,  is  by  far  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  elegant  in  the  three  cities. 


MOSHIER  TORRY  GREENE, 


SUCCESS  in  any  line  of  occupation,  in  any 
avenue  of  business,  is  not  a  matter  of  spon- 
taneity, but  is  the  legitimate  offspring  of  subjec- 
tive effort  in  the  proper  utilization  of  the  means 
at  hand,  the  improvement  of  opportunity  and  the 
exercise  of  the  highest  functions  made  possible 
by  the  specific  ability  in  any  case.  In  view  of 
this  condition  the  study  of  biography  becomes 
valuable  and  its  lessions  of  practical  use.  To  trace 
the  history  of  a  successful  life,  be  it  in  the  electri- 
cal world  of  business,  where  competition  is  rife; 
in  the  intellectual  field,  where  devotees  open  up 
the  wider  realms  of  knowledge ;  in  a  public  sphere, 
where  is  directed  the  course  of  government  and 
the  policies  formed  that  sway  nations;  or  in  the 
calm  and  peaceful  pursuits  which  have  to  do  with 
the  source  of  all  supplies— the  calling  forth  from 
the  earth  her  benefices  and  goodly  returns, — 
must  ever  prove  profitable  and  satisfying  indul- 
gence, for  the  history  of  the  individual  is  the  his- 
tory of  the  nation;  the  history  of  the  nation  that 
of  the  world.  Under  the  initial  element  of  this 
category  may  we  direct  attention  to  the  life  of 
him  whose  name  initiates  this  review — a  man 
who,  though  called  from  the  scene  of  earthly  en- 
deavor at  an  untimely  age  and  by  most  untoward 
accident,  had  not  been  denied  an  almost  phenom- 
enal measure  of  success;  whose  military  record 
w^as  one  of  honor,  and  whose  private  life  was  most 
exemplary  and  worthy  of  emulation.  A  work  of 
this  nature  exercises  its  most  important  function 
when  it  enters  a  memoir  of  the  life  and  accom- 
plishment of  such  a  man — one  who  has  been  in 
the  fullest  sense  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune. 


and  whose  virile  strength  was  as  the  number  of 
his  days. 

Mr.  Greene  eminently  deser\-es  classification 
among  those  purely  self-made  men  of  Chicago 
who  have  distinguished  themselves  for  their  abil- 
ity to  master  the  opposing  forces  of  life  and  to 
wrest  from  fate  a  large  measure  of  success  and 
an  honorable  name.  Moshier  T.  Greene  had 
his  nativity  encompassed  by  those  environments 
which  have  ever  fostered  the  spirit  of  personal  in- 
dependence and  self-reliance  which  have  furnished 
the  bulwarks  of  our  national  prosperity  and  won- 
derful industrial  development.  He  was  born  on 
a  farm  in  Huron  county,  Ohio,  on  the  i8th  of 
April,  1846,  the  son  of  Ferguson  and  Mary  S. 
(Torry)  Greene,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  the 
Empire  State.  The  father  while  yet  in  the  full  vigor 
of  his  manhood  was  called  upon  to  obey  death's 
inexorable  summons,  his  demise  occurring  in 
1852.  His  life  had  been  one  of  signal  honor  and 
usefulness,  and  held  promise  for  still  greater 
achievement,  as  did  that  of  his  son,  our  subject, 
w  ho  also  met  his  deaith  ere  he  had  yet  attained  to 
the  summit  to  which  his  abilities  and  ambition 
directed  him.  The  venerable  mother  is  still  liv- 
ing. 

The  parents  were  people  of  intelligence  and  hon- 
est woilh,  and  believing  in  the  earnestness  and 
reality  of  life  and  that  every  person  should  fill  the 
highest  sphere  of  usefulness  of  which  he  was 
capable,  they  sought  to  afford  their  children  the 
best  possible  education  which  they  had  means  to 
provide.  But  the  early  death  of  the  father  threw 
a  responsibility  upon  his  progeny  and  this  they 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


413 


did  not  shirk.  The  son,  Moshier  T.,  being  thrown 
largely  upon  his  own  resources,  needed  no  special 
incentive  or  inspiration  to  urge  him  forward  in  the 
securing  of  a  good  education  and  to  mal^e  such 
efTort  as  would  enable  him  to  rise  in  the  social  or 
business  scale.  His  inclinations  from  his  early 
youth  were  in  that  direction,  and  accordingly  his 
summers  were  spent  in  hard  work  on  the  farm 
and  his  winters  in  tiie  district  school.  A  little 
later  he  worked  out  by  the  month,  and  thus  earned 
sut^cient  funds  to  meet  his  expenses  at  school 
during  the  ensuing  winter.  Having  mastered  the 
elementary  studies,  he  went  to  Naples,  New 
York,  where  he  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  the 
academy,  working  at  first  at  the  rate  of  seven 
dollars  per  month  to  pay  his  expenses. 

While  he  was  thus  engaged  the  lurid  cloud  of 
civil  war  flew  athwart  the  national  horizon  and 
our  suljject  had  the  loyal  patriotism  which  was 
not  one  of  inaction  and  he  was  not  slow  to  mani- 
fest his  desire  to  undertake  this  higher  and  sterner 
duty  which  was  involved  in  the  menace  of  anned 
rebellion.  At  the  opening  of  the  war  he  was  yet 
too  young  to  be  accepted  as  a  volunteer,  but  when 
he  attained  the  age  of  seventeen  years  he  was 
accepted  and  became  a  member  of  the  Twenty- 
sixth  New  York  Battery.  In  this  connection  he 
sei-ved  under  General  Canby,  and  was  present  at 
the  taking  of  Mobile  and  Spanish  Fort,  and  par- 
ticipated in  other  notable  engagements  of  the  war, 
remaining  in  the  ser\'ice  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

After  the  closing  of  his  honorable  military  ca- 
reer Mr.  Greene  returned  to  his  home  in  New 
York,  and  in  November,  1865,  he  went  to  Harri- 
sonville,  Cass  county,  Missouri,  where  in  the  fol- 
lowing January  he  opened  a  lumber  yard,  and  thus 
initiated  his  connection  with  a  line  of  enterprise  in 
which  he  eventually  became  one  of  the  most  ex- 
tensive operators  in  the  Union.  There  was  ai 
that  period  a  great  demand  for  lumber  in  the 
Western  country,  which  was  being  rapidly  opened 
to  settlement,  and  thus  he  was  enabled  to  do  a 
very  successful  business,  continuing  operations  in 
Harrisonville  until  1868,  when  he  disposed  of  his 
interests  at  that  point  and  removed  to  La  Cygne, 
Kansas,  where  he  entered  into  the  same  line  of 
business.  The  Kansas  City,  Fort  Scott  &  Gulf 
Railway  had  not  yet  reached  that  town,  and  the 
surrounding  country  was  still  in  the  initial  stages 


of  development,  but  tlic  location  proved  most  eli- 
gible for  an  active  and  intelligent  lumber  dealer. 
In  fact  there  came  from  all  that  Western  country 
a  constantly  augmentive  demand  for  lumber  to 
he  utilized  in  the  construction  of  buildings,  fences, 
etc.,  and  Mr.  Greene  had  too  much  divination  and 
discernment  to  allow  this  demand  to  continue 
without  an  effort  to  turn  it  to  his  advantage.  He 
redonljled  his  efTorts,  and  soon  began  to  estab- 
lish lumber  yards  in  other  Western  towns — in 
Nebraska,  Kansas,  Iowa  and  Missouri.  So  rap- 
idly and  discriniinately  did  he  push  forward  his 
business  operations  and  so  skillfully  did  he  man- 
age the  expansion  of  his  interests  that  when  he 
came  to  Chicago,  in  1872,  he  was  the  owner  of 
twenty  different  yards.  He  had  seen  the  practi- 
cal expediency  of  establishing  a  central  point  for 
niangement  and  distribution  of  supplies,  and  ac- 
cordingly Chicago  was  selected.  This  was  a 
move  of  great  importance,  and  proved  Mr. 
Greene's  possession  of  marked  sagacity  and 
superior  business  qualifications.  From  his  head- 
quarters here  he  kept  steadily  at  work,  expanding 
his  interests  in  all  directions,  and  directing  details 
with  a  precision  and  comprehension  almost  phe- 
nomenal— multiplying  his  yards,  both  in  number 
and  extent,  until  at  one  time  he  was  the  owner 
of  three  hundred  and  twenty  yards,  disseminated 
over  the  Union,  from  New  York  city  to  the  Rocky 
mountains. 

It  seems  almost  incredible  that  one  man,  in  so 
short  a  time,  through  his  own  resources  and  by 
his  own  energy  and  ability,  should  have  been  able 
to  build  up  such  a  gigantic  business.  When  such 
instances  are  noted  it  is  not  strange  that  the  lum- 
ber trade  of  Chicago  has  become  one  of  the  mar- 
vels of  this  extraordinary  city.  It  is  such  men, 
such  intelligence  and  such  enterprise  that  have 
placed  Chicago  at  the  head  of  the  industrial  cities 
of  the  world.  At  this  point  we  can  not  do  better 
than  to  quote  from  a  sketch  of  his  career,  which 
appeared  in  connection  with  an  obituary  notice, 
in  the  Northw-estern  Lumberman,  of  August  17, 
1895: 

"His  phenomenal  organizing  and  managing 
capacity  found  unceasing  vent,  and  besides  involv- 
ing enormous  concessions  from  railroads,  he  be- 
came not  only  the  largest,  but  the  best  buyer  of 
lumber  known  to  the  trade.     His  ambition,  his 


414 


BIOORAPIItCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


nerve  and  his  operations  were  alike  boundless, 
the  latter  extending  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and,  as 
the  result  of  his  efforts,  involving  millions  of  cap- 
ital. His  credit  had  expanded  until  he  commanded 
bank  accommodations,  the  extent  of  which,  if 
known,  would  have  startled,  if  not  dismayed,  the 
financial  community.  His  operations  in  a  single 
year  amounted  to  the  fabulous  sum  of  nineteen 
million  dollars,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that 
they  were  unmatched  in  the  lumber  world.  As  the 
central  figure  in  the  Chicago  Lumber  Company, 
and  numerous  ventures  under  other  names,  his 
interests  were  diversified  and  great,  far  beyond 
those  of  any  other  one  concern  known  to  the  trade. 
He  was  a  great  buyer,  and  many  were  the  sales- 
men that  went  down  under  the  fire  of  his  resist- 
less aggression.  He  was  not  a  wonderful  talker, 
but  his  magnetism  and  the  eloquence  of  eyes,  im- 
matched  for  expressive  power,  made  up  for  every- 
thing. In  their  depths  was  reflected  the  restless, 
virile  mind,  from  the  icy  glitter  of  disapproval  to 
the  melting  glow  of  sympathy.  They  would  flash 
a  resistless  surge  of  energy  or  have  in  them  the 
shadow  of  sadness. 

"He  established  and  conducted  in  his  day  the 
greatest  of  Chicago  lumber  yards.  This  was 
abandoned  in  1891  and  the  direction  of  afifairs 
became  centered  in  an  office  since  maintained  in 
the  Auditoriimi  building.  During  this  period  Mr. 
Greene  was  gradually  relinquishing  his  Western 
interests,  and  devoting  his  attention  largely  to  the 
Yellow  Poplar  Lumber  Company,  in  Ohio  and 
Kentucky,  the  largest  of  poplar  plants  in  the  coun- 
try. He  was  made  the  president  of  the  Poplar 
Manufacturers'  Association,  and  was  the  incum- 
bent of  that  office  at  the  time  of  his  death.  His 
prominence  in  this  field  made  him  at  once  a  power 
and  a  target  for  shafts  of  envy,  if  not  malice,  from 
many  directions.  Mr.  Greene  was  long  an  active 
and,  as  in  evers'thing  else,  aggressive  member  of 
the  Lumbermen's  Exchange  of  Chicago.  He  was 
also  among  the  presidents  of  the  Lumbermen's 
Mutual  Insurance  Company,  of  this  city,  and  in 
many  such  distinctions  found  evidence  of  the  con- 
fidence of  his  fellow  lumbermen." 

Here  we  have  a  poor  boy  who  educated  himself, 
went  out  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen  years  to 
figlit  his  country's  battles,  came  home  to  put  his 
hands  to  the  tasks  of  peaceful  life,  skillfully  and  by 


his  own  efforts  built  up  a  business  and  organized 
a  lumber  company  which,  within  about  twenty 
years,  received  a  patronage  of  about  nineteen 
million  dollars  annually.  While  such  extraor- 
dinary accomplishments,  almost  like  fairy  tales, 
fail  to  arouse  any  serious  connnent  or  apprecia- 
tion, it  is  not  on  the  score  that  achievement  is 
not  wonderful,  but  simply  because  business  enter- 
prises of  so  magnificent  order  are  no  longer  rare 
or  unconmion  in  Chicago,  though  the  history  of 
such  a  subjective  personal  success  is  exceptional. 
In  connection  with  his  extensive  dealings  in  pop- 
lar lumber  along  the  Ohio  river  it  may  be  noted 
that  he  had  three  saw  mills,  two  on  the  Kentucky 
side  and  one  on  the  Ohio,  which  annually  pro- 
duce fifty  million  feet  of  lumber.  About  six 
months  prior  to  his  death  he  withdrew  the  major 
part  of  his  interests  in  these  mills,  and  F.  C.  Fisher, 
of  Denver,  became  the  manager  of  the  enterprise. 
He  was  also  the  owner  and  operator  of  an  exten- 
sive coal  mine  at  Rock  Springs,  Wyoming,  the 
daily  output  of  the  same  being  sixteen  hundred 
tons  of  coal,  which  finds  a  market  throughout  the 
West.  Of  this  property  he  also  disposed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1895.  Prior  to  his  death  he 
was  simplifying  and  unifying  his  great  and  diverse 
business  interests,  and  had  succeeded  in  contract- 
ing them  within  something  like  the  limitations  he 
wished  to  set. 

The  death  of  this  strong,  vital  and  useful  citizen 
was  one  of  pitifully  tragic  order  and  was  one  in 
which  was  shown  in  tender  relief  the  innate  and 
deep  humanity  of  his  nature,  and  the  sterling  hero- 
ism which  animated  him.  While  temporarily  so- 
journing at  Highland  Park,  a  suburban  village 
on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan,  north  of  Chicago, 
as  the  guest  of  his  son-in-law,  W.  A.  Alexander, 
Mr.  Greene  and  a  coachman  took  the  family  dog 
into  a  small  boat  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the 
animal  a  swim.  After  the  boat  had  been  pulled 
a  short  distance  out  into  the  lake  the  dog  was 
put  overboard,  and  when,  somewhat  later,  an 
effort  was  made  to  put  him  aboard  again,  the  boat 
was  capsized  and  its  occupants  precipitated  into 
the  lake.  Mr.  Greene,  being  a  good  swimmer,  at 
once  struck  out  for  the  shore,  but  discovering  that 
the  coachman  could  not  swim  and  was  in  trouble, 
he  at  once  turned  back  and  went  to  the  assistance 
of  the  frightened  and  drowning  man.    As  is  usual 


REPRESENTATirE  MEI^  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


415 


in  such  cases,  the  latter  grappled  with  his  would- 
be  rescuer,  and  in  the  struggle  which  ensued  both 
sank  to  a  watery  grave, — the  one  the  victim  of 
accident  alone,  the  other  a  noble  and  almost  vol- 
untary sacrifice!  That  such  a  life  should  have  met 
with  such  an  untimely  and  inglorious — in  one 
sense — extinction  is  a  startling  instance  of  that 
which  has  been  designated  the  irony  of  fate.  Here 
was  a  man  who  had  emerged  unscathed  from  the 
field  of  battle,  who  had  encountered  in  safety  the 
manifold  dangers  that  beset  one  who  traverses  the 
great  artificial  highways  of  our  country  at  frequent 
intervals,  and  who,  while  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
moment  of  relaxation  and  surrounded  by  the  con- 
ciimitants  of  pleasure  and  with  no  expectation  of 
anything  of  the  least  tragic  order,  is  suddenly  sum- 
moned into  the  life  eternal,  imperatively,  while 
performing  an  act  of  heroic  unselfishness.  The 
cord  of  life  had  not  yet  been  frayed  nor  the  cruise 
run  dr}',  and  yet  the  summons  was  as  irrevocable 
as  though  this  had  been  the  consistent  merging 
into  the  infinite  of  a  finite  life  which  had  been  fully 
rounded  out  in  the  span  of  many  years.  We  can 
not  but  view  with  the  fullest  measure  of  regret  the 
death  of  such  a  man  at  the  period  which  represents 
his  greatest  usefulness,  and  the  reconciliation  of 
finite  and  infinite  wisdom  is  difiicult  in  the  ex- 
treme when  death  thus  claims. 

Mr.  Greene  was  a  man  of  scrupulous  honor. 
There  was  never  any  questionable  or  devioiis 
method  charged  to  him.  He  had  a  grateful  con- 
fidence and  trust  in  his  fellow  men  and  this  con- 
fidence was  seldom  if  ever  abused,  for  men  re- 
spected him  and  were  constrained  to  render  him 
his  just  dues.  That  he  was  brave,  generous  and 
humane  is  best  attested  in  the  heroic  act  which 


cost  him  his  life;  and  that  he  was  considerate, 
warm-hearted  and  fascinating  in  his  magnetic  per- 
sonality, those  who  were  closest  to  him  in  his  do- 
mestic and  social  relations  know  best,  and  to  them 
comes  the  overflowing  measure  of  bereavement. 
The  date  on  which  Mr.  Greene  met  his  death  was 
Friday,  August  9,  1895.  His  loss  was  keenly  felt 
in  the  business  circles  of  the  city,  and  particularly 
among  those  concerned  with  the  great  lum- 
bering industry.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Lumber- 
men's Association  appropriate  resolutions  were 
adopted  as  indicating  the  sentiments  of  that  or- 
ganization in  regard  to  the  honored  dead,  and 
the  entire  lumber  world  was  startled  by  his  tragic 
death. 

In  August,  1869,  Mr.  Greene  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Sophia  L.  McCormick,  daughter 
of  Hugh  McCormick,  a  resident  of  Metcalfe,  near 
Ottawa,  Ontario.  They  adopted  a  daughter, 
Maude,  who  is  now  the  wife  of  W.  A.  Alexander. 

Our  subject  was  not  an  ofTice  seeker,  but  was 
an  intense  American  in  all  that  word  politically 
portends.  He  was  a  member  of  no  secret  associa- 
tion but  was  identified  with  the  Union  Club  of 
Chicago,  and  though  genial  and  open-hearted 
he  was  essentially  a  lover  of  home,  and  his  house 
was  ever  his  castle  and  the  place  where  his  happi- 
est moments  were  passed.  Probably  no  person  in 
Ciiicago  was  a  better  representative  of  a  purely 
self-made  man  than  was  Mr.  Greene.  He  owned 
not  a  dollar  that  was  not  honestly  acquired  by 
himself,  ar.d  his  great  success  should  furnish  both 
lesson  and  incentive,  as  did  his  life  an  example  of 
honest  worth  and  unswerving  integrity.  Of  him 
nature  might  well  stand  up  and  say  to  all  the 
world,  "This  is  a  man." 


BENN  PHILIPS  REYNOLDS,  A.M.,  M.  D., 


OF  the  many  residents  of  Lombard  doing 
business  in  Chicago,  who  claim  the  British 
Isles  as  the  country  of  their  nativitj',  there  are 
few,  perhaps,  of  greater  relative  prominence  or 
more  respected  for  unostentatious  acts  of  charity 
than  Dr.  B.  P.  Reynolds.  In  appearance  he  is 
a  striking  figure,  six  feet  in  height,  weighing  ahout 


two  hundred  and  thirty  pounds,  well  propor- 
tioned, anil  with  marked  intellectual  features,  and 
he  immediately  attracts  attention  in  a  crowd.  He 
is  a  whole-souled  gentleman  whose  kindness  of 
heart  and  many  charitable  deeds  have  endeared 
him  to  all  acquainted  with  him,  and  those  who  best 
know   him    most   highly   respect   and   trust   him. 


416 


BlOanAl'IIICAL  DICTIOXAIIY  AM)  VORTIiAir  (lALLKRY  OF  TUB 


Dr.  Reynolds  is  a  thorough  Welshman,  bom 
in  South  Wales,  Great  Rritaim,  December  14, 
1832,  and  is  the  eldest  of  six  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters of  David  Reynolds,  a  prominent  business 
man  of  his  native  town,  being  a  woolen  manu- 
facturer, etc.  He  was  a  devoted  Christian  and 
earnest  worker  and  a  deacon  in  the  church  for 
many  3-ears,  and  his  life  was  full  of  benevolent 
and  charitable  deeds  toward  his  fellow-man.  The 
mother  of  the  Doctor,  Sarah  (Davies)  Reynolds, 
was  on  account  of  the  death  of  her  mother 
Ijrought  up  and  educated  by  her  grandfather,  a 
prominent  clergyman,  and  therefore  had  superior 
advantages.  She  was  a  grand  and  noble  woman 
and  reared  her  children  in  such  a  way  as  they 
caused  to  be  placed  on  her  monument  the  follow- 
ing epitaph: 

"Her  children  rise  up  and  call  her  blessed; 
Her  husband  also,  and  he  praiseth  her." 

Her  memory  will  always  remain  hallowed, 
growing  more  tender  and  fragrant  as  the  years 
go  by.  She  is  ever  present  in  spirit,  stimulating 
her  children  to-  ever  aspire  to  the  true,  tlie  beauti- 
ful and  the  good. 

Dr.  Reynolds'  great-grandfather,  Colonel  Rey- 
nolds, was  killed  with  General  Pictou  at  the  battle 
of  Waterloo.  His  maternal  great-grandfather, 
the  Rev.  Benjamin  Philips,  with  whom  he  lived 
a  few  years  and  for  whom  he  was  named,  was 
a  clergyman  for  seventy  years  in  the  town  where 
he  was  born,  dying  at  the  age  of  over  one  hun- 
dred and  one.  The  Doctor  comes  from  a  family 
celebrated  in  the  churcli,  in  physics  and  in  the 
profession  of  arms,  his  progenitors  for  several 
generations  being  clergymen,  educators,  doctors 
or  soldiers.  He  himself  was  educated  for  the 
church  at  the  Narberth  Classical  and  Commercial 
Academy,  and  graduated  at  Brecon  College, 
which  is  incorporated  with  the  London  Univer- 
sity. He  was  also  educated  in  medicine  and 
surgery,  as  his  intention  was  to  become  a  medical 
missionary.  His  views  on  doctrinal  subjects 
undergoing  a  change,  however,  he  abandoned 
theology  for  medicine,  qualifying  as  a  physician 
and  surgeon  in  Bartholomew  Hospital,  London, 
the  Eclectic  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  the  LTniversity  of  Pennsylvania,  besides  sub- 
sequently attending  lectures  at  Rush  Medical 
College,  and  Polyclinics,  etc.,  in  Chicago. 


On  the  Doctor's  arrival  in  this  country  in  1861 
his  sympathies  guided  him  to  place  his  services 
at  the  disposal  of  the  North  on  account  of  the 
slavery  question,  and  as  a  volunteer  surgeon  with 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  a  professional  par- 
ticipator in  and  witnessed  some  of  the  principal 
battles  of  that  memorable  campaign,  such  as 
Groveton,  Manassas,  Fairfax  Courthouse,  Chan- 
tilly,  Antietam,  etc.  His  brother,  George  Rey- 
nolds, who  was  hospital  steward  in  the  regu- 
lar United  States  infantrj-,  lost  his  life  in  a  South- 
ern prison  by  being  wounded  in  the  battle  of 
the  Wilderness,  after  which  he  was  taken  prisoner 
and  sent  to  Richmond,  Augusta,  Andersonville, 
Charleston  and  finally  to  Florence,  South  Car- 
olina, where  he  died  of  starvation  in  November, 
1864!  His  brother,  James  Davies  Reynolds,  of 
England,  has  written  and  published  a  work  en- 
titled "One  of  Tliem,"  in  which  he  has  given  an 
account  of  the  inhuman  treatment  of  his  brother 
and  prisoners  of  war  in  Southern  prisons.  George 
preceded  the  Doctor  to  this  countr>',  and  had  be- 
come 90  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  patriotism  and 
love  for  his  adopted  land  that  he  prevailed  upon 
him  to  come  over.  Tlie  Doctor  considers  that 
emigration  was  the  turning  point  of  his  whole 
life.  He  came  to  Chicago  in  1863  and  therein 
has  ever  practiced  his  profession.  Although  he 
has  done  a  great  deal  of  charitable  work,  he  has 
enjoyed  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  being  one 
of  the  most  successful  physicians  and  surgeons 
in  the  city.  For  years  after  his  arrival  in  Chi- 
cago there  were  few  surgeons  and  only  a  small 
county  hospital,  so  that  surgeons  were  in  great 
demand  for  years.  He  did  as  much  of  it  as  any 
other  surgeon  in  the  city,  and  his  skill  has  fre- 
quently been  demonstrated  in  many  difficult  cases. 
The  Doctor  has  in  other  ways  demonstrated  his 
versatility,  having  been  a  professor  in  a  college, 
a  public  lecturer  and  prolific  writer.  He  is  an  au- 
thor of  marked  ability,  has  been  a  voluminous 
and  vigorous  writer,  some  sixty  publications 
having  been  issued  from  the  press  on  Masonic, 
medical  physiological,  philosophical  and  other 
scientific  subjects,  besides  a  large  amount  of 
lighter  literature,  embracing  fiction  and  verse, 
and  also  many  articles  for  various  periodicals. 
He  was  for  some  years  editor  of  a  medical 
journal,     also     The     Foresterj     The     Crusader, 


REPRESEXTATTVE  ME.Y  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


417 


Foresters'  Magazine,  and  is  now  editor  of  the 
Chicago  Sentinel.  He  has  written  some  very  in- 
teresting works  on  Freemasonn,'  and  kindred 
topics,  being  recognized  as  valuable  and  much 
appreciated  in  tlie  ranks  of  the  fraternity.  He 
intends  to  publish  soon  a  new  and  enlarged  edi- 
tion of  a  work  entitled  "The  Beauties  of  Free- 
masonry Exemplified,"  "Masonic  Gems  and  Jew- 
els of  Thought,"  "Freemasonry:  Its  Relations  to 
Religion,"  and  "What  is  Freemasonr}^?" 

Besides  being  a  man  of  letters,  he  is  a  great 
admirer  of  art  and  music  and  possesses  a  good 
voice.  He  has  written  and  published  excellent 
pieces  of  music  that  have  had  a  fair  circulation. 
The  Doctor  has  a  private  library  of  more  than 
five  thousand  volumes,  one  of  the  largest  owned 
by  any  physician  in  Chicago. 

Tile  Doctor  is  quite  a  society  man  and  has  done 
a  great  deal  toward  tlie  success  of  the  various  or- 
ganizations with  which  he  has  been  connected.  For 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  he  lias  been  a  mem- 
ber of  all  of  the  Masonic  organizations  of  Chi- 
cago, and  of  some  elsewhere,  and  is  a  life  mem- 
ber of  many  of  them.  He  has  filled  offices  in 
nearly  all  of  them.  He  is  a  member  of  Wheaton 
Lodge,  No.  269,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.;  Corinthian  Chap- 
ter. No.  29,  R.  A.  M. ;  Siloam  Council,  No.  53,  R. 
S.  &  S.  E.  M.;  St.  Bernard  Commandery,  No.  35, 
K.  T. ;  Oriental  Sovereign  Consistory,  and  co-or- 
dinate bodies,  Scottish  Rite  Masons,  St.  John's 
Conclave,  No.  i,  Kniglits  of  the  Red  Cross 
of  Rome  and  Constantine;  Knights  of  tlie 
Holy  Sepulchre  and  St.  John,  the  Evangel- 
ist (being  a  past  grand  sovereign  of  the  order 
and  having  the  "Grand  Cross'');  Mecca  Temple, 
Order  of  the  Mystic  Shrine;  Rosicrucian  Society; 
f)riental  Rite  of  Mizraim;  Supreme  Rite  of 
Memphis;  Ancient  and  Primitive  Rite;  Sweden- 
borgian  Rite;  Eclectic  Order  of  tlie  Palm  and 
Shell;  Masonic  Veteran  Association,  etc.  He 
has  also  been  a  member  of  many  of  the  leading 
social  and  benevolent  organizations,  literary  and 
scientific,  as  well  as  patriotic  societies  of  the  city 
and  of  the  United  States,  in  some  of  which,  es- 
pecially the  last,  he  takes  a  very  active  interest. 

He  has  always, been  a  Republican  in  politics, 
but  for  some  time  past  has,  witli  many  others, 
been  anxious  to  see  a  new  American  party  formed 
which  would  be  thoroughly  patriotic  and  loyal 


in  upholding  the  free  institutions  of  this  country, 
especially  the  free-school  system  of  education. 
The  following  is  a  list  of  the  diilferent  organiza- 
tions with  whidi  he  lias  been  connected  and  is 
now  a  member:  Independent  Order  of  Odd 
Fellows,  Independent  Order  of  Foresters,  An- 
cient Order  of  Foresters,  Ancient  Dniids,  Knights 
of  Pythias,  National  Union,  Cambrian  Benevo- 
lent Society,  Cymridorion  Society,  St.  George's 
Benevolent  Association,  Mutual  Benefit  Associ- 
ation, United  Order  of  Ancient  Templars,  Order 
of  the  Red  Cross,  Order  of  Knights  of  Maccabees, 
Pilgrim  Society,  Franklin  Society,  Press  Associ- 
ation, Hand-in-Hand  Mutual  Benefit  Society, 
Knights  and  Ladies  of  Honor,  Order  of  Fraternal 
Circle,  Knights  of  tlie  Ancient  Essenic  Order, 
Knight  Templars  and  Masons'  Life  Indemnity 
Company,  Union  Relief  Association,  Lombard 
Athletic  Club,  Amity  Club,  the  Old  Tippecanoe 
Club,  Republican  Club,  Citizens'  Association  of 
Chicago,  North  American  Mutual  Benefit  Associ- 
ation, Cambrian  Literary  Society,  Chicago  Ly- 
ceum, Chicago  Literary  Society,  Philosophical 
Society,  Loyal  Orange  Institution,  Black  Knights 
of  the  Camp  of  Israel,  American  Orange  Knights, 
Apprentice  Boys,  American  Protective  Associa- 
tion, Union  League,  Order  of  American  Union, 
Human  Freedom  League,  American  Protestant 
Association,  Knights  Commanders  of  the  Sun, 
National  Leagtie,  Anti-Papal  League,  Pan-Re- 
public League,  Free  Speech  League,  American 
Flag  Day  Association,  American  Flag  Defenders, 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  Young  Men's 
Christian  Union,  British  American  Association 
and  Citizens'  Committee  of  One  Hundred. 

In  most  of  the  organizations.  Dr.  Reynolds  has 
been  presiding  ofificer,  and  also  the  supreme  head 
of  some  of  them,  and  in  nearly  all  of  the  benefit  so- 
cieties has  been  their  medical  officer,  and  in  many 
the  grand  medical  examiner.  Some  of  the  so- 
cieties he  did  not  enter  from  choice  but  had  to 
become  a  member  when  he  was  elected  physician 
and  surgeon.  He  has  been  president  of  the  Cam- 
brian Benevolent  Society,  holding  that  position 
at  the  time  of  the  great  fire  when  charitable  work 
was  greatly  increased.  He  has  been  president  of 
the  Cambrian  Literary  Society,  is  past  supreme 
grand  commander  of  the  Red  Cross,  and  is  the 
author  of  its  ritual  and  mottoes  and  the  designer 


418 


lilOGRAPniCAL  DTCTIONART  AND  PORTRATT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


of  its  jewels,  etc.  He  is  past  supreme  grand  mas- 
ter of  the  Loyal  Orange  Institution  of  the  United 
States  Mid  has  for  years  been  grand  master  of 
the  grand  lodge  of  Illinois.  He  is  past  grand 
commandcr-jn-chief  of  the  Supreme  Cabinet  of 
the  American  Orange  Knights  of  the  United 
States  and  is  past  grand  sovereign  of  the  Imperial 
Grand  Council  of  the  Knights  of  the  Red  Cross 
of  Rome  and  Constantine  and  the  appendant  or- 
ders. He  is  also  president  of  the  British-Amer- 
ican Association,  and  has  been  president  of  the 
Citizens'  Committee  of  One  Hundred  since  its 
organization.  He  has  been  high  medical  exam- 
iner for  the  Independent  Order  of  Foresters,  Su- 
preme Medical  Examiner  for  the  Order  of  the 
Red  Cross,  medical  examiner  in  chief  for  the 
Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fellows  Insurance 
Company,  ph)sician  for  the  Chicago  Relief  and 
Aid  Society,  surgeon  of  Ellsworth's  Zouaves,  sur- 
geon general  of  tlie  Knights  Commander  of  the 
Sun,  and  surgeon  general  of  the  American  Orange 
Knights.  He  is  at  present  the  official  physician 
and  surgeon,  also  medical  examiner  of  several  in- 
surance, charitable  and  beneficiary  societies,  such 
as  Charter  Oak  Insurance  Company,  New  York 
Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  California  In- 
surance Company,  American  Union  Life  Insur- 
ance Company,  Iowa  Life  Insurance  Company, 
Nederland  Insurance  Company,  Michigan  Mutual 
Insurance  Company, Federal  Life  of  Canada  In- 
surance Company,  Canada  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, Toronto;  New  England  Mutual  Insurance 
Company,  Hartford,  Connecticut;  St.  George's 
Benevolent  Association,  the  Foresters,  Odd  Fel- 
lows, Loyal  Orange  Order,  National  Union,  etc. 
After  living  in  this  country  for  some  years,  Dr. 
Reynolds  visited  his  old  home  in  Wales  and  was 
married  there  to  an  old  love,  Miss  Annie  Walters 
Thomas,  daughter  of  John  Thomas,  one  of  the 
superintendents  of  Her  Majesty's  dock  yard  at 
Pembroke  Dock.  She  was  a  lady  gifted  with  an 
extraordinary  memory  and  a  well  cultivated  mind 
and  possessed  considerable  literary  ability.  Her 
writings  were  much  admired  and  appreciated, 
especially  her  poems  entitled  '"Songs  of  Affec- 
tion." On  account  of  her  failing  health  the 
Doctor  built  his  home  at  Lombard,  and  went  to 
live  there,  where  she  died  September  17,  1871, 
and  her  remains  were  buried  in  Graccland  ceme- 


tery. Miriam  Chapter  of  the  Eiistem  Star  had  a 
memorial  service  for  her  at  Blair  Hall  on  Sunday, 
October  8,  the  day  on  which  the  great  fire  began. 
The  hall  was  draped  in  black  with  a  great  pro- 
fusion of  flowers  on  a  catafalque.  A  painting  of 
her  by  Flealey  was  destroyed  there.  She  was  a 
true  woman,  a  sincere  and  devoted  Christian, 
esteemed  and  loved  by  all  who  knew  her. 

In  1879  the  Doctor  married  Miss  Blanche  E. 
E.  Baldwin,  daughter  of  G.  S.  Baldwin,  of  Chi- 
cago, a  very  amiable  lady  possessed  of  many  ac- 
complishments. She  is  held  in  high  regard  by 
all  who  enjoy  her  acquaintance  for  her  many 
graces  of  mind  and  heart.  Kindly  and  genial  in 
her  disposition,  she  is  a  loving  wife  and  devoted 
mother  to  her  family  of  very  interesting  children. 
She  had  six  children, — ^three  girls  and  three  boys. 
Those  living  are  Annie  Blanche,  aged  fifteen; 
Lilian  Sara,  twelve;  Alice  Florence,  nine;  and 
Benn  Philips,  seven  years.  Mrs.  Reynolds  is  also 
a  very  active  and  energetic  worker  in  several 
social,  benevolent  and  patriotic  societies,  having 
been  for  years  worthy  mistress  of  the  Ladies' 
Loyal  Orange  Association;  also  supreme 
deputy  grand  mistress  of  the  order  for  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  For  three  years  she  was  the 
supreme  president  of  the  Woman's  American 
Protective  Association  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  She  is  first  vice-president  of  the  Amer- 
ican Flag  Day  association.  She  is  also  a  member 
of  'the  Order  of  the  Eastern  Star  (Masonic), 
Rebekah  Degree  of  Odd  Fellows,  Relief  Corps, 
Patriotic  Women,  American  Flag  Projectors, 
Women's  Club,  etc.  Mrs.  Reynolds  originated 
the  idea  of  the  human  flags  formed  by  four  thou- 
sand school  children  on  the  stands  erected,  one  on 
the  west  and  the  other  on  the  east  side,  with 
the  grand  reviewing  stand  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Chicago  post-ofifice,  where  they  massed  the 
design  of  the  three  national  colors,  stars  and 
stripes  on  the  day  of  the  dedication  of  the  World's 
Fair,  and  superintended  the  flag  exercises  on  that 
occasion. 

The  Doctor's  office  and  surgen.-  are  at  No.  1 19 
Madison  street,  Chicago.  His  home  is  at 
Lombard,  where  he  has  built  a  residence,  calling 
it  Narberth  Castle,  after  his  old  home  in  Wales. 
He  has  been  president  of  the  town  and  justice  of 
the  peace  for  several    vears.     The  Doctor    is    a 


m 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


419 


genial,  courteous  gentleman,  affable  and  pleas- 
ant in  manner  and  by  his  integrity  and   worth 
has   won   the   esteem  of   a   very   large    circle  of 
friends. 
Tlie  coat  of   arms  of   the    Doctor's    family   is 


described  as  follows:  Aziu-e  a  chevron  erm,  be- 
tween three  crosses.  Crosslet,  fitchee  argent 
Crest,  an  eagle  close  argent,  ducally  gorged  and 
lined.  Motto,  "Fide,  Sed  Cui  Vide"  ("Trust,  but 
look  to  whom"). 


ELMER  E.  BARRETT, 


ELMER  E.  BARRETT  is  one  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  Chicago  bar,  but  his  promi- 
nence is  by  no  means  measured  by  his  years ;  on 
the  contrary  he  has  won  a  reputation  which  many 
an  older  practitioner  might  well  envy.  We  pay 
the  highest  tribute  to  the  heroes  who  on  bloody 
battle-fields  win  victories  and  display  a  valor  that 
is  the  admiration  of  the  world.  Why  should  the 
tribute  be  withheld  from  those  who  wage  the 
bloodless  battles  that  all  must  fight  in  attaining 
greatness  in  any  walk  of  life?  The  West  owes  its 
prosperity  and  progress  largely  to  its  young  men, 
and  Mr.  Barrett  belongs  to  that  class  which  has 
placed  this  section  of  the  countr>-  on  a  par  with 
the  older  East. 

A  native  of  the  State  of  Michigan,  ]Mr.  Barrett 
was  bom  in  Kalamazoo  on  the  2d  of  June,  1862, 
and  is  a  son  of  James  Henry  and  Sarah  M.  (Hop- 
kins) Barrett.  On  his  father's  side  he  is  of  Irish 
lineage  and  on  his  mother's  side  of  Welsh  ex- 
traction. The  early  ancestors  of  both  the  Barrett 
and  Hopkins  families  participated  in  the  struggle 
for  independence  at  the  time  of  the  American 
Revolution,  and  the  mother  directly  descended 
from  Stephen  Hopkins,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  For  long  years  the 
two  families  have  been  residents  of  the  United 
States,  and  have  ever  been  found  among  the  true 
and  loyal  citizens  of  the  Republic.  The  Barrett 
family  was  founded  in  Massachusetts  in  1630,  onlv 
ten  years  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at 
Plymouth  Rock,  and  the  Hopkins'  crossed  the 
Atlantic  and  settled  in  Connecticut  in  1862. 

Not  only  in  the  trying  times  when  the  nation 
was  merging  from  English  dominion  into  Ameri- 
can republicanism  has  it  found  defenders  in  these 
families:  whenever  need  has  demanded  the  ser- 
vice of  loyal  sons,  their  representatives  have  been 


found  at  the  post  of  duty,  and  in  1861,  when  an 
attempt  was  made  by  the  South  to  overthrow  the 
supremacy  of  the  Union,  the  father  of  our  sub- 
ject offered  his  services  to  the  Government  and 
served  with  fidelity  and  courage  to  the  end  of  the 
rebellion.  His  brother,  W.  W.  Barrett,  also  wore 
the  blue  and  became  colonel  of  the  Forty-fourtli 
Regiment  of  Illinois  \'olunteers,  which  he  com- 
manded for  a  time,  when  meritorious  service  and 
bravery  on  the  field  of  battle  won  him  further 
promotion,  and  he  was  brevetted  brigadier  gen- 
eral, in  which  capacity  he  served  until  the  war  was 
over.  Patriotism  and  fidelity  to  duty  characterize 
the  family,  and  the  Republic  which  the  ancestors 
helped  to  found,  the  descendants  aided  to  pre- 
serve. 

Elmer  E.  Barrett  has  spent  his  entire  life  in  the 
West  and  typifies  its  progressive,  enterprising 
spirit.  He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
and  under  the  instruction  of  private  tutors.  He 
gained  thus  a  broad  general  knowledge  to  sers^e 
as  an  excellent  foundation  for  his  special  learning, 
and  is  one  of  the  best  infomied  men  in  the  city, 
not  only  along  the  line  of  his  profession  but  also 
in  the  broad  field  of  literature  as  well.  He  has 
been  a  resident  of  Chicago  since  1879.  He  en- 
tered the  Chicago  Law  School  and  on  the  com- 
pletion of  a  thorough  course  of  study  was  gradu- 
ated and  admitted  to  the  bar,  whereon  he  at  once 
began  practice  in  this  cit\'.  He  does  a  general 
law  business,  but  has  made  corporation  law  a 
specialty  and  is  considered  authority  on  all  matters 
pertaining  to  that  branch  of  the  legal  profession. 
He  has  been  retained  as  counsel  by  a  number  of 
extensive  corporations  and  has  a  large  clientage, 
which  from  the  beginning  has  steadily  increased. 
In  the  ranks  of  the  legal  fraternity  he  occupies  a 
foremost  place  that  skill  and  merit  have  won  him. 


420 


BIOORM'IIICAL  DIVriONAUT  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


In  this  profession  all  must  begin  on  a  common 
plane  and  rise  to  eminence  by  perseverance,  in- 
dustry and  skill  or  fall  back  into  the  ranks  of 
mediocrity.  The  ambitious  nature  of  Mr.  Bar- 
rett, however,  would  never  permit  him  to  do  the 
latter,  and  in  consequence  he  has  achieved  a 
prominence  which  he  well  deserves. 

Mr.  Barrett  was  one  of  the  founders  and  is  now 
the  secretary  of  the  Chicag'o  College  of  Law, — 
the  Law  Department  of  Lake  Forest  University, 
which  is  one  of  the  leading  educational  institu- 
tions of  this  country.  In  its  faculty  are  the  fol- 
lowing well-known  jurists:  Hon.  Thomas  A. 
Moran,  late  justice  of  the  appellate  court;  Hon. 
H.  M.  Shepard,  justice  of  the  appellate  court. 
First  District  of  Illinois;  Hon.  Simon  P.  Shope, 
late  justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois;  Hon. 
E.  W.  Burke,  judge  of  the  circuit  court;  Hon. 
O.  N.  Carter,  judge  of  the  county  court.  Hon. 
Joseph  M.  Bailey,  LL.D.,  late  justice  of  the  su- 
preme court  of  Illinois,  was  a  member  of  its  fac- 
ulty from  its  organization  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
October  17,  1895;  also  the  late  Hon.  George  R. 
Driggs,  the  brilliant  orator  and  able  jurist. 

It  has  an  undergraduate  course  of  two  years 


and  a  post-graduate  course  of  one  year.  This 
college  gives  many  advantages  to  the  law  student: 
perhaps  the  chief  one  is,  that  its  sessions  are  held 
each  week-day  evening,  givinglhe  student  an  op- 
portunity to  become  familiar  with  the  routine 
work  of  the  law  ofTice  and  also  attend  the  numer- 
ous courts,  both  Federal  and  State,  that  are  con- 
tinuously in  session  in  this  city.  Although  the  col- 
lege is  comparatively  young  in  years,  it  numbers 
among  its  graduates  many  of  our  most  able  and 
bright  young  lawyers. 

On  the  3d  of  October,  1883,  was  celebrated  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  Barrett  and  Miss  Helen  Marie 
Walters.  They  reside  in  the  village  of  Western 
Springs,  a  suburb  of  Chicago,  where  Mr.  Barrett 
owns  a  pleasant  home.  He  is  popular  at  the  bar 
and  in  social  circles,  and  is  an  esteemed  member 
of  the  Union  League  Club,  Chicago  Athletic  As- 
sociation, and  the  Marquette  and  Lincoln  Clubs 
of  Chicago.  In  religious  belief  he  is  a  Congrega- 
tionalist  and  is  a  member  of  the  Congregational 
Club.  Coming  as  he  does  from  a  family  who  were 
stanch  supporters  of  the  Union  during  the  war 
of  the  Rebellion,  J\Ir.  Barrett  is  a  Republican, 
warmly  advocating  the  principles  of  that  party. 


GEORGE  SEMMELROTH, 


BELLEVILLE. 


GEORGE  SE^fMELROTH  is  one  of  the 
leading  journalists  among  the  German- 
American  citizens  of  Illinois,  being  now  engaged 
in  the  publication  of  the  Post  und  Zeitung,  of 
Belleville. 

He  was  born  in  Germany  on  the  24th  of  March, 
1840,  and  is  one  of  the  three  children  of  Jost 
Henry  Semmelroth.  Under  the  parental  roof  the 
days  of  his  early  boyhood  were  passed,  and  he 
attended  the  public  schools,  acquiring  therein  his 
education.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  bade  adieu 
to  friends  and  native  land  and  sailed  for  the  New 
World.  Reaching  the  shores  of  America  he  made 
his  way  to  Belleville,  Illinois,  where  he  at  once 
sought  work,  for  he  had  no  capital  to  aid  him. 
He  accepted  the  position  of  "printer's  devil"  in 
the  office  of  the  Belleville  Volksblatt,  which  paper 
was  consolidated  with  the   Belleville  Zeitung  in 


1857,  and  he  was  employed  on  the  force  of  that 
paper  until  1865,  when  he  laid  aside  the  pursuits 
of  civil  life  to  enter  the  service  of  his  adopted 
country. 

He  became  a  member  of  Company  H,  One 
Hundred  and  F'orty-ninth  Illinois  Infantry,  and 
remained  at  the  front  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

In  1866  Mr.  Semmelroth  returned  to  his  old 
home  and  again  accepted  the  position  in  the  office 
of  the  Belleville  Zeitung.  In  May  of  that  year 
he  purchased  the  Stem  des  Westens,  and  as  editor 
and  proprietor  conducted  that  paper  until  1872, 
when  he  sold  out,  but  was  retained  on  the  staff  as 
manager  until  1874.  In  that  year  he  purchased 
a  half  interest  in  the  paper  on  which  he  had  served 
his  apprenticeship,  publishing  it  until  1879,  in  con- 
nection with  a  partner,  who  in  that  year  sold 
out.     The  new  firm  shortly  afterward  jnirchased 


/y^<^^^^.-ML_, 


liEPUESEyTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


421 


another  paper,  Der  Stem,  and  consolidated  tlie 
same  with  the  Belleville  Zeitung,  which  they  pub- 
lished until  1886,  when  the  paper  was  sold.  In 
1884  the  Post  of  Belleville  was  established  by 
General  William  C.  Kueffner,  and  Mr.  Semmel- 
roth  purchased  a  half  interest  in  1886.  In  1893 
this  firm  purchased  the  Belleville  Zeitung  and 
consolidated  it  with  the  Post,  and  then  continued 
the  publication  under  the  name  of  Belleville  Post 
und  Zeitung.  Upon  his  partner's  death  Mr.  Sem- 
nielroth  bought  his  interest  in  the  paper,  of  which 
he  is  now  sole  proprietor.  It  is  a  well  conducted 
German  journal  and  receives  a  liberal  patronage. 
In  1866  Mr.  Semmelroth  was  united  in  mar- 


riage with  Miss  Minna  Dceke,  by  whom  he  had 
eight  children.  Socially  he  is  connected  with  St. 
Clair  Lodge,  No.  24,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  the  Ancient 
Order  of  United  Workmen,  the  Independent  Or- 
der of  Odd  Fellows  and  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic.  In  politics  he  is  a  stalwart  and  active 
advocate  of  Republican  principles,  and  is  a 
public-spirited  man,  devoted  to  all  lueasurcs 
that  are  calculated  to  advance  the  welfare  of 
his  adopted  city.  His  fondness  for  music  'm 
indicated  by  his  connection  with  various  mu- 
sical societies  and  the  hearty  encouragement  he 
always  gives  to  eveni'thing  connected  with  that 
art. 


WILLIAM  HARLEV, 


CHICAGO  is  pre-eminently  a  city  of  gen- 
erals,— generals  of  commerce,  of  manufac- 
tures, of  construction  and  what-not.  The  small 
salesman  has  a  modest  occupation,  looked  upon 
as  comparatively  humble  until  he  becomes  a  man- 
ager and  employer  of  men  on  a  large  scale.  Then 
is  when  he  proves  his  ability  as  a  general,  and 
then  it  is  that  his  occupation  is  no  longer  humble 
but  abreast  of  those  of  the  leaders  of  all  coun- 
tries, fort  the  ipowers  of  gaieralship  arc  most 
highly  prized  in  these  days  of  extreme  resort  to 
crganization.  This  is  equally  true  in  the  lines 
of  manufacture  aind  construction.  The  maker 
l.iecomes  the  general  of  manufactures  and  the 
carpenter  becomes  the  general  of  construction. 
It  is  a  promotion  like  rising  from  the  ranks  of 
the  army  through  the  lower  grades  to  that  of  gen- 
eral. Such  are  the  members  of  the  Harlev  family, 
fatlier  and  sons. 

The  Harlevs  are  of  Danish  origin — or  rather 
Dano-German  origin,  for  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
region  became  a  part  of  Prussia  under  Bismarck's 
manipulation^  In  Schleswig,  or  Schlesvig  as 
the  Dane  has  it,  there  was  in  the  early  part  of 
this  century  a  prominent  "pedagogue,''  by  name 
Jans  Andreas  Harlev,  who  married  an  Irish  lady, 
Miss  Elsie  Catherine  Henmings.  Seven  years 
before  the  old  teacher's  decease,  in  1844,  they  had 
a  son  born  to  them,  whom  thev  named  William, 


and  who  was  to  become  a  great  conti'actor  in  the 
New  World's  Western  metropolis  in  later  years, 
where  his  mother  was  to  find  a  home  with  him 
in  her  old  age,  before  following  her  husband  to 
her  last  resting  place,  as  she  did  in  1884. 

Born  in  1837,  young  William  was  but  seven 
years  of  age  when  his  father  died,  but  he  re- 
ceived an  excellent  education  in  his  German  home 
and  was  taught  the  trade  of  a  carpenter.  At  the 
age  of  twenty  years,  or  in  1857,  he  joined  the 
universal  movement  to  America  and  located  in 
the  city  at  the  head  of  the  lakes.  For  the  first 
two  years  young  Harlev  engaged  as  clerk  in  a 
general  store  and  gained  an  experience  that  was 
to  be  of  great  service  in  later  days.  At  the  end  of 
this  time,  however,  he  became  attracted  to  that 
northwestern  State  which  is  so  partial  to  North- 
Europeans,  Minnesota,  and  for  the  next  two  years 
or  thereabouts  he  was  occupied  there  in  grow- 
ing from  a  caipenter  into  a  general  of  construc- 
tion, enlarging  his  contracts  from  that  of  smaller 
carpentering  dealings  to  those  of  railway  and 
general  contracting. 

The  year  of  the  great  catastrophe  that  laid 
Chicago  in  ashes,  and  proved  her  ability  to  rise 
from  the  flames,  Phcenix-like,  also  suggested  to 
Mr  Harlev  the  great  opportunities  offered  in 
the  clothing  trade  on  the  West  side.  Joining 
his  brother-in-law  under  the  firm  title  of  Harlev 


422 


nwaUAI'inCAL  DTCTinXAItY  and  POIITHAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


&  Johnson,  clothing  dealers  on  Milwaukee  ave- 
nue, they  continued  the  business  with  an  exten- 
sive trade  for  the  next  eight  years. 

In  1879,  however,  Mr  Harlev  returned  to  his 
first  love,  as  a  contractor,  in  which  capacity  he 
has  since  won  so  enviable  a  reputation.  His  ex- 
perience seemed  to  be  ripe  for  bold  work  on  a 
large  scale.  From  year  to  year  he  secured  con- 
tracts for  and  erected  some  of  the  largest  build- 
ings and  works,  and  laid  some  of  the  finest  brick 
pavements  to  be  found  in  the  city  or  State.  In- 
deed his  brick  pavement  operations  have  been 
very  extensive,  while  some  of  his  miscellaneous 
public  works  over  the  State  may  be  illustrated  by 
the  Ouincy  (Illinois)  City  Hall,  the  Newcomb 
Hotel,  of  Quincy,  the  new  Soldieis'  and  Saikirs' 
Home  of  that  city,  and  also  the  new  Insane  Asy- 
lum, of  Chicago.  His  operations  are  not  con- 
fined to  this  State,  however,  but  cover  various 
other  parts  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  his 
promptness  and  efficiency,  his  skill  and  relia- 
bility have  won  medals  of  recognition  from  sev- 
eral commonwealths, — gold  medals  from  Ohio 
and  Texas,  and  one  in  the  form  of  a  silver  brick 
from  IMontana.  'His  successes  easily  secured 
him  contracts  for  several  of  the  State  buildings 
of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  of  i8y3. 
Among  them  were  the  buildings  of  Illinois, 
Texas,  Ohio,  Montana  and  Utah,  and  that  of  the 
Australian  province  of  New  South  Wales.  The 
masterpiece  of  these  operations,  however,  was 
that  greatest  of  the  buildings  representing  com- 
monwealths, that  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  Tliis 
structure  was  one  of  the  cardinal  dominating 
structures  of  that  marvelous  collection.  Its  po- 
sition at  the  boundary  of  the  northern  vista  from 
the  Court  pf  Honor  made  it  almost  as  con- 
spicuous as  the  Administration  building  itself. 
In  the  form  of  a  Greek  cross,  whose  respective 
axes  were  450  feet  and  285  feet,  its  dominant  fea- 


ture was  the  lofty  dome  of  152  feet,  whose  basal 
diameter  was  75  feet  and  which  was  surmounted 
by  a  gleaming  light  12  feet  in  diameter  and  35 
feet  high.  To  say  that  3,000,000  feet  of  lumber 
and  1,300,000  pounds  of  iron  were  used  in 
the  construction  of  this  mammoth  structure 
will  be  only  to  suggest  its  vastness.  That 
this  and  other  of  these  great  buildings  were 
constructed  promptly  and  with  satisfaction  to 
all  concerned  is  a  proof  of  the  generalship  of 
both  William  Harlev  and  his  son  Alfred,  for 
the  exposition  work  was  done  by  them  as  a 
firm. 

If  illustration  were  still  further  needed,  it  could 
l)c  found  in  the  fact  that  in  the  long  period  of 
employment  of  multitudes  of  men  they  have 
never  had  a  strike  and  have  always  used  union 
men.  One  fact  that  has  no  doubt  contributed 
to  this  end  is  this,  namely,  that  no  irregularity 
has  ever  interfered  with  the  customary  prompt 
ness  in  handling  pay-rolls.  William  Harlev  is 
one  of  those  employers  who  with  kindness  seek 
the  good  of  the  employe  as  well  as  the  con- 
tractor. Arriving  in  this  country  with  but  ten 
dollars  in  his  possession,  Mr.  Harlev  has  re- 
meinliered  the  rights  of  his  men,  and  the  fact 
that  he  is  now  wealthy  and  a  large  owner  of  real 
estate  shows  the  wisdom  of  such  a  course  when 
joined  with  ability  as  a  manager. 

Mr.  Harlev  is  a  member  of  several  fraternal 
and  insurance  organizations.  Among  them  are 
the  various  orders  of  Masonry,  including  Knights 
Templars  and  the  Thirty-second  degree;  also  the 
Odd  Fellows  and  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  in  a 
lodge  of  which  latter  he  is  past  chancellor;  the 
list  further  includes  the  Elks,  the  Red  Men,  the 
Mystic  Shrine  and  others.  In  politics  he  is  a 
Democrat.  Of  JNIr.  Harlev's  family  his  two  sons, 
Alfred  and  William,  junior,  have  already  won 
their  reputation  in  business. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


423 


ALFRED  HARLEV, 


ALFRED  HARLEV,  the  junior  partner  of 
the  firm  of  Wilham  Harlev  &  Son,  and  now 
practically  the  manager  of  the  company,  is  the 
eldest  son  of  William  Harlev,  just  mentioned, 
and  was  bom  while  the  family  were  living  at 
Blue  Earth,  Minnesota,  in  the  year  1859.  At  an 
early  age  joung  Alfred  was  sent  back  to  Mr. 
Harlcv's  fatherland,  Denmark,  a  country  whose 
educational  system  is  hardly  surpassed  in  Europe 
or  America.  There  he  was  placed  in  the  national 
schools,  for  they  are  all  under  governmental  con- 
trol through  the  Royal  College.  Denmark  has 
also  a  military  school,  the  Royal  Academy, — 
which  is  a  sort  of  Danish  "West  Point," — and 
in  this  institution  young  Harlev  received  a  most 
excellent  education,  especially  in  the  department 
of  civil  engineering.  The  course  of  the  bright 
young  Dano-American  was  such  as  to  secure 
him  a  first-lieutenancy  under  the  Danish  govern- 
ment, but  in  a  few  years  he  decided  to  return  to 
the  land  of  his  father's  adoption  and  his  own 
nativity. 

This  was  in  1877;  and  returning  to  Chicago 
he  at  once  united  with  his  father  in  the  present 
firm  of  \Mlliam  Harlev  &  Son,  a  company  whose 
brilliant  career  has  already  been  outlined  above, 
and  Vifhich,  in  recent  years,  has  ^een  very  largely 
due  to  his  talents,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  father 
believes  that  "vounar  men  are  for  action  and  the 


old  for  counsel."'  Mr.  Harlev,  as  one  of  his 
achievements  in  the  management  of  the  extensive 
interests  of  the  firm,  in  1892,  secured  in  his  own 
name  the  contract  for  the  construction  of  sec- 
tion one  of  the  great  Illinois  drainage  canal,  one 
of  the  greatest  engineering  feats  of  history  and 
one  which  will  rank  with  those  of  the  Suez  and 
Manchester  canals  of  the  Old  World.  This  con- 
tract was  secured  on  a  bid  of  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars. 

Mr.  Harlev  has  a  pleasant  family,  composed  of 
a  wife  and  two  children.  Mrs.  Harlev,  to  whom 
he  was  married  in  1880,  bore  the  maiden  name, 
Mi.•^s  Lydia  Mehder.  Their  daughter,  Alfredn, 
is  at  home,  while  their  eldest  child,  a  son,  Wil- 
liam Hannibal,  is  pursuing  his  educational  stud- 
ies at  Christian  Brothers"  College,  at  St.  Louis. 

Mr.  Alfred  Harlev  is  almost  as  devoted  a  fra- 
ternity man  as  his  father,  and  holds  membership 
in  several  prominent  organizations.  The  Mystic 
Shrine  comes  in  for  a  share  of  his  attention,  and 
also  the  brilliant  order  of  Knights  of  Pythias, 
while  for  so  young  a  man  he  has  made  rapid 
progress  in  the  mysteries  of  Masonry,  being  not 
only  a  Knight  Templar  but  having  also  passed 
to  the  eminent  <,hirty-second  degree  of  the  Scot- 
tish rite.  Mr.  Harlev  is  a  young  man  of  but 
thirty-five  years,  and  has  already  given  proof  of 
a  brilliant  future. 


WILLIAM  HARLEV,  Jr., 


WILLIAM  HARLEV,  junior,  is  the  young- 
est member  of  the  family  that  were  bom 
during  their  Minnesota  residence,  and  although 
he  is  but  twenty-nine  years  of  age  he  has  him- 
self done  some  most  creditable  work,  both  as  an 
architect  and  builder.  As  he  was  bom  in  Brown 
county,  Minnesota,  in  1866,  he  was  but  six  years 
old  w^hen  his  father  moved  back  to  Chicago,  and 
consequently  received  his  education  in  this  city. 
This  was  an  excellent  character  and  extended 
through  the  course  of  the  high  school.  After 
tliis  he  entered  an  architect's  office  and  secured 
the  thorough   preparation   that   soon   fitted   him 


to  become  the  junior  member  of  the  firm  of 
architects,  Meldahl,  Hessmueller  &  Harlev.  He 
was  married,  soon  after  attaining  his  majority,  to 
Miss  Lizzie  Consoer,  in  1887,  and  the  little 
daughter  that  has  come  to  them  bears  the  name 
Edith.  Mr.  William  Harlev,  junior,  began  early 
to  evince  that  devotion  to  fraternities  that  char- 
acterizes the  family,  and  at  the  time  of  his  initia- 
tion was  the  yoimgest  Mason  in  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois. He  is  a  Knight  Templar  and  likewise  a 
meml;er  of  the  Scottish  rite  and  the  Mystic 
Shrine.  For  so  young  an  architect,  Mr.  Harlev 
is  one  I'f  unusually  excellent  experience. 


424 


7!i<ii;/!Ai'i/icAL  DirrroxAnv  AXD  pouthmt  (iallkhy  of  tiim 


APOLLOS  CAMP, 


THE  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  centun'  might 
properly  be  termed  the  age  of  utility,  espe- 
cially in  the  West.  Tlie  vast  region  known  as  the 
upper  Mississippi  valley  was  but  then  opened  up  to 
civilizatioai,  and  the  honored  pioneers  who  found 
homes  in  this  fertile  but  undeveloped  region  were 
men  who  had  to  contend  with  the  trials  and  diffi- 
culties of  pioneer  life.  Theirs  were  lives  of  toil. 
They  were  endeavoring  to  make  homes,  to  culti- 
vate farms,  to  establish  Jjusiness  enterprises,  and 
often  from  early  youth  to  old  age  their  lot  was 
one  of  labor ;  but  their  importance  to  the  commu- 
nity cannot  be  overestimated,  and  the  comforts 
and  luxuries  which  we  to-day  enjoy  we  largely 
owe  to  the  brave  band  of  pioneer  meri  and  women 
who  came  to  the  West  during  its  primitive  condi- 
tion. It  is  also  encouraging  and  interesting  to 
note  that  many  who  came  here  empty-handed 
worked  their  way  upward  from  a  humble  posi- 
tion in  life  to  one  of  affiuence;  that  as  the  years 
passed  and  the  country  improved  prosperity  at- 
tended their  efforts  and  wealth  rewarded  their 
earnest  endeavors. 

To  this  class  of  honored  men  belonged  Apollos 
Camp,  who  became  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
citizens  of  Livingston  county,  Illinois.  He  was 
a  true  tj'pe  of  American  chivalry  and  America's 
best  manhood,  possessing  the  open-handed  hos- 
pitality, generosity  and  helpfulness  for  which  the 
citizens  of  the  West  are  so  justly  noted.  He  was 
born  in  Plymouth,  now  Thomaston,  Litchfield 
county,  Connecticut,  on  the  19th  of  March,  1806, 
and  was  a  son  of  Ephraim  and  Mabel  (Pardy) 
Camp,  who  also  were  natives  of  the  same  place. 
The  father  engaged  in  the  milling  business,  and  so 
successful  was  he  in  his  operations  that  in  his 
later  life  he  was  enabled  to  lay  aside  all  business 
cares  and  enjoy  the  rest  which  he  had  truly  earned 
and  richly  deserved.  He  was  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Revolution  and  possessed  the  hardy  and 
resolute  spirit  of  the  men  of  his  time. 

During  the  childhood  of  Apollos  Camp  the 
father  had  not  obtained  a  competence,  and  the 
son  was  early  obliged  to  seek  his  own  living. 
His  educational   privileges  were   meager,   being 


limited  to  two  or  three  months'  attendance  at  the 
common  schools  during  the  winter  prior  to  his 
tenth  year.  After  he  had  passed  the  tenth  mile- 
stone on  life's  journey  he  did  not  again  enter 
the  schoolroom  as  a  student.  From  that  time  for- 
ward he  was  dependent  upon  his  own  resources, 
and  at  first  began  doing  chores  on  a  fanu  for 
his  board.  As  the  years  passed  and  his  strength 
increased  so  that  he  was  able  to  do  more  work 
he  secured  employment  as  a  farm  hand  and  con- 
tinued his  service  in  that  capacity  until  he  had 
attained  his  majority,  when  he  began  learning 
the  trade  of  stonemason.  When  he  had  mas- 
tered the  business  he  began  contracting,  and 
through  the  succeeding  five  years  was  exclusivelv 
engaged  in  taking  contracts  for  heavy  work.  In 
1828  he  secured  a  responsible  position,  being  ap- 
pointed foreman  of  the  farm  and  superintendent 
of  material  and  all  outside  work  connected  with 
the  cotton  factor)'  and  shops  of  the  great  clock 
maker,  Seth  Thomas,  of  Thomaston,  Connecti- 
cut, in  whose  employ  he  remained  for  a  period  of 
eighteen  years.  What  higher  testimonial  of  his 
faithfulness  could  be  given  than  his  long  service? 
In  1846  he  desired  a  change  of  employment  and 
invested  his  capital  in  one  hundred  and  twenty 
acres  of  land  in  his  native  county  of  Litchfield, 
operating  that  fami  for  two  seasons. 

In  1852  Mr.  Camp  sought  a  home  on  the  broad 
prairies  of  the  West,  and  entered  from  the  govern- 
ment three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  land  in 
Livingston  county,  Illinois.  In  October  follow- 
ing he  returned  to  Connecticut,  and  in  ^lay,  1853, 
moved  his  family  to  Illinois,  where  he  purchased 
eight  hundred  acres  of  land  additional.  He  was 
sagacious  and  far-sighted,  and  not  only  took 
note  of  the  fertility,  but  also  believed  that  the 
land  would  soon  be  in  great  demand.  In  1853 
he  built  upon  his  second  farm  a  good  residence 
and  gradually  effected  the  valuable  improve- 
ments which  made  it  so  well  known  throughout 
that  section  of  the  State. 

In  Connecticut,  in  June,  1833,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  Mr.  Camp  and  Miss  Nancy 
Thomas,  a  native  of   the    Nutmeg   State    and    a 


i^   Q^^^z-^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


425 


niece  of  Seth  Thomas.  Of  tliis  union  there  is 
hut  one  living  child,  a  daughter,  Harriet,  wife  of 
Bcnnet  Humiston.  He  was  born  in  Thomaston, 
Connecticut,  September  6,  1830,  and  was  a  son  of 
Bcnnet  and  Emily  (Warner)  Humiston.  He  ac- 
(juired  a  liberal  education  in  the  district  schools 
and  the  academy  of  his  native  towii,  and  when  n 
young  man  came  to  the  West,  arriving  in  Illi- 
nois in  1852.  Here  he  was  extensively  engaged 
in  farming,  forming  a  partnership  with  his  father- 
in-law  in  the  stock  business.  This  connection 
proved  highly  successful  to  both  gentlemen  un- 
til Mr.  Humiston's  removal  to  Pontiac  in  1876. 
He  acquired  a  handsome  fortune,  and  for  more 
than  thirty  years  was  one  of  the  prominent  and 
respected  citizens  of  Livingston  county.  His  po- 
litical support  was  given  to  the  Democracy  and 
its  principles  he  warmly  advocated.  In  a  fine 
residence  in  Pontiac  he  spent  the  last  seven  years 
of  his  life,  passing  away  on  the  15th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1883,  at  the  age  of  fifty-three  years.  His 
public  and  private  career  were  alike  above  re- 
proach and  his  exemplar}'  life  won  him  the  esteem 
of  many  friends  and  the  confidence  of  those  with 
whom  business  brought  him  in  contact. 

Edward  T.  Camp,  the  only  son  of  Apollos  Camp, 
was  bom  in  Thomaston,  Connecticut,  December 
24,  1843,  ^nd  was  a  child  of  nine  summers  when 
his  parents  came  to  Illinois.  H^is  early  educa- 
tional privileges  were  supplemented  by  study  in 
Clark  Seminar)-,  at  Aurora,  and  Lombard  Uni- 
versit}',  at  Galesburg,  Illinois.  He  was  a  very 
earnest  and  ambitious  student,  applying  himself 
closely  to  his  studies,  and  in  this  way  to  a  degree 
undermined  his  health,  and  he  the  more  readily 
succumbed  to  an  attack  of  typhoid  fever,  which 
after  an  illness  of  ten  days  terminated  fatally  on 
the  nth  of  September,  1864.  He  was  a  young' 
man  of  great  promise  and  fine  intellectual  attain- 
ments, and  his  death  proved  almost  an  unendur- 
able blow  to  the  father,  who  had  in  the  same  year 
been  called  upon  to  mourn  the  loss  of  his  wife,  her 


death  having  occurred  on  the  21st  of  January. 

Mr.  Camp  was  one  of  the  most  successful  farm- 
ers and  stock-raisers  of  Livingston  county.  He 
carried  on  business  in  that  line  until  1880,  when  he 
retired  to  private  life  and  went  to  live  with  his 
daughter  in  Pontiac.  Although  he  never  assumed 
the  active  management  of  enterprises,  he  invested 
his  capital  in  different  concerns,  becoming  a  stock- 
holder and  director  in  the  National  Bank  of  Pon- 
tiac and  a  heavy  stockholder  in  the  Pontiac  Coal 
Company.  Indolence  and  idleness  were  utterly 
foreign  to  his  nature  and  to  the  last  he  retained 
his  interest  in  business  affairs.  He  became  a 
wealthy  man,  his  property  coming  to  him  through 
the  legitimate  channels  of  trade.  He  was  never 
found  in  the  field  of  speculation. 

In  politics  Mr.  Camp  was  a  stanch  and  loyal 
Democrat,  and  was  regarded  as  a  wise  counselor 
and  faithful  adviser  of  his  part)-,  but  he  disliked 
publicity  and  therefore  always  refused  official  pre- 
ferment. He  was  a  generous  and  benevolent  man, 
ever  ready  to  extend  a  helping  hand  to  the  poor 
and  needy,  and  especially  willing  to  assist  those 
who  were  anxious  to  engage  in  business  for  them- 
selves. His  charity  was  unostentatious  and  the 
spirit  of  his  giving  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  at  one 
time  he  sold  a  good  farm  for  the  consideration  of 
one  dollar,  in  order  to  help  the  purchaser  make  a 
start  in  life.  Kindliness  was  one  of  his  marked 
characteristics,  and  his  sympathy  and  good  will 
were  extended  to  all  mankind.  He  recognized 
the  brotherhood  of  the  race,  and  no  man  was  ever 
more  quiet  and  unassuming  in  his  gifts.  As  a 
citizen  he  was  public-spirited  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree, deeply  interested  in  the  welfare  of  his  coun- 
try and  the  prosperity  of  his  community.  He 
passed  away  at  the  home  of  his  daughter.  May  3, 
1892,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six  years,  and  his  death 
seemed  a  personal  bereavement  to  the  majority 
of  the  citizens  of  Livingston  county,  for  he  was 
honored  and  esteemed  alike  by  young  and  old, 
rich  and  poor. 


426 


BIOtlli.M'IIICAI.  DICTIONARY  AND  POItTRAir  OALLKRT  OF  THE 


WILLIAM  SPENCER  HARVEY,  M.  D., 


CHICAGO. 


THIS  city  is  the  home  of  many  of  the  most 
prominent  representatives  of  the  different 
lines  of  business  to  which  men  give  their  time 
and  attention.  It  is  the  center  of  learning,  art, 
of  culture  and  of  commercial  activity  in  the  West, 
and  to  win  a  name  and  a  place  of  prominence  in 
any  line  of  undertaking  in  this  metropolis  requires 
merit  far  beyond  the  ordinary,  and  a  skill  that 
places  one  in  the  foremost  rank  in  their  chosen 
field  of  labor.  Dr.  Harvey  is  widely  recognized 
as  one  of  the  most  prominent  physicians  of 
Chicago,  having  for  some  years  successfully 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession. 

He  is  nimibered  among  the  native  sons  of 
Illinois,  being  born  in  Galesburg,  on  the  29th  of 
August,  1859,  and  a  descendant  of  worthy  Eng- 
lish ancestry.  His  patemal  grandfather^  Rev. 
John  Harvey,  was  a  native  of  Norwich,  England, 
and  in  his  younger  years  served  in  the  British 
army.  While  in  the  military  service  in  Ireland, 
he  became  acquainted  with  and  married  Ann 
P>rennan,  whose  brother,  Michael  Brennan,  was 
a  noted  Catliolic  priest  in  Dublin,  and  the  author 
of  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Ireland.  Ac- 
companied by  his  wife  the  Rev.  John  Harvey 
emigrated  to  the  New  World  and  took  up  his 
residence  in  Oneida  county.  New  York.  During 
the  Civil  war  he  served  as  chaplain  in  the  Union 
army,  continuing  at  the  front  until  after  the  ces- 
sation of  hostilities.  He  was  a  minister  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  for  over  fifty 
years  did  pastoral  work  in  Oneida  county,  New 
York,  where  he  was  widely  known  and  universally 
respected. 

His  son,  William  Nathaniel  Harvey,  the  father 
of  the  Doctor,  is  a  native  of  New  York  Mills, 
Oneida  county,  New  York.  He  married  Lovina 
Brewer,  who  came  of  an  old  Vermont  family,  and 
in  1845  removed  from  the  Empire  State  to  Gales- 
burg, Illinois,  where  with  his  wife  he  has  since  re- 
sided. He  has  now  laid  aside  active  business 
cares  and  is  enjoying  a  well  earned  rest.  Three 
of  his  sons  have  given  their  lives  to  the  medical 
profession,  and  have  attained  prominence  in  their 


cliosen  calling:  Dr.  J.  B.  Hai-vey  is  a  graduate 
of  Hahnemann  Medical  College,  of  Chicago,  and 
is  now^  engaged  in  practice  in  Galesburg;  Dr. 
Andrew  M.  Harvey  is  a  graduate  of  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  Chicago,  and  at  this 
writing  is  the  resident  surgeon  of  St.  Elizabeth's 
Hospital  of  this  city. 

To  a  student  of  human  nature  there  is  nothing 
of  more  interest  than  to  examine  into  the  life  his- 
tory of  a  self-made  man  and  to  analyze  those 
principles  that  have  enabled  him  to  pass  many  on 
the  highway  of  life  and  attain  a  position  of  promi- 
nence in  the  community.  The  life  record  of  Dr. 
Harvey  certainly  contains  much  of  interest  and 
demonstrates  the  fact  that  success  is  not  a  matter 
of  genius,  but  is  the  result  of  well  directed  energy, 
developed  natural  ability  and  sound  judgment. 
His  boyhood  was  passed  in  his  parents'  home  in 
Galesburg,  and  after  pursuing  the  preparatory- 
course  in  Knox  Academy  he  entered  Knox  Col- 
lege of  that  city,  at  which  he  was  graduated  with 
honor  in  1880.  He  was  an  apt  and  thorough 
student,  who  applied  himself  diligently  to  his 
studies,  but  at  the  same  time  neglected  not  the 
physical  training  without  which  there  is  no  per- 
fect development.  He  took  great  interest  in  ath- 
letics of  all  kinds,  and  was  a  recognized  leader 
in  such  sports  in  Knox  College  and  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan.  Soon  after  his  graduation 
at  the  former  institution  he  began  fitting  himself 
for  the  practice  of  medicine  in  the  latter  school, 
where  he  continued  his  studies  during  1881-2. 
His  next  instruction  was  obtained  in  Hahnemann 
Aledical  College,  of  Chicago,  at  which  he  was 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1883.  Upon  receiving 
his  degree  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Dr.  J.  E. 
Gilman  of  this  city,  and  during  their  connection 
of  two  years  he  acquired  a  valuable  experience 
and  won  a  reputation  as  a  skilled  physician.  His 
ability  being  thus  recognized  he  was  offered  the 
chair  of  physiology  and  histology  in  his  alma 
mater, — the  Hahnemann  ]\Iedical  College, — which 
position  he  accepted  and  satisfactorily  filled  for 
the  succeeding  three  years. 

Dr.  Harvey  has  ever  manifested  a  deep  interest 


^-^^U(^C 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


427 


in  all  that  pertains  to  his  profession,  its  advance- 
ment and  improvement.  Being  a  man  of  thorough 
research,  he  delves  deeply  into  the  hidden  mys- 
teries in  order  to  bring  to  light  that  which  will 
benefit  humanity  through  the  line  of  his  profes- 
sion. In  connection  with  the  World's  Columbian 
Exposition,  he  was  one  of  the  organizers  and  a 
director  of  the  Columbian  Homeopathic  Hospital, 
and  from  the  first  was  active  in  its  management, 
insuring  its  success  by  his  efficient  and  untiring 
labors.  He  was  also  an  important  factor  in  or- 
ganizing the  Homeopathic  Post-Graduate  Medi- 
cal College,  of  Chicago,  of  which  he  is  now  secre- 
tary, and  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors.  He 
is  also  professor  of  surgery  in  that  institution, 
and  is  the  surgeon  of  the  Chicago  Baptist  Hos- 
pital and  the  regular  lecturer  before  the  training 
school  of  nurses  connected  with  that  institution. 
He  is  also  surgeon  of  the  Garfield  Park  Sani- 
tarium and  the  Chicago  Railway  Hospital.  He 
has  made  a  specialty  of  surgery,  and  has  won  a 
reputation  that  makes  him  one  of  the  foremost 
representatives  of  this  branch  of  the  profession. 
He  is  an  honored  and  valuable  member  of  various 
medical  societies  and  clubs,  including  the  Illinois 
State  Medical  Societ\-,  the  Chicago  Homeopathic 
Medical  Society,  the  American  Institute  of  Home- 
opathy, and  the  Clinical  Society  of  Hahnemann 
Medical  College  and  Hospital.  He  also  holds 
membership  in  the  Illinois  Club,  the  Chicago 
Athletic  Club,  and  is  the  honored  president  of  the 
Knox  College  Club,  of  Chicago.    In  1883  he  was 


honored  by  that  institution  with  the  degree  of 
Master  of  Arts. 

In  1 89 1  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Dr. 
Harvey  and  Miss  Alice  Flash,  of  New  Orleans, 
Louisiana,  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  prominent 
residents  of  that  city,  well  known  in  business  and 
social  circles.  Mrs.  Harvey  is  a  lady  of  culture 
and  refinement  who  presides  with  grace  over  her 
pleasant  home  and  extends  to  her  many  friends 
true  Southern  hospitality.  They  have  two  chil- 
dren,— 'a  son  and  daughter, — Alice  Flash  and 
\Mlliam  Spencer,  Jr. 

From  the  time  of  attaining  his  majoritythe Doc- 
tor has  affiliated  with  the  Republican  party,  and 
is  a  stanch  adherent  of  its  principles.  In  his  re- 
ligious connections  he  is  an  Episcopalian.  Al- 
though reared  in  the  Methodist  Church  he  united 
with  the  Church  of  the  Epiphany  at  the  corner  of 
Adams  street  and  Ashland  boulevard,  Chicago, 
soon  after  his  marriage.  In  manner  he  is  courte- 
ous and  aftable,  in  disposition  kindly  and  gener- 
ous and  withal  is  a  true  gentleman  who  com- 
mands the  respect  and  admiration  of  those  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact,  and  has  won  a  large 
circle  of  friends.  An  eminent  physician  and  sur- 
geon, he  has  added  to  his  natural  ability  a  sincere 
love  of  his  work,  without  which  the  greatest  suc- 
cess cannot  be  achieved.  He  is  always  well 
poised,  is  a  man  of  keen  discrimination,  prompt 
in  action,  and  his  excellent  preparation  makes 
him  thoroughly  reliable  in  the  most  difficult  cases 
and  under  the  most  trying  circumstances. 


LEMUEL  MILK, 


KANKAKEE. 


IN  some  respects  Lemuel  Milk  was  a  remark- 
able character.  In  this  age  of  urban  devel- 
opment and  prosperity,  few  men  of  his  strength 
of  character  and  practical  business  cjualifications 
are  content  to  lead  what  might  be  called  a  pas- 
toral life;  and  certainly  few  men  who  had  the 
natural  trend  of  sentiment  and  love  for  mother 
nature  that  would  lead  them  to  shun  the  more 
glittering  opportunities  for  material  advancement 
in  a  business  or  speculative  city  life,  have  had  in 
their    make-up    so    blended    the    rather  unique 


qualities  required  to  harmonize  the  nineteenth- 
century  spirit  of  advancement  and  adaptation 
with  the  quiet  life  of  the  husbandman. 

We  have  in  this  age  those  yclept  railroad 
kings,  merchant  princes,  Napoleons  of  finance, 
etc.,  and  in  that  view  certainly  Lemuel  Milk 
may  be  justly  termed  the  Prince  of  Agriculture. 
He  is  entitled  to  this  distinction  not  merely  on 
account  of  the  extent  of  his  operations,  but  more 
particularly  on  account  of  his  methods.  Through 
the  whole  course  of  his  career  the  prime  moving 


428 


SWOIiArilfCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


spirit  that  prompted  all  his  actions  seems  to  have 
been  improvement  and  advancement.  The  idea 
and  intent  of  leaving  whatever  he  touched  better 
than  he  found  it,  and  this  even  when  his  personal 
gain  might  often  have  been  better  advanced  by 
an  opposite  course,  has  been  dominant  with  him. 
He  was  a  man  whose  true  character,  to  be  rightly 
understood,  must  be  studied  beneath  the  surface. 
His  life's  work  must  be  taken  in  its  entirety,  its 
environment  included,  and  also  his  possibilities 
and  probabilities  of  success  in  other  and  more 
inviting  fields  of  speculation  and  labor.  Thus 
examined  the  unselfish  and  commendable  pur- 
pose and  object  of  his  life  work  becomes  appar- 
ent and  in  fact  unquestionable.  In  a  general 
work  of  this  character  we  can  cnly  touch  upon  the 
leading  events  of  his  career,  and  thus  hint  at  the 
underlying  motives  and  spirit  that  impelled  his 
actions;  but  enough  may  be  outlined  to  show 
that  he  was  both  in  natural  ability  and  purity  of 
motive   a  man  above  the  ordinary  class. 

He  was  bom  in  Ledyard,  Cayuga  county, 
New  York,  October  i8,  1820.  Both  his  parents 
were  natives  of  the  old  Bay  State,  his  father  hav- 
ing been  born  in  Westport,  Massachusetts,  and 
his  mother,  a  descendant  and  member  of  the  old 
puritan  Hathaway  family,  being  born  in  New 
Bedford,  Massachusetts,  where  many  of  her 
family  name  still  reside. 

When  Lemuel  was  but  two  years  of  age  his 
parents  removed  to  Fleming,  Cayuga  county, 
and  here  his  boyhood  and  youth  were  passed. 
He  was  brought  up  to  agricultural  pursuits,  and, 
unlike  most  farmers'  sons,  did  not  despise  his 
occupation.  He  loved  nature  and  nature's  pro- 
cesses and  products.  When  yet  a  lad  he  devel- 
oped marked  business  instincts  and  qualities. 
The  first  money  he  ever  earned  he  invested  in 
stock,  this  by  increase  and  judicious  manipula- 
tion developed  into  quite  a  little  capital,  and  also, 
while  yet  a  lad,  he  assumed  the  active  manage- 
ment of  his  father's  farm,  and  soon  purchased — 
mostly  on  credit — an  adjoining  farm,  which  he 
paid  for  in  the  four  years  succeeding.  He  en- 
gaged quite  extensively  in  buying  and  selling 
cattle,  horses,  hogs,  etc. 

About  this  time  Colonel  William  Howard,  an 
extensive  trader  and  live-stock  dealer,  became 
interested  in  the  qualities  displayed  by  the  young 


man,  and  a  partnership  was  the  result.  Colonel 
Howard  used  to  make  trips  to  Illinois,  Indiana 
and  Ohio  buying  stock,  which  would  be  shipped 
and  driven  to  the  Eastern  markets.  During  one 
of  these  Western  trips  he  entered  a  tract  of 
Government  land  in  Iroc[uois  county,  Illinois, 
in  what  was  then  known  as  Hickory  Grove, 
afterward  Enos  Grove,  now  Milk's  Grove. 

In  1850,  upon  his  representation,  ]\Ir.  Milk 
purchased  a  half  interest  in  the  same  without 
ever  having  seen  it.  In  the  following  spring 
(185 1)  Mr.  Milk  came  West  to  inspect  his  new 
purchase,  finding  it  entirely  satisfactory,  and, 
finding  also  as  he  believed  a  field  here  better 
suited  to  his  ambition  and  enterprise,  he  deter- 
mined to  close  his  interests  in  the  East  and 
make  his  home  in  this  then  new  country.  Upon 
the  death  of  his  partner.  Colonel  Howard,  in  1853, 
he  purchased  from  the  heirs  their  interest  in  these 
lands  and  at  once  began  to  add  to  the  tract  by 
entering  and  purchasing  adjacent  lands,  until 
at  one  time  he  owned  nine  thousand  acres  in  one 
body. 

On  the  first  of  June,  1854,  he  married  Miss 
Jane  A.  Piatt,  of  Otsego  county.  New  York,  and 
soon  after  he  came  to  Illinois  to  locate  perman- 
entlv,  choosing  as  his  place  of  abode  the  village 
of  Kankakee.  Here  he  purchased  a  residence 
with  lands  adjoining,  and  his  residence  at  the 
time  of  his  decease  comprised  part  of  the  orig- 
inal dwelling. 

From  the  time  he  first  became  interested  in 
Western  lands  it  was  his  custom  to  clear  up,  drain 
and  improve  them,  buy,  feed,  graze  and  breed 
all  kinds  of  stock  for  market,  and  with  the 
proceeds  of  this  operation  buy  more  land  and 
proceed  to  convert  it  to  a  high  state  of  productive- 
ness. He  was  one  of  the  few  original  farmers  of 
our  Western  countrs'  who  did  not  prey  upon  the 
natural  fertility  of  the  soil  and  proceed  to  wear 
it  out  giving  nothing  in  return.  He  bought 
thousands  of  acres  of  land  considered  by  others 
useless  for  purposes  of  tillage,  and  by  an  intel- 
ligent system  of  drainage  and  fertilizing  converted 
these  waste  'places  into  beautiful  and  produc- 
tive  farms. 

Where  suitable  tenants  were  not  available  he 
hired  men  to  carry  out  his  ideas,  and  thus  by  a 
system  of  tenantry  and  hired  labor  he  kept  up  his 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


4-29 


improvements  until  at  one  time  he  owned  in 
Illinois  and  Indiana  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
improved  farms  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
each,  or  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  acres 
of  actual  farming  lands,  all  under  a  high  state  of 
cultivation.  He  also  owned  real  estate  in  Chi- 
cago, Kankakee,  Wilmington,  Manteno,  Waldron 
and  Chebanse,  and  at  the  latter  place  established 
one  of  the  largest  general  stores  ever  operated  in 
Illinois  outside  of  Chicago. 

He  kept  up  his  interest  in  live-stock  buying, 
rearing  and  breeding,  and*  for  many  years  gave 
especial  attention  to  the  breeding  of  Percheron 
horses  and  Hereford  cattle.  In  addition  to  all 
these  extensive  interests  he  also  conducted  for 
more  than  twenty  years  a  large  ice  business  which 
is  still  carried  on  by  Mrs.  Milk. 

To  his  first  marriage  were  bom  two  children: 
Jennie  M.,  now  Mrs.  Conrad,  of  Indiana,  and 
Sherwood  P.,  who  died  June  17,  1883.  Mrs. 
Milk  died  in  December,  1881,  at  El  Paso,  Texas, 
while  in  attendance  or  this  invalid  son.  October 
30,  1886,  Mr.  Milk  married  as  his  second  wife. 
Miss  May  E.  Sherwood,  of  Tennessee,  and  they 
had  one  child,  Mary  Sherwood,  born  July  17, 
1888. 

For  some  years  prior  to  Mr.  Milk"s  death  he 
had  been  at  various  times  disposing  of  his  landed 
interests,  but  even  then  he  left  extensive  pos- 
sessions, in  realty  in  Illinois  and  Indiana  and 
North  Dakota.  He  always  had  unbounded  con- 
fidence in  the  eventual  prosperity  of  this  latter 
region,  and  used  often  to  remark  in  later  years 
that  were  he  a  younger  man  he  would  center 
his  interests  there  and  help  to  develop  that  beau- 
tiful region. 

Mr.  Milk  died  at  Kankakee,  July  19,  1893. 
In  his  death  Illinois  lost  one  of  the  best  and  most 
advanced  representatives  of  its  farming  interests 
that  the  State  ever  possessed.  The  simple  acqui- 
sition of  wealth  was  never  his  ruling  passion. 
Had  it  been  he  might  have  been  many  times  a 


millionaire.  His  purpose  in  life  seemed  to  be  in 
one  word,  "  improvement."  He  made  the  waste 
places  of  the  earth  to  blossom  as  the  rose,  he 
took  an  interest  in  worthy  and  ambitious  young 
men  and  took  pride  in  helping  them  to  a  start  in 
life. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  touching 
tributes  to  the  memory  of  the  man  was  the  many 
letters  received  by  his  devoted  wife  after  his 
decease,  from  those  whom  he  had  assisted  to  a 
start  on  the  road  to  prosperity,  acknowledging 
their  obligation  and  extolling  his  generosity. 
These  came  unsolicited  from  every  part  of  the 
country.  He  was  the  kindest  and  most  consid- 
erate of  landlords.  His  tenants  regarded  him 
as  their  friend,  and  would  at  any  time  go  out  of 
their  way  to  oblige  him,  as  he  indeed  would  to 
oblige  them.  He  was  a  man  wdio  inspired  con- 
fidence and  enthusiasm;  of  stalwart  build, 
genial  manners,  forceful  presence  and  unswerv- 
ing will,  he  would  have  won  success  in  almost 
any  calling  in  life. 

He  was  always  too  busy  to  seek  or  accept  office. 
The  only  time  he  ever  deviated  from  this  was  in 
serving  two  years  as  trustee  for  the  Illinois  East- 
ern Hospital  for  the  Insane  at  Kankakee,  and 
was  also  the  first  and  till  his  death  the  only  presi- 
dent of  the  Alound  Grove  Cemetery  Association. 

He  was  broad-gauged  and  liberal  in  all  his 
views,  political,  religious  and  social.  A  Demo- 
crat in  early  life,  upon  the  organization  of  the 
Republican  party  he  found  in  its  declaration  of 
principles  the  underlying  elements  of  freedom, 
right  and  justice  between  man  and  man  that 
accorded  with  his  own  views,  and  henceforth 
gave  his  allegiance  to  that  part}-.  He  was 
a  man  of  action  rather  than  theory.  While 
others  might  argue  and  debate  he  went  to 
work  and  demonstrated.  He  furnished  homes, 
the  means  of  education,  and  a  start  in  life  to 
thousands  wdio  in  coming  years  will  bless  his 
niemorv. 


430 


DIOOrxAl'IIICAL  niCTIONAnr  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


JESSE  C.  WHEATON, 


WHEATON. 


THE  history  of  northeastern  Illinois  would 
be  incomplete  without  the  life  record  of 
Jesse  C.  Wheaton,  whose  labors  larg'ely  promoted 
the  material,  educational  and  moral  welfare  of  this 
section  of  the  State.  He  is  known  as  the  founder 
of  the  city  which  bears  his  name,  as  one  of  the 
chief  promoters  of  the  first  railroad  of  Illinois, 
and  was  one  of  the  organizers  and  benefactors  of 
Wheaton  College. 

He  was  born  at  Pomfret,  Connecticut,  March 
27,  1813,  and  was  a  son  of  James  and  Nancy 
Wheaton,  nee  Lyon.  The  Wheaton  family  orig- 
inated in  Ireland,  where  the  great-grandfather  of 
our  subject  was  bom.  The  grandfather,  James 
Wheaton,  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  war, 
and  the  father  served  as  one  of  the  defenders  of 
this  comitry  in  the  war  of  1812.  He  was  a  farmer 
by  occupation  and  owned  a  valuable  tract  of  land 
of  three  hundred  acres  near  Pomfret.  His  wife 
died  at  the  age  oi  twenty-nine,  while  he  lived  to 
the  advanced  age  of  eighty-nine. 

Jesse  C.  Wheaton  was  only  four  years  old  when 
his  mother  departed  this  life.  He  was  reared  on 
his  father's  farm,  obtained  his  education  in  the 
common  schools  of  the  neighborhood,  and  later 
served  a  four-years  apprenticeship  at  the  carpen- 
ter and  joiner's  trade,  receiving  during  that  time 
five  dollars  per  month  and  his  board.  On  the  com- 
pletion of  his  term  of  service  he  went  to  Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts,  where  he  worked  for  a  time 
as  a  journeyman.  Believing,  however,  that  the 
West  offered  greater  opportunities  for  young  men 
of  ambition  and  industn,',  he  left  Worcester  for 
Chicago  in  the  spring  of  1837,  making  the  jour- 
ney by  stage  to  Norwich,  thence  to  New  London 
and  New  York,  by  river  to  Albany,  and  by  canal 
to  Buffalo,  where  he  boarded  a  sailing  vessel  for 
Mackinaw.  While  on  Lake  Huron  the  mainmast 
of  the  boat  was  broken  and  thirty  days  were  con- 
sumed ere  the  journey  was  ended.  On  the  last 
day  of  June  he  arrived  in  Chicago,  which  then 
had  a  population  of  less  than  three  thousand. 

Mr.  Wheaton  settled  in  Warrenville,  Du  Pap^e 
county,  Illinois,  and  began  work  at  his  trade. 
Tile  United  States  survev  had  not  been  made  at 


this  time,  and  he  secured  a  pre-emption  claim  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  south  of  the 
present  city  of  Wheaton.  He  had  only  three 
hundred  dollars  to  invest,  but  prosperity  attended 
his  efforts  from  the  beginning.  He  raised  wheat, 
which  he  hauled  to  Chicago  with  oxen  and  sold 
for  thirty-three  cents  per  bushel  at  a  time  when 
"three  pecks  of  potatoes  would  glut  the  Chicago 
market!"  The  first  crop  he  raised  was  on  un- 
fenced  land,  and  he  continued  farming  in  connec- 
tion with  carpenter  work,  and  added  to  his  realty 
until  he  owned  over  three  hundred  acres. 

At  the  time  of  the  building  of  the  old  Galena 
road, — the  first  railroad  in  Illinois, — when  John 
B.  Turner  was  president  and  John  \"an  Nortw^ick 
was  chief  engineer,  the  Wheaton  brothers  did  more 
than  any  one  else  to  further  the  enterprise,  and  in 
consequence  a  warm  friendship  sprang  up  be- 
tween them  and  the  builders  of  the  road,  which 
was  ended  only  by  death.  The  Wheaton  brothers 
gave  three  miles  of  the  right  of  way  through  their 
land  to  the  railroad  company,  and  it  was  in  recog- 
nition of  this  liberal  gift  that  i\Ir.  Turner  named 
the  station  Wheaton. 

With  the  development  and  progress  of  the  new 
city,  Jesse  C.  Wheaton  was  prominently  identi- 
fied, taking  an  active  interest  in  everything  per- 
taining to  its  upbuilding  and  advancement.  When 
it  was  proposed  to  establish  Wheaton  College  he 
made  a  generous  donation  of  three  hundred  dol- 
lars to  further  the  enterprise  at  a  time  (1852)  when 
ready  money  was  much  harder  to  secure  than  it 
is  to-day.  In  addition  he  also  donated  twenty 
acres  of  land, — one-half  of  the  land  on  which  the 
college  is  located.  Later  he  contributed  liberally 
toward  liquidating  the  indebtedness  of  the  school 
and  served  for  more  than  ten  years  as  one  of  its 
trustees.  Mr.  Wheaton  always  took  an  active 
interest  in  the  cause  of  public  education,  and  for 
twenty  years  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  trus- 
tees of  Wheaton,  being  its  president  at  the  time  of 
his  death.  He  was  one  of  the  promoters  of  what 
is  known  as  the  "Elephant  Schoolhouse,"  so 
named  by  those  who  predicted  that  the  building 
would  not  be  filled  for  the  next  fift\'  years.     Their 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


481 


mistake  is  apparent,  as  it  is  now  almost  too 
crowded,  and  soon  another  building'  will  be  nec- 
essan'.  Mr.  Wheaton  labored  long  and  earnestly 
in  behalf  of  the  schools  of  the  cit)'  in  which  he 
made  his  home,  and  they  were  advanced  to  their 
present  high  standard  largely  through  his  efforts. 
The  high  school  is  considered  the  best  in  the 
county,  and  its  graduates  are  permitted  to  enter 
Wheaton  College  or  any  other  first-class  academy 
without  further  examination. 

The  various  business  enterprises  with  which 
Mr.  Wheaton  was  connected  promoted  the  ma- 
terial prosperity  of  the  city.  In  1879  the  Wheaton 
Bank,  now  known  as  the  Gary  Bank,  was  estab- 
lished, Mr.  Wheaton  becoming  one  of  its  founders, 
and  continuing  his  connection  with  it  until  his 
death.  He  laid  out  the  first  and  second  additions 
to  ^^'heaton,  besides  the  original  plat  of  the  city, 
and  used  his  best  endeavors  to  have  the  county 
seat  removed  from  Naper\'ille;  Wheaton  being 
the  exact  geographical  center  of  the  county  and 
therefore  the  proper  place  for  the  county  govern- 
ment. 

On  the  6th  of  March,  1839,  in  Du  Page  count}-, 
Mr.  Wheaton  married  Miss  Oneida  GarA',  daugh- 
ter of  William  and  Lucy  (Perin)  Gan,-,  who  had 
also  emigrated  westward  from  Pomfret,  Connecti- 
cut. Her  death  occurred  on  the  4th  of  April, 
1882.  They  had  nine  children,  six  of  whom  sur- 
vive the  parents.  Lora  A.,  wife  of  John  Stepson, 
is  a  graduate  of  Wheaton  College,  having  com- 
pleted the  classical  course.  For  many  j^ears  she 
has  been  engaged  in  teaching  languages,  having 
been  thus  employed  in  Hedding  College,  of  Ab- 
ingdon, Illinois,  for  five  years,  and  in  Rock  River 
Seminar}-  for  three  years,  while  for  the  past  fif- 
teen years  she  has  been  a  teacher  of  Latin  in  the 
North  Division  high  school  of  Chicago.  Maria 
N.,  wife  of  R.  A.  Morrison,  of  Grant  Park,  died, 
leaving  three  children, — Frankie,  Willie  and 
Mamie,  who,  after  the  death  of  their  mother,  made 
their  home  with  Mr.  Wheaton.  Jesse  C.  is  the 
next  of  the  family.  Ellen  F.  died  in  childhood. 
Mary  E.,  deceased,  was  the  wife  of  Henn,-  Hewes, 
of  Crete,  Will  county,  Illinois.  James  M.  is  a 
Methodist  minister  located  in  St.  Charles,  Illi- 
nois. Franklin  Emr}-  has  since  his  father's  death 
taken  charge  of  the  business  affairs  of  the  estate. 
Washington  Irving  has  for  some  years  success- 


fully engaged  in  farming.  Frankie  E.  is  the  wife 
of  J.  F.  Snyder,  an  attorney-at-law  of  Wheaton. 

In  religious  belief,  Mr.  Wheaton  was  always 
a  Methodist,  and  assisted  in  organizing  the  church 
of  that  denomination  in  1849.  The  building  was 
dedicated  in  1857,  and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  he 
assisted  materially  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
church.  At  one  time  he  made  this  statement: 
"My  first  donation  to  the  church  was  four  hun- 
dred dollars.  I  did  not  know  where  the  money 
was  to  come  from,  but  it  came."  For  more  than 
twenty  }ears  he  ser\'ed  as  one  of  its  trustees,  and 
justly  merited  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 
by  his  co-laborers.  He  was  a  loyal  Republican, 
and  for  many  years  was  the  assessor  and  collector 
of  Milton  township,  and  was  deputy  assessor  of 
internal  revenue  of  Du  Page  county  from  1862 
until  1868. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Wheaton,  which  occurred 
in  1895,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  was  deeply  felt 
throughout  the  entire  community,  but  the  mem- 
ory of  his  pure,  useful  and  successful  life  is  the 
consolation  left  his  family.  He  was  prominent 
if  not  foremost  in  every  public  enterprise  of  im- 
portance in  the  history  of  the  place  named  in  his 
honor.  No  other  man  has  been  more  interested 
in  the  development  of  Du  Page  county  than  he 
whose  industry  and  frugality,  faithfulness  and  so- 
briety, justice  and  perseverance,  thoroughness 
and  success  were  universally  recognized  and  ap- 
preciated. No  one  could  misunderstand  him. 
When  he  said  No  he  meant  No.  When  his  mind 
decided  there  was  no  further  parley.  His  word 
was  good  for  all  he  was  wortli.  Morally  he  was 
exceptionally  strong  and  greatly  respected.  His 
religion  was  characteristic  of  his  deliberate  con- 
stitution. He  loved  the  church,  encouraged  edu- 
cation and  sustained  the  social  interests  in  the 
most  unassuming  and  practical  way.  What  he 
deemed  to  be  right  and  desirable  he  supported 
in  ever}^  way  possible.  He  was  rather  conserva- 
tive than  enthusiastic,  and  rarely  demonstrative. 
He  was  naturally  tender-hearted  and  essentially 
benevolent.  Whatever  his  faults,  he  made  no 
enemies  by  conceit  of  superiority  or  contempt  of 
poverty.  He  was  never  proud,  never  vain,  never 
vacillating.  He  will  be  generally  and  greatly 
missed  by  a  circle  of  friends  in  whose  estimation 
he  was  a  model  for  emulation  and  in  whose  recol- 


432 


BionuArnicAL  dtcttonary  and  poutrait  galleut  of  the 


lection  he  will  ever  remain  the  type  of  a  true 
friend  and  worthy  citizen.  Upon  his  death  the 
hoard  of  education,  of  which  he  was  president, 
passed  the  following  resolutions: 

"Whereas,  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to 
call  from  his  labors  our  friend  and  associate,  Jesse 
Wheaton,  who  for  many  years  served  as  pres- 
ident of  this  board,  and  who  has  for  so  long  been 
prominently  identified  with  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion in  the  town  which  bears  his  name;  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  board 
tender  to  his  family  their  heartfelt  sympathy  in 


their  time  of  sorrow,  and  that  we  desire  to  express 
our  sense  of  the  loss  we  have  sustained  in  the 
death  of  our  honored  president.  We  feel  that  in 
the  death  of  Jesse  Wheaton  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion loses  a  strong  champion,  and  we  desire  to 
place  on  record  our  appreciation  of  the  character 
of  our  deceased  associate  as  a  man,  a  public-spir- 
ited citizen  and  a  sincere  friend ;  be  it  further 

"Resolved,  That  this  preamble  and  resolution 
be  spread  upon  the  records  of  the  board  and  that 
a  copy  be  sent  to  the  family  of  the  deceased  and 
published  in  the  Wheaton  papers." 


F.  J.  KERN, 


BELLEVILLE. 


ONE  of  the  prominent  representatives  of  the 
journalistic  profession  is  the  gentleman  whose 
name  heads  this  brief  notice,  the  well-known  edi- 
tor and  proprietor  of  the  News  Democrat  of 
Belleville.  He  is  numbered  among  the  native  sons 
of  St.  Clair  county,  where  his  birth  occurred  on 
the  2d  of  September,  1864.  His  parents,  H.  L. 
and  Katherine  Kern,  were  early  settlers  of  this 
locality.  Our  subject  acquired  his  education  in 
the  public  schools,  and  supplemented  his  early 
privileges  by  a  course  in  the  Illinois  State  Normal 
University.  On  leaving  the  school  room  he  took 
up  the  teacher's  profession,  which  he  successfully 
followed  for  five  years  in  the  schools  of  St.  Clair 
county. 

On  the  expiration  of  that  period  Mr.  Kern  en- 
tered upon  his  connection  with  journalistic  work 
and  is  an  important  factor  in  newspaper  circles  in 
this  section  of  Illinois.  He  became  editor  of  the 
East  St.  Louis  Gazette  at  the  commencement  of 
his  career  and  later  purchased  and  published  the 
Belleville  Weekly  and  Daily  News  Democrat,  tlie 
leading  Democratic  paper  of  southern  Illinois. 
This  paper  was  established  in  1857.  It  has  now 
enteJ'ed  upon  a  prosperous  era  of  its  existence  and 
is  recognized  as  a  leading  journal.    Mr.  Kern  has 


had  a  varied  business  career,  having  followed 
various  lines  of  business.  He  carried  on  farming 
for  a  time,  afterward  engaged  in  teaming,  has  fol- 
lowed coal  mining,  been  employed  as  a  stationary 
engineer  and  railway  engineer,  has  been  an  edu- 
cator and  an  editor.  He  has  also  been  an  active 
and  effective  worker  in  the  interests  of  the 
Democratic  party,  has  served  as  delegate  to 
the  State  and  national  conventions,  and  has 
delivered  many  campaign  addresses,  being  a 
fluent,  entertaining,  instructive  and  convincing 
speaker. 

In  July,  1893,  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of 
Mr.  Kem  and  Miss  Alma  Eidmann.of  Mascoutah, 
Illinois,  by  whom  he  has  one  son,  Alfred.  So- 
cially Mr.  Kern  is  connected  with  the  Knights  of 
Pythias  fraternity  and  the  Modem  Woodmen  of 
America  and  has  filled  various  offices  in  both 
lodges.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  St.  Clair 
County  Fair  Association  and  the  Belleville  Cycle 
Club.  He  is  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Belleville 
Lyceum  and  was  the  first  president  of  that  well 
known  literary  organization.  He  is  a  man  of 
much  force  of  character,  strong  individuality, 
and  his  pleasant,  social  manner  has  won  him 
a  host  of  warm  friends. 


.^^/c^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  VXITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


433 


WARREN  L.  WH  EATON, 

Wll  EATON. 


THE  city  of  Wheaton,  Du  Page  county,  Illi- 
nois, stands  as  a  monument  to  the  progres- 
sive spirit  and  the  enterjjrise  of  two  brothers,  one 
of  whom  is  the  gentleman  whose  name  begins 
this  review.  His  life  work  has  been  of  decided 
advantage  to  this  locality.  He  was  bom  in  Pom- 
fret,  Windham  county,  Connecticut,  March  6,1812, 
and  is  a  son  of  James  Wheaton,  who  \vas  born 
in  Pawtucket,  Rhode  Island,  in  1784.  His  son 
acquired  his  education  in  the  common  schools  of 
Pomfret,  in  Woodstock  Academy,  and  at  a  classi- 
cal school  at  Oxford,  Massachusetts.  At  the  age 
of  nineteen  he  began  teaching  school  in  the  win- 
ter season,  while  in  the  summer  months  he  worked 
on  a  farm.  He  was  successful  in  this  undertak- 
ing, as  he  has  been  in  nearly  every  work  to  which 
his  attention  has  been  given  throughout  his  ac- 
tive business  career. 

Attracted  by  the  limitless  possibilities  of  the 
\\'est,  he  started  for  Illinois  in  the  spring  of  1837, 
and  on  the  ist  of  June  arrived  in  Du  Page  county. 
Several  months  were  passed  in  looking  over  the 
country,  during  which  time  he  visited  Madison, 
Wisconsin,  Galena,  Ottawa,  La  Salle  and  Quincy, 
Illinois,  and  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  returning  by  way 
of  Galena.  Becoming  convinced  that  no  better 
land  could  be  secured  than  in  Du  Page  county,  he 
returned  to  his  first  location,  and  in  June,  1838, 
made  a  claim  of  640  acres.  This  region  had  not 
been  surveyed,  and  he  indicated  his  ownership  of 
the  property  by  plowing  around  it.  Becoming 
convinced  that  Chicago  was  to  be  the  great  entre- 
pot for  all  the  W'estern  produce,  he  wrote  his 
brother  to  come  to  the  West.  Jesse  Wheaton  re- 
sponded in  person  and  in  the  summer  of  1838 
came  to  Illinois  and  took  a  claim  of  three  hundred 
and  twenty  acres  that  Erastus  and  Jude  P.  Gary 
lield  in  reserve  for  some  of  their  friends.  Thus 
Du  Page  county  became  the  home  of  two  of  its 
most  prominent  residents. 

Warren  L.  Wheaton  spent  the  first  season  pre- 
vious to  making  his  tour  to  the  West  in  the  home 
of  Messrs.  Gary,  who  lived  in  a  double  log  house 
near  Warrenville.  He  went  through  the  ex- 
periences and  trials  of  life  on  the  frontier,  and 
2S 


in  the  winter  after  his  arrival  he  lost  some  of  his 
cash  capital.  He  had  eleven  sovereigns  and 
thirty-four  silver  half  dollars  in  a  trunk  in  his 
room  when  the  Gary  house  was  destroyed  by 
fire.  The  next  day  ten  of  the  eleven  sovereigns, 
somewhat  blackened,  were  found  in  the  ashes  of 
the  ruins,  but  nothing  could  be  found  of  the  other 
currency  except  a  few  globules  of  silver,  which 
were  sold  by  Mr.  Wheaton  for  $3.  During  the 
summer  of  1838  he  broke  eighteen  acres  of  land, 
in  the  fall  sowed  it  to  winter  wheat,  and  in  the 
.spring  reaped  a  good  han'est.  This  was  raised 
on  the  open  prairie,  no  fences  protecting  it  from 
neighbors'  cattle;  but  it  was  unmolested  save 
when  a  deer  had  now  and  then  wandered  through. 
Since  that  time  Mr.  Wheaton  has  carried  on  agri- 
cultural pursuits  and  is  still  engaged  in  farming 
on  the  school  section  in  Milton  township, — the 
land  which  he  claimed  from  the  Government  al- 
most sixty  years  ago. 

On  the  25th  of  June,  1848,  Mr.  Wheaton  was 
united  in  marriage  with  ]\Iiss  Harriet  E.  Rickert, 
who  was  also  a  native  of  Pomfret,  Connecticut, 
and  a  daughter  of  Mrs.  Laura  Rickert.  When 
a  child  of  but  ten  years  she  was  brought  by  her 
parents  to  Illinois,  where  she  lived  until  called 
from  this  life  on  the  2gth  of  May,  1863,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-seven  years.  In  the  family  were  six 
children:  Warren  L.,  Jr.,  who  was  born  on  the 
nth  of  June,  1850,  and  is  associated  with  his 
father  in  business;  Stella  C,  who  was  born  in  Feb- 
ruary 13,  1853,  and  died  on  the  9th  of  June,  1863: 
Charles  Henry,  who  was  born  July  20,  1855,  and 
died  September  8,  1856;  Lucy  E.,  bom  Febmary 
22,  1858;  Wilbur  F.,  born  May  12,  i860;  and 
Harry,  born  May  29,  1863.  After  the  death  of 
his  first  wife,  Mr.  Wheaton  married  Miss  Chris- 
tiana Shugg,  of  New  York  city. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  man  has  been  more  in- 
terested in  advancing  every  enterprise  for  the 
good  of  Wheaton  and  the  neighborhood  than  has 
Warren  L.  Wheaton.  When  John  B.  Turner, 
president,  and  Hon.  William  B.  Ogden,  director, 
of  the  Chicago  and  Galena  Railroad,  were  secur- 
ing the  right  of  way  for  the  road  they  were  asked 


434 


nWGRAPnWAL  DTCTTONART  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLBRT  OF  THE 


fifteen  dollars  per  acre  for  the  land  at  Danby ;  but 
the  \\'heaton  brothers  and  E.  Gary  voluntarily 
offered  the  right  of  way  through  their  land,  anx- 
ious to  aid  the  new  undertaking.  Their  ardent 
support  and  generosity  in  this  matter  gained  them 
the  good  will  and  favor  of  the  officials  of  the  road 
and  when  a  station  was  located  Captain  Turner 
named  it  Wheaton,  in  honor  of  the  man  who 
had  so  liberally  come  forward  and  met  him  open- 
handed. 

When  the  road  was  so  far  completed  that  the 
question  was  discussed,  Where  shall  the  depot  be 
located?  there  arose  a  diversity  of  opinions.  A 
strenuous  effort  was  made  by  Mr.  Jewell  to  secure 
the  station  on  his  father's  land,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose erected  a  large  two-story  balloon  frame 
thereon,  about  four  rods  from  the  track.  He  se- 
cured an  appointment  as  postmaster  at  this  place, 
and  in  order  to  make  security  doubly  secure  went 
to  Naperville  and  induced  the  people  to  come  to 
his  neighborhood.  The  company  gathered  in 
front  of  the  home  of  Warren  L.  Wheaton  and  or- 
ganized a  self-constituted  power.  Captain  Joseph 
Naper  being-  elected  president  and  John  J.  Riddler 
clerk.  When  Captain  Naper  was  shown  where 
section  i6  is,  it  was  resolved  that  the  station 
should  be  located  on  Warren  Wheaton's  west 
farm  The  station  was,  however,  located  where 
the  brothers  wanted  it. 

From  the  first  the  Wheaton  brothers  adopted 
what  has  proved  to  be  a  very  wise  plan  in  build- 
ing up  the  town.  They  first  gave  away  a  lot  here 
and  there  to  any  one  who  would  build,  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  building  to  be  erected  thereon. 
Later  they  sold  for  a  nominal  sum  lots  to  any 
one  who  would  build,  realizing  but  little  more  than 
enough  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  survey,  transfer, 
etc.  Thus  they  promoted  the  growth  of  the  city 
which  to-day  stands  as  a  monument  to  these  hon- 
ored pioneers. 

In  1852,  when  Professor  Turnery's  father,  a 
\\'esleyan  Methodist  minister,  and  the  Rev.  John 
Cross,  came  to  Wheaton  to  secure  subscription 
to  the  construction  fund  of  a  college  to  be  called 
the  Illinois  Institute,  to  be  founded  at  Wheaton, 


provided  $3,000  in  subscription  could  be  secured, 
the  Wheaton  brothers  and  E.  Gary  pledged  them- 
selves for  $3,000,  which  insured  the  success  of  the 
subscription  part  of  the  work  at  least.  After  se- 
lecting the  present  site  of  the  college  grounds, 
the  title  was  secured  in  this  way.  The  land  be- 
longed to  William  N.  Dodge,  but  was  incumbered 
by  a  trust  deed  and  was  to  be  sold  in  a  short  time. 
The  Wheaton  brothers  proposed  to  D.  Howard 
that  if  he  would  attend  the  sale  and  bid  of?  the 
land  and  let  the  institute  have  forty  acres  at  the 
price  per  acre  that  it  sold  for  at  the  sale,  they 
would  furnish  him  the  money  to  buy  the  farm, 
— which  was  done  and  the  title  secured.  .Warren 
Wheaton  has  always  been  one  of  the  earnest  and 
enthusiastic  supporters  of  the  college  thus 
founded,  and  from  the  beginning  has  served  as 
trustee.  The  cause  of  education  has  ever  found 
in  him  a  stalwart  advocate  and  the  public  schools 
of  Wheaton  largely  owe  their  high  standard  of  ex- 
cellence to  his  efforts  in  their  behalf  while  serving 
on  the  board  of  education.  The  high  school  is 
recognized  as  one  of  the  best  in  the  State  and  the 
citizens  have  just  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  insti- 
tution. 

In  the  summer  of  1848  Mr.  Wheaton  was  nomi- 
nated by  the  Democracy  as  a  candidate  for  the 
legislature  and  served  in  the  session  of  1848-9, 
and  the  e.xtra  session  convened  by  proclamation 
of  the  governor.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  house,  and  was  a  staunch  sup- 
porter of  every  measure  pertaining  to  the  true 
progress  of  the  commonwealth.  He  was  one  of 
the  conniiittee  on  township  organization,  and  the 
work  which  he  did  will  be  placed  to  his  credit 
for  years  to  come.  In  1850  he  served  as  super- 
visor of  Milton  township,  where  again  he  did 
faithful  service  for  his  constituents.  He  has 
passed  the  eighty-third  milestone  of  life's  jour- 
ney, and  his  career  is  one  in  which  unim- 
peachable honor,  straightforward  dealing  and 
unquestioned  integrity  commands  the  respect 
of  all.  In  his  life  he  has  embodied  the  belief 
that  he  does  best  who  does  most  to  help  his  fel- 
low men. 


REPRESEKTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


435 


ELIJAH  ILES, 


SPRINGFIELD. 


MAJOR  ELIJAH  ILES  was  one  of  the  earli- 
est settlers  of  central  Illinois,  and  his  name 
is  inseparably  connected  with  its  history.  He  was 
bom  in  Kentucky,  March  28,  1796,  at  which 
period  all  the  district  west  of  the  Alleghany 
mountains  was  an  almost  unbroken  wilderness. 
His  grandfather,  William  lies,  emigrated  from 
England  to  this  country,  and  married  a  lady  of 
Welsh  descent.  Their  son,  Thomas  lies,  the 
father  of  oi:r  subject,  was  born  in  Pennsylvania, 
in  1766.  His  mother  died  and  his  father  married 
a  second  time. 

Becoming  restless  he  determined  to  leave  home 
and  depend  upon  his  own  exertions  in  the  future. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen  an  opportunity  presented 
itself.  He  started  for  Virginia  and  thence  went  to 
Kentucky,  with  a  family  by  the  name  of  Trumbo, 
in  the  year  1788.  The  Indians  were  at  that  time 
stealing  horses  and  killing  the  inhabitants  of  Ken- 
tucky, and  Air.  lies  joined  the  settlers  who  were 
engaged  in  driving  the  red  men  across  the  river 
into  the  Territory  of  Ohio.  Finally  his  own 
horse  was  stolen,  his  money  was  all  spent  and  his 
clothes  were  worn  and  rusty. 

He  was  now  forced  to  turn  his  attention  to 
some  business  which  would  yield  him  a  living. 
Through  the  summer  montlis  he  worked  on  farms 
and  in  the  winter  attended  school,  working  in  the 
evenings  and  on  Saturdays  in  order  to  pay  for 
his  board.  In  this  way  he  obtained  an  education 
sufficient  to  enable  him  to  teach  school,  which 
profession  he  followed  through  the  winter 
months  and  carried  on  agricultural  pursuits 
through  the  summer.  His  time  was  thus  passed 
until  1792,  when  he  married  Betsey  Crocket,  a 
lady  of  Irish  descent.  With  his  wife,  her  two 
brothers,  John  and  Robert  Crocket,  and  others, 
he  formed  a  colony  that  settled  on  the  border  of 
eastern  Kentucky  in  a  rough  and  hilly  section 
on  Slate  creek,  which  is  one  of  the  sources  of  the 
Licking  river.  This  land  is  now  comprised  in 
Bath  county. 

The  home  of  Mr.  lies  was  a  buckeye  cabin  of 
one  room,  that  stood  on  the  bank  of  a  clear 
stream  of  water,  the  bed  of  which  was  of  flat  lime- 


stone rock  and  pebbles.  The  bottom  lands  sur- 
rounding the  cabin  were  covered  with  a  heavy 
growth  of  beech  timber,  so  thick  that  it  hardly 
admitted  the  sun's  light.  The  neighbors  were  so 
widely  scattered  that  they  could  not  see  the  smoke 
of  each  other's  cabins.  The  district  at  that  day 
was  truly  a  wild  and  backwoods  region,  in  which 
were  many  bears,  panthers  and  deer.  They  could 
not  raise  hogs  because  the  two  former  would 
kill  the  young  pigs,  so  they  depended  upon  bear 
and  deer  meat  to  supply  the  table.  The  clothing 
for  the  family  was  all  spun,  woven  and  made  by 
the  mother,  except  the  buckskin  trousers  worn 
by  the  father  and  sons.  The  furniture  of  the 
cabin  was  very  primitive,  as  all  articles  had  to  be 
brought  from  Virginia  to  Kentucky  on  pack- 
horses.  The  dishes  and  spoons  were  of  pewter, 
and  the  tumblers  Japan  tin,  while  gourds  often 
served  for  drinking  cups.  The  bread  was  always 
made  of  corn-meal,  baked  on  a  board  or  in  the 
ashes,  and  the  meat  supply  was  bear  meat,  tur- 
key, venison,  squirrel  and  fish,  which  was  often 
roasted  before  the  fire.  The  mother  of  our  sub- 
ject died  in  1802,  leaving  five  children, — Polly, 
Elijah,  William,  Washington  and  Betsey, 

In  1810  the  father  was  again  married  and  left 
our  subject  with  a  male  and  female  servant  to 
conduct  the  farm.  He  had  acquired  his  educa- 
tion in  a  little  log  schoolhousc  four  miles  from 
home,  where  he  had  studied  little  else  than  the 
'three  R's;''  but  his  father  was  a  well  educated 
man  and  instructed  his  children  at  home.  In 
1812  Major  lies  began  serving  as  deputy  sherifT 
under  his  father.  In  1816  the  latter  loaned  him 
three  hundred  dollars  with  which  he  purchased 
one  hundred  yearling  calves.  He  drove  these 
beyond  the  settlement  in  the  Kentucky  mountains, 
where  he  camped  for  three  summers  and  two 
winters.  In  October,  1818,  he  started  for  Mis- 
souri, passing  few  settlements  on  the  way.  The 
land  had  not  then  been  surveyed.  He  secured  a 
clerkship  in  Booneville,  then  the  extreme  western 
settlement,  with  a  merchant  who  was  also  clerk 
for  the  receiver  of  the  land  office.  To  the  care 
of  our  subject  the  money  was  often  intrusted,  and 


436 


BWORAPJIICAL  DICTIONAUT  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


he  has  had  as  high  as  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars hidden  in  barrels  of  paper  under  the  counter 
of  the  store !  Three  years  later  he  returned  to  his 
old  Kentucky  home,  but  not  for  a  long  period. 

Major  lies  had  heard  excellent  reports  of  the 
fertility  and  richness  of  the  Sangamon  valley  in 
Illinois,  and  journeyed  thither.  He  was  delighted 
with  the  district  and  erected  a  store  where  the 
stakes  had  been  set  up  for  laying  out  a  town, 
now  the  city  of  Springfield.  Purchasing  a  stock 
of  goods  in  St.  Louis,  these  were  towed  on  a 
flatboat  up  the  Missiissippi  and  Illinois  rivers  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Sangamon,  fifty  miles  from 
Springfield,  and  then  hauled  across  the  countr}'. 
This  was  the  first  mercantile  establishment  in  the 
county.  It  was  eighteen  feet  square  and  cus- 
tomers came  from  eighty  miles  around.  In  1821 
Mr.  lies  laid  claim  to  a  quarter  section  of  land 
on  which  stood  his  store,  divided  it  into  town  lots, 
and  gave  a  lot  to  each  settler  who  would  build 
upon  it.  That  year  one  hundred  and  fifty  people 
came  to  the  neighborhood.  In  1823  he  bought 
considerable  land  at  the  sales,  and  in  1831  he 
sold  his  store  to  John  Williams,  who  had  come 
from  Kentucky  to  clerk  for  him,  while  he  turned 
his  attention  to  other  interests.  In  1824,  in  con- 
nection with  P.  P.  Enos,  Thomas  Cox  and  John 
Taylor,  he  purchased  from  the  Government  the 
town  site  of  Springfield,  at  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  an  acre. 

Mr.  lies  was  married  in  the  same  year  to  Me- 
linda    Benjamin,    and    they    had    two    children: 


Louisa,  who  was  born  in  1825,  and  died  in 
1857;  and  Thomas,  who  was  born  in  1830  and 
died  in  1877.  The  mother's  deatli  occurred  in 
1866. 

Major  lies  was  a  very  prominent  and  influen- 
tial citizen  during  his  residence  in  Illinois.  He 
was  elected  to  the  State  senate  from  Sangamon 
county,  when  it  extended  north  for  a  distance  of 
two  hundred  miles  to  the  boundary  line  of  Wis- 
consin, and  included  Fort  Dearborn,  now  the  site 
of  Chicago.  He  twice  served  in  that  office,  and 
was  a  colleague  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  1827 
he  was  elected  major  of  a  regiment  commanded 
by  Colonel  T.  McNeal,  for  service  against  the 
Winnebago  Indians,  but  the  troops  were  not 
called  forth  to  action.  In  the  Black  Hawk  war 
he  enlisted  as  a  private,  but  was  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  captain,  Abraham  Lincoln  serving  in  his 
command.  He  was  always  a  prominent  factqr  in 
public  affairs,  and  was  honored  and  esteemed  by 
all  who  knew  him.  In  1866  he  first  visited  Florida 
and  from  that  time  until  his  death  spent  all  his 
winters  there.  He  was  very  familiar  with  all  the 
events  connected  with  the  history  of  the  State 
from  the  years  of  its  early  settlement.  As  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  capital  city  he  well  deserves 
mention  in  this  volume.  In  1883,  when  eighty- 
seven  years  of  age,  he  published  his  memoirs, 
which  embraced  many  accounts  of  important 
events  connected  with  the  early  development  and 
upbuilding  of  Illinois.  His  death  occurred  in 
September  4,  1883. 


CHARLES  O.  NASON, 


THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  Charles  Otis 
Nason,  one  of  the  leading  citizens  of 
Moline,  was  born  in  Hartford,  Windsor  county, 
Vermont,  September  20,  1828,  and  was  the 
seventh  of  nine  children  of  Horace  and  Mary 
(Lamb)  Nason,  the  former  a  machinist  by  occu- 
pation, and  both  members  of  old  New  England 
families.  During  the  early  '30s,  when  Charles 
was  about  five  or  six  years  of  age,  his  parents 
moved  to  Claremont,  New  Hampshire,  and  in 
the   latter   place    his   boyhood   was,  passed.     At 


the  age  of  seventeen  he  left  school  and  obtained 
a  situation  as  assistant  overseer  in  the  weaving 
room  of  a  cotton  factory,  being  promoted  later  to 
the  position  of  overseer.  For  a  number  of  years 
he  continued  to  occupy  this  position,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1857  he  made  a  visit  to  his  uncle,  John 
Deere,  of  Moline,  Illinois,  the  head  of  the  great 
Deere  Plow  Company.  When  the  time  came 
for  him  to  return  Mr.  Deere  induced  him  to  give 
up  his  Eastern  position  and  accept  one  with  him, 
and  he  entered  the  woodworking  shop  of  the  con- 


/f 


^^•^1^-^-. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  II  LINO  IS   VOLUME. 


437 


cern  as  a  sort  of  foreman.  In  this  position  lie 
gave  complete  satisfaction,  and  was  advanced 
to  the  position  of  contractor  and  superintendent, 
filling  the  latter  office  until  December,  1894,  at 
which  time  he  retired  from  active  participation  in 
the  business.  When  the  plow  works  were  incor- 
porated, in  1868,  iMr.  Nason  was  one  of  the  orig- 
inal stockholders,  and  for  many  }ears  was  a  direc- 
tor of  the  company.  During  a  portion  of  this 
period  he  served  as  treasurer.  He  still  retains 
his  stock  interest,  but  since  his  retirement  has 
held  no  office  in  the  corporation.  At  the  present 
time  he  is  a  stockholder  and  treasurer  of  the 
People's  Power  Company,  of  Moline,  a  corpo- 
ration occupying  the  water  power  at  that  point. 

In  political  faith  Mr.  Nason  is  a  strong  Repub- 
lican, but  is  not  a  politician.  He  was  elected 
mayor  of  the  city  in  1887-8,  and  served  his  term 
in  a  manner  that  won  unqualified  commendation. 
But  he  has  no  ambition  for  political  preferment, 
and  leaves  the  self-seeking  to  others. 


In  August,  1849,  Mr.  Nason  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Charlotte  Johnson,  of  Clare- 
mont,  New  Hampshire,  and  they  have  had  five 
children,  two  of  whom  are  living,  viz.:  Clar- 
ence E.,  who  married  Miss  Ella  Estelle,  of 
Moline,  and  is  engaged  in  the  oil  business  in  that 
city;   and  Ellen  F.,  who  resides  with  her  parents. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Nason  attend  the  Episcopal 
Church.  ]Mrs.  Nason  being  especially  active  in  the 
church  work  of  the  parish.  Their  residence  on 
Third  avenue  is  a  home  of  comfortand hospitality. 
Every  summer  is  spent  at  York  Beach,  Maine, 
where  they  have  a  summer  home.  Though 
always  a  man  of  activity,  i\Ir.  Nason  is  thoroughly 
domestic  in  his  tastes,  and  is  not  a  member  of 
any  clubs  or  societies.  To  every  enterprise  cal- 
culating to  advance  the  prosperity  of  Moline  he 
is  a  generous  contributor,  and  has  been  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  development  of  that  city, 
of  which  he  is  one  of  the  most  popular  cit- 
izens. 


EDWARD  ABEND, 


BELLEVILLE. 


EDWARD  ABEND  has  done  more  to  pro- 
mote the  commercial  activity,  advance  the 
general  welfare  and  secure  the  material  develop- 
ment of  Belleville  and  the  surrounding  section  of 
Illinois  than  probably  any  other  individual.  As 
a  business  man  he  has  been  enterprising,  ener- 
getic and  always  abreast  of  the  times,  and  has 
been  rewarded  by  an  ample  fortune. 

Mr.  Abend  is  a  native  of  Germany,  born  in  the 
province  of  Bavaria,  on  the  30th  of  ]\Iay,  1822, 
and  is  the  second  of  the  family  of  seven  children, 
whose  parents  were  Henry  and  Margaret  (Grode) 
Abend.  The  father  was  a  revenue  collector,  and 
extensively  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits, 
owning  large  tracts  of  land.  He  served  as  a 
soldier  under  Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  1812,  and 
belonged  to  the  patriot  or  liberal  party.  Emi- 
grating to  America,  he  took  up  his  residence  in 
St.  Louis,  where  he  died  in  1833,  at  the  age  of 
forty-three  years.  A  brother  and  older  sister  of 
our  subject  also  died  in  the  same  week,  of  cholera. 
The   mother   afterward   brought   her   family    to 


Belleville,  where  her  death  occurred  in  1865,  hav- 
ing attained  the  allotted  age  of  three-score  years 
and  ten. 

Edward  attended  the  public  schools  of  St. 
Louis,  and  after  coming  to  Belleville  pursued  his 
studies  under  private  instruction,  and  in  1840 
entered  Lebanon  College',  where  he  remained 
for  several  terms.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he 
took  up  the  study  of  law  under  ex-Governor 
Trumbull,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1843. 
He  practiced  there  until  1845,  but  although  he 
has  nc)t  made  the  profession  a  life  work  his  knowl- 
edge of  law  has  imdoubtedly  been  of  benefit  to 
him  in  his  extensive  and  varied  business  career. 
In  1844  he  purchased  a  farm,  which  he  operated 
until  1850.  He  then  returned  to  Belleville  and 
resumed  the  practice  of  law,  in  connection  with 
the  management  of  his  mother's  business,  but 
gradually  other  interests  superseded  his  labors 
in  this  line. 

In  i860  he  organized  the  Belleville  Savings 
Bank,  one  of  the  oldest  and   most  substantial 


438 


niOORAPlIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


monetary  institutions  of  the  county,  and  from 
the  beginning  has  been  its  president.  It  at  first 
had  a  paid-up  capital  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  but 
the  present  capital  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  the  surplus  is  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  Thirty-six  years  of  prosperity 
has  been  experienced  by  this  bank,  in  which  it 
has  weathered  all  panics.  It  was  established  on 
a  sound  basis,  has  followed  a  safe  and  conserva- 
tive business  policy,  and  its  success  is  undoubt- 
edly due  in  a  very  large  measure  to  the  execu- 
tive ability  and  capable  management  of  its  presi- 
dent. Mr.  Abend  was  one  of  the  organizers  of 
the  gas  works,  which  were  erected  in  1855,  has 
since  been  a  stockholder  and  officer  in  the  com- 
pany, and  is  now  also  president  of  the  Electric 
Light  Company  of  Belleville.  For  some  years 
he  was  the  president  and  manager  of  the  St.  Clair 
Turnpike  Company,  which  built  the  turnpike 
road  in  1850,  and  was  holding  the  office  of  secre- 
tary and  treasurer  when  the  stock  was  sold  to  an 
electric  railway  company,  with  a  view  of  chang- 
ing it  to  an  electric  road,  connecting  Belleville 
with  East  St.  Louis. 

He  has  assisted  in  building  all  the  artificial 
roads  in  this  locality,  and  is  now  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  several  of  the  last  named  compa- 
nies. Whatever  tends  to  promote  the  advance- 
ment and  prosperity  of  the  city  receives  his  en- 
thusiastic and  substantial  support.  He  has  been 
one  of  the  directors  of  the  St.  Louis,  Alton  & 
Terre  Haute  Railroad  for  twenty  years,  and  a 
member  of  its  auditing  committee.  He  was  in- 
terested in  the  water-works  company  of  the  city, 
and  for  two  years  was  its  president.  He  is  the 
owner  of  extensive  real-estate  interests  in  Belle- 
ville, and  has  aided  largely  in  the  upbuilding 
of  the  town  by  the  erection  of  many  residences 
and  business  blocks.  Exactness  and  thorougli- 
ness  characterize  all  his  undertakings  and  his 
progress  has  been  a  steady  growth  in  the 
line  of  honest,  persistent  effort.  His  record  is 
clean,  and  his  example  is  indeed  worthy  of  emu- 
lation. 

In  1852  Mr.  Abend  married  Miss  Caroline 
Westermann,  a  native  of  Wiesbaden,  Germany, 
and  a  representative  of  a  prominent  family.  They 
had  one  child, — Louisa, — who  died  at  the  age 
of  four  years.    On  the  26th  of  October,  1856,  Mr. 


Abend  wedded  Miss  Anna  Hilgard,  of  Belleville, 
and  to  them  were  bom  six  children:  Alexander, 
a  civil  engineer  of  East  St.  Louis;  Lina,  wife  of 
John  A.  Day,  president  of  the  Electric  Railway 
Company  and  of  a  brick  manufacturing  com- 
pany; Helen,  wife  of  Samuel  Brunaugh,  of  Chi- 
cago, agent  of  the  United  States  Printing  Com- 
pany, of  Cincinnati;  Ernest,  who  is  in  the  Belle- 
ville Bank;  Edward,  who  is  bookkeeper  and  col- 
lector of  the  gas  company;  and  Alfred,  who  died 
at  the  age  of  seventeen  years. 

Mr.  Abend  has  not  only  been  a  leader  in  busi- 
ness circles  but  is  alike  prominent  in  political 
affairs.  In  1847  he  was  elected  to  the  State  legis- 
lature as  a  Wilmot  Proviso  Democrat,  serving 
for  two  terms  as  a  most  able  representative  of 
his  party  and  its  interests.  He  is  now  affiliated 
with  the  Democracy,  yet  is  not  strictly  partisan, 
having  twice  voted  for  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
once  for  General  U.  S.  Grant.  He  has  frequently 
served  as  a  delegate  to  the  State  conventions  and 
was  a  delegate  to  the  silver  convention  which  met 
in  Springfield  in  June,  1895.  He  has  five  times 
served  as  mayor  of  Belleville,  and  the  reins  of 
city  government  have  never  been  in  more  capable 
hands,  for  he  is  a  progressive  man,  pre-eminently 
public-spirited,  and  all  that  pertains  to  the  public 
welfare  receives  his  hearty  endorsement.  He  has 
also  served  as  a  member  of  the  city  council,  has 
been  city  attorney,  was  a  member  of  the  board 
of  county  supervisors  for  one  term,  and  was  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  for  four  years,  discharging  his 
various  duties  with  a  promptness  and  fidelity 
worthy  of  all  commendation.  Other  official  hon- 
ors would  have  been  conferred  upon  him  had 
he  not  declined. 

He  is  emphatically  a  man  of  enterprise,  positive 
character,  indomitable  energy,  strict  integrity  and 
liberal  views,  and  is  thoroughly  identified  in  feel- 
ing with  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  his  adopted 
city  and  State.  He  has  never  taken  a  very  promi- 
nent part  in  fraternal  matters  but  holds  member- 
ship with  the  Masonic  society.  He  is  a  true 
lover  of  nature,  and  his  taste  for  the  noble  art 
has  found  expression  in  his  hearty  encourage- 
ment of  all  that  tends  to  its  cultivation:  He  was 
also  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  German  library, 
and  his  own  home  contains  many  of  the  works 
of  our  best  authors.    He  has  traveled  extensively 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


Am 


in  this  country,  and  has  twice  visited  Europe, 
and  his  obser\'ing  eye  and  retentive  memory  have 
enabled  him  to  cam'  back  with  him  the  scenes  of 
beauty  and  historic  interest  that  he  has  visited, 
they  remaining  with  him  as  pictures  on  memory's 


wall.  Travel  and  his  social,  genial  nature  have 
made  him  an  entertaining  companion,  and  he  is 
a  stanch  and  loyal  friend,  fond  of  good  fellow- 
ship and  devoted  to  those  who  have  his  con- 

fiilence. 


CHARLES  FREDERICK  GUNTHER, 


AMOXG  the  men  who  have  visited  most  quar- 
ters of  the  globe  and  made  use  of  the  artistic, 
scientific  and  practical  knowledge  that  they  had 
thus  obtained,  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow-men, 
none  is  more  favorably  known,  nor  has  made 
better  use  of  their  advantages,  thus  obtained,  for 
the  city  of  Chicago  and  its  inhabitants,  than  has 
tlie  subject  of  this  biography.  He  was  born  in 
W'ildberg,  a  beautiful  town  located  in  the  cele- 
brated "Black  Poorest''  district  of  Wiirtemberg, 
South  Germany,  on  March  6,  1837.  When  a  lad 
of  five  years,  his  parents  immigrated  to  the 
United  States,  the  ocean  voyage  occupying  fifty- 
two  days  between  Havre  and  New  York. 
Tliey  finally  settled  at  Columbia,  Lancaster 
county,  Pennsylvania.  In  1848,  the  family 
moved  to  the  mountain  district  in  Somerset 
county,  and  it  ^vas  here  and  in  the  place  of  their 
previous  residence  that  Charles  obtained  his  ele- 
mentary educatioTi,  by  attending  private  schools. 
Our  subject  early  in  life  showed  those  traits  of  in- 
dependence and  love  of  adventure  and  travel 
that  have  characterized  his  later  life,  and  when 
but  a  mere  child  he  made  daily  journeys  over  the 
mountains,  carrying  the  United  States  mail.  His 
daily  trip  was  twenty  miles  and  return.  For, this 
service  he  received  twenty-five  cents  per  diem. 

In  the  spring  of  1850  the  family  removed  to 
Peru,  Illinois,  journeying  by  the  Pennsylvania 
canal  to  Pittsburg,  thence  by  the  rivers  to  St. 
Louis,  and  thence  up  to  the  headwaters  of  the 
Illinois  river.  Here  young  Gunther  attended  pri- 
vate and  public  schools,  and  at  an  early  age  be- 
gan his  business  career  in  a  general  store,  which  he 
soon  left  to  accept  a  position  in  a  drug  store.  He 
became  a  competent  drug  clerk,  and  also  studied 
the  rudiments  of  medical  science.  His  next  po- 
sition was  in  the  post  office  at  Peru,  where  he  be- 


came manager  of  the  office.  Following  that  he 
became  an  employee  in  the  bank  of  Alexander 
Cruickshank,  who  represented  the  famous  bank- 
ing house  of  George  Smith  &  Company,  of  Chi- 
cago. He  remained  with  this  firm  five  years,  and 
after  three  years  in  their  employ  was  made  cashier 
of  the  bank. 

In  those  days  Peru  was  a  great  ice-packing 
depot,  whence  large  quantities  of  this  commodity 
were  shipped  to  Southern  cities.  Young  Gunther, 
through  his  business  relations,  became  intimately 
acquainted  with  prominent  business  men  of  the 
South,  which  at  that  time  offered  great  opportuni- 
ties to  an  ambitious  young  man.  Resigning  his 
position  in  the  early  fall  of  i860,  he  went  thither, 
and  after  visiting  all  of  the  leading  cities  of  the 
Southern  States,  settled  in  Memphis,  accepting  a 
position  with  ]\Iessrs.  Bohlen,  Wilson  &  Company, 
the  leading  ice  firm  in  the  South.  The  opening 
of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  about  this  time  para- 
lyzed mercantile  business  in  the  South.  After  the 
firing  upon  Fort  Sumter  and  the  proclamation 
by  President  Lincoln  closing  the  ports  of  all 
Southern  cities,  a  majority  of  the  population  of 
the  South  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  army,  and 
many  of  the  "Sons  of  the  North"  fied  from  the 
Southern  territory.  Not  so  with  Mr.  Gunther: 
he  believed,  with  many  others  in  the  South,  that  the 
trouble  would  be  short-lived,  and  remained  faith- 
fully at  his  post.  When  the  blockade  became 
effective  and  all  mercantile  pursuits  practically 
dead,  he  accepted  a  position  on  the  Arkansas  river 
steamer,  "Rose  Douglas,"  in  the  service  of  the 
Confederate  Government,  as  purchasing  steward 
and  subsequently  as  purser.  He  navigated  all  of 
the  southern  rivers  tributary  to  the  Mississippi, 
transporting  troops,  conscripts  and  supplies.  By 
the  capture  of  Memphis  and  New  Orleans,  this 


440 


nKiiinArnicAL  dictioxary  akd  portuait  uali.kry  of  the 


steamer,  while  up  the  Arkansas  river,  was  block- 
aded, and  afterw-ard  was  captured  and  burned  at 
Van  Buren,  Arkansas,  by  General  Blunt's  army, 
consisting  principally  of  Kansas  troops.  Mr. 
Guntlier,  upon  being  liberated,  was  courteously 
entertained  at  the  headquarters  of  the  command- 
ing general,  and  also  at  the  headquarters  of  his 
successor,  General  Schofield.  He  next  journeyed 
northward  to  Fort  Scott  and  thence  to  Fort 
Leavenworth,  traveling  partly  on  horseback  and 
partly  on  a  captured  coach,  there  being  then  no 
railroads  in  that  part  of  Missouri  and  Kansas. 
Returning  to  his  old  home  in  Peru,  he  remained 
there  three  days  and  then  accepted  a  position,  for 
a  short  time,  in  a  bank  at  Peoria,  made  vacant  by 
the  temporarj'  illness  of  an  employee. 

He  next  accepted  a  position  as  traveling  sales- 
man for  the  v.holesale  confectioner}'  of  C.  W. 
Sanford,  of  Chicago,  and  became  one  of  the  first 
representatives  of  Chicago  that  sold  goods 
throughout  the  So^ith.  He  placed  large  aniDunts 
of  goods  in  the  cities  of  the  reconstructed  South 
and  he  also  represented  the  firm  in  the  States 
of  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  West  Virginia  and 
Kentucky.  It  was  while  employed  as  a  traveling 
salesman  that  he  made  his  first  trip  to  Europe 
and  so  familiarized  himself  with  European  lan- 
guages and  customs  that  he  was  afterward  en- 
abled to  converse  fluently  with  those  of  his  cus- 
tomers who  had  been  reared  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Atlantic. 

Tempted  by  an  increased  salary  he  next  entered 
the  employ  of  Thompson,  Johnson  &  Company, 
wholesale  grocers  on  South  Water  street.  He 
represented  the  house  in  the  West  for  hvo  years, 
but  finding  the  business  uncongenial  he  re- 
turned to  the  line  in  which  he  had  become  so 
prominent,  and  became  the  Chicago  representa- 
tive of  Messrs.  Greenfield,  Young  &  Company,  the 
leading  New  York  confectioners,  for  whom  his 
travels  covered  the  New  England,  Middle  and 
Western  States. 

In  the  fall  of  1868  he  opened  a  retail  store  at 
No.  125  Clark  street,  Chicago,  on  his  own  account, 
it  being  the  first  establishment  opened  in  Chicago 
introducing  high-grade  confections. 

Mr.  Gunther  was  the  first  confectioner  to  man- 
ufacture and  introduce  the  famous  caramels  as 
now  made  and  sold  throughout  the  United  States 


and  Europe,  a  fact  in  which  he  takes  a  justifiable 
pride.  The  general  conflagration  of  1871  totally 
destroyed  his  establishment  and  left  him  abso- 
lutely without  resources,  but  with  characteristic 
enterprise  he  immediately  reopened  business  in  a 
small  way  and  soon  recuperated  his  losses,  and 
was  rewarded  with  great  subsequent  success. 

Mr.  Gunther  has  a  decided  inclination  for  ad- 
venture and  travel,  and  has  visited  all  the  ex- 
positions of  note  in  Europe,  and  he  has  traveled 
in  every  country  from  the  land  of  the  "midnight 
sun"  to  Constantinople  and  Damascus;  he  has 
also  journeyed  to  the  Holy  Land,  through  Egypt, 
Syria  and  the  continents  lying  adjacent  to  the 
Mediterranean,  including  Morocco,  Algeria, 
Tripoli,  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy  and  Turkey.  He 
speaks  French,  German  and  Spanish  fluently,  and 
he  is  perfectly  at  home  in  all  of  the  capitals  of 
Europe. 

In  1879  ^Ii"-  Gmither  was  one  of  a  commission 
organized  to  make  a  tour  of  Mexico  with  a  view 
to  opening  trade  relations  between  the  two  repub- 
lics, that  up  to  that  time  had  been  very  incon- 
siderable. On  that  tour,  which  was  one  continual 
ovation,  he  acquired  much  useful  information. 
The  result  of  the  commission's  work  was  to  call 
the  attention  of  our  merchants  to  the  advantages 
derivable  from  trade  relations  with  this  sister 
republic,  which  at  that  time  had  no  railroad  con- 
nections with  the  United  States. 

]\Ir.  Gunther  has  indulged  his  innate  love  for 
historical  and  scientific  research  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent, and  has  secured  the  finest  historical  collec- 
tion in  the  United  States.  This  collection  com- 
prises manuscripts  of  the  most  ancient  WTitings  of 
the  world,  from  the  stone  rolls  of  the  Assyrian  of 
the_  Babylonian  period,  and,  in  fact,  parchments 
and  writings  on  papyrus  from  the  days  of  the 
earliest  Pharaohs  down  to  modern  times.  He 
undoubtedly  possesses  the  rarest  and  finest  collec- 
tion of  Bibles  in  the  world,  including  the  famous 
Martha  Washington  Bible,  also  that  of  Washing- 
ton's sister  Betty,  also  the  first  New  Testament 
printed  in  the  English  language,  at  Worms,  Ger- 
many, by  Tindal,  about  1528,  and  all  of  the  first 
Bibles  printed  on  the  American  continent,  includ- 
ing the  Elliot  Indian  Bibles,  and  the  first  German 
Bible,  by  Sauer,  1743, and  the  first  American  Bible, 
by  Atkinson,  1782.     He  also  owns  historic  man- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


441 


nscripts  of  all  nations  of  many  centuries  past,  in- 
cluding an  autograph  of  Shakespeare  and  origi- 
nal manuscripts  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Tasso,  Mich- 
ael Angelo,  Gallileo,  Moliere,  and  many  others; 
also  original  manuscripts  of  all  the  world's  famous 
writers,  poets,  musicians,  kings,  queens,  clcrg>-- 
men  and  politicians,  including  the  original  manu- 
scripts of  "Home,  Sweet  Home,"  "Old  Lang 
Syne,"  "Old  Grimes,"  "Lead,  Kindly  Light,"  "Star- 
Spangled  Banner,"  "Hail  Columbia,"  "Dixie," 
etc.,  etc.  He  also  has  all  the  earliest  maps  of 
America  from  1 507  up,  and  the  first  edition  of  the 
Cosmographie  of  Martin  Waldseemiiller,  which 
w  as  the  first  book  that  gave  the  name  of  America 
to  the  New  World;  also  a  large  number  of  relics 
of  George  Washington,  covering  his  entire  career, 
as  well  as  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  of  all  other 
American  historical  characters. 

His  collection  also  includes  the  famous  portrait 
of  Columbus  by  Sir  Antonio  Moro,  painted  about 
1552,  from  two  miniatures  then  in  possession  at 
the  Palace  of  Pardo,  Spain.  Washington  Irving 
pronounced  tins  the  best  and  traest  likeness  of 
Columbus  extant,  and  used  an  engraved  copy  of 
it  (afterward  destroyed  by  fire)  as  a  frontispiece 
for  his  second  revised  English  edition  of  his 
"Life  of  Columbus."  Tlie  collection  also  con- 
tains six  original  portraits  of  Washington,  in- 
cluding the  first  ever  made  of  him,  by  the  elder 
Peale,  and  the  only  portrait  ia  existence  of  Wash- 
ington's sister  Betty  and  her  husband. 

One  of  the  greatest  attractions  that  is  at 
present  on  exihibition  in  Chicago,  and  one  that 
will  doubtless  excite  the  interest  of  the  many 
thousands  that  will  visit  the  Columbian  Expo- 
sition, is  the  War  Museum  contained  in  tlie 
celebrated  Libby  Prison,  that  was  several  years 
ago  removed  to  Chicago  from  Richmond,  \^ir- 
ginia.  This  vast  undertaking  was  successfully 
accomplished  by  Mr.  Gunther,  associated  with  Mr. 
W.  H.  Gray  and  other  public-spirited  men  of 
Chicago,  and  to  them  Chicago  is  indebted  for  the 
finest  collection  of  war  relics  on  the  American 
continent.      The  great  collection   of  interesting 


and  historical  war  relics  with  whiclr  the  Libby 
Prison  is  filled  is  the  private  property  of  Mr. 
Gunther,  and  is  loaned  by  him  tO'  the  association. 

Mr.  Gunther  is  president  of  the  Libby  Prison 
War  Museum  Association,  also  a  prominent  mem- 
ber of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  a  trustee 
of  the  .Academy  of  Science,  and  a  member  of 
tlie  Union  League  and  Iroquois  Clubs.  He 
became  a  Master  Mason  in  Peru,  Illinois,  in  i860, 
and  during  his  thirty-three  j'ears'  membership  he 
has  passed  through  many  degrees,  including  the 
Knights  Templar,  Oriental  Consistory  (thirty- 
second  degree)  and  Soverign  Grand  Inspector- 
General  of  the  thirt\--third  and  last  degree  of  the 
Northern  Jurisdiction,  U.  S.  A.  He  is  also  a 
member  of  the  Mystic  Shrine. 

In  1869,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Jennie  Bur- 
ncll,  of  Lima,  Indiana.  They  have  two  sons — 
Iiurnell  and  Whitman.  Mrs.  Gunther  is  a  highly 
educated  and  refined  woman,  active  in  charitable 
and  religious  work.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gunther  are 
active  members  of  Grace  Episcopal  Church. 

In  politics,  Mr.  Gunther  had  been  for  many 
years  affiliated  with  the  Republican  party,  but, 
being  fully  in  sympathy  with  Mr.  Cleveland's 
views  on  the  tariff,  supported  that  gentleman  for 
the  presidency.  He  believes  in  "tariff  for  rev- 
enue only." 

As  a  business  man,  Mr.  Guntlier  has  been  en- 
terprising, energetic  and  always  abreast  of  the 
times,  and  has  been  rewarded  by  an  ample  fortune. 
His  business  motto  has  always  been  "Not  how 
cheap,  but  how  good!"'  He  undoubtedly  has  the 
largest  retail  trade  in  fine  confections  of  all  houses 
in  the  United  States,  and  his  store  is  not  suipassed 
in  beauty  or  arrangement  by  that  of  any  of  its 
kind  in  the  world.  Mr.  Gunther  has  attained  to 
a  position  of  prominence  through  his  own  ex- 
ertions, and  may  justly  he  proud  of  what 
he  has  wrought.  He  is  a  man  of  gener- 
ous impulses  and  gives  liberally  of  his  time  and 
money  to  all  worthy  causes,  and  in  everything 
that  he  does  he  tries  to  make  the  world  brighter 
and  better. 


44-.' 


IlKKlUM'niCAL  PfCTroXAnr  AXD  PnUTUAIT  OALLEBT  OF  THE 


H.  W.  HAWLEY, 

CHICACO. 


TO  a  strident  of  human  nature  there  is  nothing; 
of  greater  interest  than  to  examine  into  the 
life  of  a  self-made  man  and  analyze  the  principles 
by  which  he  has  been  governed,  the  methods  he 
has  pursued,  to  know  what  means  he  has  em- 
ployed for  advan9ement  and  to  study  the  plans 
which  have  given  him  prominence,  enabling:  him 
to  pass  on  the  highway  of  life  many  who  had  a 
more  advantageous  start.  In  the  history  of  Mr. 
Hawley  there  is  deep  food  for  thought,  and  if  one 
so  desires  he  may  profit  by  tlie  obvious  lessons 
therein  contained. 

Mr.  Hawley  is  now  managing  editor  of  the 
Times-Herald,  one  of  the  leading  dailies  of  the 
world,  and  he  owes  his  rise  to  his  own  well- 
directed  eftorts.  He  was  born  in  Fort  Dodge, 
Iowa,  on  the  13th  of  December,  1861,  and  is  a  son 
of  Theodore  and  Augusta  (Johnson)  Hawley,— 
the  eldest  in  their  family  of  four  children.  His 
father  was  a  prominent  attorney  of  Iowa,  where 
he  successfully  engaged  in  practice  for  many 
years,  winning  a  liberal  and  lucrative  clientage, 
in  1892  he  removed  to  Denver,  Colorado,  where 
he  is  now  living  retired.  He  served  for  three 
terms  in  the  Iowa  senate  and  also  filled  va- 
rious minor  offices,  and  now  in  his  declining 
years  he  is  enjoying  a  rest  to  which  he  is  justly 
entitled. 

H.  W.  Hawley  acquired  his  primary  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  town  and  his 
first  independent  efifort  in  life  was  as  an  employee 
in  the  office  of  a  country  newspaper,  where  he 
remained  two  years.  Possessing  a  laudable  am- 
bition and  desiring  further  educational  privileges, 
he  saved  his  earnings  and  thus  paid  two  years' 
college  tuition,  becoming  a  student  in  the  State 
University  of  Michigan  at  Ann  Arbor.  During 
the  last  two  years  of  his  college  course  he  acted 
as  reporter  for  Detroit  and  Chicago  papers  and 
also  for  the  Ann  Arbor  Register,  thus  meeting 
his  expenses.  He  was  graduated  at  the  univer- 
sity with  the  degree  of  B.  A.  in  1884,  and  then 
went  to  Minneapolis,  Minnesota,  where  he  ob- 
tained a  position  as  reporter  on  the  Tribune  of 
that  city.    After  six  months  he  was  promoted  to 


tlie  position  of  assistant  city  editor,  but  resigned 
when  the  Minneapolis  Journal  Company  was  or- 
ganized, identifying  himself  with  that  publication 
by  purchasing  a  fourth  interest  and  becoming 
managing  editor. 

The  close  confinement  of  the  office  and  his  ardu- 
ous service  told  on  the  health  of  Mr.  Hawley  after 
a  tune,  and  during  the  last  two  years  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  Journal  he  was  unable  to  per- 
form his  work  much  of  the  time.  In  consequence 
he  sold  out  and  went  to  the  West,  where  he  sought 
in  travel  and  outdoor  life  the  means  of  recupera- 
tion. He  traveled  over  much  of  the  Rocky  moun- 
tain region,  spending  the  summer  in  camping  out, 
while  in  the  winter  season  he  sought  the  more 
genial  climes  of  the  sunny  South.  Two  years  of 
rest  and  recreation  restored  him  to  health,  and  in 
January,  i8c'i,  he  purchased  the  Denver  Times, 
which  he  successfully  conducted  until  July,  1894, 
wiien  he  sold  that  paper  and  came  to  Chicago. 
Although  his  connection  with  Chicago  journalism 
is  of  comparatively  short  duration  he  has  already 
established  a  reputation  in  his  chosen  field  that 
insures  him  prominence  in  newspaper  circles  in 
this  great  city.  -  On  the  ist  of  November,  1894, 
he  purchased  a  half  interest  in  the  Chicago  Times, 
and  in  company  with  Mr.  Kraus  greatly  improved 
the  paper  and  advanced  its  standard  of  excellence. 
When  James  W.  Scott  of  the  Herald  purchased 
the  interest  of  John  R.Walsh,  Mr.  Hawley  bought 
the  Kraus  interest,  and  on  the  4th  of  JNIarch,  1895, 
the  two  papers  were  consolidated  under  the  name 
of  the  Times-Herald.  Either  paper  had  a  reputa- 
tion which  would  insure  the  success  of  the  new 
publication,  but  combined  they  constitute  a  power 
in  the  newspaper  world  that  will  be  strongly  felt. 
Their  merits  have  been  too  well-known  to  need 
commendation  here.  The  fact  that  Mr.  Hawley 
is  at  the  head  of  the  new  enterprise  is  a  sufficient 
guarantee  of  the  continued  advancement  and  im- 
provement wdiich  w'ill  attend  the  paper. 

Mr.  Hawley  is  public-spirited  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree and  has  always  done  much  in  behalf  of  the 
national  interests  and  the  general  welfare  of  his 
conuuuuity.     His  prominent  characteristics  were 


C^^^^i-C^^Cf^-£;t^c:^    .^^^^-^B^^^ 


AEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


443 


manifest  when  he  provided  for  his  own  educa- 
tion,— determination,  self-reHance  and  undaunted 
perseverance,  showing  that  the  student  would 
make  a  capable  man  of  afifairs  in  the  business 
world.  He  is  popular  and  is  the  center  of  a  large 
circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances  who  honor  and 
esteem  him  for  his  many  virtues  and  his  genuine 
worth.  Of  large  brain  and  kindly  heart,  he  is 
interesting  and  instructive  in  conversation,  cour- 
teous and  genial  in  deportment  and  affable  and 
agreeable  at  all  times.  He  is  a  fluent  and  forcible 
speaker,  an  attractive  and  correct  writer  and  a 


gentleman  of  ripe  scholarship  and  large  informa- 
tion. 

On  the  28th  of  October,  1891,  Mr.  Hawley  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Clara  Mack  of  Ann 
Arbor,  Michigan,  daughter  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Christian  Mack,  a  refined  and  cultured  lady,  who 
comes  of  a  prominent  family.  Her  father  is  now 
president  of  the  Savings  Bank  of  Ann  Arbor,  and 
for  some  years  has  been  president  of  the  board  of 
education  of  that  city.  IMr.  and  Mrs.  Hawley  are 
communicants  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  They 
have  one  son, — Harry. 


ARCHIBALD  MEANS, 


AMONG  those  who  followed  the  old  ilag  on 
Southern  battlefields  is  this  gentleman, 
who  held  the  rank  of  captain.  He  w^as  born  in 
Allegheny  county,  Pennsylvania,  March  31,  1833, 
descending  from  Scotch-Irish  ancestry. 

His  paternal  grandfather  was  born  in  county 
Tyrone,  Ireland,  in  1750,  and  in  1787  became  a 
citizen  of  the  newly-established  republic  of  the 
United  States.  He  took  up  his  residence  on  a 
tract  of  land  in  Pennsylvania,  where,  on  the  I5tli 
of  September,  1803,  occurred  the  birth  of  William 
Aleans,  father  of  our  subject.  On  the  old  home- 
stead he  was  reared,  but  after  arriving  at  years  of 
maturity  removed  to  Steubenville,  Ohio,  in  1836, 
where  he  engaged  in  the  foundry  and  manufactur- 
uig  business  until  1850.  Turning  his  attention  to 
farming.hewasthen  interested  in  agricultural  pur- 
suits until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  October, 
1 87 1,  when  he  was  aged  sixty-eight  years.  On  the 
nth  of  February,  1832,  he  married  Miss  Nancy 
Swearingen,  who  was  born  in  the  Keystone 
State.  She  descended  from  Gerret  van  Swearin- 
gen, who  sailed  on  the  ship  Prince  Maurice 
from  Holland  to  America,  landing  December  21, 
1656,  and  he  located  near  New  Amstel,  Delaware, 
on  the  Delaw-are  river,  in  March,  1657,  whence  he 
removed  to  St.  Mary's,  l\Iaryland,  in  1664.  He 
had  one  son,  Zacharias,  who  became  the  father  of 
four  sons,  including  John,  who  was  the  great- 
grandfather of  Nicholas  D.  Swearingen.  The  two 
intervening  ancestors  in  the  line  of  direct  descent 


also  bore  the  name  of  John.  Nicholas  D.  Swearin- 
gen, in  November,  1795,  married  Verlinda  Black- 
more,  who  was  born  April  30,  1776,  and  was  a 
grand-daughter  of  Samuel  Blackmore,  Sr.,  a 
native  of  England,  who,  crossing  the  briny  deep, 
located  on  a  tract  of  Maryland  land  granted  him 
by  Lord  Baltimore,  which  comprised  land  within 
the  present  limits  of  the  city  of  Washington,  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia. 

Thus  on  both  sides  Captain  Means  descends 
from  worthy  ancestors.  He  was  reared  in  the  city 
and  acquired  an  academic  education  in  Steuben- 
ville, but  the  confinement  of  student  life  impaired 
his  health  and  caused  him  to  take  up  his  residence 
upon  a  farm  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  hoping  that 
the  outdoor  exercise  would  prove  beneficial.  In 
1853  he  left  the  Buckeye  State  for  Kentucky  and 
was  numbered  among  its  residents  during  the 
memorable  and  exciting  presidential  campaign  of 
i860.  The  most  important  epoch  in  American 
history  was  approaching,  and  the  attention  of  the 
entire  nation  was  directed  to  public  afifairs, 
wondering  what  would  be  the  outcome  of  the 
strongly  opposing  view's  of  the  North  and  South. 
Captain  INIeans  cast  his  first  presidential  vote  for 
James  Buchanan  and  was  a  supporter  of  Demo- 
cratic principles  until  after  the  election  of  1856, 
but  with  fair-minded  impartiality  he  studied  the 
issues  of  the  day  and  became  convinced  that  the 
Republican  party  was  the  upholder  of  the  national 
Government.     In  consequence  his  next  vote  was 


444 


nWORAPHICAL  nrCTIONAnr  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


cast  for  Abraliam  Lincoln,  and  liis  support  was 
given  to  the  Union  with  a  loyalty  that  he  soon 
manifested  by  offering  his  services  to  the  army. 
A  fearless  defense  of  what  he  believes  to  be  right 
has  always  been  one  of  the  Captain's  strong  char- 
acteristics, and  he  courageously  defended  his 
views  when  it  was  a  dangerous  thing  to  announce 
in  Kentucky  allegiance  to  the  national  Govern- 
ment and  opposition  to  slaver}'.  However,  he 
was  one  of  five  men  in  his  precinct  and  one  of  the 
eleven  in  the  county  who  voted  the  Republican 
ticket  in  i860. 

Watching  the  belligerent  attitude  of  the  South, 
Mr.  Means  resolved  that  if  war  was  inaugurated 
he  would  strike  a  blow  in  defense  of  the  Union; 
so  in  June,  1861,  he  began  to  recniit  a  company 
of  loyal  men  of  Kentucky,  which  was  afterward 
known  as  Company  E,  Fourteenth  Kentucky 
Infantry,  and  of  which  he  was  elected  captain,  re- 
ceiving his  commission  on  the  16th  of  October, 
1861.  He  at  once  went  to  the  front  with  his  com- 
mand, and  sei^ved  under  General  Garfield,  then 
Colonel,  on  the  Big  Sandy  river  in  January,  1862, 
against  Humphrey  ]\Iarshall.  At  the  battle  of 
Cumberland  mountain,  while  actively  engaged  in 
service.  Captain  Means  was  taken  seriously  ill 
and  sent  home  on  a  furlough.  His  comrades 
thought  that  he  would  never  live  to  rejoin  them, 
but  slowly  he  recovered  his  health,  and  was  as- 
signed to  the  staff  of  General  A.  J.  Smith,  having 
charge  of  the  pontoon  bridge  at  Cincinnati.  His 
health,  however,  again  failed  him,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  resign  in  October,  1862. 

When  he  had  somewhat  recovered.  Captain 
Means  turned  his  attention  to  business  affairs  and 
made  his  home  in  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  and  in 
Manchester,  Ohio.  In  1871,  however,  he  came 
further  West  and  has  since  been  prominently  con- 
nected with  the  commercial  interests  of  Peru.  He 
erected  the  extensive  zinc  works  at  this  place,  and 


has  since  been  a  stockholder,  vice-president  and 
manager,  capably  directing  its  affairs  until  it  has 
assumed  extensive  proportions  and  become  one  of 
the  leading  industries  in  this  section  of  the  State. 
He  is  a  man  of  progressive  methods,  of  diligence 
and  sound  judgment  and  his  commercial  success 
is  well  deserved. 

On  the  2d  of  June,  1858,  Captain  Means  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Isabella,  daughter 
of  Thomas  W.  Means,  of  Lawrence  county,  Ohio. 
She  died  near  Hanging  Rock,  that  State,  January 
20,  1863.  The  Captain  was  again  married  April 
26,  1866,  his  second  vuiion  being  with  Sarah  Jane 
Ellison,  daughter  of  William  Ellison,  a  resident 
of  Manchester,  Adams  county,  Ohio.  Her  death 
occurred  in  Peru,  January  24,  1880.  She  left  four 
children, — William  E.,  Archibald  L.,  Sadie  and 
Robert  W.,who  was  drowned  December  29,  1888, 
while  attempting  to  rescue  a  companion  who  had 
broken  through  the  ice.  The  present  wife  of 
Captain  ]\Ieans  was  Jennie  Schleich,  daughter  of 
General  Newton  Schleich,  of  Lancaster,  Ohio. 
Their  marriage  was  celebrated  August  16, 
1881,  and  has  been  blessed  with  one  son,  Allan 
Hay. 

Captain  Means  is  a  charter  member  and  active 
worker  in  E.  N.  Kirk  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  and  has 
served  as  its  commander.  He  has  also  been  presi- 
dent of  the  school  board  of  Peru,  and  has  done 
effective  service  in  the  cause  of  education.  In 
manner  he  is  quiet  and  unassuming,  yet  his  ster- 
ling qualities  command  the  respect  and  confidence 
of  all,  and  have  secured  for  him  the  high  regard  of 
a  large  circle  of  friends.  His  residence  in  Peru, 
covering  a  period  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  has 
numbered  him  among  its  valued  citizens  who 
have  been  devoted  to  the  public  welfare.  He  has 
manifested  the  same  loyalty  in  days  of  peace  as 
in  days  of  war,  and  all  who  know  him  have  for 
him  the  highest  regard. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


445 


E.  A.  BRADLEY 


PROMIXENT  among  business  men  of  Aurora 
is  E.  A.  Bradley,  who  for  forty  years  has  been 
closely  identified  with  the  history  of  the  city,  while 
his  name  is  inseparably  connected  with  its  finan- 
cial records.  The  banking  interests  are  well  rep- 
resented by  him,  for  he  is  to-day  at  the  head  of 
the  First  National  Bank,  the  leading  moneyed 
institution  of  this  place.  He  is  a  man  of  keen 
iliscrimination  and  sound  judgment,  and  his  ex- 
ecutive ability  and  excellent  management  have 
brought  to  the  concern  with  which  he  is  con- 
nected a  high  degree  of  success.  The  safe,  con- 
sen-ative  policy  which  he  inaugurated  commends 
itself  to  the  judgment  of  all,  and  has  secured  a 
patronage  which  makes  the  volume  of  business 
transacted  over  its  coimters  of  great  importance 
and  magnitude.  The  success  of  the  bank  is  cer- 
tainly due  in  a  large  measure  to  him,  and 
through  it  he  has  promoted  the  welfare  of  the 
city. 

Mr.  Bradley  comes  of  a  family  that  has  long 
been  prominent  in  the  afifairs  of  the  country.  The 
original  ancestors  came  from  England  and  set- 
tled in  Massachusetts.  Bradley  was  an  old  An- 
glo-Saxon name  and  came  from  the  words 
"broad"  and  ''lea,"  which  were  combined  and 
finally  corrupted  into  the  present  spelling.  His 
parents,  Eli  and  Amanda  (Ball)  Bradley,  were 
both  natives  of  the  old  Bay  State  and  came  of 
leading  families  of  that  locality.  Early  mem- 
bers of  both  houses  lived  upon  farms,  but  also 
followed  the  occupation  of  shoemaking,  go- 
ing from  house  to  house  and  working  for  a 
dollar  per  day,  the  day  being  twelve  hours  in 
length.  The  Balls  later  became  important  manu- 
facturers in  Lee,  Massachusetts,  and  an  influen- 
tial family. 

In  that  city,  which  was  so  long  the  home  of 
his  ancestors,  E.  A.  Bradley  was  born  on  the  5th 
of  September,  1830.  Upon  his  father's  farm  he 
was  reared,  and  in  addition  to  the  usual  common- 
school  training  he  was  fortunate  in  having  the 
teachings  and  Christian  influence  of  a  good  home. 
His  parents  were  strict  members  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  and  early  instilled  into  the  minds 


of  their  children  habits  of  honesty,  industr}'  and 
steadfastness  which  have  borne  good  fruit  in 
later  years.  For  many  years  prior  to  her  death 
the  mother  was  a  widow  and  devoted  herself  un- 
tiringly to  her  children  and  their  welfare.  Her 
last  days  were  spent  on  the  old  homestead  at  Lee, 
and  at  length  she  was  called  to  the  reward  pre- 
pared for  the  righteous. 

E.  A.  Bradley  lived  at  home  with  his  parents 
until  his  seventeenth  year,  and  during  that  time 
spent  two  years  in  attendance  on  Lee  Academy. 
He  then  entered  upon  his  business  career  as  a 
salesman  in  a  mercantile  house,  and  after  a  time 
he  became  a  partner  in  the  institution.  Thus  early 
he  had  displayed  excellent  business  ability,  such 
as  to  warrant  his  admission  into  the  business  as 
part  owner.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  was 
offered  and  accepted  the  position  of  teller  in  the 
Lee  Bank,  where  he  remained  for  three  years,  and 
this  proved  to  him  a  school  of  training  to  fit 
him  for  future  connection  with  moneyed  institu- 
tions of  the  same  character.  He  thoroughly 
studied  and  mastered  the  business,  becoming  fa- 
miliar with  every  detail,  and  when  he  left  that 
employ  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  few  young  men 
of  his  years  were  better  qualified  for  the  banking 
business  than  Mr.  Bradley. 

He  now  came  to  the  West,  seeking  a  broader 
field  of  labor,  and  on  the  5th  of  September,  1855, 
took  up  his  residence  in  Aurora,  where  he  has 
since  made  his  home.  Here  he  soon  purchased 
an  interest  in  the  banking  business  of  Albert 
Jenks  &  Company,  and  became  virtually  the 
founder  of  the  banking  firm  of  Brady,  Hawkins 
&  Allen,  and  contributed  materially  to  its  suc- 
cess. He  continued  with  this  house  during  its 
existence,  and  until  it  was  merged  into  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Aurora,  which  was  incorporated 
June  20,  1863.  Mr.  Bradley  then  became  mana- 
ger of  the  new  institution,  a  position  which  he  ac- 
ceptably and  creditably  filled  until  1885,  when  he 
succeeded  to  the  presidency.  He  has  since 
served  in  that  capacity,  and  any  one  familiar  with 
the  history  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Aurora, 
knows  practically  the  business  record  of  its  hen- 


446 


nWORAPinCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


ored  president  for  the  past  ten  years.  He  acted 
as  the  bank's  cashier  from  1865  until  1881,  was 
then  elected  vice-president,  and  thus  continued 
until  raised  to  the  presidency.  The  first  charter 
of  the  bank  covered  a  period  of  nineteen  years, 
within  which  time  it  paid  some  almost  marvelous 
dividends.  In  1882  the  charter  was  renewed 
for  twenty  years.  During  the  early  period  of  its 
1  existence  the  bank  paid  an  annual  dividend  of 
'  twenty-four  per  cent,  to  its  stockholders,  and  its 
losses  during  that  time  were  less  than  $1,500.  The 
success  of  this  institution  seems  almost  phenom- 
enal, but  is  due  entirely  to  the  careful  and  sys- 
tematic management  and  progressive,  yet  safe, 
business  policy  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  been 
largely  interested  in  it,  foremost  among  whom 
stands  E.  A.  Bradley. 

In  1862  was  celebrated  his  marriage  with  Miss 
Sophia  Wetmore,  of  Cuyahoga  Falls,  Ohio,  who 
died  in  1864,  and  in  1876  he  led  to  the  mar- 
riage altar  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Griffin.   Their  home  is 


noted  for  its  hospitality,  and  in  social  circles  they 
hold  a  most  enviable  position.  Mr.  Bradley  is 
identified  with  the  Congregational  Church  and 
contributes  liberally  to  the  support  of  church  and 
charitable  institutions.  In  his  political  views  he 
is  a  stalwart  Republican. 

The  several  financial  concerns  which  have  been 
under  the  management  of  Mr.  Bradley  during 
the  past  forty  years  attest  his  eminent  and  pro- 
nounced ability  as  a  financier.  He  is  probably 
equally  prominent  in  social  life.  In  the  counting 
room  he  is  resolute,  possessing  a  firmness  and  de- 
cision of  character  which,  however,  never  de- 
generates into  stubbornness  or  impulsive  haste; 
in  the  drawing  room  he  is  a  courteous,  affa- 
ble gentleman,  and,  above  all,  wherever  he 
is  found,  whether  in  public  or  in  private 
life,  his  integrity  is  above  question  and  his 
honor  above  reproach.  Aurora  owes  much 
to  him  and  numbers  him  among  her  valued 
citizens.  , 


OWEN  T.  REEVES, 


BLOOMINGTON. 


FOR  more  than  forty  years  Owen  T.Reeves  has 
been  a  resident  of  Bloomington,  connected 
with  its  professional,  educational,  political  and 
social  advancement.  He  is  distinctively  Ameri- 
can and  has  aided  in  developing  at  this  place  a 
typical  American  city  whose  progress  and  en- 
terprise are  worthy  of  the  spirit  of  the  West. 

He  comes  from  a  State  that  has  furnished  to 
Illinois  many  of  its  most  honored  and  valued 
citizens,  his  birth  having  occurred  in  Ross  county, 
Ohio,  on  the  i8th  of  December,  1829.  During 
his  boyhood  he  attended  the  common  schools 
near  his  home  and  later  entered  the  Wesleyan 
University  of  Delaware,  Ohio,  where  he  pur- 
sued his  studies  uninterruptedly  and  with  the 
most  gratifying  results,  being  graduated  in  the 
class  of  1850  as  one  of  the  most  thorough  and 
able  students  that  ever  left  the  institution.  That 
his  high  abilities  were  recognized  by  the  school 
was  shown  by  the  merited  compliment  of  his 
being  retained  in  the  institution  as  tutor.  He 
also  filled  the  responsible  position  as  principal 


of  the  high  school  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  for  four 
years,  during  which  time  he  introduced  many 
important  changes  in  the  methods  of  study  and 
the  system  of  teaching  which  proved  of  incalcu- 
lable benefit  to  that  school. 

He  soon  won  a  reputation  as  one  of  the  finest 
educators  in  Ohio  at  that  time,  but  to  school 
teaching  he  did  not  desire  to  devote  his  entire 
time  and  attention  and  had  in  the  meantime 
taken  up  the  study  of  law.  His  abilities,  both 
natural  and  acquired,  seemed  to  fit  him  for  his 
profession,  and  though  competent  to  enter  various 
other  fields  of  labor,  had  he  done  so  the  legal  pro- 
fession of  Illinois  would  have  lost  one  of  its  most 
eminent   members. 

At  the  time  Mr.  Reeves  came  to  the  West  this 
State  was  a  rapidly  developing  region,  and  in 
1854  the  young  and  promising  city  of  Bloom- 
ington became  his  home.  From  the  begin- 
ning he  was  identified  with  the  history  of  the 
city.  His  interest  and  efficient  service  in  the 
cause  of  education  became  known,  and  in  1857 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


447 


he  drew  up  tlie  charter  of  the  union-school  sys- 
tem of  Bloomington,  while  for  five  years  he  pro- 
moted the  interests  of  education  in  this  city  by 
his  faitliful  ser\'ice  as  a  member  of  the  school 
board.  In  a  large  measure  the  high  standing 
of  Bloomington  schools  is  due  to  his  efiforts, 
and  from  the  beginning  of  his  residence  there 
up  to  the  present  time  his  interest  has  never 
abated.  For  over  forty  years  he  has  been  con- 
tinuously a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the 
Illinois  Wesleyan  University,  located  at  Bloom- 
ington, and  for  several  years  has  been  the  presi- 
dent of  the  board. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival  i\Ir.  Reeves  began 
the  practice  of  law,  which  he  has  followed  con- 
tinuously since,  though  often  has  he  been  called 
to  positions  of  public  honor  and  trust.  In  1861 
he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  board  of  super- 
visors of  Bloomington  township,  and  the  follow- 
ing year  \vas  elected  city  attorney,  but  his  labors 
in  that  position  were  interrupted  by  his  service 
in  the  Civil  war.  In  the  latter  part  of  1862, 
prompted  by  a  spirit  of  patriotism,  Mr.  Reeves 
responded  to  the  President's  call  for  troops  to 
aid  in  crushing  out  the  rebellion  and  aided  in 
forming  and  organizing  the  Seventieth  Illinois 
Infantn,',  which  he  commanded  as  colonel  with 
marked  distinction.  On  the  field  of  battle  he 
was  brave  and  fearless,  inspiring  and  encourag- 
ing his  men  by  his  dauntless  presence,  yet  he 
never  needlessly  sacrificed  those  who  were  under 
his  leadership.  His  military  record  is  one  of 
which  he  may  well  be  proud,  for  it  proved  him  a 
loyal  defender  of  his  country  in  her  hour  of 
peril. 

His  military  service  being  over.  Colonel  Reeves 
returned  to  private  life  and  again  became  a  valued 
and  influential  citizen  of  Bloomington.  He  has 
been  deeply  interested  in  everj^thing  pertaining 


to  the  welfare  of  the  city  that  would  enhance  the 
material  prosperity  as  well  as  promote  its  social 
and  educational  development.  In  1867  he  pro- 
cured a  charter  for  the  La  Fayette,  Blooming- 
ton &  Mississippi  Railroad,  and  took  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  organization  of  the  company 
and  the  construction  of  the  road.  This  varied 
and  important  business  occupied  actively  all  his 
time,  and  when  the  road  was  leased  to  the  Wa- 
bash, Mr.  Reeves  became  general  solicitor  of 
the  leased  line  and  continued  such  as  long  as 
the  road  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Wabash 
company. 

In  1874  Colonel  Reeves  joined  Judge  Benja- 
min in  the  organization  of  the  Bloomington 
Law  School.  During  all  this  time  he  had  en- 
joyed a  large  and  important  law  practice,  which 
constantly  grew  until  it  had  assumed  extensive 
proportions.  In  the  month  of  March,  1877,  he 
was  elected  judge  of  the  circuit  court,  and  upon 
the  bench  his  fine  legal  talents  were  called  into 
frequent  requisition.  He  is  quick  to  grasp  the 
points  in  an  argument,  and  in  his  charge  to  the 
jury  was  clear,  logical  and  concise,  suiting  his 
words  to  the  mental  capacity  of  his  hearers,  so 
that  there  was  no  danger  of  misunderstanding. 
He  remained  on  the  bench  until  June,  1891,  and 
in  the  time  served  as  one  of  the  judges  of  the 
appellate  court  of  the  State.  As  an  advocate 
he  is  devoted  to  the  best  interests  of  his  clients, 
and  his  thorough  preparation  of  cases  is  mani- 
fest in  the  success  which  has  attended  his  efforts. 
That  he  is  always  master  of  the  situation  is  shown 
by  his  ready  replies,  his  ability  to  cite  autliori- 
ties  and  precedents,  and  by  his  earnest  and  fluent 
words.  He  is  eloquent,  possesses  a  good  de- 
livery and  has  long  been  recognized  as  one  of 
the  most  able  members  of  the  bar  of  McLean 
countv. 


448 


BIOOHAl'HICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTHAIT  OALJ.ERY  OF  THE 


DANIEL  HOGAN, 


MOUND  CITY. 


HON.  DANIEL  HOGAN,  one  of  the  most 
prominent  men  of  southern  IlHnois.was  born 
in  the  county  of  Kilkenny,  Ireland,  on  July  4, 
1849.  His  father  was  a  respectable  and  well-to-do 
farmer,  whose  ancestors  had  for  generations  been 
land-owners.  His  mother  was  a  descendant  of 
the  O'Mahers,  a  family  of  title  and  distincton, 
famous  in  the  early  and  present  history-  of  Ire- 
land. 

In  1852,  when  the  sul)ject  of  this  sketch  was  but 
a  child,  his  father  brought  his  family  to  America 
and  became  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Pulaski 
county,  Illinois.  The  early  days  of  Daniel's  life 
were  spent  on  a  farm  in  the  above  county.  He 
attended  the  public  schools  of  the  district,  and 
took  the  high  school  course  at  Cairo,  studying 
also  telegraphy  at  night.  The  latter  acquirement 
was  of  great  benefit  to  him  during  the  late  war. 
The  first  signal  for  the  great  civil  conflict  found 
him  too  }oung  to  enlist,  but  he  was  smuggled  by 
an  elder  brother  into  the  camp  of  the  Thirty-first 
Illinois  Volunteers,  commanded  by  Colonel  John 
A.  Logan.  Some  months  later  he  was  regularly 
enrolled  in  the  telegraph  corps  of  the  United 
States  army  and  attached  to  the  brigade  serving 
under  General  U.  S.  Grant,  as  confidential  cipher 
clerk,  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant,  and  afterward 
of  captain.  He  was  present  at  the  capture  of 
Fort  Henry,  Clarksville  and  Nashville,  Tennessee, 
and  was  under  fire  at  Fort  Donelson,  Corinth  and 
luka.  He  was  with  Generals  Hatch  and  Grierson, 
in  their  various  cavalry  raids  and  fights  in  Ten- 
nessee, Mississippi  and  Alabama.  He  was  fre- 
quently stationed  at  important  and  exposed  posts 
in  the  enemy's  country,  and  engaged  in  tapping 
his  telegraph  wires,  many  times  narrowly  escap- 
ing capture.  He  accompanied  General  W.  T. 
Sherman  and  stafif  to  Chattanooga,  before  start- 
ing on  his  "march  to  the  sea,"  as  his  confidential 
cipher  clerk  and  telegrapher,  but  being  urgently 


wanted  at  Memphis  was  sent  there  as  chief  of 
militarj'  lines.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he  was 
honorably  mustered  out  for  "faithful  and  impor- 
tant military'  sen'ices."  He  then  entered  and  grad- 
uated at  Bryant  &  Stratton's  Business  College, 
and  took  sen'ice  in  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company  in  the  principal  cities  of  the  United 
States.  He  came  to  Mound  City  in  1869,  in  or- 
der to  be  near  his  aged  parents,  who  both  died 
at  an  advanced  age,  the  father  at  seventy-four 
and  the  mother  at  seventy-two  years. 

The  ability  and  business  integrity  of  Wx.  Ho- 
gan  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  his  neighbors, 
and  although  very  young  for  the  office  he  was  in 
1873  elected  county  clerk  of  Pulaski  county,  and 
re-elected  at  each  ensuing  election,  and  held  the 
office  continually  until  1882,  when  he  was  elected 
to  the  State  senate  from  the  Fifty-first  Senatorial 
District,  comprising  the  counties  of  Franklin, 
Williamson,  Johnson  and  Pulaski,  defeating  the 
Democratic  candidate  by  nearly  one  thousand 
votes.  He  at  once  took  an  active  part  in  all  im- 
portant legislation,  and  was  placed  on  many  of 
the  important  committees,  proving  himself  a 
most  valuable  member.  During  the  protracted 
deadlock  of  the  legislature  in  January,  1883,  which 
finally  elected  Governor  S.  M.  Cullom  to  the 
United  States  senate,  and  again  in  the  celebrated 
contest  which  elected  General  John  A.  Logan  to 
the  senate  in  1885,  l\Ir.  Hogan  contributed  no 
small  part  to  the  results,  and  showed  himself  to 
be  one  of  the  shrewdest  politicians  and  caucus 
managers  in  tlie  State.  In  1886  he  was  re- 
elected to  the  senate,  and  in  1889  was  appointed 
collector  of  internal  revenue.  In  1894  he  was 
elected  member  at  large  of  the  Republican  State 
central  committee. 

In  1876  Mr.  Hogan  married  the  daughter  of 
the  late  Judge  G.  W.  Carter,  of  \"ersailles,  Ken- 
tuckv. 


n 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


449 


EDGAR  A.  BANCROFT, 


ONE  of  the  younger  members  of  the  Chicago 
bar,  Edgar  A.  Bancroft,  was  in  Jnne,  1895, 
elected  vice-president  and  general  counsel  of  the 
Chicago  &  Western  Indiana  and  Belt  Line  rail- 
roads. He  came  to  Chicago  in  1892  and  was  for 
three  years  Solicitor  for  Illinois  of  the  Atchison, 
Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railroad  Company.  He 
possesses  a  thorough  knowledge  of  railroad  af- 
fairs and  of  the  law  applicable  to  them,  and  is 
rendering  most  valuable  service  in  his  present 
position. 

Mr.  Bancroft  is  a  native  of  Illinois.  He  was 
born  at  Galesburg,  and  acquired  his  early  edu- 
cation in  its  public  schools.  Subsequently  he 
entered  Knox  College,  where  he  was  graduated 
with  honors  in  1878,  having  won  at  St.  Louis  the 
first  prize  in  the  Inter-State  Oratorical  Contest 
of  that  year.  In  1880  he  received  the  degree  of 
LL.  B.  from  Columbia  College  Law  School,  New 
York,  and  entered  upon  his  professional  career 
at  Galesburg.  In  1884  he  became  a  member  of 
the  firm  of  Williams,  Lawrence  &  Bancroft,  and 
so  continued  until  he  came  to  Chicago.  During 
his  residence  at  Galesburg  he  was  prominent  in 
the  educational,  political  and  business  affairs  of 
the  city;  was  a  member  of  the  librarj^  board  and 
of  the  city  council;  director  of  the  Second  National 
Bank,  president  of  the  Electric  Street  Railroad 
Company,  etc.  As  a  lawyer  he  was  engaged  in 
most  of  the  important  litigation  in  the  circuit 
court  of  Knox  county. 

Mr.  Bancroft  is  a  well-known  and  influential 
member  of  the  Bar  Associations  of  Chicago  and 
of  Illinois,  and  is  popular  with  his  associates, 
both  in  business  and  social  circles.  During  the 
memorable  railroad  strike  in  1894,  he  had  charge 
of  the  various  proceedings  for  injunction  orders, 
in  which  the  Receivers  of  the  Atchison  Com- 
pany were  interested;  and  he  appeared  for  the 
Receivers  in  the  famous  contempt  case  of  the 
United  States  against  Debs  and  his  associates. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  Illinois  Bar  Association,  in 
Springfield,  in  January,  1895,  he  read  a  masterly 
paper  on  "The  Chicago  Strike  of  1894."  It  pre- 
sented a  complete  history  of  that  conflict,  and  dis- 


cussed tlie  various  legal  questions  involved  in  the 
injunction  and  contempt  proceedings,  giving  a 
concise  and  clear  view  of  the  controversy,  the 
causes  that  led  up  to  it  and  the  results  which 
followed.  This  paper  has  since  been  privatel) 
published  in  pamphlet  form. 

In  politics  j\Ir.  Bancroft  is  a  "true  blue'"  Repub- 
lican, mifaltering  in  his  support  of  the  principles 
of  his  party  and  of  its  fit  candidates.  His  response 
on  "Political  Ideals,"  at  the  banquet  of  the  Ham- 
ilton Club,  at  the  Auditorium,  in  January,  1893, 
showed  his  strong  interest  in  clean,  practical  and 
progressive  Republicanism.  While  a  resident 
of  Galesburg,  in  1888,  he  was  presidential  elector 
from  the  Tenth  Congressional  district,  and  sec- 
retary of  the  Illinois  Electoral  College  that  cast 
its  ballots  for  Benjamin  Han-ison  and  Levi  P. 
Morton.  In  the  fall  and  winter  of  1887-8  he 
was  the  leading  counsel  for  General  P.  S. 
Post  in  the  contested  election  case  of  Worth- 
in  gton  7vrsi/s  Post  for  a  seat  in  the  Fiftieth  Con- 
gress as  a  representative  of  that  district,  and 
argued  the  case  before  the  elections  commit- 
tee. Although  the  committee  was  largely  Dem- 
ccratic,  and  General  Post's  plurality  on  the 
official  count  was  only  twenty-nine,  and  the  con- 
testant, a  member  of  the  preceding  Congress  and 
a  prominent  Democrat,  presented  his  own  case, 
the  committee  reported,  and  the  house  voted,  iri 
favor  of  General  Post,  aud  he  was  declared  en- 
titled to  the  seat  in  that  Congress  by  a  plurality 
of  forty-one. 

Since  coming  to  this  city  Mr.  Bancroft  has 
laken  no  active  part  in  partisan  politics,  devoting 
his  energies  exclusively  to  his  profession.  He 
has,  however,  been  an  aggressive  member  of  the 
Civil  Service  Reform  League.  He  rendered 
conspicuous  aid  in  securing  the  passage  of  the 
civil-service  law  by  the  legislature  and  its  adop- 
tion by  the  people  of  Chicago  last  spring.  He 
has  advanced  rapidly  and  steadily  in  his  profes- 
sion, and  is  one  of  the  most  widely  known  and 
popular  lawyers  of  the  Chicago  bar.  His  popu- 
larity also  extends  to^  society  and  club  circles  as 
well.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Union  League  Club, 


450 


nronnAPmcAL  dtctioxary  and  portrait  gallery  of  tile 


the  Chicago  Literary  CKib,  the  iNIarqnette  Chib 
and  tlie  Caxton  Ckib.  He  has  earned  consider- 
able reputation  as  a  graceful  writer,  and  is  known 
as  an  eloquent  and  able  speaker;  and  beneath 
the  adornments  of  oratory  and  rhetoric  there  is 


a  stratum  of  sound  logic  that  holds  the  attention 
of  his  hearers  and  impresses  them  with  tlioughts 
that  are  not  easily  forgotten.  In  manner  he  is 
unostentatious  even  to  reticence,  but  his  gaiuine 
worth  is  recognized  by  a  large  circle  of  friends. 


BENJAMIN  RUDOLPH  BURROUGHS, 


ED\VARD.SVILLE. 


MR.  BURROUGHS  is  a  native  of  M.ary- 
land,  born  in  Charles  county,  on  the  20th 
of  May,  1849,  and  is  the  tenth  in  order  of  birth 
in  the  family  of  twelve  children  whose  parents 
were  John  A.  and  Eliza  T.  (Dent)  Burroughs. 
I'he  father  was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and  died 
in  February,  1872,  at  the  ripe  old  age  of  sixty- 
nine  years,  while  his  wife  passed  away  in  April, 
1S78,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four  years.  She  be- 
longed to  the  prominent  Dent  family  of  Mary- 
land, noted  for  its  culture,  refinement  and  promi- 
nence. Her  people  were  also  large  land-owners 
of  that  State,  and  her  father  was  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Revolution,  joining  the  ser\'ice  in  the 
memorable  year  of  1776  and  winning  the  rank  of 
captain  by  meritorious  conduct  on  the  field  of 
battle.  A  British  officer  tried  to  bribe  him  to 
betray  his  country,  but  his  loyalty  scorned  such  a 
proposal,  and  as  one  of  the  valiant  soldiers  of  the 
Colonial  army  he  aided  in  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence. The  paternal  grandfather  of  our  sub- 
ject served  in  Captain  Dent's  company,  and  both 
families  were  of  English  origin  and  were  also 
represented  in  the  war  of  1812. 

j\Ir.  Burroughs  of  this  review  remained  at  home 
until  1864,  when  he  entered  Cliarlotte  Hall 
.Academy,  Maryland,  and  \\as  graduated  in  Au- 
gust, 1867,  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts. 
He  then  came  to  Illinois,  and  for  one  term  was 
engaged  in  teaching  school  near  Edwardsville, 
Illinois,  after  which  he  began  transcribing  records 
in  the  ofifice  of  the  circuit  clerk  of  Madison  county, 
Illinois,  at  Edwardsville.  The  following  winter 
he  again  taught  school,  and  then  kept  a  hard- 
ware and  agricultural  implement  store,  until 
March,  1872,  when  the  death  of  his  father  caused 
him  to  return  to  his  Maryland  home,  where  he 
remained  for  a  vear.    Returning  to  Illinois  he  was 


married,  having  on  the  29th  of  January,  1873,  led 
to  the  marriage  altar  IMiss  Mary  Judy,  daughter 
of  Colonel  Thomas  and  Mrs.  Demaris  Judy,  who 
lived  on  a  farm  near  Edwardsville,  Illinois. 
Colonel  Judy  served  one  term  as  a  member  of 
the  State  legislature.  Miss  Mary  Judy  was  grad- 
uated at  the  Jackson  Female  Academy,  and  is  an 
educated  and  cultured  lady.  In  the  family  are 
four  children,  namely:  Mary  M.,  who  also  grad- 
uated at  the  Jacksonville  (Illinois)  Female  Sem- 
inary ;  Nora  J.,  a  student  in  the  Lasell  Seminary 
of  Auburndale,  Massachusetts,  belonging  to  the 
class  of  1897;  Clara  E.  and  Wilbur  G.,  who  are 
attending  school  in  Edwardsville. 

In  1873  Mr.  Burroughs  returned  to  Edwards- 
ville, Illinois,  and  took  up  the  study  of  law  un- 
der VV.  F.  L.  Hadley  &  Wm.  H.  Krome.  He  con- 
tinued his  studies  there  imtil  September,  1875, 
when  he  became  a  student  in  the  Northwestern 
College  of  Law,  Chicago,  being  graduated  at 
that  institution  in  June,  1876,  with  the  degree 
of  LL.  B.  In  the  same  month  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  at 
Mt.  Vernon,  Illinois,  and  began  the  practice  of 
law  in  Edwardsville,  where  he  has  since  con- 
tinued, being  recognized  as  one  of  the  ablest  at- 
torneys in  that  section  of  the  State.  Early  in  his 
professional  career  F.  W.  Burnett  and  he  were 
retained  as  counsel  in  the  notable  case  of  Brad- 
shaw  versi/s  Combs,  reported  in  the  io2d  Illinois 
Supreme  Court  Reports,  page  428,  and  their  able 
handling  of  the  important  questions  at  issue  won 
them  the  commendation  of  bench,  bar  and  public. 
He  has  since  been  connected  with  many  of  the 
most  important  cases  that  have  come  up  for  trial 
in  the  courts  of  that  locality.  Thoroughness  char- 
acterizes all  his  efforts,  and  he  conducts  all  his 
business  with  a  strict  regard  to  a  high  standard 


■z^. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


451 


of  professional  ethics.  He  is  an  able  advocate, 
a  wise  counselor,  strong  in  argument  and  logical 
in  reasoning,  winning  the  support  of  his  hearers 
by  addresses  that  are  earnest,  forceful  and  carry 
conviction.  In  1877  he  was  elected  city  attorney 
of  Edwardsville,  which  position  he  filled  for  two 
years,  when  he  declined  further  honors  in  tliat 
line.  For  seven  years  he  was  a  member  of  tlie 
board  of  education  of  Edwardsville,  and  in  Janu- 
ary, 1889,  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  circuit 
court  of  the  Third  Circuit  of  Illinois,  to  fill  a 
vacancy,  and  in  1891  was  re-elected  for  the  full 
term.  His  course  upon  the  bench  has  justified 
the  hopes  of  his  supporters  and  the  confidence 
they  reposed  in  him.  His  ndings  are  singularly 
free  from  prejudice  and  judicial  bias  and  his 
knowledge  of  the  law  applicable  to  a  case  is 
above  question.  His  election  came  to  him  through 
a  majority  of  two  thousand  in  Madison,  his  home 
county,  and  five  thousand  in  the  circuit. — a  high 
tribute  to  his  personal  worth  and  popularity,  as 
well  as  to  his  legal  attainments;  and  in  the  dis- 
trict convention,  when  nominated  for  circuit 
Judge,  each  time  he  received  every  vote  on  the 
first  ballot.  In  1892  he  was  called  to  Chicago  to 
preside  over  a  session  of  the  circuit  court  there 


from  the  ist  of  May  until  the  15th  of  July.  In 
connection  with  his  legal  business  he  is  president 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  also  of  the  Cahokia 
Manufacturing  Company,  which  is  manufactur- 
ing a  new-process  grain-separator. 

In  his  political  associations  Mr.  Burroughs  is 
a  stalwart  Democrat,  active  in  the  ranks  of  his 
parly,  and  has  on  various  occasions  been  a  dele- 
gate to  State  conventions,  and  has  frequently 
served  as  chairman  of  the  county  central  commit- 
tee. He  belongs  to  Edwardsville  Lodge,  No. 
99,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  with  which  he  has  been  con- 
nected since  October,  1870,  and  has  filled  all  of  its 
offices.  He  is  a  charter  member  of  the  Knights 
of  Pythias  fraternity,  which  was  organized  in 
Edwardsville  in  1882,  and  he  also  belongs  to  the 
Odd  Fellows  Lodge,  which  he  joined  in  1887. 
He  gives  his  support  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  is  a  liberal  contributor  to  charities 
and  benevolent  associations.  He  has  been  a 
leading  factor  in  the  progress  of  Edwardsville. 
Educational,  church  and  social  interests  owe 
their  promotion  in  a  considerable  degree  to 
him.  Twenty-eight  years  has  this  city  l^ecn 
his  home, — years  largely  devoted  to  tlie  pul)lic 
good. 


CHARLES  S.  THORNTON, 


CHARLES  S.  THORNTON  is  one  of  the 
ablest  lawyers-  practicing  at  (he  Chicago  bar, 
having  that  mental  grasp  which  enaljles  liim  to 
discover  the  points  in  a  case.  A  man  of  sound 
judgment,  he  manages  his  cases  with  masterly 
skill  and  tact,  and  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  best 
jury  advocates  in  Chicago.  He  is  a  logical  rea- 
soner  and  has  a  ready  command  of  English.  He 
has  made  a  specialty  of  real*estate  and  corporation 
law,  and  in  tliese  lines  has  gained  a  most  enviable 
reputation. 

Mr.  Thornton  claims  Boston  as  his  native  city, 
and  the  date  of  his  birth  185 1.  He  is  a  son  of 
.Solon  and  Cordelia  A.  (Tilden)  Thornton,  the 
former  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  and  the  latter 
of  Massachusetts,  belonging  to  the  well  known 
TiMcn  family  of  Marshficld,  that  State.     Charles 


attended  the  public  schools  of  Boston,  pursuing 
a  six-years  course  in  the  famous  Boston  Latin 
School,  and  aftenvard  graduated  at  Harvard  Col- 
lege. While  in  college  his  leisure  hours  were 
spent  in  the  study  of  law,  for  it  had  long  been 
his  high  ambition  to  become  a  member  of  the 
legal  profession.  He  continued  his  reading  under 
the  guidance  of  Henry  Adams,  of  Cambridge, 
and  attended  the  lectures  in  the  Harvard  Law 
School  until  1873,  when,  choosing  the  West  as 
the  scene  of  liis  future  labors,  he  removed  to 
Chicago,  in  the  month  of  March.  Further  prep- 
aration for  the  legal  profession  was  continued  by 
study  in  the  law  office  of  Lyman  &  Jackson,  and 
subse(|uently  with  the  well  known  firm  of  Isham 
&  Lincfiln.  In  September,  1873,  he  was  admitted 
to  practice  in  the  State  of  lUinois,  at  once  opened 


452 


BIOnUAPIIICAL  DICriONAUY  AND  PORTUAIT  QALLERY  OF  THE 


an  office  in  this  city,  and  entered  upon  his  pro- 
fessional career.  At  a  later  date  he  entered  into 
partnership  witji  Justus  Chancellor,  which  con- 
nection, with  the  addition  of  several  well  known 
lawyers,  still  continues,  and  the  firm  of  Thornton 
&  Cha,n<:ellor  now  numbering  seven  members  has 
become  one  of  the  largest  and  most  prominent 
in  the  legal  fraternity  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Thornton, 
although  practicing  in  many  branches  of  the  law, 
makes  real-estate  and  corporation  law  his  spe- 
cialty, and  is  thoroughly  informed  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  this  department.  He  has  been  con- 
nected with  many  notable  cases.  The  most  recent 
of  these,  the  Williams  forgery  case,  although  a 
criminal  cause,  obtained  for  Mr.  Thornton  well 
desci^ved  reputation,  and  his  successful  speech 
to  the  jury  on  behalf  of  the  defendant,  occupying 
two  days  in  deli\-er\-,  at  the  end  of  a  trial  of  great 
public  interest,  which  lasted  six  weeks,  placed  him 
in  the  proud  rank  of  successful  jury  advocates. 
Many  other  cases  in  which  he  has  been  engaged 
and  which  have  attracted  widespread  notice  have 
demonstrated  his  superior  ability.  A  man's  repu- 
tation is  his  chief  property,  and  the  reputation  of 
Mr.  Thornton  is  one  which  reflects  credit  upon 
him.  His  powers  as  an  advocate  have  been  dem- 
onstrated by  his  success  on  many  occasions.  He 
is  an  able  lawyer  of  a  large  and  varied  experience 
in  all  the  courts.  Thoroughness  characterizes  all 
his  efforts,  and  he  conducts  all  his  business  with 
a  strict  regard  to  a  high  standard  of  professional 
ethics. 

Previous  to  the  annexation  of  the  town  of  Lake, 
which  at  that  time  contained  one  hundred  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  Mr.  Thornton  was  elected  to 
the  office  of  corporation  counsel  and  most 
efficiently  ser\'ed  in  that  capacity.  About  the  same 
time  he  was  elected  president  of  the  board  of  edu- 
cation of  Auburn  Park,  which  is  his  place  of  resi- 
dence. The  pride  of  the  American  citizen  in 
American   institutions   culminates   in   the   public 


schools,  and  considering  tlie  zeal  and  energy  ex- 
pended in  dexeloping  them  and  the  momentous 
influence  they  have  upon  the  manhood  of  the 
country,  this  is  justifiable.  Mr.  Thornton  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Cook  County  Board  of 
Education  and  subsequently  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  city  of 
Chicago.  In  January,  1885,  an  appointment  made 
by  the  governor  of  the  State  and  confirmed  by 
the  Senate  of  Illinois,  made  him  a  member  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education.  He  has  been  a  promi- 
nent and  very  useful  factor  in  educational  circles, 
and  is  the  originator  of  a  number  of  reforma- 
tory measures  now  enforced  in  the  public  schools. 
His  observations,  gleaned  from  investigations  of 
the  Cook  County  Normal  School,  W"ere  published 
and  attained  considerable  prominence.  He  in- 
augurated the  College  Preparatory  School  of  this 
city,  and  the  system  of  truant  schools.  Last  year 
he  framed  the  teachers'  pension  bill,  and  through 
his  influence  it  became  a  law.  The  educational 
interests  of  this  city  are  certainly  largely  indebted 
to  Mr.  Thornton,  and  his  work  has  been  of  the 
greatest  benefit.  He  is  himself  a  broadminded 
man,  possessing  a  wide  fund  of  general  informa- 
tion, and  is  not  only  practical,  but  above  all  is 
progressive  in  his  methods. 

In  1883  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Thornton  and  Miss  Jessie  F.  Benton,  of  Chicago. 
They  now  have  an  interesting  family  of  three 
children, — all  daughters:  Mabel  J.,  Peajd  Esther 
and  Hattie  J^Iay.  Mr.  Thornton  is  of  a  very  social 
and  genial  nature,  and  belongs  to  many  of  the 
prominent  local  societies,  where  he  is  ever  heartily 
welcome.  He  has  figured  prominently  in  local 
politics,  and  is  an  influential  member  of  the  De- 
mocracy. The  success  of  his  life  is  due  to  no 
inherited  fortune,  or  to  any  happy  succession  of 
advantageous  circumstances,  but  to  his  own  sturdy 
will,  steady  application,  studious  habits,  tireless 
industry  and  sterling  integrity. 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


453 


ADLAI  E.  STEVENSON, 


BLOOMINGTON. 


NO  State  in  the  Union  has  contributed  a 
greater  number  of  distinguished  statesmen 
and  jurists  to  the  catalogue  of  names  which  oc- 
cupy a  foremost  position  in  the  nation's  history 
for  the  last  third  of  a  century  than  Illinois.  The 
list  includes  two  presidents,  a  chief  justice  of  the 
United  States  supreme  court,  and  ministers  to 
Great  Britain,  France  and  Germany. 

Adiai  Ewing  Stevenson,  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  was  born  in  Christian  county,  Kentucky, 
October  23,  1835. 

In  1852  his  family  removed  from  Kentucky 
to  Bloomington,  in  this  State,  where  Adlai  at- 
tended the  Wesleyan  University,  and  subse- 
quently returned  to  Danville,  in  his  native  State, 
where  he  completed  his  scholastic  education  at 
Center  College.  Here  he  not  only  won  his 
diploma  but  the  heart  of  Miss  Letitia  Green, 
daughter  of  President  Lewis  W.  Green,  of  the 
college,  to  whom  he  was  united  in  marriage  in 
December,  1866. 

Returning  to  Bloomington  he  read  law  in  the 
office  of  Hon.  Robert  E.  Williams,  and  being  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  began  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession at  Metamora,  in  Woodford  county,  in 
1858.  Here  his  good  training,  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  his  clients,  probity  of  character  and 
pronounced  legal  ability  were  rewarded  with  un- 
usual success.  He  filled  the  responsible  office 
of  master  in  chancery  from  1861  to  1865,  and  sub- 
sequently was  elected  district  attorney  for  a  term 
of  four  years  from  1865.  The  duties  of  these  posi- 
itions  were  discharged  with  honor  to  himself  and 
to  the  satisfaction  of  his  friends  and  the  public. 

In  1864  he  was  a  candidate  for  presidential  elec- 
tor on  the  Democratic  ticket.  Having  achieved  a 
reputation  which  had  reached  beyond  the  limited 
sphere  originally  prescribed  for  himself  he  de- 
cided, in  1868,  to  remove  to  a  larger  field,  and 
returned  to  the  enterprising  and  growing  city  of 
Bloomington.  Here  he  at  once  arose  to  a  con- 
trolling position  as  a  lawyer  and  political  leader. 
In  1874  he  was  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic 
party  for  Congress  in  the  Bloomington  district, 
which  was  usually  Republican  by  3,000  majority. 


and  was  elected  over  General  IMcNulta  by  1,285 
votes.  He  was  again  a  candidate  in  1876,  but 
being  a  presidential  year  he  failed  of  success,  lack- 
ing only  200  votes.  In  1878,  however,  he  was 
again  successful,  carrying  the  district  by  over 
1,800  majority.  These  two  elections  in  a  district 
which  before  and  since  gave  large  Republi- 
can majorities  unmistakably  demonstrate  his 
stre'ngth  and  popularity  as  a  candidate. 

Mr.  Stevenson  became  a  prominent  member  of 
Congress,  faithful  to  his  party  and  friends.  Al- 
though a  strong  partisan,  he  made  no  distinctions 
in  the  treatment  of  his  constituents,  attending  to 
petitions  and  wants  of  all  alike,  with  equal  cour- 
tesy and  fidelity. 

Mr.  Stevenson  was  a  delegate  to  the  National 
Democratic  convention  that  nominated  Cleveland 
in  1884,  and  after  his  election  was  appointed  first 
assistant  postmaster  general,  in  which  position  he 
was  efificient  and  popular. 

Mr.  Stevenson  was  a  delegate  from  the  State 
at  large  to  the  national  Democratic  convention  of 
1892,  and  chairman  of  the  Illinois  delegation. 
While  the  struggle  was  going  on  for  the  nomina- 
tion of  a  candidate  for  president,  which  resulted 
in  the  success  of  Mr.  Cleveland,  although  op- 
posed by  leading  men  of  his  party,  the  friends  of 
Adlai  Stevenson  were  quietly  presenting  his  name 
for  the  vice-presidency,  and  when  the  first  ballot 
was  taken,  to  the  surprise  and  gratification  of  his 
friends  he  was  found  io  be  so  far  in  the  lead  as 
to  insure  his  nomination.  That  he  added  great 
strength  to  the  ticket,  both  by  his  personal  popu- 
larity and  his  ability  as  a  speaker,  and  thus  largely 
contributed  to  the  Waterloo  defeat  of  the  Repub- 
licans, there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  choice  was 
an  excellent  one  in  many  respects,  not  the  least 
of  which  is  the  distinguished  ability  which  char- 
acterizes the  vice-president  as  a  presiding  officer. 
He  is  not  a  mere  figure-head,  giving  the  second 
place  in  the  Government  only  a  perfunctory  and 
occasional  attention,  but  takes  an  active  interest 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duties. 

The  vice-president  has  not  only  proved  him- 
self to  be  an  able  lawyer  and  a  successful  politi- 


454 


BIOOnAPIffCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTUAIT  GALIEHY  OF  THE 


cian,  but  is  a  good  business  man  as  well.  In  the 
management  of  men,  as  the  president  of  a  local 
coal  company,  where  others  have  had  strikes  and 
failures,  and  interruptions  of  trade,  his  mines 
are  worked  alike  to  the  satisfaction  of  employes 
and  owners. 

Mr.  Stevenson  has  a  splendid  physique,  being 
over  six  feet  in  height,  straight  limbed  and  well 


proportioned.  His  appearance  is  at  once  com- 
manding and  graceful.  Add  to  this  an  agreeable 
presence  and  first-class  conversational  powers, 
and  you  have  the  secret  of  his  personal  popularity. 
His  name,  indeed,  is  frequently  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  the  presidency,  and  it  is  a  question 
whether  a  better  candidate  for  the  success  of  his 
party  at  this  time  has  been  presented. 


REUBEN  F.  DYER,  M.  D., 


OTTAWA. 


IN  this  enlightened  age  when  men  of  energy, 
industry  and  merit  are  rapidly  pushing  their 
wav  to  the  front,  those  who,  by  their  own  indi- 
vidual efforts,  have  won  favor  and  fortune  may 
properly  claim  recognition.  Years  ago,  when 
the  West  was  entering  upon  its  era  of  growth  and 
development  and  Illinois  was  laying  its  founda- 
tion for  future  prosperity,  there  came  hither  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  men  poor  but  honest, 
and  with  sturdy  independence  and  a  determma- 
tion  to  succeed  that  justly  entitled  them  to  repre- 
sentation in  the  history  of  the  great  West.  Among 
this  class  is  numbered  Dr.  Dyer. 

He  is  a  native  of  the  Pine  Tree  State,  having 
been  bom  in  the  town  of  Strong,  Franklin 
county,  Maine,  on  the  29th  of  January,  1833.  He 
is  a  son  of  Moses  and  Sarah  (Day)  Dyer,  the 
former  born  at  Cape  Elizabeth,  and  the  latter 
at  Damariscotta,  Maine.  Reuben  acquired  his 
early  education  in  the  district  schools  of  Frank- 
lin county,  and  graduated  at  Bumham's  Acad- 
emy in  Farmington,  Maine.  He  was  amliitious 
to  enter  Bowdoin  College  and  prepared  to  do 
so,  passing  an  examination  which  would  have 
admitted  him  to  the  sophomore  class,  but  un- 
fortunately for  him  he  could  not  raise  the  neces- 
sary funds  to  carry  him  through  college.  Con- 
sequently, at  the  age  of  eighteen  he  entered  the 
office  of  Dr.  J.  S.  Phillips  of  Farmington  to  study 
medicine,  remaining  with  him  three  years  and 
teaching  school  for  three  terms  in  Maine.  He 
was  also  employed  in  a  similar  way  in  Massachu- 
setts and  thus  earned  the  means  with  which  to 
provide  for  his  own  livelihood. 

In  the  meantime    his    parents    had    removed 


to  Illinois,  where  he  j(jined  them  in  1854 
and  found  employment  in  a  drug  store,  continu- 
ing his  services  there  until  the  fall  of  that  year. 
He  had  by  that  time  saved  enough  money  to  go 
to  Cincinnati  and  pursue  a  course  of  lectures  at 
the  American  Medical  College. 

Dr.  Dyer  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his 
chosen  calling  m  Newark,  Illinois,  in  the  spring 
of  1855,  and  from  the  beginning  met  with  good 
success.  He  was  graduated  at  the  American 
Medical  College  in  1856  and  then  resumed  prac- 
tice in  Newark,  where  he  continued  until  the  out- 
break of  the  war.  With  true  American  patriot- 
ism he  answered  President  Lincoln's  call  for 
troops,  raising  a  company  of  which  he  was  elected 
Captain.  They  were  mustered  into  the  Twentieth 
Illinois  Infantry,  commanded  by  Colonel  C.  C. 
Marsh,  and  went  at  once  to  the  front.  The  Doc- 
tor remained  with  his  regiment  until  after  the 
battle  of  Fort  Donelson  in  1862,  when  he  re- 
signed his  commission  as  Captain,  hoping  to  ob- 
tain a  medical  appointment  in  the  army.  Re- 
turning then  to  Illinois  he  aided  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fourth  Illinois 
Regiment,  of  which  he  was  appointed  Surgeon 
with  the  rank  of  Major.  The  command  was 
ordered  at  once  to  the  front  and  he  remained  in 
the  service  until  after  the  close  of  the  war.  He 
served  as  brigade  surgeon  by  virtue  of  his  rank. 
He  was  the  only  surgeon  of  Illinois  troops  who 
acted  as  division  and  corps  surgeon  without  be- 
ing specially  appointed.  At  the  close  of  the  war 
he  was  a  member  of  the  staff  of  General  J.  C. 
Davis,  Fourteenth  Army  Corps.  After  a  ser- 
vice of  nearly  four  years  in  the  field   he  returned 


T^' 


C^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


455 


to  private  life  and  located  in  Ottawa,  where  he 
has  built  up  a  very  lucrative  practice.  His  skill 
as  a  surgeon  soon  attracted  attention,  and  pa- 
tients from  distant  points,  learning  of  his  abil- 
ity, displayed  their  confidence  in  his  skill  by  not 
only  consulting  him  but  by  employing  his  ser- 
vices in  difificult  cases.  He  is  a  general  prac- 
titioner, but  his  specialty  is  surgery  and  he  is 
considered  one  of  the  best  representatives  of  this 
branch  of  the  profession  in  the  State.  He  is  a 
close  and  thorough  student,  a  man  of  deep  re- 
search, and  his  investigations  into  the  science  of 
medicine  and  his  skilful  application  of  the 
knowledge  he  has  thereby  obtained  has  won  him 
a  place  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  the  medical  fra- 
ternity. 

In  1857  Dr.  Dyer  \\as  united  in  marriage  with 
.Miss  Susanna  A.  Goodrich,  a  native  of  Massa- 
chusetts, born  on  the  31st  of  August,  1841,  and 
a  daughter  of  Sewell  and  Amelia  (Holbrook) 
Goodrich.  One  of  her  ancestors  on  the  paternal 
side  was  a  publisher  in  Boston,  and  published  the 
first  Bibles  issued  in  America.  He  was  also  one 
of  the  incorporators  of  Pittsburg,  Massachusetts, 
and  a  man  of  much  prominence  in  the  commu- 
nity in  which  he  lived.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Dyer  have 
had  three  children,  two  sons  and  a  daughter,  but 
one  son  has  now  passed  away.  The  oldest  son, 
Ralph,  graduated  in  medicine  at  the  P.  &  S.  Col- 
lege, Chicago,  in  1882,  and  entered  in  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession  at  Ottawa,  but  did  not  live 
to  follow  it  long,  dying  in  1887.  Edgar  G.,  the 
second  son,  is  practicing  law  in  Palo  Alto,  Cali- 
fornia. The  daughter,  Susie  L.,  is  entering  a 
course  in  Wellesley  College,  Massachusetts. 

Politically  Dr.  Dyer  has  always  been  a  Re- 
publican,  and  though   in   no  sense  a  politician, 


having  frequently  refused  to  become  a  candidate 
ft)r  office,  he  is  strongly  partisan  and  has  done  all 
in  his  power  to  promote  the  growth  and  insure 
the  success  of  his  party  in  its  various  campaigns. 
He  has  served  on  the  board  of  pension  exami- 
ners for  twelve  years,  and  has  been  president  of 
the  La  Salle  County  and  Ottawa  Medical  So- 
cieties. He  is  also  a  member  of  the  State  Medi- 
cal Society,  was  a  delegate  to  the  International 
Medical  Congress  at  Washington,  and  has  been 
a  member  of  the  Auxiliary  State  Board  of 
Health.  Since  its  organization  he  has  served  as 
surgeon  of  Setli  E.  Earle  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  and  is 
a  member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity.  He  is  a 
great  lover  of  horses  and  is  the  owner  of  some  fine 
stock.  As  a  physician  he  enjoys  the  honor  of  be- 
ing the  peer  of  any  in  the  West.  His  life  has 
been  characterized  by  energy,  perseverance  and 
untiring  labor,  and  to  these  principles  his  success 
is  due. 

Dr.  Dyer  traces  his  ancestry  back  to  Major 
William  Dyer  (or  Dyre),  who  was  the  tenth 
Mayor  of  New  York,  and  a  son  of  Captain  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  Dyer.  The  latter  was  the  famous 
Mary  Dyer,  of  Quaker  persecution,  the  only  wo- 
man to  suffer  capital  punishment  in  all  tlie  op- 
pression of  the  Friends  throughout  the  world. 
She  was  executed  on  Boston  Commons,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1660.  Major  Dyer  was  a  very  prom- 
inent citizen  of  New  York.  Prior  to  1673  he 
was  in  the  service  of  the  crown.  The  following 
year  and  for  several  subsequent  years  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Governor's  Council,  and  in  1680 
was  elected  Mayor  of  New  York  city.  He 
served  as  collector  for  the  Duke  of  York,  and  held 
many    other     prominent    positions    under    the 


450 


nwaitAPHWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTIiAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


HUGH  W.  HARRISON, 


BELLEVILLE. 


HUGH  W.  HARRISON  was  born  in  the  city 
which  is  still  his  home, — Belleville,  Illinois, 
— April  26,  1853,  and  is  a  representative  of  one 
of  the  honored  pioneer  families  of  this  section  of 
the  State,  his  grandfather  having  emigrated  from 
Virginia  to  St.  Clair  county  in  1830.  His  parents 
were  Thomas  Oglesby  and  Eliza  J.  (Calbraith) 
Harrison,  and  their  family  numbered  eight  chil- 
dren. The  father  was  interested  as  part  owner 
in  the  Harrison  Mills  of  Belleville.  He  died 
about  thirty-three  years  ago,  when  thirty-four 
years  of  age,  but  his  widow  still  resides  in  this 
place,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two  years. 

Mr.  Harrison,  of  this  review,  acquired  his  ele- 
mentary education  in  the  public  and  private 
schools  of  his  native  town,  and  subsequently  en- 
tered McKendree  College,  of  Lebanon,  Illinois. 
He  afterward. pursued  a  course  in  a  commercial 
college  of  St.  Louis,  and  then  entered  upon  his 
business  career  by  ser\'tng  an  apprenticeship  with 
Harrison  &  Company,  owners  of  a  large  machin- 
ery, molding  and  carpentering  establishment. 
This  business  was  begun  by  Cox  Roberts,  and 
later  was  sold  to  Theophilus  Harrison  and  W.  C. 
Buchanan.  Subsequently  another  change  oc- 
curred in  the  firm,  and  the  business  was  incor- 
porated in  1878,  under  the  State  laws,  as  the 
Harrison  IMachine  Works,  with  our  subject  as 
secretary  of  the  company.  They  now  have  two 
plants  and  manufacture  engines  and  threshers, 
turning  out  annually  four  hundred  a  year.  They 
manufacture  the  "Jumbo"'  engines  and  "Belle- 
ville" threshers,  and  their  extensive  and  well- 
conducted  business  furnishes  employment  to 
some  two  hundred  ajid  fifty  men.  This  is  one  of 
the  leading  industries  of  Belleville.  Such  busi- 
ness enterprises  are  the  making  of  a  town,  pro- 
luoting  its  commercial  activity  and  advancing 
its  material  interests. 

Mr.  Harrison  was  man-ied  on  the  26th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1877,  to  Miss  Parthenia  Tureman,  of 
Virginia,  lUinois,  and  they  have  one  child,  Zoe. 


Mrs.  Harrison  is  highly  educated  in  music  and 
languages,  and  is  a  lady  of  culture  and  refine- 
ment, whose  gracious  manner  and  kindly  cour- 
tesy make  her  hospitable  home  a  favorite  resort 
with  many  friends.  A  fine  library  attests  the  lit- 
erarv  taste  of  Mr.  Harrison  and  his  wife,  and  with 
the  contents  of  the  many  volumes  they  are  very 
familiar. 

Mr.  Harrison  is  now  quite  a  prominent  Mason. 
In  June,  1888,  he  became  a  member  of  St.  Clair 
Lodge,  No.  24,  F.  &  A.  M.;  in  1889  joined  Belle- 
ville Chapter,  No.  106,  R.  A.  M.;  and  the  same 
year  was  initiated  iruto  Tancred  Commandery, 
of  which  he  was  treasurer  for  five  years.  In  1890 
he  joined  Oriental  Consistory  of  Chicago,  and 
in  these  various  lodges  he  has  filled  many  offices. 
He  also  belongs  to  the  Knights  of  Pythias  fra- 
ternity, was  its  treasurer  for  fourteen  years,  and 
has  represented  the  'local  organization  in  the 
grand  lodge.  He  'belongs  to  the  Knights  of 
Honor,  the  Ancient  Order  of  LTnited  Workmen, 
and  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America,  and  has 
represented  tliese  fraternities  in  the  grand  lodge. 
Socially  he  is  connected  with  the  Fish  and  Bowl- 
ing Club  of  Belleville.  His  political  support  is 
unswen'ingly  given  to  the  Republican  party,  and 
for  nine  years  he  served  as  a  member  of  the  board 
of  education,  advancing  the  interests  of  the 
schools  in  a  most  worthy  manner.  He  is  a  con- 
sistent member  and  earnest  supporterof  the  ]\Ieth- 
odist  Episcopal  Church,  and  is  now  serving  as 
one  of  its  trustees.  He  has  traveled  extensively, 
and  entertains  the  broad  and  liberal  views  of  men 
and  afifairs  that  travel  always  brings.  His  career 
clearly  illustrates  the  possibilities  that  are  open 
in  this  country  to  earnest,  persevering  yovmg 
men  who  have  the  courage  of  their  convictions 
and  are  detennmed  to  be  the  architects  of  their 
own  fortunes.  When  judged  by  wliat  he  has  ac- 
complished his  right  to  a  first  place  among  the 
representative  citizens  of  Belleville  cannot  be 
questioned. 


^^U^i^iJ'Pl'::'?^^ 


REPRESENrATIVK  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


457 


ADOLPH  MOSES, 


IN"  tlic  great  city  of  Chicago  a  majority  of  the 
inhabitants  are  of  foreign  liirth.  Tliose  who 
attracted  by  finer  institutions,  larger  educational 
facilities  and  the  superior  advantages  of  making  a 
living,  have  come  here  with  their  families  and 
means,  intending  to  find  a  new  home  in  a  new 
country, — these  valuable  additions  to  the  native 
jjopulation  have,  by  their  industry,  economy,  and 
honest  methods,  become  essential  factors  in  the 
growth  of  the  city.  They  furnish  not  only  needed 
workmen,  skilled  and  unskilled,  but  enterprising 
merchants,  manufacturers,  artists  and  apt  dealers 
upon  our  marts  of  trade.  They  have  also  natur- 
ally embraced  the  various  professions,  where  they 
have  proved  themselves  useful,  talented  and  in- 
tlucntial. 

Adolph  Moses  is  a  native  of  Germany,  where 
he  was  born,  in  Speyer,  the  capital  of  the  Palatin- 
ate, Februar}'  27,  1837.  Here  he  received  his 
early  education,  attending  the  public  and  Latin 
schools,  preparatory  to  his  study  of  law,  the  pro- 
fession selected  for  him  by  his  parents,  and  his 
own  choice,  as  well.  His  proficiency  was  en- 
couraging, but  in  view  of  the  disabilities  sur- 
rounding the  Israelites  in  that  country  he  de- 
termined to  remove  to  the  United  States,  arriving 
at  Xew  Orleans  December  22, 1852.  He  soon  after 
attended  the  Louisiana  University',  where  he  re- 
mained some  years,  his  legal  education  having 
been  conducted  under  the  training  of  such  dis- 
tinguished lawyers  as  Randall  Hunt,  Christian 
Roselius  and  Judge  McCaleb.  He  graduated  in 
March,  1861,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of 
Louisiana. 

The  secession  of  Louisiana,  soon  after,  found 
liim  a  young  man  who,  having  lived  for  so  many 
years  under  the  Southern  influences,  with  many 
other  students  in  like  circumstances,  was  natttfally 
imbued  with  sentiments  common  to  all  classes 
of  people  in  that  State,  and  when  the  Twenty- 
first  Louisiana  regiment  was  raised,  he  was  ap- 
pointed one  of  its  officers  and  served  nearly  two 
years.  He  then  determined  to  come  North  and, 
an  opportunity  ofifering,  settled  in  Quincy,  Illinois, 
where  he  remained  until  1869.     He  then  decided 


to  locate  permanently  in  Chicago,  and  his  career 
suicc  that  time  has  been  one  of  continued  success, 
he  having  reached  the  point  of  being  considered 
one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  the  city.  The  ex- 
tent and  variety  of  his  practice  can  be  seen  by 
reference  to  the  reports  of  the  appellate  and 
supreme  courts,  where  the  briefs  and  arguments 
of  his  firm  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 

Mr.  Moses  had  already  become  so  well  and 
favorably  known  in  1879  as  to  receive  the  Demo- 
cratic nomination  for  judge  of  the  stiperior  court, 
but  failed  of  an  election.  He  has  since  been 
prominently  mentioned  for  a  seat  on  the  Federal 
bench  of  this  circuit.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  exceed- 
ingly painstaking,  of  good  judgment  as  to  the 
merits  of  a  controversy,  and  especially  devoted 
to  the  interests  of  his  clients.  The  wonder  is  that 
one  of  another  tongue,  educated  in  the  forms  and 
rules  of  the  civil  law,  can  become  so  familiar 
with  the  practice  of  the  common  law.  Here  the 
genius  of  his  mind  and  his  superior  education 
come  into  full  play  and  develop  at  once  the 
highest  qualities  of  the  pleader  at  the  bar  and 
the  accomplished  jurist.  The  court  methods  of 
j\Ir.  Moses  are  eminently  courteous  and  fair  to 
court,  counsel  and  jurv. 

As  a  speaker,  Mr.  Moses  is  clear  in  his  state- 
ments and  forcible  in  delivery.  The  judge  gives 
him  undivided  attention,  and  the  jury  follows  his 
earnest,  compact  sentences  with  unflagging  inter- 
est to  the  end.  He  is  a  devoted  member  of  the 
American,  Chicago,  and  State  Bar  Associations. 
At  the  last  meeting  of  the  latter  at  Springfield 
(1895),  he  read  a  valuable  paper  on  "Tlie  Variance 
tiie  necessity  of  its  abolition  as  a  legal  cause  for 
reversing  judgments  and  decrees,"  wdiich  de- 
servedly attracted  wide  attention.  He  is  now  one 
of  its  vice-presidents.  While  an  active  member  of 
the  Chicago  Bar  Association  he  rendered  effec- 
tive services  in  disbarring  unworthy  members  of 
the  legal  profession. 

While  not  ambitious  for  political  preferment, 
Mr.  Moses  has  consented  to  act  in  the  important 
capacity  of  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Chicago 
Public  Library,  a  position  he  filled  for  six  years. 


458 


BwauAPniCAL  djctionaut  -ly^n  porthait  gallery  of  the 


and  as  chairman  of  the  library  committee  gave  the 
library  special  attention. 

In  1890  he  foimded  the  National  Coq^oration 
Reporter,  a  most  valuable  journal,  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  business  corporations,  which  is  now 
in  its  eleventh  volume  and  has  proved  (occupy- 
ing, as  it  does,  a  comparatively  new  field)  a  great 
success.  He  has  also,  in  connection  with  this  new 
publication,  established  the  United  States  Corpor- 
ation Bureau,  which  has  for  its  object  the  col- 
lection of  information  in  regard  to  corporations. 

Socially    he  is  an    active    member    of    social. 


l_)enevolent  and  political  societies,  among  wliicli 
may  be  mentioned  the  Masons,  the  Standard,  the 
Lakeside  and  Iroquois  Clubs,  the  I.  O.  B.  B.,  of 
the  national  convention  of  whose  lodges  he  has 
been  president.  He  also  is  a  member  of  the 
Sinai  Congregation,  presided  over  by  Dr.  Hirsch. 
Mr.  Moses  was  married  in  1869.  His  two  sons 
are  members  of  the  Chicago  bar,  and  members  of 
the  firm  of  which  he  is  the  head,  viz.,  Moses,  Pam 
&  Kennedy.  In  his  private  relations  he  is  kindly 
and  courteous,  an  agreeable  companion  and  firm 
friend. 


J.  A.  WILLOUGHBY, 


BELLEVILLE. 


THE  subject  of  this  review  is  a  native  of  Illi- 
nois and  has  risen  to  a  position  as  one  of 
the  representative  men  of  tlie  State  and  attained 
distinction  in  the  field  of  politics,  being  clearly 
entitled  to  a  due  recognition  in  this  connection. 
He  was  bom  on  the  parental  homestead,  six 
miles  northeast  of  Lebanon,  Illinois,  being  the 
son  of  W.  E.  and  ]Mary  (Moore)  Willoughby. 
The  father  was  a  successful  farmer  and  is  now 
living  in  retirement  in  Lebanon,  having  long 
been  a  man  of  prominence  in  that  locality.  Our 
subject  received  his  preliminan,-  education  in  the 
public  schools  and  completed  his  studies  at  the 
L^niversity  of  ]\Iichigan,  at  Ann  Arbor,  where 
he  graduated  in  the  law  department,  in  1876. 
He  established  himself  for  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession in  Lebanon,  Illinois,  thus  continuing  for 
six  months,  after  which  he  became  the  proprie- 
tor of  a  drug  store  in  Lebanon,  an  enterprise 
which  he  conducted  successfully.  In  1880  he  was 
elected  county  recorder,  retaining  this  incum- 
bency for  four  years,  being  defeated  for  re-elec- 
tion in  1884.  In  June,  1885,  he  effected  the 
purchase  of  the  Advocate,  a  local  weekly  news- 
paper, enlisted  in  the  support  of  the  Republican 
party.  The  paper  was  established  in  1839  and 
had  changed  hands  many  times.  Through 
the  able  efforts  of  Mr.  Willoughby  the  circula- 
tion of  the  paper  was  increased  to  the  issuing  of 
1,800  copies  each  week,  and  was  made  to  assume 
due  importance  as  furthering  the  interests  of  the 
section  and  advancing  the  cause  of  the  Republican 
party. 


jMr.  Willoughby  has  been  an  ardent  and  influ- 
ential worker  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party. 
He  was  for  four  years  chairman  of  the  congres- 
sional committee,  and  has  been  a  member  of  the 
county  central  committee  of  his  party  from  the 
time  he  attained  his  majority.  He  has  been  many 
times  a  delegate  to  the  State  conventions.  He 
served  as  postmaster  of  Belleville  for  four  years, 
under  Harrison's  administration.  In  1894  he 
was  elected  to  the  State  senate,  by  the  flattering 
majority  of  1,211  votes,  and  he  has  proved  a  ca- 
pable and  discriminating  official,  doing  much  to 
advance  wise  legislation  and  further  the  inter- 
ests of  the  State  at  large. 

I\Ir.  Willoughby  is  recognized  as  one  of  the 
representative  men  of  Belleville.  He  is  promi- 
nently identified  with  the  ^Masonic  order,  having 
been  initiated  into  its  mysteries  in  1876,  and  hav- 
ing now  advanced  to  the  Knights  Templar  de- 
gree, being  Past  Eminent  Commander  of  his  corn- 
man  dery.  Religiously  he  renders  support  to  the 
Episcopal  Church  and  its  active  charities  and 
missions. 

In  November,  1886,  Mr.  Willoughby  was  united 
in  marriage  to  I\Iiss  Lizzie  V.  Hughes,  daughter 
of  James  Hughes,  ex-sherifif  of  the  county  and  a 
prominent  resident  of  Belleville.  Their  only  child, 
Mary  L.,  died  in  January,  1892.  Mrs.  Willough- 
by's  parents  were  early  settlers  in  Belleville,  and 
the  family  is  one  of  culture  and  refinement.  The 
home  of  our  subject  is  at  412  South  Jackson 
street,  and  here  is  dispensed  the  most  gracious 
hospitality  to  a  large  circle  of  friends. 


?n  t  ^'^ 


^  "'-'2r . 


i'y .  1/ .  -{y 4.  /  s.-ii- 


) 


REPRESENTATIVB  Mh:N  OF  THE  UyiTRD  STATES.-  ILLlXOfS  VOLUME. 


459 


EDWARD  P.  GRISWOLD, 


MR.  GRISWOLD  is  a  native  of  Connecticut, 
Iiaving  been  bom  near  Hartford,  August 
6,  1838,  tlie  son  of  Thomas  and  Jerusha  (Wells) 
Gris\\-oUl.  His  father  was  the  leading  cloth 
manufacturer  in  Connecticut.  The  boyhood  of 
Edward  cmliraced  attendance  upon  the  public 
scliools  of  his  native  town,  but  for  the  comple- 
tion of  his  educatioi:  he  went  to  East  Hampton, 
Massachusetts.  In  1854,  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
he  began  life  as  a  clerk  in  the  employ  of  Mr. 
S.  W.  Griswold,  a.t  Hartford,  Connecticut,  who 
was  then  in  the  line  of  business  in  which  Mr. 
Gniswokl,  tlic  subject  of  riiis  sketch,  is  now  en- 
gaged. 

In  1S57  young  Griswold  went  to  Milwaukee, 
and  for  six  years  was  engaged  with  his  brother, 
Mr.  J.  AV.  Griswold,  in  the  cloak-manufacturing 
business.  In  1863  the  brothers  removed  to  Chi- 
cago, where  they  continued  the  manufacture  of 
ladies'  and  children's  cloaks,  under  the  firm  name 
of  J.  W.  Griswold  &  Company.  The  business 
of  the  firm  constantly  increased  from  its  start, 
in  1857,  until  now  it  has  grown  to  be  one  of  the 
largest  of  its  kind  in  the  country.  Mr.  J.  W. 
Griswold  retired  from  the  firm  in  1886.  Since 
then  the  management,  shared  by  Edward  P.  Gris- 
wold and  P.  R.  Palmer,  under  the  firm  name 
of  Griswold,  Palmer  &  Company,  has  become 
most  aggressive,  and  they  have  won  a  reputation 
as  being  among  the  most  energetic,  popular  and 
reliable  merchants  in  the  cloak  trade.  It  has 
been  the  aim  of  the  firm  from  its  very  start  not 
only  to  manufacture  garments  that  could  be  de- 
pended upon  for  style,  but  that  would  give  satis- 
faction to  the  \\'earer.  The  popularity  of  the 
house  with  its  customers  is  a  well  known  fact, 
and  is  attributed  to  the  uniform  maintenance  of 
the  above  named  policy.  No  firm  has  a  better 
record,  and  it  has  been  established  in  this  busi- 
ness longer  than  any  other  cloak-manufacturing 


house  in  this  country,  passing  successfully 
through  the  financial  crisis  of  1857  and  1887,  and 
the  great  fire  of  1871.  While  thousands  of  firms 
were  "broken  up  and  others  settled  at  various 
percentages  of  their  indebtedness,  this  firm  has 
always  met  its  obligations,  paying  one  hundred 
cents  on  the  dollar. 

As  a  citizen,  no  man  stands  higher  than  Mr. 
Griswold.  While  he  is  motlcst  and  unostenta- 
tious in  his  demeanior,  he  is  always  found  in  the 
front  rank  in  all  matters  of  reform.  He  is  a 
doacon  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  and  a 
man  of  whom  it  may  be  said  the  world  is  made 
better  by  his  having  lived  in  it.  He  belongs  to 
the  Union  League  and  Sunset  Clubs,  and  is  a 
member  of  the  Citizens'  Association  and  the  Art 
Institute  of  Chicago. 

In  his  political  affiliations  he  is  strongly  Re- 
publican, and  has  been  since  he  was  entitled  to 
cast  his  first  ballot,  believing  thoroughly  in  the 
principles  of  protection  to  home  industries,  as 
championed  by  that  party. 

Mr.  Griswold  was  married  in  the  year  1865 
to  Miss  Mary  Browning.  They  have  four  chil- 
dren,— ^two  sons  and  two  daughters, — Edward 
Browning,  Man'  Maud,  Grace  and  Harold  Gris- 
wold, constituting  a  happy  family  circle. 

Among  the  names  of  the  prominent  business 
men  of  Chicago  who  have  been  closely  identified 
with  its  interests,  a;nd  have  assisted  in  its  mar- 
velous growth,  and  who,  while  helping  to  build 
up  a  metropolis,  have  founded  for  themselves  rep- 
utations more  enduring  than  iron  and  stone,  will 
stand  that  of  Edward  P.  Griswold,  who,  by  force 
of  native  ability  and  steady  perseverance,  has 
raised  himself  to  a  position  of  wealth  and  honor. 
His  life  histoiy  illustrates  in  a  marked  degree 
what  may  be  accomplished  by  well  directed  ef- 
forts, and  a  strict  adherence  to  correct  business 
principles. 


460 


BIOOIiAPmCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POUTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


RT.  REV.  JOHN  JANSSEN,  D.  D., 


BELLEVILLE. 


AMONG  the  representatives  of  the  Cathohc 
Church  in  soutliwcstern  Illinois  is  the 
Rt.  Rev.  John  Janssen,  Bishop  of  Belleville.  Hewas 
born  in  Germany,  on  the  3d  of  March,  1835,  and 
began  his  education  in  the  private  and  parish 
schools  near  his  home.  He  afterward  attended 
the  Bishops'  College,  after  which  he  crossed  the 
Atlantic  to  the  United  States.  In  1858  he  was 
ordained  as  a  priest  at  Alton,  by  Bishop  Juncker, 
and  at  once  entered  upon  his  pastoral  work,  tak- 
ing charge  of  a  church  in  Springfield,  Illinois, 


where  he  remained  for  five  years.  In  1863  he 
became  secretary  to  the  bishop,  holding  that  po- 
sition until  1868,  and  was  chancellor  of  the  Alton 
diocese  from  1863  until  1870,  when  he  became 
vicar  general  to  Bishop  Baltes.  In  1886  he  was 
made  administrator  of  the  diocese,  servjng  in  that 
position  for  about  a  year,  when,  in  1887,  the  dio- 
cese of  Alton  was  divided  and  that  of  Belleville 
established.  He  then  served  as  administrator  of 
both,  and  on  the  28th  of  February,  1888,  became 
bishop  of  Belleville. 


GEORGE  CATLIN, 


GEORGE  CATLIN  is  one  of  the  many  self- 
made  men  of  Chicago.  His  ancestors 
were  of  the  best  New  England  stock  on  both 
sides,  some  of  them  having  served  with  great 
credit  in  the  old  French  and  Indian  wars  and 
the  war  of  the  Revolution,  while  in  times  of 
peace  they  were  prominent  officials  in  their  re- 
spective towns. 

His  father  was  Seth  Catlin,  who  came  to  Chi- 
cago from  Deerfield,  Massachusetts,  in  1834,  and 
became  active  in  commercial  and  banking  af- 
fairs, finally,  1858-1863,  filling  the  position  of 
secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  He  was  the 
sixth  in  descent  from  John  Catlin,  of  Wethers- 
field,  Connecticut,  through  John  Catlin,  second, 
and  Major  Seth  Catlin,  of  the  latter  place.  The 
John  Catlin  last  mentioned  was  one  of  the  first 
settlers  of  Branford,  Connecticut,  and  a  resident 
of  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  Deerfield,  Massa- 
chusetts. The  mother  of  George  Catlin  was 
Helen  M.  Griswold,  of  the  Griswold  family  of 
Vermont. 

George  Catlin  was  born  in  Chicago  in  1843. 
He  attended  the  public  schools  and  acquired  his 
first  business  experience  in  his  father's  office, 
assisting  in  the  preparation  of  the  first  annual  re- 
port of  the  Board  of  Trade.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-two  he  enlisted,  in  answer  to  a  call  for 
volunteers,  in    the    One    Hundred    and    Thirty- 


fourth  Illinois  Regiment,  and  six  months  later, 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  was  mustered  out.  Re- 
turning home  he  secured  a  clerkship  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Goodrich  Transportation  Company. 
Later  he  entered  the  employ  of  the  Buckingham 
Elevator  Company,  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected for  eighteen  years.  His  faithful  perform- 
ance of  duty  and  the  unqualified  confidence  re- 
posed in  him  by  the  company  is  well  indicated 
by  his  long  continued  service. 

On  the  expiration  of  that  period  2^Ir.  Catlin 
engaged  for  a  time  in  the  fire-insurance  busi- 
ness. In  the  year  1883  he  commenced  the 
manufacture  of  druggists'  sundries,  being  now 
located  at  217  and  219  State  street.  He  began 
operations  on  a  small  scale,  but  has  greatly  en- 
larged his  business  and  has  an  extensive  sale 
among  the  leading  druggists  in  the  city  and 
throughout  the  country.  The  growth  of  his 
business  has  been  steady  and  rapid.  He  may 
truly  be  called  a  self-made  man,  for  his  prosperity 
is  the  crown  of  his  own  labors.  Industry  has 
been  the  golden  key  that  has  opened  to  him  the 
portals  of  success.  Perseverance,  hard  work, 
mastery  of  the  details  of  his  business  and  a  de- 
termination that  has  overcome  all  obstacles  are 
numbered  among  his  chief  characteristics.  Suc- 
cess in  life  is  something  to  be  proud  of,  and  the 
world  is  better  for  the  life  of  every  successful  man. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


401 


In  the  year  1867  Air.  Catlin  married  Miss 
Elsie  A.  Ray,  a  native  of  Boston,  Massachusetts. 
She  (lied  in  1874,  leaving  a  daughter, — Elsie 
A.  In  1880  Mr.  Catlin  was  again  married, 
hi<  second '  union  being  with  Aliss  Imogen 
lUanche,  of  Harrisburg.  Pennsylvania.  They 
now  have  two  children, — Seth  and  Helen 
lUanche. 

Mr.  Catlin  is  a  man  of  dome.stic  tastes,  who 
finds  his  greatest  pleasure  in  the  society  of  his 
fninilv  and  his   friends.     He  holds  membership 


in  the  Hyde  Park  Club,  the  Chicago  Athletic  As- 
sociation, and  is  a  life  member  of  Waubansia 
Eodge.  He  is  a  thirty-second-degree  Mason,  a 
member  of  Apollo  Commandery,  No.  i,  K.  T., 
and  belongs  to  the  Mystic  Shrine.  In  political 
faith  he  rather  leans  toward  the  Democracy,  but 
may  be  said  to  be  independent.  Mr.  Catlin  is 
a  modest,  unassuming  man,  caring  not  for  notori- 
ety, yet  deserves  the  praise  that  is  usually  given 
a  self-made  man  and  the  high  regard  which  is 
accorded  him  bv  his  friends. 


PHILEMON  L.  MITCHELL, 


ROCK  ISLAND. 


PHILEMON  LIBBEY  MITCHELL  was 
born  in  Limington,  Maine,  October  16, 
1812,  the  youngest  but  one  of  the  six  children  of 
Isaac  and  Martha  (Libby)  Mitchell,  the  former 
a  general  merchant  of  that  village. 

Philemon's  early  boyhood  was  passed  in  his 
native  town,  where  he  attended  the  district  school 
until  he  was  diirteen  years  of  age,  at  which  time 
he  engaged  as  a  clerk  in  a  country  store  and  post- 
office,  where  he  remained  for  three  years.  At  the 
expiration  of  that  period  he  went  to  Exeter,  New 
Hampshire,  and  passed  the  ensuing  five  years  in 
a  large  wholesale  establishment. 

Being  impressed  with  the  idea  that  the  possi- 
bilities of  advancement  for  a  young  man  were 
greater  in  the  West  than  in  the  East,  he  relin- 
quished his  position  in  Exeter  and  removed  to 
Georgetown,  Kentucky,  where,  with  what  he  had 
saved  from  his  salary,  he  was  enabled  to  go  into 
mercantile  business  for  himself.  In  this  venture 
he  remained  until  1851,  and  then  entered  the  field 
in  which  he  has  been  so  eminently  successful,  as 
cashier  of  ihe  branch  of  the  Fanners'  Bank  of 
Kentucky,  at  Georgetown.  In  1856  he  resigned 
tins  position  and  removed  to  Rock  Island,  where, 
in  company  with  the  late  P.  L.  Cable,  he  organ- 
ized a  banking  house  under  the  fimi  name  of 
.Mitchell  &  Cable.  Four  years  later  Mr.  Cable  dis- 
posed of  his  interest  to  Judge  Cornelius  Lynde, 
and  the  firm  name  was  changed  to  Mitchell  & 
Lynde,  under  which  it  is  still  operated — next  to 
the  oklcst,  and  one  of  the  strongest  monetarv'  in- 
stitutions in  Illinois. 


During  this  time  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Rock  Island  was  established,  with  Mr.  Mitchell 
as  its  president,  and  continued  in  business  for  a 
number  of  years,  until  1890,  when  it  became 
merged  with  Mitchell  &  Lynde's  Bank.  Mr. 
Mitchell  was  lai-gely  instrmnental  in  organizing 
the  Rock  Island  Savings  Bank,  which  hais  a 
capital  stock  of  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars; and  commenced  lousiness  Jirly  8,  1890: 
at  the  present  time  its  deposits  aggregate 
over  a  million  dollars.  Of  this  bank  Mr. 
Mitchell  is  the  president.  Both  of  the  banks  with 
which  our  subject  is  connected,  have,  since  1891, 
occupied  handsome  offices  in  Mitchell  &  Lvnde's 
Block, — one  of  the  finest  Inisiness  structures  in 
the  city. 

In  addition  to  his  banking  interests  Mr.  Mitch- 
ell is  a  stockholder  in  some  of  Rock  Island's 
most  important  manufacturing  establishments, 
notably  the  Rock  Island  Plow  Company,  and  the 
Rock  Island  Buggy  Company,  of  Ijoth  of  which  he 
is  a  director. 

For  thirty  years  or  more  he  has  been  secretary 
of  the  Chippianock  Cemetery  Association,  of  which 
he  is  the  largest  stockholder;  and  to  him  is  due 
the  fact  that  Rock  Island  has  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  cemeteries  in  the  Western  country. 

Politically,  Mr.  Mitchell  is  a  strong  Republican. 
Previous  to  the  organization  of  that  party  he  was 
an  old-line  Whig,  but  for  forty  years  now  he  has 
voted  the  Republican  ticket,  and  has  held  several 
minor  local  offices. 

Though  always  devoted  to  his  business  he  has 


462 


BIOQRAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERF  OF  THE 


kiund  time  to  travel  and  has  been  all  over  the 
United  States,  spending  the  summers  at  Eastern 
resorts  and  his  winters  in  the  South. 

Though  now  in  his  eighty-third  year,  he  has 
never  been  sick  in  his  life,  and  is  as  strong  and 
well  as  many  men  who  are  his  junior  by 
a  score  of  years.  Every  day  finds  him  at 
his  desk  in  the  bank,  over  whose  affairs  he  ex- 
ercises a  close  supervision,  while  his  son  takes 
the  active  management  of  its  details  His  won- 
derful constitution  may  be  ascribed  to  his  cor- 
rect habits,  formed  in  youth  and  continued  in 
later  years. 

On  the  nth  day  of  October,  1837,  Mr.  Mitcliell 
vvas  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Catherine  Hall, 
of  Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  whose  death  occurred 
October  4,  1868.    Of  the  five  children  bom  of  this 


union  four  are  living:  Annie  M.,  wife  of  W.  C. 
Wadsworth,  of  Davenport,  Iowa;  Mary  H.,  who 
married  Henrj'  T.  Wadsworth,  now  deceased; 
Phil,  a  prominent  business  man  of  Rock  Island, 
who  married  I\Iiss  Ella  Judd,  of  Janesville,  Wis- 
consin, October  24,  1877;  and  Kate  M.,  now  Mrs. 
Henry  S.  Eraser,  of  Indianapolis.  A  daughter, 
Laura,  who  was  the  wife  of  Captain  Charles 
Shaler,  of  the  United  States  Army,  died  Decem- 
ber 26,  1877. 

Since  the  foregoing  sketch  was  prepared,  the 
long  and  useful  career  of  its  subject  has  been 
brought  to  a  close.  An  illness  of  two  weeks  ter- 
minated fatally  on  the  23d  day  of  January,  1895, 
and  Mr.  Mitchell  passed  away  at  the  ripe  age  of 
eighty-three  years,  beloved  and  mourned  by  all 
who  knew  him. 


WALTER  B.  PALMER, 


THE  task  of  writing  the  biography  of  a  living 
representative  man  is  a  most  difficult  one, 
because  the  prevailing  modesty  of  American  man- 
hood shrinks  from  personal  prominence  and  in- 
variably discourages  even  the  most  friendly  at- 
tempt to  uncover  the  secret  of  his  success  or 
popularity  in  life. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  typical  representa- 
tive of  the  fast-growing  class  of  American  landed 
proprietors, — deriving  his  income  from  that  safest 
of  all  investments,  real  estate.  He  is  the 
owiier  of  several  of  the  finest  farms  in  La  Salle 
county,  and  devotes  his  time  and  energy  to  the 
raising  and  developing  of  the  American  light- 
harness  horse,  possessing  one  of  the  finest  studs 
in  the  State. 

Walter  inherited  his  landed  possessions  and 
an  ample  fortune  from  his  father,  E.  M.  Palmer, 
who  was  a  respected  and  esteemed  citizen  of  Ot- 
tawa, and  who  at  the  age  of  eighteen  bought  his 
time  of  his  father  at  the  expense  of  his  legal  in- 
terest in  the  paternal  estates,  and  in  1849  crossed 
the  plains  to  California.  He  became  a  successful 
trader,  made  a  fortune,  and  returned  to  Ottawa 
in  1857,  where  he  invested  in  the  rich  farm  lands 
of  La  Salle  county  and  became  a  successful 
farmer  and  breeder  of  blooded   stock,   and  did 


much  to  improve  and  forward  the  stock-raising 
interests  of  that  section,  particularly  the  raising 
of  trotting  horses,  and  has  left  in  his  only  son 
a  worthy  representative  to  continue  in  the  path 
of  his  father. 

Mr.  Palmer  was  born  in  Prairie  Center,  Illinois, 
June  26,  1868,  the  son  of  E.  M.  and  Sarah  (Butler) 
Palmer,  graduated  at  the  Northwestern  Normal 
College  at  Geneseo,  Illinois,  and  in  the  fall  of 
1894  married  Miss  Mary  F.  White,  of  Ottawa, 
this  State,  one  of  that  city's  most  respected  and 
charming  young  ladies. 

Mr.  Palmer  is  a  man  of  strictest  probit)-  and 
steadfast  integrity,  an  honored  and  prominent 
member  of  the  flourishing  community  of  Ottawa, 
and  has  the  respect  and  esteem  of  the  best  class 
of  citizens  in  the  city  and  county;  is  a  young  man 
of  fine  moral  character,  genial  and  afTable  man- 
ners, and  is  a  sturdy,  clean-cut  type  of  an  Amer- 
ican gentleman  farmer  and  landed  proprietor.  He 
has  traveled  somewhat  extensively  in  this  coun- 
try, having  made  several  journeys  through  the 
West  and  South  and  to  the  Pacific  coast  His 
views  of  life  are  broad  and  progressive;  he  is  in- 
dependent, generous  and  public-spirited,  and  ad- 
mires and  sympathizes  with  all  that  is  best  and 
highest  in  life.     He  is  devoted  to  his  charming 


/i'7f7AJ^^/Ce}e^ 


REPRESEyTATIVE  .VEX  OF  THE  VXITED  STATES:  ILLIXOIS  VOLU.VE. 


4m 


young  wife,  and  an  attentive  and  loving  son.  He 
was  much  attached  to  liis  estimable  father  and 
devotedly  clicrishes  his  memory.  His  residence 
on  Ottawa  avenue  is  one  of  the  finest  in  a  city 
noted  for  its  beautiful  homes ;  and  his  stable  is  a 
model  of  equinal  comfort  and  convenience,  and 
cost  over  four  thousand  dollars  to  build. 

Being  an  only  son,  and  inheriting  an  abimdance 
of  wealth,  Walter  B.  Palmer  has  had  a  smooth 
and  easy  path  through  life,  and  unlike  most  sons 
of  rich  men,  has  used  his  vast  means  wisely.  For 
so  young  a  man  he  is  a  noted  and  prominent  citi- 
zen of  Ottawa,  and  in  coming  years  will  no  doubt 
gain  distinction  and  win  admiration  in  many  yet 
untried  paths  of  public  life.  In  politics  he  is  a 
stanch  Republican,  but  as  yet  has  never  accepted 
public  office.  At  present  he  has  only  one  passion, 
and  that  is  for  that  noblest  of  animals,  the  horse. 
Although  young  in  years,  he  has  already  owiied 
or  controlled  the  following  well  known  horses: 
Frank  Agan,  2:05^;  Nellie  'SL,  2:125;  Harry  H., 
2:20;  Budingcr,  2:24;  and  numerous  other  lesser 
lights  of  the  trotting  world. 


Mr.  Palmer's  independent  means  enable  him 
to  devote  his  time  to  the  raising  of  blooded  stock 
as  a  pastime,  and  for  the  purpose  of  getting  the 
purest  strains  of  thoroughbreds,  thereby  putting 
the  American  blooded  horse  on  the  level  of  the 
highest  equine  aristocracy,  he  is  not  a  horseman 
in  the  mercenarj'  sense,  and  can  in  no  way  be 
classed  with  the  ordinary  racing  man,  as  he  fol- 
lows the  pursuit  from  pleasure  and  because  the 
love  of  horses  is  a  passion  with  him. 

Over  Mr.  Palmer's  life  lies  the  shadow  of  pri- 
vacy, and  he  does  not  w^illingly  lift  the  veil  and 
give  the  world  an  insight  into  his  private  ambi- 
tions and  aspirations.  He  has  a  cultivated  con- 
science, which  makes  his  many  acts  of  generosity 
and  friendship  things  to  be  hidden  rather  than 
advertised.  He  is  one  of  the  best  class,  of  young 
men  of  wealth  and  leisure  which  the  West  affords, 
and  if  health  and  length  of  years  are  given  him 
his  forceful  character,  strong  individuality,  and 
engaging  personality  will  leave  their  mark  upon 
the  times  in  the  shape  of  a  noteworthy  and  nolile 
career. 


WILLIAM  WELLS  FAIRFIELD, 


ROCKFORD. 


IX  the  year  1748  Nathaniel  Fairfield,  a  young 
maji  who  had  grown  up  in  the  city  of  Boston, 
and  was  possessed  of  the  ambition,  courage  and 
sturdy  manhood  which  has  always  been  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  American  pioneers, 
pushed  out  into  the  "Indian  country"  of  western 
Massachusetts  in  search  of  land  upon  which  to 
make  a  settlement.  In  company  with  Daniel 
Cadwell,  also  noted  as  a  pioneer  settler  of  western 
Massachusetts,  he  visited  "Pontoosuc"  and  made 
an  examination  of  lands  in  that  vicinity  when  the 
Indians  were  its  only  inhabitants. 

They  took  with  them  into  the  wilderness  a  store 
of  provisions,  and  when  these  supplies  were  ex- 
hausted Cadwell  returne<l  to  his  home  in  West- 
field  for  another  supply,  leaving  young  Fairfield, 
then  but  eighteen  years  of  age,  to  look  after  their 
land  interests  and  await  his  return.  His  domicile 
during  the  absence  of  his  friend  and  fellow  pio- 
neer was  a  hollow  log,  in  which  he  made  his  bed 
by  night  and  which  constituted  a  liiding  place  bv 
day  when  danger  threatened. 


As  a  result  of  this  exploring  expedition  young 
Fairfield  purchased  a  considerable  body  of  land, 
made  a  clearing  and  built  the  rude  log  cabin 
which  in  those  days  proclaimed  and  established 
ownership.  He  returned  to  Boston  and  remained 
there  until  1752,  when,  having  married  a  young 
woman  who  had  consented  to  share  with  him  the 
perils  of  frontier  life,  he  settled  on  the  land  which 
he  proposed  to  convert  into  a  productive  farm. 

For  a  short  time  they  w-ere  undisturbed,  when 
the  Indians,  under  some  pretext  or  other,  going 
on  the  war-path,  making  his  situation  perilous, 
he  sent  his  wnfe  on  horseback  forty  miles  to  their 
former  home,  following  a  blazed  trail,  while  he 
himself  prepared  to  unite  with  other  colonists  in 
driving  the  savages  from  the  country. 

One  of  his  valuable  possessions  at  that  time  was 
a  yoke  of  oxen,  which  were  turned  out  to  graze 
upon  the  banks  of  the  Pontoosuc  river,  with  a 
bell  on  one  of  them  that  he  might  the  more  easily 
trace  them  should  he  be  permitted  by  the  fortunes 
of  war  to  rctum  to  his  homestead.    The  cxpcdi- 


404 


BTOOIiAPniCAL  DJCTIONAnr  AND  POIirUATT  QALLEUY  OF  THE 


tion  was  successful  in  driving  tlie  Indians  out  of 
the  country,  thereby  insuring  safety  to  the  settlers. 
He  returned  to  find  his  home  undisturbed,  and  the 
yoke  of  oxen  in  good  condition  to  perform  the 
work  required  of  them  in  bringing  the  farm  under 
cultivation.  The  bell  worn  by  one  of  the  oxen 
was  handed  down  to  his  descendants,  and  has  been 
treasured  by  them  as  a  relic  of  pioneer  experi- 
ences. In  this  settlement  Nathaniel  Fairfield 
lived  and  prospered,  and  his  three  sons  lived  and 
died  in  the  city  of  Pittsfield,  which  grew  up  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood. 

The  youngest  of  these  sons  was  Nathaniel,  who 
married  Martha  Wells,  of  Wethersfield,  Con- 
necticut. Nathaniel  Fairfield  was  a  prosperous 
man  of  afTairs,  who  had  five  children, — the  first  a 
daughter  who  died  in  her  third  year,  and  the  sec- 
ond a  son,  who  was  christened  William  Wells 
Fairfield,  with  whom  this  narrative  is  principally 
concerned. 

A  year  .since  Mr.  Fairfeld  died  at  his  home 
in  Rockford,  Illinois,  having  been  for  many  years 
prominently  identified  with  the  development  of 
western  enterprises,  and  a  participant  to  a  large 
extent  in  western  prosperity.  The  foundation  of 
his  fortune  may  be  said  to  have  been  laid  upon 
the  day  of  his  birth,  inasmuch  as  upon  that  day 
his  father,  who  was  greatly  rejoiced  at  the  birth 
of  a  son,  negotiated  for  a  large  tract  of  land,  which 
was  held  for  the  exclusive  use  and  benefit  of  the 
child,  and  from  which  he  derived  the  capital  for 
the  successful  investments  of  his  later  years.  Of 
the  three  other  children  bom  to  Nathaniel  Fair- 
field one  son  was  killed  by  an  accident  upon  a 
farm  in  his  early  manhood.  Another  son,  Ebene- 
zer  Fairfield,  was  for  many  years  a  prominent  citi- 
zen of  Adrian,  Michigan,  a  lawyer  of  ability  and 
a  candidate  for  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  some  years  since.  A 
daughter  became  the  wife  of  William  Teflt,  Jr., 
of  Syracuse,  New  York,  and  died  there  in  1889. 

W.  W.  Fairfield  grew  up  in  Pittsfield,  receiving 
an  academic  education  and  a  careful  industrial 
training.  Remaining  with  his  father  until  his 
(the  father's)  death,  which  occurred  in  Pittsfield 
in  1837,  he  became,  therefore,  the  stay  and  sup- 
port of  his  mother  in  her  declining  years,  and  the 
executor  of  his  father's  estate.  Some  years  later, 
health  and  business  cosiderations  induced  him  to 
rciuiivo  to  Syracuse,   New  York,  where  he  be- 


came largely  interested  in  the  salt  industry,  and 
also  a  somewhat  extensive  owner  of  real  estate. 
Early  in  life  he  had  developed  a  genius  for  the 
successful  comduct  of  business  affairs,  and  during 
his  residence  in  Syracuse  he  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  large  fortune  which  made  him  a  conspicu- 
ous figure  among  Western  capitalists  in  later 
years. 

In  1852  lie  visited  Wisconsin,  upon  the  advice 
of  his  physician,  for  the  benefit  of  his  health. 
Finding  the  change  beneficial  he  spent  much  of 
his  time  at  Madison,  the  capital  of  Wisconsin,  and, 
attracted  by  the  promising  fields  for  investment 
offered  through  the  sale  of  public  lands,  with  a 
comfortable  capital  with  which  to  operate,  he  be- 
came a  large  owner  of  the  lands  in.  various  por- 
tions of  the  Northwest.  He  traveled  extensively 
over  the  Territory,  was  widely  known  among  the 
pioneers,  and  was  a  general  favorite  on  account 
of  his  frankness,  honesty  and  uniform  fair  deal- 
ing. 

During  one  of  his  visits  to  Madison  he  met  the 
lady  who  subsequently  became  his  wife,  ^Irs. 
Eleanor  G.  Siegfried,  a  native  of  Philadelphia  and 
a  widow  of  William  W.  Siegfried,  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Camden,  New  Jersey,  who  died  there  in 
1854,  and  who  was  also  a  visitor  at  Madison.  Be- 
coming acquainted  with  Mr.  Fairfield  in  1858,  the 
friendship  between  them  ripened  into  a  warmer 
attachment  and  resultetl  in  their  marriage,  on 
July  3,  1862.  The  first  five  years  of  their  married 
life  was  devoted  to  travel,  and  in  1867  they  es- 
tablished their  home  in  Rockford,  Illinois,  where 
they  resided  during  the  remainder  of  Mr.  Fair- 
field's life  and  where  Mrs.  Fairfield  still  resides. 

A  fortunate  investor  in  lands,  Mr.  Fairfield  was 
also  largely  interested  in  various  important  rail- 
way enterprises,  one  of  the  great  corporations  in 
which  he  was  a  stockholder  being  the  New  York 
Central  Railway  Company.  He  was  also  inter- 
ested to  a  considerable  extent  in  banking  and 
other  enterprises,  and  was  a  large  owner  of  Rock- 
ford real  estate,  that  portion  of  the  city  known  as 
East  Rockford  being  largely  indebted  to  him  for 
its  growth  and  development. 

In  a  quiet  way  he  gave  largely  to  charitable 
and  educational  projects,  his  principal  donations 
being  to  Eastern  colleges,  in  which  he  was  al- 
ways deeply  interested. 

Politically  a    Democrat  all    his    life,    he    was 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


465 


nevertheless  a  politician  onl)^  in  the  sense 
of  endeavoring  to  secure  for  the  comnnmity 
in  which  he  lived  good  government,  and  in 
discharging  all  the  obligations  of  good  citi- 
ship.  His  devotion  to  the  principles  of  the 
Democratic  j)arty  was  sucli  as  to  secure  for 
him  the  friendship  of  many  of  the  men  who 
were  the  recognized  leaders  of  the  party  in  the 
West. 

Coming,  as  he  did,  of  good  old  New  England 
stock,  j\Ir.  Fairfield  had  all  the  physical  and  in- 
tellectual vigor  of  his  ancestry,  along  with  the 
prudence  and  good  judgment  which  have  always 
distinguished  New  Englanders.  Quick  to  per- 
ceive an  opportunity  for  profitable  investment,  he 
carefully  avoided  the  speculative  ventures  which 
are  so  tempting  to  Western  business  men,  basing 
all  his  calculations  upon  the  inevitable  growth  and 
prosperity  of  a  country  great  in  its  natural  re- 
sources, and  peopled  by  industrious,  energetic 
and  enterprising  citizens.  His  code  of  morals 
was  also  of  New  England  type,  impelling  him  al- 
ways to  a  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  a  just 
consideration  of  the  rights  of  all  with  whom  he 
was  brought  into  contact,  and  a  conscientious  ob- 
servance of  all  the  proprieties  of  life.  Thus  he 
retained  through  a  long  life  friendships  which 
grew  stronger  with  more  intimate  acquaintance, 


and   left   behind    him   cherished    memories    of   a 
beneficent  life. 

During  his  later  years  he  sutTered  from  partial 
blindness,  and  was  unable  to  either  read  or  write. 
His  mind,  however,  retained  all  his  early  activity, 
and  through  his  cultured  wife  he  was  kept  familiar 
with  the  literature  of  the  day  and  with  current 
events.  He  was  physically  active  during  all  this 
time,  giving  his  personal  attention  largely  to  his 
important  business  afTairs.  The  independence 
and  self-reliance  of  his  early  life  continued  to  be 
his  dominant  characteristic  in  later  years,  and  his 
death  was  hastened  by  a  fall  which  he  received  on 
the  9th  of  February,  1891,  while  taking  a  walk 
unaccompanied  by  his  usual  attendant.  Five 
weeks  later,  on  the  14th  of  March,  he  passed  away, 
in  the  eighty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  and  his  re- 
mains were  conveyed  by  his  sorrowing  widow  to 
Pittsfield,  Massachusetts,  where  he  rests  with 
three  generations  of  the  Fairfield  family.  A  mar- 
ble shaft  marks  his  burial  place,  but  a  nobler  mon- 
ument to  his  memory  is  in  process  of  erection  in 
the  city  of  Rockford,  under  the  direction  of  Mrs. 
Fairfield.  This  "monument,''  as  it  may  appro- 
priately be  calleil,  will  assume  the  form  of  a 
parish  house  for  Emanuel  Episcopal  Church,  of 
which  Mrs.  Fairfield  has  long  been  a  member,  and 
will  be  known  as  "The  Fairfield  Memorial." 


CHAUNCEY  A.  LAKE, 


KANKAKEE. 


THE  West  has  been  prolific  in  producing 
unique  and  original  characters,  and  par- 
ticularly is  this  true  of  the  legal  fraternity.  Many 
Western  lawyers,  who  have  attained  national  and 
in  some  instances  world-wide  fame,  were  men  of 
striking  originality  and  individuality.  The 
absence  of  conventionality  in  the  early  days  and 
the  local  environment  seemed  to  bring  out  and 
develop  peculiarities  and  characteristics  which  in 
older  sections  would  have  been  restrained, 
restricted  and  toned  down  by  the  common  con- 
tact of  those  around  them,  while  the  spirit  of 
personal  freedom  which  obtained  on  the  frontier 
tended  to  foster  and  develop  the  traits  which 
were  most  unique  and  out  of  the  common  order. 
30 


One  of  the  very  remarkable  men  which  Illinois 
has  produced  was  Chauncey  A.  Lake.  His  was 
a  manv-sided  character.  In  some  respects  he  was 
really  a  great  man.  He  was  one  of  the  strongest 
representatives  of  the  type  of  oratorical  lawyers 
who  flourished  a  generation  ago.  It  may  be 
that  we  have  among  the  younger  members  of  the 
bar  of  the  present  day  some  men  who  possess 
the  natural  powers  of  oratory  which  distinguished 
those  giants  of  a  past  generation,  the  Clays, 
Douglases,  Calhouns,  and  Websters,  but  if  so 
they  will  never  have  the  opportunity  to  develop 
and  practice  those  powers.  In  this  hurrj'ing, 
rushing  age,  with  our  court  dockets  crowded,  the 
attorney  who  can  most  concisely,  tersely  and  for- 


466 


ninnuAPiircAL  dictw^^ary  and  roirniATr  gallery  of  till: 


cihly  present  the  legal  points  in  his  case  is  the  one 
most  likely  to  obtain  a  favorable  decision.  In  thr 
days  when  Mr.  Lake  was  at  his  prime  such  was 
not  the  case.  The  man  who  could  by  force  of  ora- 
tory sway  the  feelings  of  men,  carry  them  as  it 
were,  out  of  themselves,  and  once  having  them 
under  the  magic  spell  of  his  eloquence  make  them 
think  and  feel  as  he  chose,  such  an  attorney  was 
sought  far  and  wide,  and  his  power  was  almost 
beyond  conception. 

It  was  in  this  field  that  Mr.  Lake  excelled, 
and  in  this  field  he  was  certainly  a  master.  Illi- 
nois has  possessed  few  if  any  equals  to  him  and 
certainly  no  superiors.  Had  he  been  a  man  who 
cared  to  save  or  hoard  money  he  could  have  been 
immensely  wealthy.  For  more  than  twenty  years 
he  was  engaged  in  almost  every  important  law- 
suit in  this  section  of  the  State,  and  such  was 
his  wonderful  power  over  men  that  he  was  almost 
uniformly  successful.,  His  characteristics  were 
so  out  of  the  ordinary  course  that  it  is  difficult  in 
a  brief  sketch  to  g^ve  a  just  and  adequate  idea  of 
the  man.  He  was  eminently  just,  honest,  and 
truthful,  and  no  man  ever  lived  who  hated  fraud, 
sham  or  deceit  more  than  he.  He  was  therefore 
pessimistic  and  critical  in  almost  everj-thing. 
When  he  chose  to  be  an  entertainer  he  was  most 
brilliant  and  versatile.  With  a  perfect  command 
of  language  and  spontaneous  flow  of  humor,  wit 
and  eloquence,  he  could  play  upon  the  passions, 
sympathies  and  feelings  of  people  with  as  much 
adroitness  and  facility  as  he  could  upon  the 
strings  of  his  favorite  violin,  and  by  the  way  he 
was  a  most  skillful  performer  on  this  time-hon- 
ored instrument. 

A  brief  summary  of  some  of  the  leading  events 
of  his  life  is  as  follows:  He  was  bom  in  Ellis- 
burg,  Jefferson  county,  New  York,  December  8, 
1821.  When  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age  his 
parents  removed  to  the  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio, 
where,  in  that  hot-bed  of  Abolitionism,  his  later 
boyhood  was  spent,  and  he  imbibed  the  hatred 
of  slavery  which  was  one  of  his  marked  charac- 
teristics later  in  life.  In  all  other  political  mat- 
ters he  was  a  Democrat.  He  graduated  at  the 
Twinsburg  Academy,  in  Cuyahoga  county,  Ohio, 
read  law  under  General  Lucius  Bierce,  of  Akron, 
that  State,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  that 
place  in  1845. 


Soon  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  Mr.  Lake 
began  to  display  talents  and  abilities  of  a  high 
order.  At  this  period  Illinois  was  a  frontier 
region,  and  towns  and  villages  were  springing 
up  rapidly,  as  the  prairie  country  was  fast  being 
populated.  The  opportunities  for  advancement  in 
this  land  of  promise  tempted  young  Lake  to  woo 
his  fortune  here.  Hence  in  the  autumn  of  1853 
we  find  him  journeying  West  with  an  old  horse 
and  sulky,  and  all  his  earthly  possessions  contained 
in  the  latter.  Kankakee  was  then  the  terminal 
point  of  the  Illinois  Central  railroad,  and  con- 
sisted of  only  a  platted  town  and  the  beginning  of 
a  few  rude  buildings  for  shelter.  He  chose  this 
point  as  his  ultimate  location,  but  stopped  for 
a  short  time  at  Bourbonnais,  as  shelter  could 
not  be  obtained  at  Kankakee. 

He  did  not  at  once  begin  the  practice  of 
law,  for  many  reasons.  First  there  was  little 
or  no  demand  for  the  services  of  a  lawyer,  and 
further,  there  were  other  occupations  that  paid 
better,  and  Mr.  Lake  was  minus  that  prime  ne- 
cessity to  every  lawyer,  a  law  library,  having  left 
his  books  behind  him  in  Akron..  He  was  young, 
robust  and  ambitious,  and  took  the  first  thing  in 
the  way  of  employment  that  offered,  which  was 
that  of  carpentering.  He  helped  to  build  many 
of  the  first  rude  structures  in  the  village. 

As  soon  as  he  had  by  manual  labor  earned 
money  enough  to  purchase  the  needed  outfit  in 
the  way  of  law-books,  he  hung  out  his  shingle 
as  an  attorney.  He  had  made  himself  so  agree- 
able to  the  people  of  the  little  village  that  they 
naturally  sought  him  when  legal  services  were 
needed  and  he  succeeded  from  the  start. 

From  that  time  till  1870,  he  was  the  recognized 
leader  of  the  bar  at  Kankakee.  He  was,  how- 
ever, at  various  times  in  his  life,  interested  in 
other  pursuits.  He  put  up  a  business  block  and 
for  a  time  was  engaged  in  merchandising,  but  this 
pursuit  was  in  no  wise  congenial  to  him. 

He  always  had  a  liking  and  certain  aptitude  for 
newspaper  work,  and  more  than  once  tried  his 
hand  in  this  field.  In  company  with  George  Ful- 
ler he  established  and  for  some  time  conducted 
The  Democrat,  a  weekly  Democratic  paper. 
Then,  as  now,  the  Democratic  party  was  in  the 
minority  here,  and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
nearly  all  the  Democrats  enlisted  in  the  army. 


REPRESENTATirr:  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


4()7 


and  in  1862  the  paper  was  discontinued  for  want 
of  support.  Mr.  Lake  had,  however,  disposed  of 
the  paper  in  1859  to  the  late  Captain  Jerome 
D.  Durliani. 

He  was  never  an  office-seeker — in  fact  he  had 
the  utmost  contempt  for  professional  politicians, 
lie  despised  the  man  who  could  use  public  place 
for  private  ends.  He  held  but  one  office.  He 
was  elected  to  the  State  legislature  in  1862  when 
this  county  was  in  a  district  with  Will  and  DuPage 
counties;  he  was  elected  as  a  Republican.  The 
legislature  was  Democratic  in  both  branches, 
party  feeling  ran  high  on  war  issues,  and  under 
pretence  of  defeating  some  iniquitous  schemes  of 
the  Democrats  Governor  Yates  prorogued  the 
legislature.  This  act  of  the  governor  created  the 
wildest  excitement  throughout  the  State  and 
nation.  Afr.  Lake  condemned  the  governor  for 
this  action,  and  though  the  party  stood  by  the 
governor  yet  no  one  questioned  Mr.  Lake's  sin- 
cerity in  his  opposition;  and  when  the  conven- 
tion met  in  1864  he  received  the  unanimous  vote 
of  the  convention  for  renomination.  He  served 
a  second  term  and  his  record  as  a  legislator  was 
an  honorable  one  to  himself  and  his  district. 

In  1870,  W.  H.  Patterson,  a  member  of  the  con- 
stitutional convention,  died  and  an  election  was 
called  to  fill  his  place.  The  Republicans  nomi- 
nated Mr.  Lake,  the  Democrats  placing  no  candi- 
date in  the  field,  and  it  was  supposed  there  would 
be  no  opposition.  However,  one  John  P.  Gam- 
ble,a  good  blacksmithand  good  citizen,  conceived 
the  idea  that  he  was  endowed  with  the  proper 
(|ualificatii)ns  for  this  high  office,  and  announced 
himself  as  an  independent  candidate.  The  mass 
of  voters  regarded  his  candidacy  as  a  huge  joke, 
but  a  certain  coterie  of  shrewd  politicians  saw  an 
opportunity  to  punish  Mr.  Lake  for  the  many 
sarcastic  condemnations  he  had  made  of  their 
political  methods.  A  secret  meeting  was  held  and 
a  plan  of  warfare  agreed  upon.  Secret  agents 
were  dispatched  to  every  town  in  the  county  with 
the  message  that  for  certain  reasons  Mr.  Lake 
must  be  defeated.  So  quietly  and  effectively  was 
the  work  done  that  the  result  was  a  surprise  to 
everybody.  Mr.  Lake's  friends  put  forth  no  effort 
whatever,  as  it  was  not  deemed  necessary.  A 
light  vote  was  cast,but  every  opponent  of  Mr. 
Lake  was  at  the  polls,  and  he  was  defeated  by  a 


majority  of  one,  which  casting  vote  was  given  by 
Gamble  himself,  Mr.  Lake  refusing  to  vote. 

This  was  not  the  kind  of  a  joke  Mr.  Lake  could 
appreciate.  His  manly  nature  revolted  against 
^'Uch  subterfuging.  He  openly  renounced  alle- 
giance to  party  lines  and  was  ever  afterward  a  free 
lance  in  political  matters,  voting  generally  the 
prohibition  ticket,  but  never  failing  to  stab  when- 
ever possible  any  of  these  "  dark-lantern  "  politi- 
cians whenever  they  stood  for  office. 

In  the  later  years  of  his  life  Mr.  Lake,  owing  to 
ill  health  and  changed  conditions,  dropped  prac- 
tically out  of  active  practice.  A  younger  gener- 
ation more  en  rapport  with  the  spirit  and  customs 
of  the  age,  came  to  the  front,  but  no  one  has  yet 
come  forward,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  one  ever 
will  who  shall  present  the  marked  individuality, 
strength  and  power  of  Chauncey  A.  Lake. 

He  was  a  good  lawyer  in  any  sense  of  the  word, 
but  it  was  as  a  criminal  lawyer  that  his  star 
shone  resplendent  and  dazzling.  He  was  adroit, 
quick  to  see  the  salient  points  in  a  case,  and 
a  master  of  the  art  of  speech,  but  he  would  never 
stoop  to  subterfuge  or  chicanery.  He  always  had 
the  confidence  alike  of  judge  and  jur>-.  He  had 
an  unlimited  fund  of  humor  and  was  merciless  in 
ridicule.  Another  very  strong  quality  in  him  was 
that  of  earnestness  in  the  conduct  of  a  case.  Per- 
haps no  lawyer  ever  identified  himself  more 
fully  with  the  interests  of  a  client  than  he.  The 
amoimt  of  interest  at  stake  cut  no  figure  with 
him.  He  was  as  earnest,  as  persistent  and  as  pow- 
erful in  the  conduct  of  a  case  involving  ten  dollars 
as  ten  thousand. 

His  hatred  for  and  abhorrence  of  the  institution 
of  slavery  was  most  intense.  Many  fugitives  from 
the  South  found  shelter,  succor,  and  aid  to  free- 
dom at  his  hands.  What  he  conceived  to  be  right 
per  se  he  dared  to  do,  independent  of  results  to 
himself. 

Another  marked  characteristic  was  his  unosten- 
tatious charity  and  generosity.  His  name  was 
never  or  seldom  found  on  lists  of  donors  to  insti- 
tutions or  objects  which  were  publicly  paraded. 
He  sought  rather  to  relieve  destitution  and  give 
aid  to  those  who  are  usually  most  deserving,  but 
whose  pride  prevents  their  making  their  wants 
and  needs  publicly  known. 

In  this  way  all  his  life  long  he  was  the  friend 


468 


r.ionnM'iiK'Ar,  nrrrroxAur  axd  I'onruMT  galleut  of  the 


in  need  to  any  and  all  irrespective  of  race,  color, 
or  religion,  whose  worthiness  appealed  to  him. 

He  will  always  be  remembered  as  a  powerful, 
unique  and  picturesque  figure  in  the  annals  of 
our  State  in  its  historic  formative  period,  the 
period    that    produced    and  developed    Lincoln, 


Davis,  and  others  whose  names  will  live  on  the 
pages   of  history   while   time   lasts. 

Mr.  Lake  died  in  Kankakee  Sunday,  May  19, 
1895.  He  leaves  three  children:  Vincent  Lake, 
William  Lake,  and  a  daughter,  ]\Irs.  Elizabeth 
Marshall,  of  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 


HERMAN  D.  CABLE, 


MANY  people  give  music  the  highest  rank 
among  the  fine  arts.  It  has  not  the  limita- 
tions of  sculpture  or  of  painting,  it  is  not  bounded 
by  form  and  color  and  size  and  therefore  leaves  much 
greater  play  to  the  imagination.  It  reaches  man 
only  through  the  sense  of  hearing  and  exercises 
over  him  an  intangible  power,  probably  the  more 
strongly  felt  because  indescribable.  From  the  re- 
motest ages  it  has  administered  to  man's  pleasure, 
has  given  enthusiasm  to  the  soldier  on  the  field  of 
battle,  brought  comfort  to  the  sorrowing,  and 
heightened  the  happiness  of  the  joyful.  It  ap- 
peals to  and  touches  all  classes  of  people  as  no 
other  art  does.  For  a  long  time  the  East  claimed 
superiority  for  its  musical  culture  and  said  the 
West  could  not  produce  musical  instruments  equal 
to  those  manufactured  on  the  Atlantic  coast;  but 
the  past  few  years  has  demonstrated  that  in  this 
line  of  business  the  progress  which  has  been  made 
by  Chicago  has  been  as  great  as  in  other  lines  of 
manufacture,  and  the  Chicago  Cottage  Organ 
Company  has  been  one  of  the  leading  factors  in 
demonstrating  this  truth.  At  the  head  of  this 
company  stands  Mr.  Cable,  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful and  prominent  of  Chicago's  business  men, 
who  through  his  own  endeavors  has  come  to  be 
recognized  as  one  of  the  leading  dealers  in  the 
music  trade  in  the  United  States. 

Herman  D.  Cable,  a  son  of  Silas  and  Mary 
Cable,  was  born  June  i,  1849,  in  Walton,  New 
York,  and  his  parents  were  natives  of  Connecticut, 
descended  from  early  New  England  families.  The 
paternal  grandfather  became  one  of  the  earliest 
settlers  of  Delaware  county,  while  the  maternal 
grandfather  built  the  first  gristmill  there,  w'hich 
enterprise  was  highly  appreciated  by  the  farmers 
of  the  surrounding-  country,  as  shown  in  the  his- 


tory of  Delaware  county,  written  and  published 
by  the  late  Jay  Gould,  who  was  also  a  native  of 
that  county.  Mr.  Cable  owns  a  copy  of  this  work, 
which  is  interesting,  owing  to  the  prominence  of 
the  author  and  publishers,  and  his  earnest  en- 
deavor to  suppress  the  entire  edition,  exceedingly 
rare,  giving  it  on  that  account  a  considerable  pe- 
cuniary value.  Mr.  Cable's  father  was  engaged  in 
both  agricultural  pursuits  and  commercial  enter- 
prises, and  was  an  honorable  and  honored  resident 
of  the  community  in  which  he  made  his  home. 

Like  many  another  man  who  has  become 
prominent,  Herman  D.  Cable  began  his  educa- 
tion in  the  countrj-  school,  subsequently  attended 
an  academy  in  Walton,  New  York,  and  later  the 
Delaware  Literary  Institute  of  Franklin,  New 
York.  He  was  apt  in  his  studies  and  displayed  the 
alertness,  enterprise  and  energy  which  has  marked 
his  business  career.  Desiring  a  wider  field  of 
labor  than  his  native  village  gave,  he  became  an 
employee  in  the  extensive  firm  of  A.  S.  Barnes  & 
Company,  where  he  worked  as  correspondence 
clerk  until  going  upon  the  road  as  traveling  sales- 
man. He  was  watchful  of  his  employers'  interests, 
and  they  soon  trusted  implicitly  in  his  adapta- 
bility and  faithfulness  and  in  the  excellence  of  his 
judgment,  and  their  appreciation  of  his  service 
was  shown  by  his  promotion  to  the  management 
of  their  branch  house  in  Chicago  in  1870.  His 
administration  of  the  business  affairs  of  the  com- 
pany here  won  unqualified  approval,  and  he  con- 
tinued that  connection  until  1880,  when,  desiring 
to  devote  his  energies  to  manufacturing  interests, 
he  withdrew  from  the  employ  of  the  house  with 
which  he  had  so  long  been  associated. 

Mr.  Cable  believed  that  the  manufacture  of 
Il:u^ical  instruments  was  a  good  field  and  orean- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


469 


ized  the  Chicago  Cottage  Organ  Company,  which 
began  operations  on  a  small  scale,  but  has  steadily 
increased  its  facilities  to  meet  the  growing  trade 
until  it  now  docs  the  largest  music-trade  business 
in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Cable  was  the  first 
treasurer  of  the  company,  but  was  soon  elected 
president,  and  its  success  is  due  to  his  fine  mana- 
gerial abilit}^  his  sound  judgment  and  his  power 
of  control. 

The  East  for  some  years  was  the  place  of  manu- 
facture for  high-grade  musical  instruments,  but 
to-day  it  is  universally  conceded  npt  only  that 
Chicago  is  making  first-class  instruments,  but 
that  by  the  amount  of  capital  invested  in  their 
manufacture  here,  by  the  high  character  of  men 
concerned  in  it,  and  by  the  tendency  of  the  busi- 
ness to  concentrate  here,  Chicago  bids  fair,  at  no 
distant  date,  to  rank  as  the  center  of  musical- 
instrument  manufacturing  in  the  United  States. 
The  Chicago  Cottage  Organ  Company  has  be- 
come one  of  the  most  prominent  music-trade  in- 
stitutions in  the  country,  and  the  growth  from  a 
small  beginning  to  a  corporation  capitalized  at 
one  million  dollars  indicates  something  of  the 
enormous  business  that  has  been  developed  with- 
in fifteen  years.  There  are  many  organ  manu- 
factories in  the  country,  some  which  have  existed 
for  t\vo  or  three  times  as  long  as  the  Chicago 
Cottage  Organ  Company ;  but  the  latter  now  man- 
ufactures one-fifth  of  all  of  the  reed  organs  made 
in  the  United  States.  It  turns  out  an  organ  every 
nine  minutes,  a  business  that  is  equaled  by  none 
other  in  the  world.  The  organs,  with  their  many 
improvements,  seem  to  have  reached  the  highest 
state  of  perfection  and  the  extensive  sales  indicate 
the  unqualified  satisfaction  that  they  give.  In 
connection  the  company  is  interested  in  the 
wholesale  piano  trade,  and  does  an  enormous 
business  in  that  way,  and  in  connection  manufac- 
tures the  Conover  piano.  Chicago  enterprise  and 
capital  has  taken  hold  of  this  instrument,  im- 
proved it,  and  to-day  the  East  can  claim  no  su- 
periority in  the  line  of  fine  pianos  which  it  sends 
out.  Early  in  1892  the  Chicago  Cottage  Organ 
Company  bought  the  patents,  patterns  and  every- 


thing appertaining  to  the  Conover  piano  and  re- 
moved the  entire  establishment  to  Chicago,  where 
a  new  plant  was  provided  for  its  manufacture. 
At  the  warerooms  of  the  company,  219  and  221 
Wabash  avenue,  there  are  as  fine  pianos  and  or- 
gans as  have  ever  been  displayed.  Within  a  short 
space  of  time  the  company  established  itself  as 
the  largest  manufacturer  of  reed  organs  in  the 
wcrld  and  is  winning  a  like  reputation  in  pianos. 
The  business  policy  followed  has  ever  been  that  of 
straightforward  dealing. 

Back  of  the  history  of  the  company  we  read  the 
histor}'  of  its  president  to  whom  the  success  of 
this  gigantic  institution  is  almost  entirely  due. 
His  life  typifies  the  spirit  of  the  age,  the  spirit  of 
American  progress  and  advancement.  He  is 
truly  a  representative  American  citizen  and  a 
worthy  representative  of  that  type  of  American 
character  which  promotes  public  good  in  advanc- 
ing individual  prosperity.  Prosperity  has  come  to 
him  as  a  natural  consequence  of  industry  and  ap- 
plication, and  his  splendid  success  bears  testi- 
mony to  his  rare  judgment  in  business  afi'airs. 

In  1883  Mr.  Cable  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Alice  A.  Hutchins,  of  Chicago,  a  daughter 
of  one  of  the  prominent  physicians  in  this  city, 
and  three  children  grace  their  union.  Their  beauti- 
ful home  is  located  in  Evanston,  where  they  hold 
high  rank  in  social  circles.  Their  friends  are 
many  and  their  friendship  is  prized  most  by  those 
who  know  them  best. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Cable  is  a  Republi- 
can, but  as  can  w^ell  be  seen  his  immense  busi- 
ness interests  have  left  no  time  for  political  work 
even  had  he  so  desired.  He  merely  exercises  his 
right  of  franchise  as  becomes  every  true  and  loyal 
citizen  of  the  Republic.  Socially  he  is  a  member 
of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  in  which  he  has  risen 
to  the  rank  of  Knight  Templar,  and  is  also  con- 
nected with  the  Countr}'  Club  of  Evanston  and 
the  Union  League  Club  of  Chicago.  He  is  pub- 
lic-spirited in  an  eminent  degree,  devoted  to  the 
national  interests  and  local  welfare,  contributing 
liberally  to  all  that  is  calculated  to  upbuild  his 
adopted  city. 


470 


BTOGRAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POKTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


LEVY  MAYER, 


IN  viewing  the  mass  of  mankind  in  the  varied 
occupations  of  Hfe  the  conchision  is  forced 
upon  the  observer  that  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases  men  have  sought  employment  not  in  the 
Hne  of  tlieir  peculiar  fitness  but  in  those  where 
caprice  or  circumstances  have  placed  them,  thus 
explaining  the  reason  of  the  failure  of  ninety-five 
per  cent,  of  those  who  enter  commercial  and  pro- 
fessional circles.  In  a  few  cases  it  seems  that  men 
with  a  peculiar  fitness, — genius  it  may  be  called, 
for  a  certain  line  have  taken  it  up  and  marked 
success  has  followed.  Such  is  the  fact  in  the  case 
of  the  subject  of  this  biography. 

Levy  Mayer,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was 
born  in  1857  and  when  six  years  of  age  he  came  to 
Chicago  with  his  parents  and  attended  the  city's 
public  schools  of  the  lower  grades  until  he  was 
twelve  years  of  age,  when  he  entered  the  high 
school,  at  which  he  graduarted  after  taking  the 
classical  course.  After  graduation  he  went  to  Yale 
College,  where  he  pursued  special  studies  and  at- 
tended law  lectures,  graduating  in  1876.  Return- 
ing to  Chicago,  he  was  made  assistant  librarian  of 
the  Chicago  Law  Institute,  a  position  which  he 
filled  until  1881  when  he  resigned.  In  June,  1877, 
he  passed  his  examination  for  admission  to  the  bar 
before  the  supreme  court  at  Mount  \'ernon.  Not 
being  quite  twenty  years  of  age  the  court  while 
granting  his  license  entered  an  order  that  his  ad- 
mission should  take  effect  upon  his  attaining  his 
majority.  In  September,  1881,  he  formed  a  part- 
nership witli  Adolf  Kraus,  now  corporation 
counsel.  In  1887,  Philip  Stein,  now  judge  of  the 
superior  court,  and  Isaac  H.  Mayer  were  admitted 
to  the  firm.  Upon  the  resignation  of  Judge 
Thomas  A.  Moran,  in  March,  1892,  he  became 
senior  member  of  the  firm,  which  took  the  style 
Moran,  Kraus  &  Mayer. 

From  the  moment  he  began  the  practice  of  law 
Mr.  Mayer  threw  into  his  work  that  energy  and 
judgment  that  won  cases  and  attracted  clients 
among  all  classes,  and  his  field  of  action  at  once 
broadened  until  he  was  known  as  a  winner  in  all 
lines  of  legal  practice,  but  the  peculiar  talent  that 
gained  him  his  greatest  reputation  was  developed 


in  the  line  of  corporation  law  and  in  real-estate 
negotiations  wherein  large  values  were  concerned, 
particularly  in  the  formation  of  English-American 
companies  for  the  purchase  and  operation  of 
American  industries.  He  has  been  intimately 
identified  with  the  sale  of  the  Union  Stock  Yards, 
the  creation  of  two  great  packing-house  com- 
bines involving  the  sale  of  ten  million  dollars' 
worth  of  property  in  Chicago,  the  sales  of  ele- 
vator property,  milling  combinations,  etc.  He 
was  also  counsel  for  the  non-associate  packers  in 
their  litigation  against  the  stock  yards  and  the 
'"Big  Three,"  a  case  which  was  argued  here  and  in 
New  Jersey,  but  was  compromised  without  a  de- 
cision by  the  court.  Kraus,  Mayer  &  Stein  re- 
ceived from  their  clients  for  the  management  of 
this  case  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
■ — the  largest  fee  ever  paid  in  the  West.  Other 
prominent  cases  in  litigation  in  which  he  has  ap- 
peared was  that  of  Colin  against  Farwell,  in  the 
argument  of  which  he  participated  in  the  supreme 
court.  The  reasoning  in  this  case  led  to  the 
adoption  of  the  doctrine  since  known  as  "Con- 
struction assignments."  In  1889  the  then  County 
Judge  Prendergast  v/as  sought  to  be  legally  pro- 
liibitcd  from  hearing  the  Lindauer  case.  Pic  was 
successfully  defended  by  Mr.  Mayer.  In  the  same 
year  the  supreme  court  through  his  efforts  adopted 
the  principle  that  it  is  contempt  in  the  courts  of 
this  State  for  one  residing  here  to  interfere  be- 
yond the  State  with  the  jurisdiction  of  a  receiver 
appointed  in  this  State.  He  represented  Major 
McClaughry  in  the  recent  Joliet  prison  investiga- 
tion and  is  associated  with  the  attorney-general 
in  prosecuting  the  whisky  trust,  every  decision 
in  which  has  so  fai-  been  in  favor  of  the  people. 
He  also  took  part  in  behalf  of  the  World's  Colum- 
bian Exposition,  in  the  argument  for  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Sunday-closing  injunction.  Mr. 
Mayer's  natural  adaptability  to  the  practice  of 
law,  combined  with  a  strong  natural  tendency  for 
the  conduct  of  business  affairs  of  whatever  char- 
acter, has  drawn  to  him  a  very  desirable  class  of 
business  which  has  brought  him  the  three  things 
so  dear  to  all  lawyers, — success,  reputation  and 


^>^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


large  fees.  But  these  things  have  not  come  un- 
sought or  unearned.  They  have  been  earned  by 
the  closest  study  and  intensest  application  to  busi- 
ness. No  member  of  the  bar  works  harder  than 
Mr.  Mayer.  He  is  an  exhaustive  reader,  a  close 
student,  and  has  accumulated  in  his  ofifice  the 
largest  private  library  in  this  State  of  which  he 
feels  justly  proud.  As  a  young  lawyer,  being 
only  thirty-five  years  old,  Mr.  Mayer  has  been  re- 
markably successful  and  may  well  anticipate  in 
the  years  to  come  new  laurels  to  grace  his  vic- 


tories in  the  legal  arena.  As  might  be  expected  of 
so  hard  a  worker  he  appreciates  the  comforts  and 
luxuries  of  life  and  in  a  handsomely  furnished 
home  he  lavishly  entertains  his  friends.  He  has, 
it  is  said,  the  finest  private  wine  cellar  in 
Chicago.  Naturally  desirous  of  seeing  the  world 
Mr.  Mayer's  wishes  in  this  respect  have  hap- 
pily been  in  line  with  the  requirements  of  busi- 
ness and  he  has  traveled  much  in  the  United 
States  and  in  Europe,  whither  he  makes  frequent 
journeys. 


JACOB  FORSYTH, 


AMONG  those  honored  pioneers  who  blazed 
a  path  for  future  cavalcades  to  follow, 
who  bravely  turned  their  faces  from  the  cities  of 
the  East,  with  all  their  advantages  of  wealth  and 
civilization,  to  cast  their  fortunes  with  the  West- 
ern frontier,  in  all  its  wildness  and  primitive 
modes  of  life;  who,  rather  than  enjoy  the  com- 
forts of  their  former  homes,  chose  to  endure  the 
hardships  of  a  wider  and  freer  country;  and  who 
made  out  of  those  very  obstacles,  which,  to 
a  weaker  class  of  men  would  have  been  stumbling 
blocks,  the  stepping  stones  to  wealth  and  re- 
nown,— none  of  these  great  men  are  more  noted 
for  untiring  perseverance  and  steady  progress 
which  have  resulted  in  the  acquirement  of  wealth 
and  the  well-merited  estem  of  his  fellow  men 
than  the  gentleman  whose  name  heads  this 
sketch.  If  Chicago  ever  had  a  faithful  sponsor  it 
is  he.  He  realized,  with  great  prophetic  fore- 
sight, the  magnitude  of  the  great  Garden  City's 
prospects,  at  a  time  when  she  gave  but  slight 
signs  of  her  future  greatness.  If,  as  is  main- 
tained, the  history  of  a  covmtry  or  a  city  is  best 
displayed  in  the  lives  of  her  prominent  men, 
then  certainly  that  of  Chicago  would  be  incom- 
plete without  the  salient  points  of  the  life  of  this 
man,  one  of  her  most  influential  and  respected 
citizens. 

Mr.  Forsyth  is  so  thoroughly  American  in 
thought  and  action  that  we  would  gladly  chron- 
icle his  birth  in  this  coimtry,  but  f^ftern  facts 
intervene,  and  we  reluctantlv  admit  that  he  came 


to  us  from  across  the  sea,  from  a  country  be- 
tween which  and  the  United  States  there  has  ever 
been  the  kindliest  feelings  and  the  deepest 
sympathy.  He  was  born  in  the  north  of  Ireland, 
in  1821,  the  son  of  an  intelligent  farmer  of  small 
landed  property.  He  received  his  education  at 
a  noted  private  academy,  the  principal  of  which 
was  a  learned  Greek  and  Latin  scholar,  as  well 
as  a  mathematician  of  great  renown  in  his 
vicinity,  and,  possessing  quick  perceptions  and 
studious  inclinations,  he  profited  by  his  advan- 
tages. On  arriving  in  this  country,  at  fifteen 
years  of  age,  he  settled  in  Pittsburg,  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  he  was  given  a  position  as  copying 
clerk  and  errand  boy  for  the  great  commission 
and  forwarding  house  of  Forsyth  &  Company, 
a  member  of  which  was  a  near  relative  of 
young  Forsyth.  The  firm  was  the  oldest  com- 
mission house  in  the  city  and  owned  a  large 
fleet  of  steamers,  running  on  various  Western 
rivers.  In  those  days  tlie  copy  book  had  not  been 
invented,  and  all  letters  had  to  be  copied  by  hand, 
which  duty  was  part  of  young  Forsyth's  work. 
By  painstaking  diligence  and  a  careful  regard 
for  his  employers'  interest,  he  gained  their  con- 
fidence and  esteem,  and  was  promoted  from  one 
responsible  position  to  another  until  he  attained 
that  of  head  bookkeeper  for  the  firm,  remaining 
altogether  with  the  house  about  fifteen  years. 
But  merit  is  too  rare  a  jewel  to  remain  long 
undiscovered,  and  ambition  too  great  a  goad  to 
permit  repose.     Hence  it  was  not  surprising  that 


472 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICriONART  AND  rORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


Mr.  Forsyth  should  have  received  other  advanta- 
geous offers.  One  of  these,  wliich  he  accepted,  was 
through  freight  clerk  for  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
with  headquarters  in  Chicago.  Thus,  in  1857,  we 
find  himtakingup  his  residence  in  tlie  Garden  City, 
which  at  that  time  lacked  both  the  garden  and 
the  city.  After  a  few  years'  service  in  this  posi- 
tion he  accepted  another  as  general  agent  for 
the  "Old  Erie"'  road.  It  was  about  this  time 
that  he  became  impressed  with  the  excellent 
opportunities  to  buy  land  cheaply,  and  according 
to  his  convictions  he  resigned  his  position  with 
the  railroad,  in  1866,  and  began  to  invest  largely 
in  land.  His  wife  had  inherited  a  large  amount 
of  real  estate  in  Lake  county,  Indiana,  from  her 
brother,  the  late  George  W.  Clarke,  who  died  in 
1886:  and  to  this  I\Ir.  Forsyth  added  by  purchas- 
ing the  interests  of  small  owners  in  the  city,  and, 
in  time,  acquired  ten  thousand  acres  in  one  vast 
tract,  arguing  with  haj-d-headed  sense  that 
one  large  piece  of  land  would  possess  more 
value  than  the  same  amount  in  scattered  por- 
tions. In  fact,  Mr.  Forsyth  had  always  evinced 
such  Yankee  intuition  that  we  are  forced  to  be- 
lieve that  he  must  have  imbibed  many  of  the 
acute  qualities  of  tltat  progressive  nation.  He 
did  not,  however,  always  have  clear  sailing,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  experienced  much  annoyance 
and  many  years'  litigation  in  consequence  of  his  ef- 
forts to  eject  squatters,  who  at  that  time  abounded 
on  the  shores  of  Lakes  George  and  Wolf. 
He  was  in  court  five  years,  and  during  that  time 
read  book  after  book  on  land  decisions  and 
riparian  rights,  on  which  he  is  now  one  of  the 
best  read  men  in  the  country,  amply  qualified  to 
enlighten  many  attorneys  in  that  line  of  practice. 


.A.  decree  being  pronounced  in  his  favor  he  sold 
eight  thousand  acres  of  his  land  to  the  East  Chi- 
cago Improvement  Company  for  one  million  of 
dollars,  one-third  of  which  was  paid  down  in 
ca^h.  The  company,  however,  failed  to  meet 
subsequent  payments,  and,  as  a  compromise,  the 
present  Canal  and  Improvement  Company  was 
formed  in  1887,  from  which  Mr.  Forsyth  accepted 
as  reimbursement  part  cash,  a  large  amount  of 
bonds  and  some  stock  in  the  company.  In  1881 
he  bought  another  tract  of  land  on  the  lake  shore, 
lying  directly  north  of  the  present  site  of  East 
Chicago,  and  in  1889  he  sold  a  portion  of  this 
to  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  on  which  they 
have  built  their  large  plant,  known  as  Whiting. 
The  limits  of  the  city  of  Chicago  having  been 
extended  to  the  Indiana  line,  across  which  lies 
Mr.  Forsyth's  land,  it  has  consequently  been  en- 
hanced in  value  and  he  is  proportionately  ben- 
efited thereby. 

Mr.  Forsyth  married  Caroline  M.  Clarke, 
the  daughter  of  Robert  Clarke,  of  Fayette  county, 
Pennsylvania,  who  bore  him  nine  children — five 
boys  and  four  girls.  They  are  all  living.  In  poli- 
tics Mr.  Forsyth  is  a  stanch  Republican,  believ- 
ing thoroughly  in  the  principles  and  policy  as 
expounded  by  the  Grand  Old  Party.  He  has 
never,  however,  taken  an  active  part  in  political 
affairs. 

Personally,  Mr.  Forsyth  is  a  large  and  well- 
proportioned  man,  has  a  kindly  face  and  genial 
manners,  bearing  every  evidence  of  a  well-spent 
life.  He  has  a  comfortable  and  attractive  home 
on  Michigan  avenue,  where,  in  the  midst  of  an 
interesting  family,  he  is  passing  in  ease  and 
peaceful  enjoyment  his  advanced  years. 


(&c£-iytyzz^y^  7^^^ 


^^:^^i^C> 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


473 


EDWARD  FISK  GORTON, 


CHICAGO  AND  LAKE  FOREST. 


FROM  a  liistoric  family  on  Isoth  sides  is  de- 
scended Edward  Fisk  Gorton.  The  pro- 
genitor of  the  family  was  the  founder  of  a 
religious  sect,  and  in  the  days  of  fixed  ideas  in 
religious  belief,  when  any  deviation  therefrom 
was  heresy,  he  was  knowii  as  a  heretic;  but,  fear- 
less in  defense  of  what  he  believed  to  be  right, 
persecution  covild  not  make  him  change  his 
views.  This  same  characteristic  has  descended 
through  the  generations  and  is  found  in  the  loy- 
alty and  faithfulness  of  him  whose  name  heads 
this  record.  The  popular  mayor  of  Lake  Forest 
has  the  command  and  esteem  of  all  with  whom  lie 
comes  in  contact,  as  the  result  of  an  honorable, 
upright  life  and  fidelity  to  principle. 

Samuel  Gorton,  of  whom  mention  is  made  in 
history,  was  born  in  England  about  1600  and 
died  in  Rhode  Island  in  1677.  His  educational 
privileges  were  somewhat  meager.  He  was  em- 
ployed by  a  London  clothier  until  1636,  when  he 
determined  to  brave  the  dangers  of  aii  ocean 
voyage  and  sail  for  America,  locating  in  Boston, 
]\Iassachusetts,  hoping  to  enjoy  greater  religious 
freedom  than  was  accorded  him  in  his  native 
land;  but  he  found  that  the  Puritans  who  had 
themselves  crossed  the  Atlantic  for  the  purpose 
of  worshiping  and  thinking  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  their  own  consciences,  were  not  willing 
to  accord  the  same  privilege  to  others,  and  on 
account  of  religious  disputes  he  was  forced  to 
remove  to  Plymouth;  but  there  he  found  even 
less  tolerance,  being  fined,  imprisoned  and  finally 
expelled  from  the  colony  in  the  winter  of  1637-8 
for  preaching  heresy.  He  then  went  to  Aquid- 
neck,  now  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  accompanied 
by  a  few  followers,  but  was  pubHcly  whipped  for 
calling  the  magistrates  "justasses"  and  for  other 
contemptuous  acts,  and  about  1641  was  forced 
to  take  refuge  with  Roger  Williams  in  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island. 

His  next  home  was  in  Pawtucket,  where  he 
purchased  land;  but  his  views  were  obnoxious 
to  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  people  of  that  lo- 
cality, and  in  September,  1642,  having  refused 
to  go  to  Boston,  when  summoned  by  the  author- 


ities, he  removed  to  Shawmut  on  the  west  side  of 
Narragansett  bay,  where  he  bought  land  of  the 
Sachem  Miantonomo.  In  June,  1643,  two  in- 
ferior sachems  contested  his  claim  to  the  property 
and  applied  to  the  general  court  of  Boston  for 
redress.  Forty  soldiers  were  in  consequence 
marched  to  Shawmut,  and  Gorton  and  ten  of  his 
followers  were  taken  prisoners  to  Boston  in  Oc- 
tober, where  they  were  tried  as  "damnable  here- 
tics" and  sent  to  imprisonment  and  hard  labor  in 
irons.  They  were  released  in  March,  1644,  and 
ordered  to  leave  the  colony.  Gorton  then  went 
to  England  to  obtain  redress,  and  having  pro- 
cured from  the  Earl  of  Warwick  a  letter  of  safe 
conduct  to  the  magistrate  and  an  order  that  his 
people  should  be  allowed  peaceable  possession  of 
their  lands  at  Shawmut,  he  returned  to  his  colony 
in  1648  and  named  it  Warwick  in  honor  of  the 
Earl. 

Gorton's  remaining  years  seem  to  have  been 
untroubled,  though  j\Iassachusetts  did  not  relin- 
quish her  claim  to  the  Shawmut  settlement  until 
some  years  later.  After  his  return  he  filled  a 
number  of  important  civil  ofifices  and  on  Sunday 
preached  to  the  Colonists  and  Indians.  He  re- 
garded the  clergy  and  all  religious  forms  and 
ceremonies  with  contempt,  and  held  that  by 
union  with  Christ  believers  partook  of  the  per- 
fection of  God  and  that  heaven  and  hell  have 
no  actual  existence.  His  sect  survived  him 
about  one  hundred  years.  He  published  various 
works  setting  forth  his  theory,  and  became  one  of 
the  historic  characters  of  New  England. 

Anson  Gorton,  the  father  of  E.  F.  Gorton,  was 
bom  in  Toronto,  Canada,  in  1824  and  having  ar- 
rived at  man's  estate  married  Ellen  Fisk,  a 
daughter  of  Isaac  Fisk,  one  of  the  founders  of 
Ashtabula,  Ohio.  She  was  born  in  1829  and 
died  in  1854.  The  father  was  for  many  years 
a  telegraph  contractor  and  built  the  line  from 
Bufifalo  to  Cleveland.  He  was  also  for  an  ex- 
tended period  in  the  express  business  in  Chicago 
and  for  some  time  acted  as  manager  for  the  Wells- 
Fargo  Company.  The  paternal  grandfather, 
John  Gorton,  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1812 


474 


niOGRAPiriCAL  DICTTOXART  ASD  rORTnAIT  GALLEET  OF  THE 


and  was  one  of  the  garrison  at  Fort  Griswold 
at  Groton,  Connecticut,  when  New  London, 
Connecticut,  was  burned  by  the  British.  Later 
he  went  to  Canada  and  subsequently  removed 
to    Rochester,    Xew    York,  where    he    died    in 

1875- 

Edward  Fisk  Gorton,  the  efficient  mayor  of 
Lake  Forest  and  one  of  the  most  prominent  at- 
torneys of  Chicago,  was  bom  in  Ashtabula,  Ohio, 
on  the  6tli  of  ^lay,  1854,  and  was  reared  in 
Rochester,  Xew  York,  and  there  obtained  his 
education.  He  has  been  connected  with  the 
histon-  of  this  cit}'  since  1872,  and  on  the  9th  of 
Tune,  1876,  was  graduated  at  the  Union  College 
of  Law.  He  had  determined  to  enter  the  ranks 
of  tlie  legal  profession,  his  t'lorough  preparation 
and  abilities,  both  natural  and  acquired,  well  fit- 
ting him  for  his  chosen  calling.  On  the  1st  of 
September,  1876,  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
W.  P.  Conger,  nephew  of  the  late  Omar  D.  Con- 
ger, who  represented  Michigan  in  the  United 
States  senate.  William  P.  Conger  died  in  Feb- 
ruan-,  1887,  after  which  Mr.  Gorton  entered  into 
partnership  with  Walker  Blaine,  the  connection 
being  discontinued  when  Mr.  Blaine  accepted  the 
position  of  private  secretan."  to  his  fatlier,  Hon. 
Tames  G.  Blaine,  when  the  latter  was  appointed 
secretan^  of  state  in  1889.  The  firm  of  Gorton 
&  Blaine  was  soon  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
prominent  legal  combinations  in  this  city  and 
did  an  extensive  business.  Since  the  withdrawal 
of  Mr.  Blaine,  Mr.  Gorton  has  been  alone  in 
business.  He  is  a  thorough  student  and  a  man 
of  deep  research.  He  has  made  a  specialtj-  of 
office  business  and  investments  rather  than 
pleading,  and  has  an  extensive  clientage.  He  is 
indeed  a  leader  in   his  line,   and  his   splendid 


knowledge  of  the  law  makes  his  advice  and  coun- 
sel of  great  importance  and  value.  He  has  been 
very  successful,  winning  the  prosperity'  that 
comes  through  perseverance,  keen  discrimina- 
tion, energy  and  untiring  enterprise.  He  is  a 
typical  American,  possessing  the  progressive 
spirit  and  indomitable  courage  of  the  race,  tem- 
pered by  a  safe  conserv-atism. 

In  the  spring  of  1893  Mr.  Gorton  removed  to 
tlie  beautiful  suburban  city  of  Lake  Forest,  and 
on  the  9th  of  April,  1895,  was  honored  by  an 
election  to  the  office  of  mayor  of  that  beautiful 
suburban  cit\%  defeating  one  of  the  oldest  resi- 
dents of  the  place.  This  election  A\-as  certainly  a 
compliment  to  his  personal  popularity  as  well  as 
a  tribute  to  his  abilitv-,  and  indicates  the  confi- 
dence reposed  in  him.  This  confidence  has  not 
been  misplaced,  for  Mr.  Gorton  is  public-spirited 
in  an  eminent  degree,  devoted  to  the  welfare  of 
his  community'  and  to  the  promotion  of  its  best 
interests.  In  politics  he  is  a  stalwart  Republican, 
who  has  always  made  a  deep  study  of  political 
questions  but  has  never  been  an  office-seeker. 

On  the  9th  of  June,  1879,  Mr.  Gorton  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Fanny  Whitney, 
daughter  of  Charles  H.  Whitney,  a  resident  of 
Dansville,  Xew  York.  They  have  a  pleasant 
and  commodious  home  in  Lake  Forest,  where 
hospitality  abounds  and  where  their  many  friends 
delight  to  gather.  In  the  office  Mr.  Gorton  is 
a  practical  man  of  aflfairs,  busy  and  energetic, 
and  has  attained  a  success  tliat  crowns  the  labors 
of  few  men  of  his  years.  In  his  home  he  is  a 
pleasant  and  agreeable  companion,  and  in  what- 
ever place  or  relation  found  he  is  a  thorough 
gentleman  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term, — a 
man  whom  to  know  is  to  honor. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


475 


N.  R.  CASEY,  M.  D., 


MOUND  CITY. 


DR.  N.  R.  CASEY  is  not  only  one  of  the  best 
known  physicians  and  citizens  of  southern 
Illinois,  but  also  belongs  to  one  of  the  oldest  fami- 
lies in  the  State. 

He  was  bom  in  Jefferson  county,  Illinois,  on 
January  27,  1826.  His  father.  Governor  Zadok 
Casey,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Illinois.  He 
was  a  native  of  Georgia,  but  moved  to  Tennessee 
when  quite  a  boy.  There  he  was  married  to 
Rachel  King;  and  in  1817,  with  his  wife  and  one 
child,  he  came  to  Illinois,  settling  in  what  is  now 
Jefferson  cotmty.  He  was  a  self-made  man,  hav- 
ing educated  himself  after  his  marriage.  During 
the  early  "30s  he  was  elected  lieutenant-governor 
of  Illinois,  and  while  filling  that  office  was  elected 
to  Congress,  of  which  body  he  was  a  member  for 
fourteen  years.  He  was  a  member  of  several 
constitutional  conventions.  His  death  occun^ed 
in  1863.  His  sons  were:  Major  Sam  K.  Casey, 
who  erected  the  Illinois  State's  prison  at  Joliet, 
of  which  he  was  warden  for  twelve  years.  He  was 
sent  to  the  State  senate  from  th  Mount  ^^e^non 
district,  and  died  while  a  member  of  that  body.  He 
was  quite  prominent  in  State  politics,  and  was 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  auditor  one  year. 
Thomas  S.  Casey  was  a  prominent  Illinois  at- 
torney. For  many  years  before  the  war  he  was 
prosecuting  attorney  for  the  Mount  Vernon,  Illi- 
nois, circuit.  He  was  colonel  of  the  Tenth  Illinois 
Regiment.  After  the  war  he  served  in  both 
branches  of  the  State  legislature,  representing  the 
Moupt  Venion  district;  later  was  elected  circuit 
court  judge,  and  subsequently  was  appointed  one 
of  the  three  members  of  the  appellate  court  of 
Illinois.  He  died  in  Springfield,  in  1893.  The 
other  two  sons  are.  Dr.  John  R.  Casey,  wlio  is  a 
practicing  physician  of  Joliet,  and  our  subject. 

Dr.  N.  R.  Casey's  early  education  was  obtained 
in  the  schools  common  to  those  early  days.  After 
an  academic  course,  in  1838  his  father  sent  him 
to  the  Hillsboro  Academy,  at  Hillsboro,  Illinois; 
in  1840  he  attended  the  Mount  Vernon  Academy. 
and  in  1842  entered  the  Ohio  University  at  Ather.s, 
that  State,  when  William  McGuffey,  the  great 
school-book  author,  was  president.  He  remained 


there  until  1845,  ^"f'  then  returned  to  Mount  \'er- 
non  and  began  the  study  of  medicine  under  the 
instructions  of  Dr.  John  W.  Corwin;  in  1846  he 
attended  a  course  of  lectures  at  the  Louisville 
Medical  Institute,  and  continued  his  studies  after 
his  return  from  the  institute,  at  the  same  time 
having  some  practice  under  the  supervision  of 
his  preceptor,  until  the  summer  of  1847,  ^nf' 
then  removed  to  Benton,  Illinois,  and  became  a 
partner  in  the  practice  with  Dr.  Towns. 

On  December  4,  1847,  Dr.  Casey  married  Miss 
Flora  Rawlings  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  a  daugh- 
ter of  General  ^I.  M.  Rawlings.  She  was  a  young 
lady  of  superior  education  and  accomplishments, 
having  but  recently  graduated  with  honors  at  the 
Nazareth  Academy,  near  Bardstown,  Kentucky, 
a  Catholic  school  then,  and  still  maintaining  a 
high  leputation.  Her  father,  General  Rawlings, 
became  interested  in  Mound  City  in  1854,  at  which 
time  this  place  was  considered  by  steamboat  men 
as  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Ohio  at  low 
water  when  the  river  was  frozen  over  farther  up. 
General  Rawlings  purchased  lands  here  with  a 
view  to  the  advantages  of  Mound  City  as  a  trad- 
ing point. 

General  Rawlings  was  born  in  Virginia  in  1793, 
his  parents  moving  to  Newcastle  county,  Ken- 
tucky, in  1794.  When  a  boy  he  left  his  father's 
house,  and  on  foot  made  his  way  to  Shawneetown, 
Illinois,  reaching  that  point  without  a  dollar,  in 
the  spring  of  1809.  He  took  hold  of  whatever 
came  his  way  to  do.  He  invested  in  furs,  produce 
or  anything  out  of  which  he  thought  a  profit 
could  be  made.  He  was  married  three  times. 
His  first  wife  was  Miss  Sarah  J.  Seaton,  whom 
he  married  in  Breckenridge  county,  Kentucky, 
in  181 1,  and  by  whom  he  had  ten  children.  All 
of  these  died  before  he  came  to  Mound  City,  with 
two  exceptions.  His  second  wife  was  Miss  Hen- 
rietta B.  CaJmes,  whom  he  married  in  1829,  and 
died  in  1833,  leaving  two  children,  Dr.  Casey's 
v.ife  being  one.  General  Rawlings  was  one  of 
the  three  internal  improvement  commissioners, 
and  in  1839,  in  company  with  Colonel  Oakley, 
one    of    the    commissioners,    and    ex-Governor 


47« 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


Reynolds,  one  of  the  o-ovemor's  agents,  went  to 
luirope  to  negotiate  canal  and  improvement 
bonds,  etc.  Among  the  many  enterprises  Gen- 
eral Rawlings  engaged  in  was  that  of  steamboat- 
ing.  He  owned  the  side-wheel  steamboat 
Tuckina,  that  ran  between  Louisville  and  New 
Orleans. 

General  Rawlings  removed  from  Shawneetown 
to  Louisville  in  1840.  In  1832  he  was  appointed 
by  Governor  Re\'nolds  major-general  of  the  State 
militia.  In  1840  he  married  Miss  Ann  H.  Simms, 
of  Washington  City,  who  died  in  1849,  without 
children. 

General  Rawlings  received  no  educational  ad- 
vantages during  his  boyhood  and  was  pre-emi- 
nently a  self-made  man.  He  possessed  wonder- 
ful native  talent  and  ability,  was  of  great  force 
of  character,  and  his  energy  and  determination 
never  failed  him,  and  his  success  in  business  was 
all  that  could  be  desired  by  himself  or  friends. 
His  death  occurred  January  11,  1863,  at  the  age 
of  seventy  years. 

Dr.  Casey  continued  to  practice  at  Benton  un- 
til 1848,  when  he  removed  to  Mount  Vemon, 
his  native  place.  During  the  winter  of  1856-7  he 
attended  his  second  course  of  lectures  at  the  Mis- 
souri Medical  College  at  St.  Louis,  receiving  his 
diploma.  In  June,  1857,  he  removed  to  Mound 
City,  at  the  request  of  his  father-in-law,  General 
Rawlings,  who  had  in  1854  laid  out  that  place. 
In  1858  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  city 
council,  and  in  1859  was  elected  mayor  of  the  city, 
and  until  1874  he  was  annually  elected  to  that 
office,  a  period  of  fifteen  years;  he  declined  to  be 
longer  a  candidate.  However,  he  was  again  elected 
mayor  during  the  '80s  and  served  another  term. 
In  i860  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  national  Demo- 
cratic convention  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
where  he  was  an  ardent  admirer  and  supporter  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  When  the  United  States 
Government  hospital  was  established  in  Mound 


Citv,  in  1861,  the  Doctor  volunteered  his  services 
for  a  considerable  time.  Afterward  he  was  ap- 
pointed assistant  surgeon,  and  for  a  long  time 
occupied  that  position  in  the  hospital. 

In  1866,  after  one  of  the  longest  and  most 
bitterly  contested  fights.  Dr.  Casey  was  nomi- 
nated for  the  State  legislature  by  the  Democrats 
of  Union,  Pulaski  and  Alexander  counties,  and 
at  the  regular  election  was  successful  by  above 
fifteen  hundred  majority.  When  the  legislature 
convened  the  following  term  Dr.  Casey  was  the 
candidate  of  the  Democratic  members  for  speaker. 
The  Republicans  being  largely  in  the  majority, 
he  was  defeated.  But  in  the  make-up  of  the  com- 
mittees he  was  placed  in  several  of  the  most  im- 
portant. In  1868  he  was  re-elected  to  the  legis- 
lature, and  was  again  nominated  by  his  party  for 
speaker,  but  again  defeated.  In  1870  the  Doctor 
was  again  elected  to  the  house,  though  it  was 
thought  impossible  for  a  Democrat  to  be  elected 
from  the  district  after  the  redistricting  of  the  year 
before.  In  this  session  he  was  again  nominated 
for  speaker,  his  opponent  being  United  States 
Senator  Shelby  ]\I.  Cullom,  who  was  elected.  Dr. 
Casey  made  an  able  and  influential  member  of 
the  legislature,  serving  during  each  session  upon 
the  most  important  committees.  Among  the  bills 
he  introduced  during  the  last  session  was  one 
api^ropriating  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  to 
build  a  monument  at  the  National  cemetery  at 
Mound  City. 

The  Doctor  has  been  frequently  spoken  of  as  a 
fit  candidate  of  his  party  for  the  Governorship 
of  the  State,  but  of  late  years  he  has  not  been  so 
active  in  politics.  Since  1874  he  has  given  his 
attention  to  his  practice. 

In  August,  1878,  his  wife  died,  which  was  a 
great  loss  to  him.  He  has  three  children.  His 
eldest,  Ida  M.,  married,  in  1870,  Colonel  D.  B. 
D\'er;  Frank  R.  is  a  prominent  druggist  of  Mound 
Citv ;  and  Maude  H. 


I 

I 


-/ii/tZf 


REPnESENTATIVE  ME^  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


477 


CHARLES  E.  CALDWELL,  M.  D., 


DOCTOR  CALDWELL  was  born  in  Scott 
county,  Illinois,  in  1851,  a  son  of  Brice  and 
Mary  C.  (Thompson)  Caldwell.  His  parents  were 
both  natives  of  the  Emerald  Isle,  and  in  early 
life  they  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  the  LTnitcd  States, 
settling  in  New  York,  while  for  more  than  half  a 
century  they  resided  in  Illinois.  Both  died  in  New 
Holland,  Logan  county,  when  about  seventy-six 
years  of  age. 

Dr.  Caldwell  began  his  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  covmty  and  subsecjuently 
became  a  student  in  Lincoln  LTniversity,  at 
Lincoln,  Illinois.  After  he  had  resolved  to  enter 
the  medical  profession  and  make  its  practice  his 
life  work,  he  came  to  Chicago,  in  1873,  and  en- 
tered upon  a  four  years'  course  of  study  in  Rush 
Medical  College,  at  which  he  was  graduated  in 
1877.  He  was  at  that  time  awarded  the  honor 
of  being  made  one  of  the  internes  of  Cook  County 
Hospital,  where  he  continued  until  1879,  since 
which  tiuK'  he  has  been  located  at  the  corner  of 
Tliirty-niiith  and  State  streets.     His  practice  has 


steadily  increased  from  the  beginning,  and  is  now 
a  very  extensive  one,  he  being  recognized  as  one 
of  the  best  informed  and  most  skillful  physicians 
of  the  city. 

In  1885  the  Doctor  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Kittie  Eigenmann,  of  Chicago,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Christian  Eigeiuiiann,  one  of  the  early 
settlers  of  this  city.  They  now  have  four  chil- 
dren, all  sons,  namely:  Christian  Brice,  Charles 
Edwin,  Reginald  Alexander  and  Millet  Benton. 

The  Doctor  is  an  honored  and  valued  member 
of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  holding  membership 
in  Apollo  Commandeiy,  No.  i,  K.  T.,  and  in  Ori- 
ental Consistory.  He  is  a  thorough  gentleman, 
very  upright  and  reliable,  and  his  strict  adher- 
ence to  principle  commands  the  respect  of  all. 
The  place  he  has  won  in  the  medical  profession 
is  accorded  him  in  recognition  of  his  skill  and 
ability,  and  the  place  which  he  occupies  in  the 
social  world  is  a  tribute  to  that  genuine  worth  and 
true  nobleness  of  character  which  are  universally 
recognized  and  honored. 


LEWIS  M.  BRADLEY, 


MOUND  CITV. 


LEWIS  M.  BRADLEY,  a  prominent  citizen 
and  attorney  of  Mound  Citj%  Illinois,  is  a 
native  of  this  State  and  a  descendant  of  one  of 
the  pioneer  families  of  the  State,  his  grandfather, 
James  H.  Bradley,  Sr.,  coming  from  North  Car- 
olina to  Illinois  in  1818,  the  same  year  the  State 
was  admitted  to  the  Union. 

James  H.  Bradley,  Jr.,  fatlier  of  our  subject, 
was  born  in  Jackson  county,  Illinois,  August  i, 
1 82 1,  read  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  but 
did  not  enter  into  active  practice.  He  was  prom- 
inent in  his  localit}-,  and  filled  various  public  of- 
fices. When  the  late  war  broke  out  he  took  an 
enthusiastic  interest  in  the  cause  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  made  speeches  in  different  localities 
urging  men  to  volunteer.  In  April,  1862,  he 
himself  enlisted  for  three  years  in  the  Eighteenth 
Illinois  regiment,  and  sensed  in  the  ranks  until 


the  close  of  the  war,  being  mustered  out  in  Au- 
gust, 1865.  He  w-as  with  the  Eighteenth  regi- 
ment all  the  time,  participating  in  many  engage- 
ments. 

After  the  war  he  returned  to  his  home  in  Jack- 
son county,  Illinois,  where  he  resided  until  his 
death,  on  August  28,  1888,  his  death  being  the 
result  of  disease  contracted  during  the  war.  He 
was  married  in  1844  to  Rutha  J.  Culley,  who  was 
born  in  Posey  county,  Indiana,  on  February  28, 
1828,  and  is  the  daughter  of  Josiah  and  Martha 
(Hogue)  Culley.  She  is  still  living.  Fourteen 
children  were  bom  to  the  parents  of  our  subject, 
seven  of  whom  were  reared  to  maturity,  and  six  of 
whom  are  living. 

Lewis  M.  Bradley  was  bom  on  October  14, 
1852,  in  Jackson  county.  He  was  educated  in 
the  conmion   schools,   and   in    1874  entered   the 


478 


BroaiiAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  POllTRAir  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Southern  Illinois  Normal  L^niversity,  at  Carbon- 
dale.  After  leaving  the  Normal  University  he 
began  reading  law  under  the  preceptorship  of  the 
late  Abraham  R.  Pugh,  of  Murphysboro,  Illinois, 
and  in  1878  he  entered  the  law  department  of 
Washington  University,  St.  Louis,  where  he  was 
graduated  in  June,  1880.  He  was  examined  by 
the  appellate  court  and  admitted  before  the  su- 
preme court  of  the  State  the  same  year  of  his 
graduation.  Locating  in  Murphysboro  he  en- 
gaged in  practice  in  the  office  of  his  preceptor, 
j\lr.  Pugh.  On  September  i,  1881,  he  located  at 
i\Iound  City  and  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge 
Joseph  P.  Roberts,  which  relation  continued  un- 
til 1887.  A  vacancy  occurring  in  the  office  of 
State's  attorney  of  Pulaski  county  April,  1S83, 
'Sir.  Bradley  was  elected  to  fill  the  same  at  a  spe- 
cial election.  In  November.  1884,  he  was  re- 
elected, and  again  re-elected  in  1888  and  in  1892, 
each  time  with  an  increased  majority.  He  is  also 
active  in  the  practice  outside  of  the  duties  of  his 


office.  He  has  for  several  years  been  one  of  the 
attorneys  of  the  IJlinois  Central  Railroad,  and  is 
at  present  attorney  for  all  of  the  manufacturing 
corporations  of  Mound  City  with  a  single  excep- 
tion, and  is  the  attorney  for  the  marine  ways  at 
I\Iound  City.  He  is  attorney  for,  and  a  large 
stockholder  in,  the  IVIound  City  Building  &  Loan 
Association,  and  is  also  attorney  for  the  First 
State  Bank  of  Mound  City,  which  institution 
he  organized  and  of  which  he  is  now  vice-pres- 
ident. 

Mr.  Bradle)'  has  for  years  been  very  prominent 
in  southern  Illinois  in  a  political  way.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  Republican  Congressional  com- 
mittee of  the  Twenty-second  Illinois  District,  of 
which  he  is  and  has  been  fof  four  years  secretary. 
He  has  always  labored  for  the  advancement  of 
Momid  City,  Pulaski  county  and  State  of  Illinois. 

He  was  married  in  1889  to  Mary  E.  William- 
son, a  native  of  Missouri,  and  they  have  one 
daughter,  Lucile. 


DANIEL  B.  ROBINSON, 


THERE  is  ever  a  degree  of  satisfaction  and 
profit  in  scanning  the  life  history  of  one  who 
has  attained  to  an  eminent  degree  of  success  as 
the  diametrical  result  of  his  own  efforts,  who  has 
had  the  mentality  to  direct  bis  endeavors  toward 
the  desired  ends  and  the  singleness  and  steadfast- 
ness of  purpose  which  have  given  due  value  to 
each  consecutive  detail  of  effort.  As  a  distinctive 
type  of  the  self-made  man  we  can  refer  with  singu- 
lar propriety  to  the  honored  subject  whose  name 
forms  the  caption  of  this  paragraph, — the  present 
vice-president  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa 
Fe  Railroad  Company,  and  a  well-known  citizen 
of  Chicago. 

A  native  of  St.  Albans,  Vermont,  the  date  of 
Daniel  B.  Robinson's  nativity  was  the  year  1848. 
His  father  was  a  farmer,  a  man  of  marked  in- 
dividuality and  inflexible  honor,  retaining  the  re- 
spect and  esteem  of  men.  Our  subject  received 
his  fundamental  education  in  the  common  schools 
of  his  native  place,  but  he  had  only  attained  the 
age  of  sixteen  years  when  death  deprived  him  of 


a  father's  care  and  solicitude,  and  he  was  prac- 
tically compelled  to  go  forth  at  that  early  age  and 
assume  the  burden  of  his  own  support  and  to  win 
his  way  in  the  world.  He  was  a  boy  of  self-reliant 
nature  and  did  not  flinch  from  the  duties  which 
came  upon  him.  He  started  out  with  the  finn  de- 
termination of  winning  success,  and  his  practical 
nature  was  such  that  he  did  not  hesitate  in  his 
choice  of  employment,  and  he  accepted  the  first 
occupation  that  offered.  He  secured  a  position 
as  a  day  laborer  in  a  railway  freight  office  at  St. 
Albans,  and  he  made  his  value  and  his  fidelity  so 
manifest  that  he  was  consecutively  advanced  until 
in  1868  he  was  appointed  station  agent  in  his 
native  town.  It  is  peculiarly  interesting  to  note 
the  fact  that  his  great  success  has  been  attained 
in  that  line  of  industry  to  which  he  first  directed 
his  attention  in  so  very  subordinate  a  capacity. 
Within  the  same  year  in  which  he  received  the  ap- 
pointment noted  he  resigned  the  position  and  went 
to  California.  Arriving  in  Sacramento  in  the  fall 
of  that  year,  he  obtained  employment  in  the  shops 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


479 


of  tlie  Southern  Pacific  Railwaj',  where  he  re- 
mained for  three  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which 
period  he  accepted  the  position  as  station  agent  at 
Mobile,  Alabama,  for  the  New  Orleans  &  Mobile 
Railway  Company.  There  he  remained  for  eleven 
years,  rising  in  regular  order  to  the  positions  of 
road  master,  assistant  superintendent  and  finally 
general  superintendent  of  that  road.  He  had  now 
secured  a  thorough  practical  knowledge  of  the 
manifold  and  intricate  details  of  railway  sei"vice, 
and  his  value  as  an  ofticer  was  clearly  established. 
In  1881  he  finally  severed  his  connection  with  the 
New  Orleans  &  Mobile  Company,  being  Cjualified 
to  fill  the  highest  position  in  the  administration 
and  management  of  railway  affairs. 

His  advancement  since  that  time  has  been  rapid, 
and  to-day,  while  yet  a  comparatively  young  man, 
he  finds  rank  with  the  foremost  leaders  of  the  rail- 
way world.  He  has  ever  discharged  his  exacting 
duties  with  singular  fidelity  and  conspicuous 
ability.  In  1881  he  was  appointed  general  man- 
ager of  the  Sonora  Railroad,  which  is  now  a  part 
of  the  -Atchison,  Topcka  &  Santa  Fe  system.  He 
had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  construction  of 
this  line,  and  his  capable  management  soon  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  other  railway  corpora- 
tions, and  resulted  in  his  accepting  the  position  as 
general  manager  of  the  Mexican  Central  Railway, 
and  later,  in  1885,  he  became  general  manager  of 
the  Atlantic  &  Pacific  Railroad,  which  is  now 
operated  by  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe. 
This  position  he  held  for  two  years,  and  in  1887 
he  engaged  in  building  the  Colorado  Midland,  a 
work  which  probably  involved  the  most  difificult 


engineering  and  constructive  problems  in  the  his- 
tory of  railway  building  in  the  United  States. 
Upon  the  completion  of  this  work  Mr.  Robinson 
returned  to  his  former  position  as  general  man- 
ager of  the  Atlantic  &  Pacific,  and  continued  in 
that  capacity  from  1889  until  1891.  During  the 
next  two  years  he  held  the  office  as  president  of" 
the  San  Antonio  &  Aransas  Pass  Railroad,  in 
Texas,  and  during  the  same  time  was  president  of 
the  Santa  Fe,  Prescott  &  Phoenix  Railroad — a 
two  hundred  mile  line  in  Arizona,  now  belonging 
to  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railroad. 
During  the  years  before  mentioned  many  of  the 
subordinate  branches  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  & 
Santa  Fe  system  were  built  under  the  manage- 
ment of  our  subject. 

In  1893  Mr.  Robinson  wae  elected  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railway 
Company,  which  important  incumbency  he  still 
retains.  He  is  without  question  one  of  the  lead- 
ing railway  men  of  the  country,  and  one  whose 
capacity  for  affairs  of  great  breadth  is  thoroughly 
recognized  in  railway  and  financial  circles.  He 
resides  in  Chicago,  and  is  a  member  of  the 
Chicago  Club. 

In  1871  ]\Ir.  Robinson  was  united  in  marriage 
to  Miss  Ella  M.  Perkins,  a  daughter  of  Edwin  F. 
Perkins,  of  Boston,  who  was  for  many  years  a 
prominent  railroad  man.  He  was  for  some  time 
master  mechanic  of  the  Central  Vermont  Rail- 
road, and  in  1867  he  went  to  California,  and  until 
1870  was  superintendent  of  machinery  for  the 
Central  Pacific.  He  then  returned  to  the  East, 
and  his  death  occurred  in  1892. 


HON.  GEORGE  H.  MUNROE, 

TOLIET. 


AMONG  the  prominent  men  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  none  occupy  a  position  of  relatively 
greater  importance  in  the  community  in  which 
they  reside  than  George  Henry  Munroe,  State 
senator  from  the  Twenty-Fifth  district.  The  com- 
mon opinion  has  for  some  time  been  that  Ameri- 
can politics  were  probably  never  so  corrupt  as  at 
the  present  day,  that  the  afifairs  of  the  country 
arc  in  the  hands  of    professional  politicians  who 


are  working  for  their  own  interests  and  not  for 
the  good  of  the  majority,  and  it  is  such  men  as 
the  one  whose  name  heads  this  record  that  re- 
stores the  public  confidence  and  renews  the  faith 
that  we  shall  have  wise  legislation  and  just  laws 
brought  about  by  honorable  men  with  pure  po- 
litical records  and  devoted  to  their  country's  inter- 
ests and  not  their  own  aggnandizement. 

Mr.  Munroe  is  a  native  of  New  York,  Imrn  in 


480 


nwaiiAPnicAL  dtctionart  and  portrait  oallery  of  the 


Brown ville,  Jefferson  count)',  September  24,  1844, 
and  is  a  son  of  George  and  Sarah  M.  (Hentze) 
Munroe,  who  in  1849  emigrated  westward, 
settHng  in  Florence,  Will  county,  Illinois.  The 
opportunities  for  obtaining  an  education  in  those 
early  days  were  necessarily  limited,  but  the  youth, 
realizing  the  benefit  of  a  thorough  education  in 
a  successful  business  career,  took  advantage  of 
the  facilities  that  were  offered  him  in  the  little 
town  of  Florence  and  aftenvard  succeeded  in  at- 
tending the  high  school  of  Wilmington,  Illinois, 
for  a  short  time.  Thus  equipped  for  the  struggles 
of  life,  at  the  age  of  eighteen  he  entered  upon  his 
business  career  in  the  position  of  deputy  sheriff 
under  his  father,  who  was  at  that  time  sheriff  of 
Will  county.  The  young  man  administered  the 
affairs  of  his  respoi^sible  position  with  a  degree 
of  ability  hardly  to  be  expected  in  one  of  his 
vears.  Thus  early  in  life  he  gave  indications  of 
those  qualities  which  have  made  him  one  of  the 
most  successful  business  men  in  Illinois. 

In  1865,  in  connection  with  his  father,  Mr.  Mun- 
roe entered  upon  the  retail  grocery  business. 
The  enterprise  was  well  managed  and  was  suc- 
cessful from  the  start;  the  volume  of  trade  in- 
creased yearly  and  the  firm  became  large  ship- 
pers of  produce.  Later  a  wholesale  department 
was  opened  and  shortly  thereafter  the  retail  busi- 
ness was  discontinued  and  a  wholesale  grocery 
trade  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars annually  was  transacted.  During  most  of 
the  time  while  in  the  mercantile  business  the  man- 
agement of  affairs  devolved  upon  our  subject, 
for  his  father  had  various  outside  interests,  in- 
cluding official  duties, — for  three  years  occupy- 
ing the  position  of  treasurer  of  Will  county.  In 
1875  Mr.  Munroe  disposed  of  his  stock  of  mer- 
chandise and  turned  his  attention  to  real  estate 
transactions.  He  constructed  some  of  the  most 
substantial  buildings  of  the  city,  and  the  business 
blocks  he  has  erected  here  have  added  much  to 
the  metropolitan  appearance  of  Joliet.  He  has 
also  opened  up  several  tracts  of  land  adjoining 
the  city,  including  Ridgewood,  the  Ridgewood 
addition,  and  Hunter  &  Woodland's  subdivisions. 
Probably  no  man  has  done  more  toward  en- 
hancing the  importance  of  the  city,  and  his  name 
is  inseparably  connected  with  its  historj'. 

Mr.  Munmc  has  not  confined  his  business  op- 


erations to  any  one  branch,  but  has  always  been 
active  in  conducting  various  enterprises  to  suc- 
cessful terminations.  In  1875  he  became  one 
of  the  organizers  and  the  largest  stockholder  in 
the  Joliet  Stone  Company,  with  a  capital  stock 
of  thirty  thousand  dollars,  aftenvard  increased 
to  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  He  became 
its  president  and  continued  to  act  in  that  capac- 
ity until  1891.  He  found  this  business  both  agree- 
able and  profitable,  and  in  1886  he  became  inter- 
ested in  the  Crescent  Stone  Company,  of  which 
he  was  president  until  1891,  when  both  of  the 
above  mentioned  corporations  sold  out  to  the 
Western  Stone  Company  for  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  he  retired  from  the  stone  busi- 
ness. Until  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  on  the 
5th  of  September,  1890,  their  affairs  were  con- 
ducted under  the  firm  name  of  George  Munroe 
&  Son,  although  in  later  years  our  subject  con- 
trolled the  greater  amount  of  the  investments 
and  transacted  all  the  business.  From  that  time 
liis  affairs  were  conducted  under  his  own  name. 
During  his  entire  career  Mr.  Munroe  has  so 
managed  his  interests  as  to  merit  the  esteem  of 
all  classes,  and  it  is  not  fulsome  praise  to  say  that 
none  stands  higher  in  the  regard  of  the  citizens 
of  Joliet  than  he.  He  has  been  called  to  various 
positions  of  trust,  and  at  present  is  the  receiver 
of  the  Joliet  Enterprise  Company,  which  was 
capitalized  for  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  and  which  failed  November  30,  1892. 
He  has  been  appointed  receiver  for  the  St.  Fran- 
cis Lumber  Company,  of  Arkansas,  and  in  these 
responsible  positions  has  proven  himself  a  most 
able  financier  and  a  man  of  high  executive  abil- 
ity. His  foresight  in  business  transactions  has 
aided  him  in  many  ways;  particularly  have  his 
convictions  in  regard  to  "truck  stores"  and  all 
other  forms  of  monopolies  been  sliaiply  defined. 
In  P'ebruary,  1893,  he  closed  one  of  those  stores 
in  Arkansas,  connected  with  a  sawmill  and  lum- 
ber camp,  for  which  he  had  been  appointed  re- 
ceiver by  the  United  States  court.  The  store 
was  paying  from  three  hundred  to  five  hun- 
dred dollars  per  month.  jMr.  Munroe  believes 
that,  as  a  free  man,  the  laborer  had  a  right 
to  his  money  and  should  have  the  opportunity 
of  trading  where  he  pleased,  and  not  be  paid 
from  the  "truck  store."     He  is  still  running  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


481 


business,  and  his  experiment  has  demonstrated  to 
him  that  he  was  right  in  closing  tlie  company's 
store.  He  has  had  large  dealings  with  the  labor 
element  of  Joliet  and  with  several  hundred  people 
whom  he  has  and  still  is  assisting  to  secure  homes, 
and  among  these  he  is  highly  esteemed  and  they 
remain  his  earnest  and  warmest  friends. 

In  the  fall  of  1894  the  nomination  for  State 
Senatorship  for  the  Twenty-fifth  district  of  Illi- 
nois came  to  Mr.  Munroe  without  his  seeking, 
and  although  it  is  well  known  that  he  did  noth- 
ing toward  winning  the  election,  he  carried  his 
district  on  November  6,  1894,  by  a  majority  of 
2,533,  whereas  his  predecessor,  a  Democrat,  was 
elected  in    1890  by  only   185  majority.     To  the 


personal  qualities  of  the  man  this  result  was 
largely  due.  The  labor  vote  was  his  because  of 
his  championship  for  the  laboring  man,  and  he 
works  for  the  best  interests  of  the  country  as  he 
sees  them.  Being  an  uncompromising  Repub- 
lican, his  efforts  are  in  the  direction  of  protection 
for  American  industries.  His  private  life  also 
greatly  aided  his  cause,  for  it  has  been  as  pure  as 
his  official  and  business  career,  and  he  enjoys  his 
home  greatly. 

The  estimable  lady  who  for  some  years  has  been 
his  faithful  and  loved  companion  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Miss  N.  Weeks.  They  were  married  in 
Joliet,  in  1869,  and  their  home  is  cheered  by  the 
presence  of  two  adopted  children. 


JOHN  E.  CORWITH, 


JOHN  ERASTUS  CORWITH  was  born  at 
Bridgchampton,,  Long  Island,  June  25,  1831, 
being  the  youngest  of  the  nine  children  of 
Gurden  and  Susan  (White)  Corwith.  His  father 
was  in  early  life  a  sailor,  but  in  later  years  he  be- 
came a  farmer.  John  obtained  his  rudimentary 
education  in  the  common  schools,  later  attend- 
ing the  academy  at  Southampton,  and  then  en- 
tered the  institute  at  Flushing,  Long  Island,  and 
there  graduated  when  he  was  about  twenty  years 
of  age. 

After  finishing  his  education  he  immediately 
went  to  New  York  city,  where  he  entered  the 
employ  of  C.  H.  Rogers,  who  did  a  large  lead 
and  banking  business,  with  offices  at  80  Wall 
street.  He  continued  as  a  clerk  with  Mr.  Rogers 
for  fve  years,  or  until  1856,  when  he  removed 
to  Chicago,  where  his  brother-in-law,  Edward 
Hemp.stead,  resided.  The  latter  tendered  Mr. 
Corwith  a  position,  which  was  accepted,  in  the 
grocery  house  of  Hempstead  &  Norton,  of 
which  firm  he  was  the  senior  partner.  Here  our 
subject  remained  about  a  year,  and  then  relin- 
quished his  situation  and  went  to  Galena,  at 
which  point  his  brothers,  Nathan  and  Henry, 
were  in  business.  Henr\^  was  about  to  retire 
from  the  firm  of  N.  Corwith  &  Company,  and 
John  was  offered  a  partnership  in  tlie  hrmso. 
:n 


which  he  accepted.  The  members  of  the  new  firm 
were  Nathan  Corwith  and  our  subject,  and  their 
success  was  great.  They  did  a  large  business 
in  lead  and  banking,  and  were  the  most  prom- 
inent concern  in  GalVna  at  a  time  when  that  city 
was  a  veritable  beehive  of  industry. 

In  1868  John  Corwith  retired  from  the  firm, 
and  made  a  trip  to  the  far  West,  where  he  spent 
six  months.  He  then  returned  to  Galena,  but 
did  not  again  take  up  active  business,  and  now 
spends  his  time  in  looking  after  and  caring  for 
his  various  properties. 

Mr.  Corwith  is  a  stockholder  and  director  in 
the  Galena  National  Bank,  which  is  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  banking  hovise  of  N.  Corwith  & 
Company,  and  is  also  a  stockholder  in  the  Han- 
over (Illinois)  Woolen  Mills.  He  owns  large 
tracts  of  Iowa  lands,  and  has  dealt  largely  in 
real  estate,  both  in  the  last  named  state  and  in 
Texas. 

He  contributes  largely  of  liis  means  to  public 
enterprises,  and  is  one  of  Galena's  most  enter 
jirising  and  best  known  citizens.  He  is  very  pop- 
ular with  all  classes  of  people  not  only  in  the  city 
of  his  home,  but  elsewhere.  He  is  a  pronounced 
Republican,  but  not  a  politician  and  has  held 
but   one   office — that   of   alderman. 

In  religious  belief  he  is  a  Presbyterian  and  one 


482 


BIOOnAPnWAL  DWTTONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  0ALLER7  OF  THE 


of  the  leading  members  of,  and  large  contrib- 
utors to,  the  South  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Galena. 

Mr.  Corvvith  is  almost  as  much  at  home  in 
Chicago  as  in  Galena,  and  is  a  member  of  the 
Union  League  Club  of  the  latter  city.  A  great 
deal  of  his  time  is  spent  in  travel,  and  on 
these  trips  he  is  almost  invariably  accompanied 


by  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married  Oc- 
tober 13,  1868.  Mrs.  Corwith  was  formerly 
Miss  Alice  R.  Hughlett,  daughter  of  Sam- 
uel Ilughlett,  a  pioneer  smelter  of  Galena. 
Tlieir  residence  is  one  of  the  most  delight- 
ful homes  in  that  city.  Mr.  Corwith  owes  his 
success  in  life  to  perseverance,  industry  and  econ- 
omv. 


RICHARD  BARRETT, 


HISTORY  and  biography  for  the  most  part 
record  the  lives  of  those  only  who  have 
attained  military,  political  or  literary  distinction, 
or  who  in  any  other  career  have  passed  through 
extraordinary  vicissitudes  of  fortune.  The  unos- 
tentatious routine  of  private  life,  although  in  the 
aggregate  more  important  to  the  welfare  of  the 
community,  cannot,  from  its  nature,  figure  in 
the  public  annals.  But  the  names  of  men  who 
have  distinguished  themselves  in  their  day  and 
generation  for  the  possession,  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree, of  those  qualities  of  character  which  mainly 
contribute  to  the  success  of  private  life  and  to 
the  public  stability, — of  men  who  without  daz- 
zling talents  have  been  exemplary  in  all  their 
perso.nal  and  social  relations,  and  enjoyed  the 
esteem,  respect  and  confidence  of  those  around 
them, — ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  perish.  Their 
example  is  more  valuable  to  the  majority  of 
readers  than  that  of  illustrious  heroes,  statesmen 
or  writers.  Few  can  draw  rules  for  their  own 
guidance  from  the  pages  of  Plutarch,  but  all  are 
benefited  by  the  delineation  of  those  traits  of 
character  which  find  sco])e  and  exercise  in  the 
common  walks  of  life. 

Among  the  individuals  of  this  class  in  the  State 
of  Illinois  none  are  better  entitled  to  representa- 
tion in  this  work  than  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 
His  record  is  the  account  of  a  life,  uneventful 
indeed  as  far  as  stirring  incident  or  startling  ad- 
venture is  concerned,  yet  distinguished  by  the 
most  substantial  qualities  of  character.  His  life 
history  exhibts  a  long  and  virtuous  career  of 
private  industry,  performed  with  moderation 
and  crowned  with  success.    It  is  the  record  of  a 


well-balanced  mental  and  moral  constitution, 
strongl)'  marked  by  those  traits  of  character 
which  are  of  especial  value  in  such  a  state  of  so- 
ciety as  exists  in  this  country.  A  community 
depends  upon  commercial  activity,  its  welfare  is 
due  to  this,  and  the  promoters  of  legitimate 
and  extensive  business  enterprises  may  well  be 
termed  its  benefactors. 

Prominent  in  business  circles  of  Galena  stands 
Richard  Barrett.  He  was  born  in  a  small  town 
in  Devonshire,  England,  on  the  8th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1828,  and  is  a  son  of  Richard  and  Elizabeth 
(Kelloway)  Barrett,  the  former  a  farmer  and  con- 
tractor by  occupation.  Our  subject  spent  his 
boyhood  days  in  his  native  village  and  is  in- 
debted to  its  public-school  system  for  his  educa- 
tion. At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  left  his  child- 
hood home  and  went  to  London,  where  he  en- 
tered the  Government  civil  service,  being  there 
employed  for  three  years,  and  giving  eminent 
satisfaction  by  his  faithful  discharge  of  duty. 
His  next  residence  was  Shaftesburj',  in  Dorset- 
shire, and  a  year  later  he  returned  to  his  boy- 
hood's home.  In  the  meantime,  however,  he 
had  become  possessed  of  a  strong  desire  to  try 
his  fortune  in  America,  believing  that  possibil- 
ities of  success  to  be  greater  here  than  in  Eng- 
land. Accordingly  he  sailed  for  New  York  in 
1854,  and  a  few  days  after  landing  in  that  city 
he  started  for  the  mining  regions  of  Lake  Supe- 
rior, where  he  engaged  in  contracting  for  about 
a  year. 

At  that  time  Galena  was  one  of  the  most  flour- 
ishing cities  in  the  West,  and  after  mature  delib- 
eration   Mr.  Barrett  decided    to    locate  at  this 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


483 


point.  On  his  arrival  here  he  engaged  in  the 
retail  grocery  business.  For  two  years  he  was 
associated  with  a  partner,  then  purchased  his  in- 
terest. The  venture  prospered  and  in  1870  the 
building  he  now  occupies  was  erected,  and  he 
gave  his  attention  only  to  the  wholesale  trade,  it 
having  for  a  few  years  previous  been  both  whole- 
sale and  retail.  At  the  present  time  Mr.  Bar- 
rett is  the  only  wholesale  grocer  in  Galena.  He 
is  a  man  of  sound  judgment  and  thorough  relia- 
bility, having  the  confidence  and  higfli  regard 
of  his  many  patrons.  His  standing  in  business 
circles  is  most  enviable.  In  addition  to  his  mer- 
cantile establishment  he  is  one  of  the  largest 
stockholders  and  a  director  of  the  Galena  Na- 
tional Bank,  and  is  also  interested  in  other  banks 
at  different  points,  as  well  as  in  various  corpora- 
tions. 

Though  of  foreign  birth  Mr.  Barrett  is  a  thor- 
ough American  citizen,  loyal  and  patriotic  in  the 
support  he  gives  to  the  United  States  and  its 
institutions.  During  the  Civil  war  he  contrib- 
uted from  his  private  purse  toward  defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  troops  in  the  field,  to  a  greater 
extent  than  many  others  of  equal  means,  who 
look  back  upon  a  long  line  of  American  ancestry. 
Politically  ]Mr.  Barrett  is  a  strong  Republican. 
He  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  alder- 
men and  in  1886  was  elected  mayor  of  Galena, — 
the  only  Republican  mayor  the  city  ever  had, — 
receiving  one  of  the  largest  majorities  ever  given 
to  any  candidate  oni  any  ticket.  Upon  the  com- 
pletioai  of  his  two-3'ears  term  he  declined  the 
re-nomination  and  has  since  devoted  his  entire 
energies  to  his  personal  affairs,  as  it  has  always 
been  his  habit  to  keep  his  business  well  in  hand 
and  himself  familiar  with  all  its  complicated  de- 
tails. 

On  the  25th  of  December,  1852,  Mr.  Barrett 


was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Elizabeth  Jane 
Truscott,  of  Devonshire,  England.  Of  the  chil- 
dren of  this  union  five  are  living,  namely:  Thomas 
T.,  Mary  J.,  Richard  J.,  H.  V.  and  William  G. 
The  family  attend  the  Methodist  Church. 

I\Ir.  Barrett's  modest  nature  would  disclaim 
the  praise  of  scholarship,  and  yet  he  has  the 
tastes  and  spirit  of  a  scholar.  He  is  fond  of 
books  and  has  collected  a  library  valuable  for 
its  extent  and  containing  many  volumes  chosen 
with  judgment  and  discrimination.  These  are 
kept  not  merely  to  look  at  and  show  to  his  edu- 
cated friends,  but  they  are  read,  comprehended 
and  enjoyed.  In  seeking  for  the  causes  which 
have  contributed  to  his  success  we  find  them 
not  so  much  in  their  rarity  as  in  their  harmoni- 
ous union,  and  they  may  be  briefly  summed  up 
by  saying  that  he  has  the  tastes  of  a  scholar, 
the  manners  of  a  gentleman  and  the  habits  of  a 
man  of  business, — a  combination  of  qualities 
that  arc  bound  to  produce  the  highest  results. 
It  is  no  very  rare  thing  for  a  poor  boy  in  our 
country  to  become  a  prosperous  man  and  oc- 
cupy a  commanding  position  in  the  business 
world,  but  many  who  have  fought  their  way 
from  poverty  to  wealth,  from  obscurity  to  prom- 
inence, retain  some  marks  and  scars  of  the  con- 
flict. They  are  apt  to  be  narrow  and  grasping, 
even  if  not  sordid  and  unscrupulous.  Mr.  Bar- 
rett, however,  is  an  instance  of  a  man  who  has 
achieved  success  without  paying  the  price  at 
which  it  is  so  often  bought;  for  his  prosperity 
has  not  removed  him  farther  from  his  fellow 
men,  but  has  brought  him  into  nearer  and 
more  intimate  relations  to  them.  The  more 
means  he  has  had,  the  more  he  has  done  for 
those  around  him,  and  numbered  among  Ga- 
lena's most  prominent  citizens  is  this  honored 
merchant. 


484  BKiaUM'mcM.  D/cr/oXAHV  AX/>  PiilirHMT  GAT.LEBT  OP  TJfE 

JAMES  A.  CONNOLLY, 


SPRINGFIELD. 


WHILE  "the  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift 
nor  the  l)attle  to  the  strong,"  the  invariable 
law  of  destiny  accords  to  tireless  energy,  industn,- 
and  ability  a  successful  career.  The  truth  of  this 
assertion  is  alnmdantly  verified  in  the  life  of 
Major  Connolly. 

Janies  Austin  Connolly  was  bom  in  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  March  8,  1842.  His  parents,  William 
and  Margaret  (Maguire)  Connolly,  both  natives 
of  Ireland,  emigrated  to  Canada  with  their  par- 
ents in  childhood,  and  later  drifted  to  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  where  they  formed  each  other's  ac- 
quaintance and  were  married. 

James  attended  a  private  school  in  Newark 
until  he  was  eight  years  of  age,  when  he  accom- 
panied his  parents  to  Morrow  county,  in  central 
Ohio,  where  his  father  purchased  a  farm.  Four 
years  later  William  Connolly  moved  to  the 
neighboring  town  of  Chesterville  and  resumed 
the  occupation  of  tanner  and  currier,  a  pursuit 
which  he  had  previously  followed  in  Newark. 

During  the  four  years  in  which  his  father  op- 
erated the  farm,  James,  during  the  first  half  of 
that  time,  aided  him  in  such  work  as  his  age  and 
strength  would  permit,  and  during  the  latter  two 
years  he  was  employed  as  a  clerk  in  a  store  at 
Chesterville.  He  thereafter  attended  the  Chester- 
ville Union  School,  then  the  high  school,  and  later 
the  Selby  Academy  at  Chesterville,  where  he  was 
graduated  in  the  classical  course  in  1858.  Dur- 
ing the  last  two  years  which  he  attended  the  acad- 
emy he  kept  books  in  the  store  where  he  had  pre- 
viously been  employed  as  clerk,  and  thus  partially 
paid  for  his  tuition. 

He  decided  to  make  the  study  and  practice  of 
law  his  life  work  and  began  to  read  law  under  the 
direction  of  Judge  A.  K.  Dunn,  of  Mount  Gilead, 
Ohio.  In  the  meantime,  1858-59,  he  taught  school. 
In  the  fall  of  the  latter  year  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar,  and  after  retiring  from  the  position  of 
second  assistant  clerk  of  the  Ohio  senate,  which 
lie  filled  in  the  winter  of  1859-60,  he  entered  upon 
the  practice  of  his  profession  as  a  partner  of  his 
preceptor,  Judge  Dunn,  at  Mount  Gilead,  Ohio. 
I'eiiig  young  and  ambitious,  and  after  inves- 


tigation concluding  that  in  the  newer  State  of 
Illinois  he  could  find  better  opportunities  to  ad- 
vance, he,  in  the  fall  of  i860,  located  in  that  State, 
at  Charleston,  where  he  began  to  practice  law. 

In  June,  1862,  he  enlisted  in  the  ranks,  and  upon 
the  organization  of  Company  C,  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-third  Regiment  Illinois  Volunteer 
Infantr)',  he  was  elected  captain,  and  upon  the  or- 
ganization of  that  regiment  was  elected  its  major. 
The  regiment  joined  the  Army  of  the  Cumber- 
land and  was  active  in  all  its  campaigns  till  after 
the  fall  of  Atlanta,  when  he  was  transferred  to 
Sherman's  army  and  marched  with  him  to  the 
sea,  and  thence  to  Washington  and  took  part  in 
the  grand  review. 

Major  Connolly's  career  as  a  soldier  was  full  of 
adventures,  and  a  full  description  thereof  would 
of  itself  fill  a  large  volume.  He  entered  a  daily 
record  of  all  important  events  in  a  journal  or  diary, 
which  he  still  has  in  his  possession.  A  perusal  of 
this  diary  would  doubtless  be  of  deep  interest 
to  all,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  Major  will  be  per- 
suaded to  assent  to  the  publication  thereof,  al- 
though he  has  repeatedly  been  requested  to  do 
so  without  giving  the  required  consent.  His 
military  record  is  very  creditable,  it  proving  him 
to  be  a  brave  and  fearless  soldier,  and  the  follow- 
ing incidents  will  illustrate  his  bravery: 

At  the  battle  of  Milton,  Tennessee,  while  lead- 
ing his  regiment  in  the  heat  of  the  fight,  the  collar 
of  his  overcoat,  coat  and  shirt  and  the  pommel  of 
his  saddle  was  shot  away  by  minie-balls.  He  was 
knocked  to  the  ground  appai^ently  senseless,  but 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  remark,  "The  Alajor's 
killed,"  was  passed  along  the  line  he  remembers 
that  the  sole  thought  in  his  mind  then  was,  "The 
bo\s  are  fooled."  At  Bentonville,  North  Caro- 
lina, he  was  struck  by  a  bullet  on  the  plate  of  his 
sword  belt  right  over  his  stomach.  At  Missionar}' 
Ridge  a  shell  exploding  directly  over  his  head 
frightened  his  horse,  which  gave  a  leap  and  burst 
the  saddle  girth,  and  threw  him  to  the  ground.  He 
was  assisted  to  his  horse  and  without  a  saddle 
girth  rode  to  the  top  of  the  ridge. 

Tnimcdiatelv  after  the  battle  of  Chickaniauga, 


W'-^^.^Ai^ 


REPnESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


485 


Major  Connolly  was  detailed  by  General  Thomas 
inspector  of  General  Baird's  division  of  the  Four- 
teenth Army  Corps,  and  continued  to  serve  in 
that  capacit}'  until  the  close  of  the  war,  and  was 
with  it  at  the  grand  review. 

When  the  Fourteenth  Army  Corps  was  ap- 
proaching Savannah  it  was  necessary  to  march 
over  a  causeway  through  the  Ebenezer  Swamps. 
Major  Connoll}-  was  with  the  rear  guard  of  the 
corps,  which  was  hard-pressed  by  Wheeler's  cav- 
alry. Xear  niidniglit  tlie  IMajor  and  his  followers 
arrived  at  a  bridge  which  spanned  the  Ebenezer 
creek  and  there  found  the  provost  marshal  of  the 
Fourteenth  Army  Corps,  which  was  then  com- 
manded by  General  Jef?  C.  Davis,  guarding  the 
bridge  and  preventing  negroes,  thousands  of 
whom  were  hid  in  the  swamp,  from  crossing  the 
bridge  and  following  the  troops.  Replying  to 
Major  Connolly's  inquiry,  the  provost  marshal 
informed  him  that  he  was  obeying  his  superior's 
orders.  Major  Connolly  then  told  him  that  as  it 
was  then  late  he  and  his  compajiy  could  retire  to 
headquarters,  and  that  he  would  relieve  him.  Af- 
ter the  provost  marshal  retired  the  major  per- 
mitted the  negroes  to  flock  over  the  bridge,  and 
thus  saved  them  from  capture  and  severe  punish- 
ment and  perhaps  death  by  Wheeler's  cavalry. 
The  action  of  Major  Connolly  was  commended 
and  the  incident  nearly  cost  General  Davis  his 
promotion.  Major  Connolly  was  brevetted  lieu- 
tenant-colonel of  volunteers  for  gallantry  on  the 
field  at  Bentonville,  North  Carolina. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  ]\Iajor  Connolly  re- 
turned to  Charleston  and  re-engaged  in  practice, 
continuing  there  until  1876,  when  President  Grant 
appointed  him  United  States  attorney  for  the 
Southern  District  of  Illinois.  In  1880  he  was  re- 
appointed by  President  Hayes,  and  in  1884  was 
again  appointed  by  President  Arthur.  In  1885 
he  was  removed  by  President  Cleveland  "for  offen- 
sive partisanship,"  but  in  1889  was  again  ap- 
pointed to  the  position  by  President  Harrison,  and 
served  until  April,  1894,  when  he  resigned. 

Politically  Major  Connolly  has  always  been  a 
steadfast  adherent  to  the  principles  of  the  Repulj- 
lican  party,  and  from  1876  to  the  present  time  lias 
ab.vays  taken  an  active  part  in  the  campaigns  of 
that  party,  canvassing  every  section  of  the  State 
and  visiting  nearly  even,-  county.     He  has  vigor- 


ously advocated  the  cause  of  Republicanism.  In 
1872  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature  from  Coles 
county,  and  was  re-elected  in  1874.  In  1886, 
while  mayor  of  the  city  of  Charleston,  he  was  the 
opponent  of  ex-Congressmati  William  Springer, 
and  carried  IMorgan  and  Sangamon  counties,  but 
was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  nine  hundred,  his 
popularity  having  reduced  the  usual  Democratic 
majority  of  four  thousand  to  that  amount.  He 
was  again  nominateil  for  Congress  in  1888,  but 
declined  to  become  a  candidate.  In  1894  he  ac- 
cepted the  nomination  and  defeated  .Springer  by 
a  majority  of  two  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
forty. 

In  1888  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  nomination 
for  Governor  and  received  one  hundred  votes  in 
the  con\cntion.  \\  hile  serving  as  United  States 
attorney  in  1884,  he  was  appointed  solicitor 
of  the  treasur)^  by  President  Arthur,  and  con- 
firmed by  the  senate,  but  he  declined  the  ap- 
pointment, preferring  to  devote  himself  to  his 
profession. 

In  1886  Major  Connolly  moved  to  Springfield, 
which  he  has  since  made  his  home.  He  formed  a 
partnership  with  Mr.  Mather,  and  in  addition  to 
his  official  duties  practices  his  profession.  He 
has  been  engaged  in  much  of  the  more  important 
class  of  litigation  in  this  section  of  the  State,  and 
as  United  States  attorney  participated  in  many 
actions  that  attracted  a  large  amount  of  at- 
tention. He  prosecuted  the  "whisky  ring''  with- 
out any  special  assistance,  and  was  one  of  the 
very  few  United  States  attorneys  who  did  not 
call  for  special  assistants  in  similar  cases  of  liti- 
gation. 

Major  Connolly  has  become  interested  finan- 
cially in  several  profitable  corporations.  He  as- 
sisted in  the  organization  of  the  Illinois  National 
Bank,  and  has  been  a  member  of  its  board  of 
directors  since  its  organization.  He  is  also  in- 
terested in  the  Bain  Manufacturing  Company,  of 
Charleston,  IlHnois.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  for  eight  years 
previous  to  1895  acted  as  Judge  Advocate  of  the 
Department  of  Illinois.  He  is  also  a  member  of 
the  Loyal  Legion,  and  is  a  Mason  and  Knight 
Templar. 

He  was  married,  in  1863,  to  Miss  Mary  Dunn, 
si.ster  of  Judge  Dunn,  of  Mount   Gilead,  Ohio, 


486 


BIOGHAPUWAL  DWTIONARY  AND  PORTUAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


with  whom  j\Iajor  Connoll.v  studied  law.  Major 
and  Mrs.  Connolly  are  attendants  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church. 

Major  Connolly's  life  has  been  a  success.  His 
entire  career  is  illustrative  of  the  fact  that  certain 
actions  are  followed  bv  certain  results.     As  a  law- 


yer he  has  few  peers  in  this  section  of  the  State ;  as 
a  soldier  he  displayed  bravery,  sagacity  and  true 
patriotism;  as  a  public  official  his  actions  have 
been  above  approach  or  criticism;  and  as  a  citizen 
he  is  an  illustration  of  a  high  type  of  our  American 
manhood. 


FRED  O.  WHITE, 


AURORA. 


BY  the  death  of  this  honorable  and  upright 
citizen  the  comnuinity  sustains  an  irrepar- 
aljle  loss,  and  is  deprived  of  the  presence  of  one 
whom  it  has  come  tO'  look  upon  as  a  guardian, 
benefactor  and  friend.  Death  often  removes  from 
our  midst  those  whom  we  can  ill  afford  to  spare, 
whose  lives  have  been  all  that  is  exemplary  of 
the  true,  and  thereby  really  great,  citizen.  Such 
a  citizen  was  Mr.  White,  whose  whole  career,  both 
business  and  social,  served  as  a  model  to  the 
young  and  as  an  inspiration  to  the  aged.  He  shed 
a  brightness  ai'ound  everything  with  which  he 
came  in  contact.  By  his  usefulness  and  general 
benevolence  he  created  a  memory  whose  peii:)etu- 
ation  does  not  depend  upon  brick  or  stone  but 
upon  the  spontaneous  and  freewill  offering  of  a 
grateful  and  enlightened  people.  No  citizen  did 
mere  for  Aurora  than  ]\Ir.  White.  His  connec- 
tion with  the  city's  development  and  growth  and 
with  the  work  of  improvement  was  largely  instru- 
mental in  placing  Aurora  in  the  proud  position 
it  to-day  occupies. 

Mr.  White  is  a  descendant  from  an  old  English 
family  whose  settlement  in  America  dates  back 
to  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  old  Bay 
State  was  first  colonized.  His  parents  were  Fred- 
erick W.  and  Catherine  A.  (Ford)  White,  farming 
people  in  moderate  circumstances,  living  in  Wren- 
tham,  Norfolk  county,  Massachusetts,  where  the 
subject  of  tills  sketch  was  born,  on  the  30th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1839.  The  entire  family  came  West  in 
1856  and  settled  in  Sugar  Grove  township,  Kane 
county,  Illinois,  whence  they  removed,  during  the 
war  of  the  rebellion,  to  Aftom,  De  Kalb  county, 
where  the  mother  died,  December  24,  1877.  Tlie 
father  died  in  Aurora,  February  23,  1883,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-three  years. 


Mr.  White  was  about  seventeen  years  of  age 
when  he  came  to  Illinois  with  his  parents.  He  had 
partly  completed  an  academic  education  in  his 
native  town.  During  the  years  1859  to  1861  he  at- 
tended Jennings  Seminary,  in  Aurora,  teaching 
through  the  winter  of  1859-60  to  defray  his  ex- 
penses through  the  remainder  of  his  course. 
These  years  at  this  institution  completed  his 
school-work  and  contributed  largely  toward  his 
preparation  for  a  practical  business  career. 

When  the  tocsin  of  war  sounded  forth  he  was 
among  those  who  volunteered  their  services  to 
their  country,  his  name  being  enrolled  in  Com- 
pany A,  Thirty-sixth  Regiment,  Illinois  Cavalry, 
— an  organization  held  in  grateful  remembrance 
especially  by  the  citizens  of  Aurora  and  vicinity. 
Going  to  the  front  with  his  regiment,  he  bore  the 
part  of  a  brave  and  faithful  soldier  in  all  its  cam- 
paigns, sieges  and  battles  till  November,  1863, 
up  to  which  time  the  principal  battles  in  which 
he  participated  being  Pea  Ridge,  luka  and  Cor- 
inth. By  order  of  the  secretary  of  war  he  was 
then  honorably  discharged  from  the  army;  but 
he  continued  to  render  valuable  service  to  his 
country,  as  clerk  in  the  pay  department,  until  No- 
vember,  1865. 

On  the  1st  of  February,  1866,  Mr.  White  formed 
a  ])artnership  with  John  Loomis,  under  the  firm 
name  of  Loomis  &  White,  engaging  in  the  lum- 
ber business  in  Aurora.  This  relation  continued, 
with  good  success,  until  November,  1870,  when 
the  firm  of  White  &  Todd  was  formed.  Though 
the  moving  spirit  of  this  firm  has  since  departed, 
the  business  is  still  flourishing. 

In  August,  1881,  Mr.  White  assisted  in  organ- 
izing the  Aurora  Creamery  Company  and  was  its 
secretary  and  ti'easurcr  until  his  death.     He  was 


/^ 


^ty^i^ 


REPnESENTATIVIC  MEN  OF  THE  UMTED  .STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


4S7 


also  one  of  the  original  stockholders  and  a  direc- 
tor of  the  Aurora  National  Bank  from  its  or- 
ganization, a  member  of  the  building  committee 
that  erected  the  Aurora  Cotton  I\Iiils,  a  charter 
member  of  the  Home  Building  «&  Loan  Associa- 
tion of  Aurora,  and  for  some  time  a  director  and 
secretary  of  the  Aurora  Slate  and  Mantel  Com- 
pany, which  was  organized  in  1887. 

As  he  was  a  man  of  superior  business  and  ex- 
ecutive ability,  who  carried  forward  to  success- 
ful completion  whatever  he  undertook,  it  was 
advantageous  to  any  concern  to  have  him  con- 
nected with  it.  He  was  an  able  manager,  pos- 
sessed of  an  energy  that  seemed  untiring.  To  at- 
tain success  and  prominence  in  one's  calling  before 
reaching  middle  life  falls  to  the  lot  of  compara- 
tively few  men.  ^lan}'  things  conspire  to  the 
much  desired  ends,  but  in  the  main  they  lie  along 
the  line  of  patient,  persevering  and  faithful  work. 
To  a  student  of  human  nature  there  is  nothing 
more  interesting  tlian  to  examine  the  life  history 
of  a  self-made  man  and  to  analyze  those  prin- 
ciples which  have  made  him  pass  many  on  the 
highway  of  life  and  reach  a  position  of  promi- 
nence in  the  community.  Industr}-,  energy  and 
perseverance  were  important  factors  in  the  suc- 
cess of  Mr.  White.  His  straightfor^vard  dealing, 
however,  wa.s  the  chief  cause  for  the  markeil  con- 
fidence which  the  people  reposed  in  him. 

Mr.  White  was  prominent  and  influential  in 
the  political  circles  of  his  district.  For  four  years 
he  was  chairman  of  the  count\-  Repubhcan  cen- 
tral committee;  was  city  treasurer  in  1869-70,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  West  Side  Board  of  Edu- 
cation for  twenty  year's,  during  which  time  all 
the  buildings  of  the  district  were  erected.  In  1885 
he  was  elected  mayor  of  Aurora.  Under  his  ad- 
ministration the  contracts  for  the  construction  of 
the  city  >\ater-works  were  let,  the  work  being 
pushed  forward  so  rapidly  that  the  establishment 
was  in  operation  within  the  time  specified  in  the 
contract.  In  1885  ^Ir.  White  was  appointed 
State  commissioner  on  the  board  to  locate  a  site 
for  a  soldiers'  and  sailors'  home,  which,  after  five 
months  spent  in  visiting  and  inspecting  various 
places  in  the  State,  was  finally  located  at  Quincy ; 
he  helped  to  organize  and  establish  the  Aurora 
public  librar)';  was  on  the  building  committee, 
and  aided  in  raising  the  funds  to  erect  the  Soldiers' 


Memorial  and  Library  buildings  and  Grand 
Army  Hall,  to  which  he  was  a  very  liberal  contrib- 
utor; and  he  afterward  served  as  president  of  the 
public  library,  and  was  ever  actively  and  deeply 
interested  in  everything  pertaining  to  its  pros- 
perity. He  was  pre-eminently  a  public-spirited 
citizen,  his  name  being  connected  with  almost 
every  work  of  public  imprpvemcnt  in  Aurora. 

In  addition  to  his  excellent  business  qualities, 
Mr.  White  was  a  ready  and  entertaining  writer  on 
current  topics,  being  for  many  years  a  frequent 
contributor  to  the  Chicago  Inter  Ocean. 

He  was  a  man  of  broad  mind  and  of  broad 
charity.  He  labored  for  his  fellow  men  because 
he  had  a  sincere  interest  in  them.  Believing  with 
Emerson, — "To  win  a  frienil,  be  one,'" — no  citi- 
zen of  Aurora  ever  had  more  friends  than  Fred 
O.  White.  He  gave  with  great  liberality  to  all 
wcrks  of  public  improvement,  but  he  never  gave 
ostentatiously.  He  was  a  generous  man  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  term,  but  never  a  lavish  spend- 
thrift. He  had  the  power  of  persuasion,  whereby 
he  influenced  many  others  to  contribute  to  works 
of  a  public  character.  He  was  a  true  type  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  and  of  those  men  who  build 
cities  and  lay  the  foundation  of  commonwealths. 
His  integrity  was  above  question,  his  honor  ir- 
reproachable; these,  combined  with  a  clear,  sound 
judgment,  made  the  people  rely  upon  him  and 
follow  his  leadership.  The  social  C|ualities  of  the 
man  are  indicated  in  the  fact  that  he  was  "Fred" 
to  nearly  everybody.  He  was  always  pleasant  and 
genial,  and  his  qualities  as  such  arose  from  his 
kindly  nature.  His  friendship  was  prized  most 
by  those  who  knew  him  best.  Hating  sham  of 
all  kinds,  in  work  or  in  conduct,  his  own  life  was 
always  frank  and  outspoken. 

Though  his  death  was  not  entirely  unexpected, 
it  came  May  30,  1892,  as  a  blow  to  many  friends, 
while  the  entire  city  seemed  to  mourn  the  loss  of 
a  friend  and  brother.  A  memorial  meeting  was 
held  in  the  opera  house  which  was  filled  by  those 
who  wished  to  do  him  honor.  His  friends,  the 
soldiers,  were  present  to  testify  their  appreciation 
of  their  comrade.  The  stage  was  occupied  by 
fifty  of  the  prominert  men  of  Aurora,  the  meet- 
ing being  presided  over  by  Senator  H.  H.  Evans. 

Professor  Freeman  spoke  in  behalf  of  Aurora 
Post  X(i.  20,  G.  A.  R.,  of  which  Mr.  White  had 


4SS 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


hctn  an  honored  member;  Dr.  Bartlelt  told  the 
part  taken  by  Mr.  White  in  advancing  the  public 
schools  and  public  library;  Hon.  Charles  Whea- 
ton  voiced  the  sentiments  of  the  people  of  Aurora 
in  their  regard  for  the  one  who  had  gone  from 
their  midst;  and  President  Lovejoy  spoke  of  his 
student  life  at  Jennings  Seminary.  At  tlie  con- 
clusion J.  W.  Eddy  read  the  following,  which  was 
unanimously  adopted  by  a  rising  vote: 

"  'His  ways  are  high  above  our  ways.'  The 
finite  can  never  solve  the  mysteries  of  the  in- 
finite. 

"God,  who  is  good,  and  who,  we  are  assured 
and  believe,  never  forgets  his  attributes  of  jus- 
tice and  mercy,  passes  by  the  unworthy  and  re- 
moves from  our  midst  the  best,  the  most  useful 
and  the  luost  dearly  loved.  We  torture  our- 
selves in  the  vain  search  for  reasons,  while  the 
mvstery  deepens  and  our  untaught  souls  agonize 
aiid  wonder  and  inquire.  Providence,  thus  in- 
scrutable, has  taken  from  our  midst  Fred  O. 
While. 

"Your  oommittee  is  asked  to  voice  the  senti- 
ment of  this  people,  while  pausing  for  a  few  brief 
moments  in  contemplation  of  the  sad  event  and 
to  extend  if  possible  some  word  of  comfort  to  his 
sorrowing  family.  It  is  not  an  easy  task.  We 
can  but  recount  his  virtues,  turn  to  the  victorious 
One  in  whom  he  trusted,  gird  ourselves  anew 
and  with  fresh  courage  and  added  strength  press 
forward'  to  tlie  end. 

"While  we  mcurn  the  departure  of  our  deceased 
friend,  we  look  back  over  his  well-rounded  career 
and  ask,  What  more  was  to  be  done?  In  all  the  ac- 
tivities of  life  in  which  he  took  so  prominent  a  part, 
we  see  nothing  left  undone.  The  admirable  youth 
became  the  heroic  soldier;  the  heroic  soldier  soon 
became  the  husband  and  active  citizen,  correct  in 
morals  and  habits,  erecting  his  household  gods 
around  a  pure  hearthstone;  the  young  husband 
was  soon  a  leader  in  all  our  best  interests,  building 
our  schoolhouses  and  fostering  and  aiding  our 
religious,  benevolent  and  educational  institutions; 
public-spirited,  active,  patriotic,  intellig-ent,  wise 
and  honest,  he  was  chosen  the  mayor  of  his  be- 
loved city.  The  honored  citizen,  the  Christian 
gentleman,  he  goes  from  us  and  comes  not  back. 
"W^e  bow  if.  hvunble  submission  to  this  myste- 
rious dispensation,  and  pay  this  tribute  to  the 
memory  and  virtues  of  our  dead  friend,  hoping 
it  may  in  some  way  help  to  lift  the  cloud  so 
darkly  hovering  over  his  late  earthly  home. 

"We  reconuuend  that  these  sentiments,  as  en- 
grossed, be  given  to  his  bereaved  family,  and  that 
Aurora  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  Jennings  Seminary,  the 
Public  Library,  the  West  Side  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  other  bodies  and  enterprises  with  whicli 


he  was  connected  be  permitted  to  obtain  copies. 
"  'Blessed  is  that  servant  whom  his  lord  when 
he  cometh  shall  find  so  doing.' 

"John  F.  Dewey, 
"j.  W.  Eddy, 
"T.  A.  Deweese, 

Committee. " 

Tlie  board  of  education,  appreciating  his  valu- 
able service,  presented  to  iNIrs.  White  the  fol- 
lowing: 

IN  MEMORIAM. 

Whereas,  Death  has  entei^ed  our  Board  of 
Education  and  taken  away  in  his  twentieth  year 
of  continuous  service,  our  secretarv,  the  Hon. 
Fred  O.  White ; 

Resolved.  That  w^e  give  expression  to  our  pro- 
found sense  of  loss  in  his  death  whose  long  ex- 
perience and  ability  had  enabled  him  to  carry 
the  burden  of  our  work  for  us; 

Resolved,  That  we  pay  tribute  to  his  memory, 
both  as  a  faithful  school  officer,  truly  devoted  to 
the  best  interests  of  our  puljlic  schools,  and  also 
as  a  liberal  patron  of  education,  for  he  was  con- 
stantly thinking  how  the  best  results  might  be 
attained.  His  purse  was  ever  open  in  providing 
prizes,  flags  or  other  helps  to  inspire  the  youth 
to  nobler  efforts  and  loftier  patriotism; 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  Iiis  bereaved  familv 
our  sincere  sympathy.  We  shall  never  forget 
their  generous  hospitality,  so  often  enjoyed  as 
fellow  members  with  our  departed  friend; 

Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  spread 
upon  our  records,  and  that  a  copy  be  sent  to  Mr. 
White's  family. 

N.  C.  Simmons, 
F.  L.  Bartlett, 
Russell  P.  Goodwin, 
John  I.  Davis, 
F.  H.  Robinson, 
F.  G.  Hanchett. 

Mr.  White  was  married  July  lo,  1864,  to  Miss 
Olivia  M.  Todd,  whose  personality  and  charac- 
ter resemble  quite  closely  those  of  her  honored 
husband.  Their  home  life  was  of  the  purest  and 
highest  type.  It  seemed  that  he  could  not  do  too 
much  to  promote  the  w^elfare  of  his  family  and 
enhance  their  happiness.  In  poor  health,  real- 
izing that  his  earthly  pilgrimage  would  soon  end, 
he  planned  the  erection  of  a  new  residence, — a 
strong  evidence  of  his  desire  to  promote  the  happi- 
ness of  his  loved  ones.  Though  he  never  saw 
the  present  beautiful  homestead  erected,  yet  every 
apartment  speaks  of  loving  forethought.  His 
widow,  knowing  that  she  could  not  better  meet 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


489 


the  wishes  of  her  loved  husband,  hastened  its 
erection.  To-day  it  graces  Aurora  as  one  of  lier 
finest  dwelHngs.  It  seems  inexpressibly  sad  that 
Mr.  White  should  have  been  called  away  just 
when  he  seemed  to  have  everything  to  make  life 
happy,  when  well-directed  business  efforts  had 
brought  him  a  handsome  pecuniary  reward,  and 
when  an  upright,  honorable  life  had  gained  him 
the  warm  regard  of  an  extensive  circle  of  friends. 


While  the  life  of  one  of  Aurora's  most  enterpris- 
ing and  public-spirited  citizens  has  ended,  his 
memory  reniiains  as  am  inspiration  to  the  people 
of  the  city  which  he  loved  so  well.  These  closing 
words  fitly  express  his  merit: 

"Life's  work  well  done; 
Life's  race  well  run; 
Life's  crown  well  won.'' 


M.  H.  SWIFT, 


MEN  of  marked  ability,  forceful  character, 
culture  and  nobleness  leave  their  impress 
upon  the  workl,  written  in  such  indelible  char- 
acters that  time  is  powerless  to  obliterate  their 
memory,  or  sweep  it  from  the  minds  of  men. 
Their  noble  acts  Hve  after  they  have  long  passed 
away  from  the  scenes  of  their  earthly  careers. 
The  force  of  their  example  spurs  others  to  emula- 
tion; the  inspiration  of  their  goodness,  purit\-, 
and  virtue  is  never  lost,  but  lives  on  forever  in 
the  hearts  of  those  who  have  known  and  loved 
them,  and  is  clierished  in  the  annals  of  the  com- 
munity in  which  they  lived  and  labored  as  faithful 
citizens. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  is.  in  the  best  sense 
of  that  much  abused  term,  a  self-made  man,  but 
one  who  so  far  rose  above  his  early  environment 
and  opportunities  as  to  become  noted  as  a  gentle- 
man and  scholar.  He  was  a  man  of  polished 
manners  and  great  suavity  of  demeanor,  cited  for 
his  courtesy  and  consideration  for  others,  and 
beloved  and  respected  by  all  with  whom  his  busv 
life  brought  him  in  contact. 

Mr.  'SI.  H.  Swift  was  Iwrn  in  Kent,  Litchfield 
county,  Connecticut,  October  3,  1815.  When 
still  very  young  he  went  to  live  with  an  old  aunt, 
under  v^'hose  care  he  passed  his  boyhood  days; 
meanwhile  he  earned  money  by  working  in  stores 
and  doing  odd  jobs.  He  educated  himself  as  best 
he  could,  going  to  the  district  schools  in  the  win- 
ter and  pursuing  his  studies  with  vigor  at  all  times. 
In  1836  he  went  to  Litchfield  and  entered  the  law 
office  of  O.  S.  Seymour,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1838.  He  was  also  a  graduate  of  the 
Litchfield  law  school. 


He  came  to  Ottawa,  Illinois,  Julv  6,  1838,  and 
entered  upon  the  practice  of  law,  meeting  with 
marked  success.  In  184 1  lie  was  called  to 
Springfield  and  as  he  entered  the  supreme 
court  his  name  was  presented  by  Abraham 
Lincoln  for  the  office  of  assignee  of  bank- 
rupts under  the  law  of  1840  for  La  .Salle  county, 
which  office  he  filled  with  distinction.  He 
held  the  office  of  mayor  of  Ottawa  for  two 
terms,  being  elected  with  scarcely  a  dissent- 
ing vote,  such  was  his  popularity  with  his  towns- 
men. 

In  1866  he  was  elected  president  of  the  First 
National  Bank,  which  position  he  held  for  twelve 
years.  Mr.  Swift  had  built  up  a  very  lucrative 
law  practice,  and  by  judicious  investments  had 
amassed  an  ample  fortune.  In  1878,  being  in 
poor  health,  he  resigned  his  position  in  the  bank 
and  took  a  long  trip  through  the  Southern  States, 
Cuba  and  Bermuda.  On  his  return  from  the 
South  he  was  much  improved  in  health,  and 
opened  a  law  office  in  connection  \\"itli  his  son, 
E.  C.  Swift. 

In  1847  Mr.  Swift  married  Miss  Susan  Ward 
Miles,  of  Baltimore,  Maryland.  They  had  four 
children,  two  sons  and  two  daughters.  The 
oldest,  Sarah,  was  married  in  1871  and  died  in 
the  year  following.  The  other  daughter,  Helen, 
died  unmarried,  at  the  age  of  twent>'-four.  Their 
oldest  son,  George,  died  at  the  age  of  ten  years. 
INIrs.  Swift  died  in  1881. 

E.  C.  Swift,  son  of  M.  H.  and  Susan  (Miles) 
Swift,  was  born  in  Ottawa,  Illinois,  March  7, 
1855,  received  a  common-school  education  in 
the  public  schools  of  that  city  and  graduated  at 


490 


nwr.nAriiicAL  dictionary  axd  portrait  gallery  of  tup: 


the  University  of  Michigan,  at  Ann  Arbor,  in 
1876.  He  taught  school  one  year  in  the  Ottawa 
liigh  school,  purely  for  discipline  and  experience; 
studied  law  in  his  father's  ofSce;  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1880,  and  has  practiced  law  in 
Ottawa  ever  since  that  time.  At  the  date  of  this 
writing  (1895)  he  is  vice  president  of  the  First 
National  Bank, — the  bank  of  which  his  father 
was  president  and  which  he  so  ably  helped  to 
build  up  and  put  in  its  present  high  standing  in 
the  financial  world. 

He  has  been  school  director  in  Ottawa  for  fifteen 
years.  He  never  sought  ofificial  honors  although 
often  pressed  to  accept  them,  but  he  preferred 
the  quiet  of  private  business  to  the  perplexities 
of  public  life.  He  inherited  an  ample  fortune 
from  his  father,  and  is  the  worthy  son  of  a  most 
respected  and  esteemed  father,  a  genial  and 
popular  gentleman  and  one  of  Ottawa's  repre- 
sentative citizens.  He  owns  one  of  the  hand- 
somest residences  in  that  city  of  lovely  homes; 
its  grounds  slope  down  to  the  banks  of  the  beau- 


tiful Illinois  river  and  with  its  lawns  and  gardens 
his  spacious  mansion  is  an  ideal  spot,  in  whidh 
to  forget  the  cares  of  life. 

Mr.  Swift  married  Miss  Helen  Vincent,  of  Kent, 
Connecticut,  and  has  two  lovely  daughters: 
Helen,  aged  fifteen,  and  Susan,  aged  eleven  years. 

In  politics  both  Mr.  E.  C.  Swift  and  his  father 
were  stanch  Republicans.  He  lost  his  greatly 
loved  and  deeply  regretted  father  on  May  14, 
1886,  Avho  was  sincerely  mourned  by  the  entire 
community  in  which  he  had  lived.  In  life  no 
man  stood  higher  in  the  esteem  and  confidence 
of  his  fellow-men,  and  no  one  could  be  more 
sincerely  missed  or  regretted.  Great  deeds  and 
brilliant  achievements  are  grand  things,  but 
when  are  added  to  these  sweetness  of  disposition, 
kindness  of  speech  and  a  courtly  and  distin- 
guished manner,  the  possessor  is  splendidly 
equipped  to  win  the  admira'ion  of  all  classes  of 
men,  and  his  fame  lives  after  him,  his  record  is 
handed  down  to  posterity.  Thus  M.  H.  Swift 
still  lives  in  the  memorv  of  all  who  knew  him. 


CLIFTON  H.  MOORE, 


THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Kirt- 
land.  Lake  county,  Ohio,  October  26,  1817. 
His  father's  name  was  Isaac  jNIoore,  his  mother's, 
Philena  Blish  Moore. 

Isaac  Moore  was  born  January  31,  1796,  on  the 
'"Elder  Peck"  farm,  in  Half-Moon,  near  Balls- 
town,  State  of  New  York.  His  father,  John 
Moore,  was  an  old  Revolutionary  soldier  who 
was  in  Ft.  Stanwix  when  it  was  besieged  by  St. 
Ledger.  He  afterward  went  South,  joined  Wash- 
ington and  was  with  him  in  his  march  tlirough 
New  Jersey,  Maryland  and  to  Yorktown,  where 
Lord  Cornwallis  surrendered.  John  Moore  went 
into  the  army  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  and 
was  engaged  in  fighting  the  British  or  the  Indians 
for  ten  years,  and  when  he  came  out  of  the  army 
he  found  his  father's  family  so  scattered  that  he 
never  found  any  of  his  brothers,  and  but  one  of  his 
sisters,  who  had  married  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Groome.  From  her  he  learned  that  his  brothers 
had  all  gone  away,  some  into  Kentucky  and  some 


into  Virginia.  He  was  only  five  years  old  when 
both  his  parents  died,  and  he  was  apprenticed  to 
an  uncle  by  the  name  of  Hyde,  who  lived  near  the 
line  between  Man,land  and  Delaware.  He  could 
remember  but  little  of  his  father's  family,  only  that 
there  was  a  large  family  of  them,  mostly  boys, 
and  thought  they  were  of  English  descent.  He 
drew  a  pension  from  about  1823  to  the  time  of 
his  death  in  1845,  and  died  in  Chester,  Geauga 
county,  Ohio,  and  was  buried  there,  where  his 
grave  was  pointed  out  to  the  writer,  by  Cyrus 
Millard,  a  grandson  of  his,  only  a  few  years  ago. 
He  was  a  well-built  man,  about  five  feet  and  nine 
inches  high,  active,  had  a  fine  constitution,  and 
lived  until  he  was  about  ninety-five.  He  used  to 
say  that  in  his  younger  days  he  never  saw  an  In- 
dian "'that  he  could  not  outrun  or  throw  down, 
but  that  it  was  not  always  policy  to  do  it." 

The  lineage  of  Philena  Blish  Moore  can  be 
traced  back  through  Benjamin  Blish,  senior,  and 
Phoebe  Skinner  Blish,    her  mother,  to  Abraham 


€.}£h. 


REmESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUB  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


491 


Blish,  of  Puritan  stock,  who  came  over  from 
England  as  early  as  1637.  The  Skinners  were 
perhaps  a  more  noted  family  than  the  Blishes. 
Tradition  says  that  it  was  one  of  this  family  of 
Skiimers  that  led  a  few  determined  men  and  res- 
cued a  number  of  persons  who  were  condemned 
to  be  hung  as  witches.  Hon.  Homer  H.  Hines, 
of  Painesville,  Ohio,  says  that  the  sword  he  carried 
at  that  time  was  in  existence  amongst  his  de- 
scendants as  late  as  1840,  in  Youngstown,  Ohio. 
Philena  Blish  Moore  died  in  Warrensville,  Cuya- 
hoga county,  Ohio,  May  14,  1832,  and  was  buried 
in  what  was  then  called  the  "Stiles  burying 
ground."  Isaac  Moore  died  October  9,  1885, 
at  his  son's,  Milan  Moore,  at  Farmer  City,  Illinois, 
and  his  body  is  now  in  his  son's  vault  at  Clinton, 
Illinois.  Isaac  and  Philena  B.  Moore  had  eight 
children,  Clifton  H.  Moore,  Abner  C.  Moore, 
Lucia  Orinda  Moore,  P.  Minerva  Moore,  Benja- 
min Blish  Moore,  Cornelia  Moore,  Isaac  Milan 
Moore,  and  Henry  Clay  Moore.  The  sons  are 
all  now  living  and  the  daughters  all  dead. 

Clifton,  the  eldest,  was  raised  on  a  farm  until 
he  was  eighteen  years  old,  when  his  father,  seeing 
that  he  had  a  desire  for  books  and  a  good  educa- 
tion, gave  him,  as  the  term  then  was,  "his  time." 
and  he  immediately  started  to  a  school  in  Bedford, 
Ohio,  taught  by  a  clergyman,  working  nights, 
mornings  and  Saturdays  for  his  board,  with  an- 
other clergyman,  Jasper  J.  Moss,  who  had  just 
died,  after  being  long  and  favorably  known 
amongst  the  disciples, — "Campbellites,"  as  they 
were  called  by  their  opponents. 

After  teaching  school  in  the  winter  he  went  to 
the  Farmington  Academy,  in  1837,  taught  school 
the  next  winter,  and  in  1838  attended  the  academy 
at  Painesville,  Ohio,  and  the  "Western  Reserve 
Teachers'  Institute,"  taught  by  Nelson  Slater; 
taught  school  the  next  winter,  and  early  in  April, 
1839,  with  less  than  a  hundred  dollars  in  his 
pocket,  started  for  the  South,  which  was  then  the 
Eldorado  for  all  ambitious  young  men.  He 
stopped  at  Louisville,  St.  Louis  and  some  inter- 
mediate points,  but  found  no  opening,  and  he 
went  on  up  to  Pekin,  Illinois,  where  his  lack  of 
money  (having  less  than  five  dollars  in  his  pocket) 
forced  him  to  stop.  Here  he  soon  started  a  school 
and  continued  it  for  three  terms,  reading  law  dur- 
ing all  his  time  not  taken  up  by  his  duty  to  his 


patrons  and  their  children.  Pekin  at  that  time 
had  much  more  wealth  than  Peoria.  The  Marks 
Brothers  and  the  Alexanders,  father  and  two  sons, 
were  probably  then  as  rich  men  as  there  were  in 
•  the  State.  In  the  spring  of  1840  he  was  given  a 
position  as  deputy  clerk  in  the  ofihces  of  the  clerks 
of  the  county  and  circuit  courts,  and  also  in  the 
recorder  of  deeds'  office;  and  he  cannot  be  too 
thankful  to  John  H.  Mon-ison,  John  Albert  Jones, 
Fdward  Jones,  William  H.  Holmes,  and  the  citi- 
zens of  Pekin  of  that  day,  for  the  opportunity  each 
gave  him  to  pay  his  way,  and  earn  and  save  a  little 
monev  with  which  to  buy  law  books.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  at  the  July  term  (1841)  of  the 
supreme  court  in  Springfiekl,  IHinois.  (The  su- 
preme judges  then  all  performed  the  duties  of  cir- 
cuit judges,  a  plan  which  was  abandoned  a  few 
years  afterward.) 

In  August,  1841,  he  came  to  Clinton,  Illinois, 
— containing  then  not  more  than  ten  or  fifteen 
families,  and  the  w'hole  count)'  of  DeWitt  not 
polling  over  350  votes, — where  he  commenced  the 
practice  of  the  law,  with  such  men  as  Abraliam 
Lincoln,  David  Davis,  Wells  Colton,  Asahel 
Gridley,  Charles  Emmerson,  Kirby  Benedict, 
Edward  Jones  and  others  as  his  competitors  or 
assistants.  There  was  more  litigation  in  propor- 
tion to  the  population  then  than  now;  but  fees 
were  low.  Everybody  then  came  to  court.  He 
was  considered  a  studious  and  safe  lawyer,  pre- 
pared his  cases  well,  and  got  the  right  averments 
in  his  pleadings.  Though  not  a  brilliant  talker  he 
could  make  a  judge  or  jury  understand  his  side 
of  the  case. 

At  that  time  there  was  but  little  money  to  be 
made  by  the  pure  practice  of  the  law.  As  an  ex- 
ample how  lawyers  had  to  do  in  early  times  he 
tells  of  taking  as  a  five-dollar  fee  a  rifle  gun  of 
John  Henson,  and  selling  it  to  Dudley  Richards 
afterward  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
bushels  of  com  delivered  to  him  in  town,  and  it 
was  delivered. 

In  a  few  years  he  began  to  buy  lands  and  lots. 
At  the  time  (1841)  he  went  to  Clinton  not  one- 
fourth  of  the  land  was  entered.  Most  if  not  all 
the  good  timber  was  entered  (i.e.,  bought  by  in- 
dividuals of  the  United  States)  in  the  years  1836- 
y-S.,  with  a  few  lots  of  prairie  land  adjoining  the 
timber.    At  that  time  no  one  believed  that  the  big 


492 


BIOGRAI'IIICAL  DICTIOXARY  AM)  I'ORTnAIT  (lALLEIlY  OF  Till': 


prairies  in  central  Illinois  wonld  be  settled  anil 
improved  during  this  ccntnry,  it  ever.  For  sev- 
eral vears  after  1841  land  could  be  purchased  of 
Eastern  individual  owners  cheaper  than  to  buy 
of  the  Government.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  • 
last  century  and  the  first  decade  in  this,  it  was 
gravely  debated  whether  the  prairies  of  Illinois 
would  raise  anything  but  prairie  grass,  and  the 
authorities  were  about  evenly  divided. 

From  the  crash  of  1837  until  1847  the  settlers 
away  from  the  water  ways  saw  hard  times, — no 
monc\-,  and  wheat  brought  nothing  unless  it 
wias  hauled  in  wagons  to  Chiicago.  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles,  and  sold  at  forty  cents  per  bushel. 
Hogs  driven  to  Pekin  brought  from  one  to  two 
dollars  per  hundred  live  weig.it. 

The  first  thing  that  waked  up  the  interior  of 
Illinois  was  the  Mexican  war,  and  the  little  county 
of  De  Witt  sent  a  full  company  to  the  regiment 
commanded  by  Colonel  E.  D.  Baker.  The  next 
event  was  the  passage,  on  September  20,  1850, 
by  Congress,  of  Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas' 
land  grant  for  a  railroad  from  Cairo  to  Dubuque, 
with  a  branch  to  Chicago.  The  originator  of  this 
measure  was  Sidney  Breese,  once  a  United  States 
senator,  and  for  many  years  after  one  of  the  jus- 
tices of  our  supreme  court.  In  a  few  days  every 
land  office  on  the  supposed  route  was  closed,  and 
remained  closed  until  August,  1852. 

In  1848  the  people  of  Illinois  adopted  a  new 
constitution,  in  which  was  embodied  a  clause  in 
a  separate  article  that  a  tax  of  two  mills  should 
he  levied  yearly  on  all  the  taxable  propert)'  in  the 
State,  the  amount  of  the  same  to  be  used  solely 
for  paying  the  bonds  of  the  State.  The  State  debt 
was  then,  as  near  as  could  be  guessed,  about 
fourteen  million  dollars,  and  its  bonds  were  worth 
only  fourteen  cents  on  the  dollar.  The  separate 
clause  was  adopted  by  a  very  large  majority,  and 
our  bonds  in  twelve  moiiths  went  up  to  par.  This 
vote  and  this  grant  was  the  commencement  of  the 
prospierity  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  Our  fairmers 
for  a  limited  time  since  then  have  seen  hard  times 
and  poor  money,  but  as  a  whole  they  have  from 
that  time  to  this  made  as  much  money  or  property 
as  any  other  class  of  men  in  the  country.  When  the 
land  offices  were  opened  there  was  a  great  de- 
mand for  land.  Land  warramits  that  coull  then 
be  purchased  for  sixty  cents  per  acre  in  a  little 


time  brought  seventy-five,  eighty,  ninety,  and  the 
l;ist  l>ouglit  b_\'  the  writer,  purchased  in  St,'  Louis 
in  1856,  at  one  dollar  and  five  cents. 

The  practice  of  the  law  in  little  county  seats, 
or  in  fact  outside  of  the  great  commercial  cities, 
was  never  very  lucrative.  With  energy,  skill  and 
the  hardest  kind  of  work  one  could  make  a  liv- 
ing, but  no  more,  imless  he  took  on  some  other 
line  of  business  and  one  that  did  not  interfere  with 
his  professional  duties.  A  successful  lawyer  in 
the  country  must  necessarily  be  a  better  all-around 
lawyer  than  one  in  a  city.  The  first  has  to  try  all 
k-inds  of  cases, — torts,  oontracts  and  equitable 
cases;  the  latter  takes  some  one  branch  of  the  law 
and  makes  it  a  specialty. 

As  early  as  1841  Mr.  jNIoore  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Judge  David  Davis,  and  as  early  as  1847 
or  1848  had  some  little  land  operations  with  him, 
and  in  1852  formed  the  copartnership  of  Davis 
&  Moore,  whose  sole  business  was  to  buy  land 
and  hold  all  they  could  of  it  and  pay  their  debts. 
That  copartnership  continued  until  the  same  was 
closed  by  the  death  of  the  judge,  June  26,  1886. 
How  beneficial  it  was  to  the  parties  will  not  be 
stated  here.  Mr.  Moore  never  had  but  two  law 
partners:  Hon.  Henry  S.  Greene,  now  of  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  and  the  Hon.  Vespasian  Warner, 
his  son-in-law;  but  he  continued  in  his  profession 
until  about  two  or  three  years  since,  when  he 
quit  attending  court,  but  occasionally  helps  Mr. 
Warner  w  hen  he  is  crowded. 

While  Mr.  ?iIoore  seems  to  have  been  a  suc- 
cessful business  man,  as  his  lands  and  taxes  would 
seem  to  indicate,  his  idiosyncrasy  tends  to  the 
l)u\ing  of  books  and  pictures.  Besides  his  fine 
law  library  he-  has  a  library  of  some  twelve  to  fif- 
teen thousand  volumes  of  miscellaneous  books, 
wliere  he  spends  as  much  of  liis  time  as  private 
business  will  permit.  He  goes  to  his  office  six 
days  in  a  week,  and  sometimes  seven,  uses  no 
tobacco  in  any  fonn,  and  wliisky  only  as  medicine. 
He  is  now  nearing  his  seventy-eighth  birthday, 
and  says  that  he  does  not  realize  his  age  only  in 
getting  out  or  in  a  carriage.  Goes  to  Iowa  and 
Nebraska  once  a  year  alone,  to  look  after  his  in- 
vestments or  make  new  ones.  But  he  does  not 
hurry  or  worr>',  and  is  willing  to  let  the  young 
men  around  him  have  a  "chance." 

In  religion,  while  he  contributes  fairly  well  to 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


493 


all  the  cluirchcs,  lie  may  be  called  an  "ag-nostic" : 
and  yet  it  can  be  truthfully  said  that  he  has  the 
respect  and  esteem  of  all  the  religious  people. 

Mr.  Moore  looks  and  acts  as  if  he  were  good 
for  many  years'  service  yet,  but  says  he  ought  to 
he  willing  to  go  any  time  that  the  summons  conies. 
He  says  that  from  the  time  he  came  to  Illinois,  in 
1839,  up  to  the  present  time  he  has  not  lost  over 
four  weeks  in  all  by  sickness  and  accidents. 

He  has  been  married  twice:  in   1845  to  Miss 


Elizabeth  Riclnrond,  daughter  of  Horace  Rich- 
mond, Esq.,  of  Tremont,  Illinois,  by  whom  he  had 
four  children,  only  one  of  which  (Arthur  Moore) 
is  now  living.  His  first  wife  died  April  29,  1872, 
and  in  July,  1874,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Rose 
C>nstine,  daughter  of  Mr.  George  Onstine,  of 
North  Amherst,  Lorain  county,  Ohio,  who  is  now- 
living.  He  says  his  domestic  relations  have  al- 
^^■ays  been  pleasant,  and  he  looks  forward  to  an 
agreeable  old  age. 


JOHN  FRANK  LEONARD, 


KANKAKEE. 


THE  history  of  mankind  is  replete  with  illus- 
trations of  the  fact  that  it  is  only  under  the 
pressure  of  adversity  and  the  stimulus  of  oppo- 
sition that  the  best  and  strongest  in  men  are 
brought  out  and  developed.  Perhaps  the  history 
of  no  people  so  forcibly  impresses  one  with  this 
truth  as  the  annals  of  our  own  Republic;  and  cer- 
tainly in  our  own  land  the  palm  must  be  awarded 
to  New  England's  sturdy  .sons.  If  anything  can 
inspire  the  youth  of  our  country  to  persistent, 
honest  and  laudable  endeavor  it  should  be  the  life 
record  of  such  men  as  he  of  whom  we  write. 
The  example  of  the  illustrious  few  of  our  country- 
men who  have  risen  from  obscurity  to  the  highest 
positions  in  the  gift  of  the  nation  serves  often  to 
awe  our  young  men  rather  than  inspire  them  to 
emulation,  because  they  reason  that  only  a  few 
can  ever  attain  such  eminence;  but  the  history  of 
such  men  as  John  Frank  Leonard  proves  con- 
clusively that  with  a  reasonable  amount  of  mental 
and  physical  power  success  is  bound  eventually 
to  crown  the  endeavors  of  those  who  have  the  am- 
bition to  put  forth  their  best  efforts,  and  the  will 
and  manliness  to  persevere  therein. 

The  history  of  the  Leonard  family  may  be 
found  very  fully  recorded  in  almost  any  of  the 
leading  libraries  of  our  land.  It  is  traced  back 
through  England,  Scotland  and  Wales,  where  for 
centuries  they  have  borne  a  prominent  part  in  in- 
dustrial history  and  particularly  in  the  iron  and 
mining  interests.  They  were  among  the  first  of 
our  early  Colonists,  settling  in  Massachusetts  and 
establishing  near  Taunton,  in  Bristol  county,  the 


first  iron  foundry  ever  built  in  America.  Their 
descendants  scattered  through  New  England  and 
later  through  the  Western  States,  to  become- 
valued  citizens  of  the  various  communities,  repre- 
sentatives of  our  best  citizenship. 

The  gentleman  whose  name  introduces  this 
article  was  born  in  Bennington  county,  Vermont, 
on  the  i6th  of  September,  1848,  and  is  a  son  of 
John  Townsend  and  Catherine  (Woodard)  Leon- 
ard. The  country  in  that  locality  was  bleak  and 
spare,  and  his  parents,  like  their  neighbors,  were 
poor.  When  their  son  was  about  ten  years  of 
age  they  removed  to  seek  a  home  in  the  West, 
hoping  thereby  to  benefit  their  financial  condition 
in  a  locality  where  the  country  offered  better  ad- 
vantages and  where  there  was  not  as  great  compe- 
tition as  in  the  older  and  more  thickly  settled 
States  of  the  East.  Accordingly  they  secured  a 
farm  about  four  miles  from  the  present  city  of 
Kankakee,  and  at  the  old  homestead  Mr.  Leonard 
passed  his  boyhood  days  in  farm  labor,  with  an 
occasional  three  months'  term  of  instruction  at 
the  district  school;  but  even  this  scant  educational 
advantage  was  soon  denied  him,  as  the  death  of 
his  father  left  him — the  only  son — the  main  sup- 
port of  his  mother.  Possibl}-,  after  all,  this  was 
the  best  scliooling  he  could  obtain,  for  he  early 
learned  the  lessons  of  self-reliance,  industry  and 
honorable  dealing,  making  them  a  part  of  his 
very  nature. 

AFr.  Leonard  remained  tipon  the  old  home  farm 
until  1867,  when  getting  together  all  the  capital 
he  could  secure  he  came  to  Kankakee  and  en- 


494 


BIOORAPIIWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OF  TIIH! 


gaged  in  tlie  livery  business.  This  was  his  first  in- 
dependent imdertaking,  and  two  years  later  he 
found  himself  absolutely  penniless.  He  had  be- 
fore had  to  encounter  difficulties,  but  this  was 
his  first  serious  reverse,  and  it  served  to  develop 
tlie  latent  manliness  of  his  nature.  Instead  of  be- 
coming discouraged  and  disheartened,  he  at  cwice 
set  to  work  to  retrieve  his  lost  possessions,  and 
considered  no  honorable  labor  beneath  him  if  it 
would  bring  him  an  honest  livelihood.  He  ac- 
cepted a  position  as  hostler  in  a  livery  stable,  but 
he  was  not  destined  to  remain  long  in  that  hum- 
ble situation.  He  was  soon  elected  constable 
and  so  creditably  filled  that  position  that  he  was 
chosen  tax  collector  of  Kankakee  and  subse- 
quently was  twice  elected  city  marshal.  In  the 
session  of  1878-9  he  was  committee  clerk  of  the 
senate  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  when  his  duties 
were  ended  there  he  was  appointed  supervisor  of 
the  Illinois  Eastern  Hospital  for  the  Insane  at 
Kankakee.  In  i\Iarch,  1880,  he  was  nominated 
and  elected  clerk  of  the  circuit  court  and  recorder 
of  deeds,  which  position  he  acceptably  filled  during 
the  twelve  succeeding  years,  or  until  1892.  In 
the  meantime  he  also  served  for  four  years  as 
supervisor  of  the  town  and  alderman  of  the  first 
ward  for  one  term.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  his 
worth  and  ability  were  appreciated  by  his  fellow 
townsmen,  and  by  his  steady  advance  he  was  work- 
ing his  way  upward  to  an  honored  position  among 
the  leading  citizens  of  Kankakee. 

Upon  leaving  the  clerk's  office,  Mr.  Leonard 
was  made  assignee  of  two  large  furniture  facto- 
ries wliich  had  failed;  and,  although  this  branch 
of  business  was  entirely  new  to  him  and  there  was 
a  corps  of  about  250  men  thus  placed  under  his 
control,  he  closed  up  the  afifairs  of  the  company 
in  a  most  satisfactory  manner.  In  the  meantime, 
in  1893,  he  was  elected  mayor  of  the  city,  and  his 


administration  of  the  affairs  of  that  office  proved 
of  great  benefit  to  the  city,  and  reflected  credit 
upon  the  sound  judgment  and  keen  discrimination 
of  the  chief  executive  of  Kankakee.  He  also 
found  time  to  purchase  the  right  of  way  for  the 
Indiana,  Illinois  &  Iowa  Railroad  from  Knox, 
Indiana,  to  South  Bend. 

On  the  17th  of  October,  1894,  he  was  chosen 
cashier  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Kankakee, 
— succeeding  Daniel  C.  Taylor,  deceased, — in 
which  position  he  is  still  creditably  and  acceptably 
serving.  He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 
Kankakee  Building  &  Loan  Association,  of  which 
he  is  now  president.  This  concern  has  been  one 
of  the  most  profitable  and  beneficial  in  its  results 
of  all  undertakings  ever  fostered  in  this  city.  Its 
last  report  shows  that  in  the  ten  years  of  its  ex- 
istence it  has  earned  and  saved  for  its  member* 
$234,981.78,  and  this  at  an  average  yearly  ex- 
pense of  only  $473.57.  They  have  foreclosed  only 
two  mortgages,  and  have  met  with  not  one  dol- 
lar's loss.  Truly  a  remarkable  showing,  which 
reflects  great  credit  upon  the  enterprise, — its  di- 
rectors and  managers. 

Mr.  Leonard  has  always  been  a  great  admirer 
of  horses  and  has  been  active  in  the  promotion 
and  management  of  the  Kankakee  Driving  Park 
Association;  was  for  two  years  its  secretary,  and 
is  now  a  director.  He  has  always  been  a  Repul> 
lican  in  politics.  Socially,  he  is  connected  with 
Kankakee  Lodge,  No.  389  F.  &  A.  M. ;  Kanka- 
kee Chapter,  No.  78,  R.  A.  M.;  and  Ivanhoe  Com- 
mandery.  No.  33,  K.  T.  He  has  served  as  master 
of  his  lodge,  high  priest  of  the  chapter,  and  is 
now  commander. 

Such  is  the  record  of  a  man  who  has  worked  his 
way  upward  from  an  obcure  position  to  one  of 
eminence  in  the  community  where  he  has  so  long 
resided. 


REPRESEXTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  VNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


495 


W.  K.  GILLETT, 


IT  is  proper  that  Chicago,  being  the  greatest 
railroad  center  in  the  world,  should  be  the 
initial  point  of  the  greatest  railroad  in  the  world. 
Less  tlian  half  a  decade  ago,  the  Atchison,  To- 
peka  &  Santa  Fe  Railway  Company  assumed  the 
task  of  making  their  road  truly  American.  In 
November,  1890,  under  an  arrangement  with  the 
Chicago,  Peoria  &  St.  Louis  Railroad  Company, 
a  through  line  between  Chicago  and  St.  Louis 
was  opened,  and,  since  that  time,  this  gigantic 
railroad  has  brought  Chicago  into  direct  commu- 
nication with  Galveston  on  the  Gulf  and  San 
Francisco  on  the  Pacific,  opening  up  an  immense 
region  to  Chicago's  trade  and  proving  to  the 
world  the  inexhaustible  genius  for  great  things 
possessed  by  American  railroad  builders. 

W.  K.  Gillett  became  auditor  of  disbursements 
in  Febnian,',  1890,  and  thus  was  connected  with 
the  road  when  its  modern  policy  of  development 
came  into  effect.  The  chief  executive  officer  of 
the  company  looked  around  him  for  competent 
aids  rather  than  for  ornamental  ones,  and  as  a 
result  men  of  experience  and  industry  were  pro- 
moted and  incompetency  cast  aside. 

Mr.  Gillett,  now  general  auditor  of  this  great 
corporation,  was  born  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana, 
January  i,  1857.  His  parents  were  John  Gillett, 
a  native  of  Connecticut,  and  Elizabeth  J.  Gillett, 
of  Maryland.  He  received  a  practical  education 
in  private  schools  of  Harrisburg  and  Philadel- 
phia, Pennsylvania,  and  when  school  days  were 
over  entered  railroad  service,  in  which  service 
he  has  been  continuously  engaged  to  the  pres- 
ent day.  On  January  5,  1874,  he  began  work 
in  the  general  offices  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road at  Philadelphia,  and  was  clerk  in  various 
offices  of  the  accounting  department  until  the 
spring  of  1883,  when  he  resigned  to  accept  the 
chief  clerkship  in  the  accounting  department  of 
the  New  York,  West  Shore  &  Buffalo  Railroad 
Company,  at  New  York  city.  In  1884,  he  was 
promoted  auditor  of  passenger  accounts  for  the 
same  company:  but  when  the  road  was  consol- 


idated with  the  New  York  Central  &  Hudson 
River  Railroad  he  resigne<l,  to  accept  the  posi- 
tion of  chief  clerk  in  the  general  ticket  deport- 
ment of  the  Boston  &  Albany  Railroad,  at 
Springfield,  ^fassachusetts.  Tliat  important  of- 
fice he  held  until  January  i,  1887,  when  he  was 
appointed  auditor  of  passenger  accounts  for  the 
New  York  Ceaitral  &  Hudson  River  Railroad,  in 
New  York  city.  On  Febniary  i,  1890,  he  re- 
signed to  accept  the  position  of  aiiditor  of  dis- 
bursements for  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa 
Fe  Railroad,  at  Toipeka,  Ivansas.  His  promotion 
to  assistant  general  aiuHtor  w'as  recorded  March 
I,  1891,  and  his  last  promotion,  to  general 
auditor,  March  9,  1893. 

To'  his  will  to  think  and  to  labor  and  the  ability 
to  carry  out  that  will,  these  rapid  promotions  are 
due;  for  there  is  no  room,  even  in  the  great  Santa 
Fe  system,  for  drones,  while  personal  preferments 
c^rry  but  little  weight.  He  won  his  way  to  a 
high  position  in  the  service,  like  some  gallant 
soldier  under  the  old  Napoleon,  and  the  manage- 
ment tendered  what  he  won.  In  his  twenty-one 
years  of  sendee  he  never  lost  a  day's  time  and 
never  left  a  position  on  any  of  the  five  roads 
with  which  he  has  been  connected,  until  certain 
of  promotion.  Now,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven 
years,  he  holds  the  honors  of  being  the  youngest 
general  auditor  employed  by  any  of  tlie  leading 
American  railroad  systems,  and  of  being  the  gen- 
eral auditor  of  the  greatest  railroad  in  mileage 
in  America  and  consequently  in  the  world. 

With  twenty-one  years  of  serious  laborious 
work  and  study  in  railroad  affairs,  he  carries  his 
age  admirably,  looking  rather  like  a  young  man 
of  twentj'-five  summers  than  one  of  thirty-seven 
winters,  who  is  already  a  veteran  in  the  railroad 
service  of  the  United  States. 

His  man-iage  to  Miss  Mary  W.  X^ncent,  of 
Pliiladelphia,  Pennsylvania,  took  place  January 
I,  1884,  and  they  have  one  child,  named  Harold. 
In  social  matters  Mr.  Gillett  is  a  member  of  the 
Chicago  and  Marquette  Clubs. 


496 


DIOQRAPinCAL  DICTIONAUT  AND  PORTltAlT  OAIJ.FAIY  OF  THE 


WILLIAM  BOIDEN  HOWARD, 

CHICAGO. 


RISING  above  the  masses  there  have  always 
been  a  series  of  individuals,  distinguished 
beyond  others,  who,  by  reason  of  their  great  abil- 
ity and  powerful  individuality,  have  always  com- 
manded the  homage  of  their  fellow  men,  and  who 
have  revealed  to  the  world  those  two  bright  vir- 
tues of  a  lordly  race, — ^perseverance  of  purpose 
and  a  spirit  of  conduct  that  never  fails. 

Throughout  the  great  Northwest  may  be  found 
many  men  who  have  marked  with  deeds  the  van- 
ishing traces  of  swift-rolling  time,  and  whose 
names  are  kept  green  in  the  memory  of  those 
who  in  life  were  their  associates.  There  is,  how- 
ever, in  all  branches  of  industry  one  individual 
whose  name  will  pass  down  to  posterity  as  the 
leader  in  the  occupation  in  which  he  engaged 
during  his  life-time.  He  whose  name  heads  this 
biography  is  entitled  to  the  distinguished  honor 
of  being  the  greatest  railroad  builder  of  his  time, — 
a  period  during  which  a  large  majority  of  all  the 
miles  of  railroad  of  this  country  were  constructed. 

William  Boiden  Howard,  son  of  William  and 
Orilla  (Needham)  Howard,  was  born  in  Wales, 
Massachusetts,  December  9,  1832.  His  early  edu- 
cation was  oljtained  in  the  public  schools,  first  at 
Wales,  Massachusetts,  and  later  at  Ellington,  Con- 
necticut, for  a  year.  After  leaving  school  he  ob- 
tained a  clerkship  in  Utica,  New  York.  Early  in 
life  he  displayed  those  qualities  of  perseverance 
and  reliability  which  in  later  years  have  enabled 
him  to  reach  the  high  position  which  he  now  occu- 
pies. He  soon  mastered  the  details  of  the  busi- 
ness in  which  he  was  engaged,  and  a  few  years 
later  he  launched  into  mercantile  business  on 
his  own  account  in  Springfield.  Chicago  at  that 
time,  although  a  comparatively  small  city,  dis- 
played much  oi  the  enterprise  which  has  made 
it  the  foremost  city  of  our  countn,',  and  thither 
journeyed  many  of  the  more  entcq^rising  of  the 
young  men  of  the  East. 

New  England  has  sent  forth  from  her  cradle 
many  sturdy  sons  to  people  her  sister  States. 
Nurtured  in  the  pure  atmosphere  of  that  section, 
the  boys  of  honest,  thoughtful  and  hard-work- 
ing  jjarents    liave    gone  to  build  for  themselves 


homes  and  fortunes  in  newer  and  more  favored 
localities,  and  these  representatives  of  worthy  an- 
cestors have  made  their  influence  felt  all  over 
this  broad  country-,  setting  examples  of  prudence, 
energy,  activity  and  shrewd  thought  to  native- 
born  and  foreign  citizens.  Chicago,  in  common 
with  her  compeers  on  the  shores  of  the  Great 
Lakes  and  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  owes 
much  to  this  commingling  of  New  England  and 
Western  elements  in  its  business  and  social  life. 
The  subject  of  this  sketch  came  to  Chicago  in 
December,  1854,  bringing  with  him  a  stock  of 
physical  and  mental  health;  but  financially  his 
capital  was  small.  He  became  an  employee  of 
the  firm  of  Stone  &  Boomer,  contractors,  with 
whom  he  continued  for  some  time,  learning  all 
the  details  of  the  business  and  displaying  a  high 
degree  of  ability  in  that  branch  of  industry. 

Just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion,  Mr.  Howard,  associated  with  Newton 
Chapin,  organized  the  firm  of  Chapin  &  Howard, 
which  at  once  became  a  prominent  competitor 
for  various  large  and  important  contracts.  The 
first  contract  awarded  to  them  was  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  wooden  bridge  over  the  Chicago 
river  at  \'an  Buren  street.  They  received  the 
contract  not  only  on  the  strength  of  their  bid, 
but  also  for  the  reason  that  they  agreed  to  com- 
plete the  structure  within  ninety  da}s.  As  from 
six  months  to  a  year  had  been  occupied  by  other 
contractors  in  building  similar  bridges,  few  be- 
lieved that  the  successful  bidders  would  be  able 
to  do  as  they  had  promised,  but  Mr.  Howard  and 
his  partner  began  the  work  with  the  determination 
that  all  their  agreements  regarding  time  and  the 
quality  of  their  work  should  be  carefully  con- 
summated, and  with  characteristic  energy  they 
proved  that  they  had  not  foolishly  agreed  to  do 
more  than  they  could  accomplish  within  a  speci- 
fied time.  The  successful  completion  of  their 
contract  within  the  time  specified  not  only 
brought  the  firm  prominently  before  the  people, 
but  it  also  served  to  revolutionize  the  methods 
of  constructing  the  wooden  bridges  then  in  use. 
The  firm  then  accepted  a  contract  to  construct 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


497 


a  railroad  in  Alabama.  ]\Ir.  Howard  started 
South  to  the  field  of  his  labors  with  forty  skilled 
carpenters,  railroad  builders  and  mechanics.  An 
idea  of  the  limited  amount  of  the  firm's  capital 
at  that  time  may  be  gleaned  from  the  fact  that 
the  transportation  of  the  party  to  its  destination 
consumed  almost  all  of  the  firm's  cash  capital. 
Mr.  Howard  had  been  informed  that  the  neces- 
sary amount  of  timber  had  been  framed,  but  upon 
arriving  at  the  destination  learned  that  not  a 
day's  work  had  been  done.  The  civil  engineer, 
however,  instructed  him  to  proceed  with  the 
building  of  the  road.  Considerable  progress  had 
been  made  and  a  large  amount  of  money  had  been 
earned  when  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  was  in- 
augurated and  the  State  of  Alabama  repudiated 
its  promise  to  issue  bonds  to  aid  the  enterprise. 
Work  was  thereupon  immediately  stopped,  and 
Mr.  Howard,  gathering  as  much  as  he  could  of 
his  property,  boarded  a  train  for  Chicago  with 
less  than  $800  in  his  pocket.  He  was  fortunate, 
however,  in  being  able  to  reach  Chicago  at  all, 
for  the  train  on  which  he  was  a  passenger  was  the 
last  but  one  which  carried  passengers  from  Ala- 
bama beyond  ]\Iasoii  and  Dixon's  line  until  after 
the  surrender  of  Lee. 

After  arriving  in  Chicago  Mr.  Howard  resumed 
work  with  his  partner,  but  shortly  thereafter  the 
firm  was  dissolved.  ]\Ir.  Howard  then  formed  a 
partnership  with  Harry  Fox,  under  the  style  of 
Fox  &  Howard,  general  contractors.  The  branch 
of  industries  in  which  they  became  most  conspic- 
uous was  in  bridge-building  and  in  dredging. 
They  constructed  nearly  all  the  bridges  for  the 
city  and  did  all  of  the  city's  dredging  for  many 
years  thereafter,  or  until  the  time  of  the  great  fire 
in  1871.  The  firm  became  well  and  favorably 
known  not  only  in  Chicago,  but  in  various  sec- 
tions of  the  United  States.  During  this  period 
they  also  built  the  old  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal, 
and  erected  locks  on  the  Fox  river  for  the  United 
States  Government,  and  various  municipalities 
and  private  individuals.  They  also  built  a  part 
of  the  La  Salle  street  tunnel. 

From  the  facts  heretofore  related  it  may  be 
surmised  that  the  affairs  of  the  firm  were  pro- 
gressing prosperously  when  the  great  fire  of  1871 
destroyed  their  plant,  together  with  their  docks 
and  all  their  property.  The  fire  destroyed  ever}-- 
:i2 


thing  they  possessed  excepting  their  credit.  They 
borrowed  capital  and  again  entered  business  and 
soon  found  themselves  upon  the  road  to  pros- 
perity. They  accepted  a  large  contract, — that 
of  building  the  Sturgeon  Bay  Canal, — and  upon 
the  strength  of  this  they  easily  borrowed  money 
enough  to  rebuild  their  plant  and  again  to  resume 
work. 

The  panic  of  1873  swept  across  the  country  like 
a  prairie  fire  over  the  plains  of  die  West  and 
swept  many  of  the  theretofore  prosperous  firms 
into  insolvency.  Tlie  Sturgeon  Bay  Company 
found  itself  unable  to  place  its  bonds,  and  being 
unable  to  pursue  its  labors,  and  finding  it  impos- 
sible to  collect  its  pay  for  what  it  had  already 
accomplished,  the  firm  of  Fox  &  Howard  was 
forced  to  make  an  assignment  for  the  benefit  of 
its  creditors. 

The  magnificent  and  massive  edifice  to  which 
all  the  citizens  of  the  State  of  Lidiana  point  with 
pride,  and  which  the  residents  of  Indianapolis 
delight  to  exhibit  to  all  visitors  as  one  of  the 
grand  buildings  of  our  countrj^  is  the  Indiana 
State  capitol,  which  will  be  a  lasting  monument 
to  the  memory  of  its  builder,  the  subject  of  this 
sketch.  Associated  with  Walston  H.  Brown, 
of  New  York,  and  C.  R.  Cunnnings,  of  this 
city,  j\lr.  Howard  organized  the  firm  of  Brown, 
Howard  &  Company,  railroad  contractors  and 
builders.  This  firm  built  the  New  York,  Chi- 
cago &  St.  Louis  Railroad,  commonly  called  the 
"Nickel  Plate.''  They  rebuilt  and  extended  the 
old  Lake  Erie  &  Western  Railroad,  and  built 
the  various  lines  which  were  known  as  the  Mackay 
system.  These  lines  were  the  Ohio  Central;  the 
Peoria,  Decatur  &  Evansville;  (the  Cincinnaiti, 
Jackson  &  Mackinaw;  and  the  Duluth,  South 
Shore  &  Atlantic).  He  later  built  many  other 
railroads  of  equal  importance.  Mr.  Howard  de- 
voted his  attention  to  the  fulfillment  of  all  the 
contracts  and  personally  superintended  the  build- 
ing of  more  miles  of  railroad  than  any  other  in- 
dividual in  the  United  States.  Although  most 
of  his  time  and  attention  during  the  later  years  of 
his  business  life  have  been  devoted  to  the  con- 
struction of  railroads,  he  nevertheless  engaged  in 
and  completed  one  of  the  most  important  reser- 
voirs in  the  United  States.  In  1885  he  completed 
the  building  of  the  great  Croton  aqueduct,  which 


498 


liionnAPincAL  dtcttonary  and  portiiatt  OALLEnr  of  tub 


supplies  the  city  of  New  York  with  the  water  it 
consumes  for  all  purposes.  About  the  time  he 
finished  this  undertaking  he  was  attacked  by  ill- 
ness, and  having  not  fully  recovered  therefrom 
he  has  since  led  a  life  of  retirement  and  ease,  en- 
joying the  fruits  of  his  early  labors  and  hardships. 

Mr.  Howard  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  fra- 
ternity. Socially  he  is  much  esteemed.  He  is  a 
member  of  nearly  all  of  the  more  important  clubs 
of  Chicago,  among  them  being  the  Chicago, 
Washington  Park,  Union  and  Calumet.  He  is 
also  a  meml)er  of  the  Union  League  Club  of  New 
York  city,  also  the  New  York  Yacht  Club,  and 
he  is  also  a  member  of  the  several  different  clubs 
and  organizations  of  Bar  Harbor,  Maine.  He 
has  traveled  extensively  both  in  the  United  States 
and  Europe,  having  made  three  visits  abroad, 
during  which  he  visited  all  of  the  European  coun- 
tries. He  has  also  journeyed  through  northern 
Africa. 

He  is  a  pronounced  Republican,  and  takes  a 
deep  interest  as  a  citizen  in  the  welfare  of  his 
party.  He  has  frequently  been  requested  to  per- 
mit his  name  to  be  used  in  connection  with  some 
public  elective  position  of  honor  and  trust,  but 
has  invariably  declined,  preferring  to  devote  his 
attention  to  his  business  and  private  afifairs 
rather  than  engage  in  a  contest  for  any  position 
before  the  people. 

Mr.  Howard  was  united  in  marriage  July  20, 
1853,  to  Miss  Sarah  Jane  De  Creet,  of  Spring- 
field, Massachusetts.  Mrs.  Howard  is  a  daugh- 
ter of  Joseph  D.  De  Creet.  She  was  born  Janu- 
ary 14,  1837,  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts.  She 
is  a  woman  of  exceptionally  fine  attainments,  a 


devoted  mother  and  a  loving  wife,  who  within 
the  circle  of  her  home  sheds  a  brightness  and  a 
luster  about  her  which  endears  her  to  all  with 
whom  she  comes  in  contact.  Air.  and  Mrs.  How- 
ard are  the  parents  of  five  children:  William  D.. 
Maude  H.,  wife  of  Hon.  George  S.  Willits; 
Harold  A.,  who  married  Miss  Byran,  of  Chicago; 
John  C,  and  Durant. 

A  maternal  ancestor  of  our  subject,  Mr.  Need- 
ham,  settled  in  Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  1640. 
He  was  a  direct  descendant  of  Lord  Needham. 
His  great-grandfather,  Thayer,  father  of  his 
grandmother  Needham,  was  a  soldier  in  the  Rev- 
olutionary war,  and  drew  a  pension  until  ninety- 
two  years  of  age. 

William  Howard,  father  of  our  subject,  was 
bom  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  and  died  in 
1837.  Orilla  (Needham)  Howard,  born  in  181 1, 
is  still  living,  in  Utica,  New  York. 

As  a  business  man  Mr.  Howard  has  been  con- 
spicuous among  his  associates,  not  only  for  his  su 
success,  but  for  his  probity,  fairness  and  honorable 
methods.  In  everything  he  has  been  eminently 
practical,  and  this  has  been  not  only  manifest  in 
his  business  imdertakings,  but  also  in  private  and 
social  life.'  Having  made  his  way  through  the 
world  by  dint  of  his  own  efforts  he  has  always 
had  a  kindly  sympathy  for  those  whom  he  found 
starting  in  life  as  he  had  started.  He  has  inter- 
ested himself  in  advancing  men  who  were  strug- 
gling to  obtain  a  foothold  in  the  business  world. 
Reserved  in  his  disposition  and  manners,  he 
is  at  the  same  time  warm-hearted  and  genial 
and  has  drawn  about  him  a  circle  of  devoted 
friends. 


DUNCAN  M.  FUNK, 


BLOOMINGTON. 


THE  unostentatious  routine  of  private  life, 
although  of  vast  importance  to  the  welfare  of 
the  community,  has  not  figured  to  any  great  extent 
in  the  pages  of  history.  But  the  names  of  men 
who  have  distinguished  themselves  by  the  posses- 
sion of  those  qualities  of  character  which  mainly 
contribute  to  the  success  of  private  life  and  to 
the  public  stability,  and  who  have  enjoyed  the  re- 


spect and  confidence  of  those  around  them  should 
not  be  permitted  to  perish.  Their  example  is  more 
valuable  to  the  majority  of  readers  than  that  of 
heroes,  statesmen  and  writers,  as  they  furnish 
means  of  subsistence  for  the  multitude  whom 
they  in  their  useful  careers  have  employed. 

Such  are  the  thoughts  that  involuntarily  come 
to  our  minds  when  we  consider  the  life  of  him 


^  Kx^^j^^JU-^^^^^j^^^Ajtt^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


499 


whose  name  initiates  this  sketch.  Duncan  AT. 
Funk  is  the  fourth  son  of  Isaac  and  Cassandra 
(Sharp)  Funk,  and  was  bom  at  Funk's  Grove, 
McLean  county,  IlHnois,  June  i,  1832.  He  was 
reared  upon  the  family  homestead  and  brought 
up  to  the  habits  of  industry  and  economy,  and  up- 
right principles.  During  his  boyhood  he  attended 
the  district  school,  but  most  of  his  education  has 
been  obtained  by  observation  in  the  school  of  ex- 
perience. He  remained  upon  the  fami  until  he 
was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  when  he  entered 
business  life  as  a  merchant  in  Bloominglon,  a 
member  of  the  firm  of  Temple  &  Funk.  He  con- 
tinued in  the  mercantile  business  until  1866,  when 
he  again  returned  to  the  farm  which  he  has  oper- 
ated ever  since,  although  residing  in  Blooming- 
ton.  His  farm  consists  of  2,400  acres,  on  which  he 
fattens  cattle  and  hogs  in  large  numbers. 

Upon  the  death  of  Isaac  Funk,  in  1865,  his  es- 
tate, which  was  the  largest  owned  by  any  individ- 
ual in  central  Illinois,  was  amicably  divided 
among  his  heirs  without  a  will.  He  was  largely 
interested  in  the  First  National  Bank  of  Bloom- 
ington,  and  his  stock  therein  reverted  to  his  heirs. 
Thus  our  subject  became  interested  in  the  institu- 
tion, and  in  1874  he  was  elected  its  president.  For 
more  than  twenty  years  he  has  now  been  the  pre- 
siding officer  and  controlling  spirit  of  this,  one  of 
the  most  successful  of  the  financial  institutions  of 
the  State.    The  capital  of  the  bank  now  is  $225,- 


000,  and  surplus  $150,000.  As  a  financier  Mr. 
Funk  has  displayed  strong  traits  of  character, 
and  has  safely  conducted  his  institution  through  all 
storms  without  injury.  He  is  also  interested  finan- 
cially in  the  First  National  Bank  of  Shelbyville, 
Illinois,  the  Bankers'  National  Bank  of  Chicago, 
First  National  Bank  of  Normal,  and  the  State" 
Bank  of  Hayvvorth.  He  is  also  a  stockholder  in 
the  Bloomington  Gaslight  and  Heating  Com- 
pany. 

Politically,  Mr.  Funk  has  always  been  a  stal- 
wart Republican — ^a  firm  believer  in  Republican 
principles  and  a  strong  advocate  of  the  doctrines 
of  that  party.  He  is  in  no  sense  a  politician, 
never  desiring  political  advancement.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board  of  Supervisors  of  Bloomington 
township,  he  has  for  the  past  twenty  years  served 
his  fellow  citizens  with  conscientious  care.     * 

He  was  married  April  16,  1857,  to  Elizabetli 
Richardson,  a  native  of  Indiana,  but  at  that  time 
a  resident  of  McLean  county,  Illinois.  They  have 
two  children — Isabelle  and  Isaac  Lincoln. 

Such  is  the  biography  of  one  of  Bloomington's 
foremost  citizens.  F'or  forty  years  he  has  par- 
ticipated in  the  business  life  of  the  city,  and  dur- 
ing that  entire  time  he  has  so  conducted  all  affairs 
entrusted  to  him  as  to  merit  the  confidence  and 
esteem  of  the  entire  community,  and  no  word 
of  censure  has  ever  1)een  uttered  against  his 
actions. 


HENRY  M.  WILMARTH, 


THE  honored  subject  to  whom  this  memoir 
is  accorded  w'as  one  of  the  prominent, 
though  quiet  and  unassuming  citizens  of  Chicago, 
where  he  lived  and  labored  to  goodly  ends.  He 
was  born  on  the  25th  of  January,  1836,  in  New- 
port, New  Hampshire,  the  home  of  his  grand- 
parents. His  parents  'were  Jonathan  and  Lucy 
(Cheney)  Wilmarth. 

Henry  M.  Wilmarth  came  to  Chicago  in  the 
year  1856,  the  city  then  giving  slight  evidence  of 
the  greatness  which  was  ultimately  to  be  given 
it.  He  accepted  employment  in  a  gas-fixlure  es- 
tablishment  and  later   made   this   line   of  enter- 


I^rise  his  personal  occupation,  continuing  in  the 
same  during  his  life.  May  21,  1861,  Mr.  Wilmarth 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary  J.  Hawes, 
who  with  two  daughters,  Stella  and  Anna,  sur- 
vived him. 

Mr.  Wilmarth  was  a  director  in  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Chicago  from  the  time  of  its  or- 
ganization. He  united  with  others  and  was  prom- 
incntlyconcerned  in  the  establishment  of  the  Cen- 
tral Church,  over  which  Professor  David  Swing 
was  installed  as  pastor,  and  he  was  an  habitual 
and  appreciative  attendant  of  this  churcli  from  the 
time  of  its  inception  and  was  a  personal  friend  and 


500 


BIOGRAPIirCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


admirer  of  the  late  lamented  Professor  Swing. 
Coming  to  Chicago  at  a  time  when  the  city  was 
yet  in  its  infancy,  he  lent  himself  in  all  generous 
ways  to  the  perpetuation  of  those  forces  which 
conserve  the  best  interests  of  any  community,  and 
it  was  no  insignificant  part  which  he  took  in  the 
substantial  upbuilding  of  the  city.  He  was  a  man 
of  unimpeachable  integrity  and  sound  judgment. 
His  mental  acumen  was  one  which  gave  him  a 
thorough  comprehension  of  large  issues  and  at  the 
same  time  an  appreciation  of  all  essential  details. 
The  ability  to  plan  for  others  to  execute  was  a 
dominant  characteristic,  and  this,  with  the  leaven 
of  New  England  thrift,  formed  the  basis  of  his 
pronounced  business  success. 

Mr.  Wilmarth's  was  a  nature  reserved  in  ex- 


pression and  disinclined  to  publicity  in  any  form. 
His  intimate  friends  alone  knew  the  social  side 
of  his  character,  and  these  thoroughly  appreciated 
the  fact  that  he  was  genial  and  loyal  to  the  utter- 
most. His  last  illness,  which  was  consequent 
upon  an  exposure  incidental  to  a  railway  accident, 
was  almost  the  only  affliction  that  he  had  been 
called  upon  to  endure  in  this  way  during  his  long 
and  useful  life,  his  constitutional  vigor  having 
been  unimpaired  until  the  illness  came  which 
terminated  in  his  death,  on  the  27th  of  February, 
1885. 

He  was  a  man  of  true  nobility  of  character  and 
his  death  was  most  deeply  deplored  by  those  to 
whom  iiafl  come  the  fullest  recognition  of  his 
natiu'e. 


MILO  DANFORTH  CHAMBERLIN, 


FREEPORT. 


BORN  near  Syracuse,  Onondaga  county, 
New  York,  on  August  23,  1829,  as  a  boy 
Mr.  Chamberlin  secured  all  the  education  which 
he  derived  from  books  in  the  common-  schools 
of  the  vicinity  and  at  Temple  Hill  Academy.  His 
father,  Milo  Chamberlin,  a  merchant  for  many 
years,  was  a  native  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  his 
mother,  Elizabeth  (Smith)  Chamberlin,  being 
bom  in  New  Hampshire.  Mr.  Chamberlin, 
thejrefore,  came  of  good  New  England  stock, 
in  both  his  paternal  and  maternal  lines,  and  one 
of  the  prime  tenets  of  its  belief  is  that  a  boy  shall 
be  trained  at  an  early  age  to  some  useful  and 
self-supporting  occupation.  Consequently  Milo, 
when  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  commenced  to 
learn  the  printer's  trade  at  Geneseo,  New  York. 
The  printers  of  those  days  were  an  uneasy,  roving 
class,  and  the  contagion  soon  spread  to  the  youth, 
naturally  desirous  of  seeing  something  of  the 
world;  so  that  within  the  succeeding  nine  years 
we  find  him  working  at  the  case,  now  at  Goshen 
and  Elkhart,  Indiana,  now  at  Niles  and  Kalama- 
zoo, Michigan,  and  again  at  various  points  in 
New  York  State.  During  this  period  he  also  ex- 
perimented with  the  editorial  pen  and  shears, 
publishing  and  editing  the  Nunda  (New  York) 
Democrat  during  the  Cass-Tavlor  presidential 
campaign  of  1848. 


But  neither  the  printer's  trade  nor  country 
journalism  was  exactly  to  the  young  man's  liking, 
and  in  1852  (then  living  in  New  York)  he  decided 
to  visit  a  brother  who  was  in  business  at  La  Porte, 
Indiana,  with  a  view  of  commencing  a  mercantile 
career.  After  clerking  with  him  for  about  a  year, 
in  1853,  Mr.  Chamberlin  removed  to  Freeport, 
Illinois,  which  continued  to  be  his  home  for  about 
forty  years  thereafter.  Soon  after  coming  to  that 
city  be  opened  a  hat  store,  combining  aftenvard 
the  sale  of  furs  and  a  merchant  tailoring  busi- 
ness. Thus  occupied  he  continued  until  1892, 
and  when  he  disposed  of  his  establishment  he  was 
conducting  one  of  tlie  most  complete  stores  in 
northern  Illinois.  After  selling  his  business  in 
Freeport  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  asso- 
ciated his  sons  with  him.  In  October,  1894,  how- 
ever, he  returned  to  Freeport,  which  in  the  mean- 
time he  had  frequently  visited,  and  again  em- 
barked in  business  with  his  son,  Milo.  But  his 
long  period  of  unceasing  ISbor,  added  to  the  many 
business  peq)lexities  which  overtook  the  entire 
mercantile  world,  had  undermined  his  naturally 
strong  constitution.  The  death,  also,  of  a  very 
dear  friend  had  greatly  shocked  and  depressed 
him.  When  his  enfeebled  constitution  was  there- 
fore attacked  by  the  grip,  later  complicated  by 
pneumonia,   nature   was  powerless  to   rally  and 


^^^4^^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


oOl 


succumbed  with  resignation,  on  the  Qtli  of  May, 
1895. 

Ahhough  of  a  quiet  disposition,  Mr.  Cham- 
berlin  was  so  courteous  in  his  manners  and  so 
honest  in  all  his  dealings  that  he  was  among  the 
most  popular  men  in  northern  Illinois.  But  it 
was  not  through  the  channels  of  business  alone 
that  he  became  so  widely  and  favoraljly  known. 
He  was  among  the  most  prominent  Masons  in 
the  State  and  the  nation,  his  record  being  thus 
given  by  the  Illinois  Free  Mason,  the  organ  of  the 
order: 

"Brother  Chamberlin  was  initiated,  passed  and 
raised  in  Excelsior  Lodge,  No.  97,  A.  F.  & 
A.  M.,  Freeport,  Illinois,  in  1856.  Received  the 
degrees  of  Capitular  Masonry  in  1858.  Received 
the  order  of  Knighthood  in  Freeport  Com- 
mandery,  No.  7,  in  1858;  Royal  and  Select  Mas- 
ters in  Dixon,  Illinois,  in  1864;  was  created  a 
Knight  of  the  Red  Cross  of  Constaiitine,  in  Free- 
port,  in  1869:  received  the  different  grades  in  the 
Rite  of  Memphis,  in  New  York  city,  in  1867; 
received  the  different  grades  in  the  Ancient  and 
Accepted  Scottish  rite,  in  Oriental  Consistory, 
Chicago,  in  April,  1866;  was  thrice  elected  master 
of  Excelsior  Lodge,  No.  97,  Freeport,  i860- 1-2; 
elected  high  priest  of  Freeport  Chapter,  No.  23, 
R.  A.  M.,  December,  1863;  elected  eminent  com- 
mander of  Freeport  Commandery,  No.  7,  Knights 
Templar,  in  December,  1865;  elected  commander- 
in-chief  of  Freeport  Consistory,  in  1869,  and 
served  three  years." 

Mr.  Chamberlin  was  greatly  instrumental  in 
the  development  of  the  standard  w"ork  in  Illinois. 
In  the  spring  of  1864,  Grand  Master  Turner  called 
a  meeting  of  the  grand  lecturers  at  the  Tremont 
House,  Chicago,  for  the  purpose  of  adopting  a 
standard  of  work  to  be  followed  by  the  entire 
craft.  After  each  lecturer  present  had  rehearsed 
the  ritual  and  work  as  he  taught  it,  the  work  re- 


hearsed by  Mr.  Chamberlin  was  adopted  by  the 
grand  lodge.  Masters  of  lodges  and  grand  lect- 
urers were  required  to  conform  to  the  adopted 
standard,  and  he  was  appointed  custodian  of  the 
work.  Lender  authority  of  the  grand  masters, 
j\Er.  Chamberlin  supervised  the  schools  of  in- 
struction in  1864  and  1866,  and  at  the  session  of 
the  grand  lodge  in  1868  the  standard  work  was 
exemplified  l^cfore  the  grand  lodge  and  was  rc- 
afSrmed,  ^Ir.  Chamberlin  acting  as  w'orshipful 
master  on  that  occasion.  Subsequently,  under 
several  grand  masters,  he  served  as  president  of 
the  board  of  grand  examiners,  and,  as  has  been 
well  said,  "by  his  suave  manner  endeared  himself 
to  the  craft  of  the  State." 

Although  not  a  politician,  Mr.  Chani1)erlin  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  success  of  the  Republican 
party  and  to  his  unostentatious  efforts  the  local 
organization  owed  much  of  its  strength.  When 
it  was  just  coming  into  being  he  was  its  earnest 
advocate,  and  the  only  public  office  he  ever  held 
was  that  of  city  treasurer  of  Freeport,  to  which 
position  he  was  elected  in  1858.  In  his  religious 
belief  he  was  a  steadfast  Episcopalian,  although 
he  made  less  parade,  if  possible,  of  his  religion 
than  of  his  politics. 

Mr.  Chamberlin's  domestic  life  was  singularly 
happy.  United  in  marriage  to  Miss  Louisa  V. 
Loveland,  in  1855,  he  v,-as  called  upon  to  mourn 
her  death  in  October,  1884.  In  February,  1888, 
he  married  Mrs.  Margaret  M.  McCall,  who  sur- 
vives him,  with  six  children  by  his  first  wife,  viz.: 
Albert  M.  and  Charles  M.,  of  Chicago;  Jannie 
M.,  wife  of  Henry  Carney,  of  Iowa  Falls,  Iowa; 
Milo  H.,  of  Freeport;  Helen  L.,  wife  of  W.  H. 
Spencer,  of  Allegheny,  Pennsylvania;  and  Miss 
Carrie  B.  Chamljerlin.  The  widow  and  chil- 
dren are  bereft  of  a  husband  and  father, 
while  Freeport  and  the  State  of  Illinois  lose  an 
honest,  earnest,  stalwart  citizen. 


502 


r.ioanAPincAL  DicrioNARY  and  portrait  gallert  of  the 


GEORGE  W.  GERE, 


CHAMPAIGN. 


IN  studying  tlie  lives  and  characters  of  promi- 
nent men  we  are  naturally  led  to  inquire  into 
the  secret  of  their  success  and  the  motives  that 
prompted  their  action.  Success  is  oftener  a  mat- 
ter of  experience  and  sound  judgment  and  thor- 
ough preparation  for  a  life  work  than  itisof  genius, 
however  bright.  When  we  trace  the  career  of 
those  whom  the  world  acknowledges  as  success- 
ful and  of  those  who  stamd  highest  in  public  es- 
teem, we  find  that  in  almost  every  case  they  are 
those  who  have  risen  gradually  by  their  own  ef- 
forts, their  diligence  and  perseverance.  These 
qualities  are  vindoubtedly  possessed  in  a  large 
measure  by  the  gentleman  whose  name  intro- 
duces this  sketch,  and  added  to  these  is  a  devo- 
ticHii  to  principle  that  may  well  be  termed  the  key- 
note of  his  character.  It  is  this  which  commands 
the  confidence  and  respect  so  universally  given 
him,  and  it  is  this  that  has  secured  him  his  lib- 
eral clientage  as  a  member  of  the  Illinois  bar. 

George  Washington  Gere  was  bom  in  Clark 
county,  Illinois,  JMarch  22,  1843,  and  is  a  son  of 
John  and  Emily  (Catron)  Gere.  His  father  was 
born  in  Vermont,  February  11,  181 1,  and  by  his 
parents  was  taken  to  Genesee  county.  New  York, 
in  1813.  There  he  was  reared  to  manhood,  and 
in  1837  h'^  became  a  resident  of  Clark  county, 
lilinois,  where  he  made  his  home  for  ten  years. 
In  1847  he  removed  to  Urbana,  Illinois,  where 
he  has  since  resided,  having  been  connected  with 
its  mercantile  interests  for  forty-eight  years.  Tlie 
Gere  family  is  of  Welsh  extraction.  The  year 
following  his  removal  to  the  West,  John  Gere 
was  united  in  maixiage  with  ]\liss  Emily,  daugh- 
ter of  George  W.  Catron,  a  brother  of  Justice 
John  Catron,  of  the  United  States  supreme  court. 

Our  subject  acquired  his  literary  education  in 
the  public  schools  of  Urbana,  and,  determining 
to  enter  the  legal  profession  and  make  its  prac- 
tice his  life  work,  he  took  up  the  study  of  law  in 
that  city,  preparatory  to  entering  the  law  depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  Chicago,  at  which  he 
was  graduated  in  1865.  Immediately  aftenvard 
he  established  an  office  in  Urbana,  and  in  1870 
formed  a  partnership  with  General  John  C.  Black, 


under  the  firm  name  of  Black  &  Gere,  in  Cham- 
paign, Illinois.  This  connection  was  continued 
until  1875,  when  General  Black  removed  to  Dan- 
ville. After  this  he  was  associated  with  Henry 
M.  Beardsley,  the  connection  being  severed  on 
the  removal  of  Mr.  Beardsley  to  Kansas  City. 
Mr.  Gere  is  now  engaged  in  business  with  Solon 
Philbrick,  under  the  firm  name  of  Gere  &  Phil- 
brick.  He  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  able 
lawyers  in  this  section  of  the  State,  standing  at 
the  head  of  the  profession  in  central  and  eastern 
Illinois.  He  has  always  avoided  criminal  cases, 
preferring  to  give  his  attention  to  civil  cases. 
He  has  been  retained  as  counsel  on  many 
of  the  most  important  that  have  come  up 
for  trial  in  Champaign,  and  has  met  with 
remarkable  success,  especially  in  those  relat- 
ing to  municipal  bonds,  insurance  and  rail- 
way cases.  He  has  followed  a  course  which 
many  practitioners  would  consider  odd, — advis- 
ing clients  to  settle  matters  by  arbitration  if  pos- 
sible. He  may  have  lost  many  a  fee  by  this,  but 
he  has  undoubtedly  won  the  respect  and  confi- 
dence of  the  public  and  has  the  satisfaction  of  an 
approving  conscience.  When  a  client  comes  to 
him  with  a  case  that  he  believes  would  not  prove 
a  winning  one,  he  promptly  tells  him  so.  When 
he  accepts  a  case  he  bends  every  energy  toward 
winning  it,  but  he  never  sacrifices  right  and  prin- 
ciple to  do  so.  His  addresses  always  show  thor- 
ough and  painstaking  preparation,  and  at  once 
indicate  that  he  is  master  of  the  situation.  He 
is  a  man  of  keen  powers  of  perception  and  of 
analytical  mind,  which  enables  him  to  quickly 
discover  the  weak  points  in  an  opponent's  argu- 
ment and  at  once  attack  his  position  thereon.  He 
is  thoroughly  versed  in  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  common  law  and  is  never  at  a  loss  to  cite 
an  authority  or  precedent.  One  who  has  known 
him  intimately  for  years  said: 

"In  construing  statutes  Mr.  Gere  is  listened  to 
attentively  because  of  his  breadth  of  view  and 
large  practical  common  sense.  In  expounding 
the  law  he  is  luminous  and  profound.  Analytical 
in  discovering  the  weakness  of  his  opponent's  po- 


AEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


508 


sitioii  and  exposing  its  defects,  he  is  also  synthet- 
ical in  putting  this  and  that  together,  and  in  build- 
ing tip  and  constructing  a  theory,  fascinating, 
plausible,  convincing  and  satisfying,  while  in  mar- 
shaling facts  to  support  a  theory  is  very  skill- 
ful,— rarely  equaled.  His  style  of  address  is  dig- 
nified, candid  and  straightforward,  with  never 
an  attempt  to  juggle  with  a  jury  or  entrap  the 
court;  clear  and  diffuse  but  not  voluble  or  re- 
dundant; the  listener  is  at  first  interested,  then 
captivated  and  finally  convinced  that  every  word 
of  the  argument  is  in  aid  of  justice." 

Mr.  Gere  is  a  warm  friend  and  stanch  ally  of 
young  men,  always  helpful  and  kind  to  students, 
always  indulgent  and  generous  to  young  practi- 
tioners. He  displays  special  wisdom  in  directing 
the  studies  of  those  who  enter  his  office  and  in- 
sists upon  thoroughness,  for  nothing  superficial 
will  ever  satisfy  him.  His  former  partner,  Mr. 
Beardsley,  and  his  present  partner,  Mr.  Phil- 
brick,  both  pursued  their  studies  with  him. 
He  offers  every  possible  encouragement,  and 
while  giving  them  the  benefit  of  his  wisdom 
and  experience,  he  does  not  hamper  them 
by  tr\-ing  to  mold  them  after  his  pattern,  leav- 
ing them  free  to  develop  their  talents  in  their 
own  way,  believing  that  natural  is  always  better 
than  artificial  development.  Young  lawyers  have 
for  him  the  highest  regard.  They  recognize  his 
kindliness  and  sympathy  and  therefore  give  him 
the  greatest  respect. 

On  the  14th  of  October,  1867,  Mr.  Gere  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Aliss  Mary  H.  Lee,  at 
Marysville,  Ohio.  They  had  two  children,  but  the 
elder,  Eva,  born  September  10,  1S68,  died  March 
10,  1884.  Clara,  bom  July  18,  1876,  is  still  with 
her  parents.  Mr.  Gere  is  a  man  of  domestic  tastes 
and  his  home  is  a  xtry  happy  one.  To  him  it  is 
the  center  of  the  universe  and  for  him  there  is  no 
other  attraction  so  great.  In  manner  he  is  com- 
panionable, cheerful  and  genial,  and  Jiis  circle  of 
friends  is  limited  only  by  the  circle  of  his  acquaint- 
ances. One  of  the  most  pronounced  traits  of  his 
character,  however,  is  his  modesty.  He  is  en- 
tirely free  from  ostentation  and  display,  and  the 
historian  has  to  acknowledge  his  indebtedness  to 
Mr.  Gere's  friends  for  the  information  contained 
in  this  sketch,  for  he  was  too  modest  himself  to 


furnish  the  desired  facts  for  his  history.  A  gentle- 
Hian  who  was  associated  in  business  for  years 
witli  .Mr.  Gere  said,  in  a  very  focible  way, 
"He  is  a  mighty  good  man,"  and  all  who  know 
him  acknowledge  that  the  triliute  is  justly  de- 
served. 

Mr.  Gere  has  aways  beei>  a  student,  not  only 
of  the  works  that  fit  him  for  his  chosen  calling,  but 
also  of  current  literature,  and  is  a  great  lover  of 
ancient  and  modern  history,  concerning  which  he 
is  especially  well  informed.  In  politics  he  was  a 
Democrat  until  1886,  but  the  cause  of  temper- 
ance eHcited  his  warm  sympathy  and  hearty  co- 
operation and  led  to  his  joining  the  ranks  of  the 
Prohibition  party.  In  i8q2  he  was  selected  as 
chairman  of  the  State  committee  of  his  party. 
He  has  for  many  years  been  a  leader  of  the  tem- 
perance forces  of  this  part  of  the  State,  and  his 
name  stands  for  the  highest  type  of  citizenship. 
He  holds  membership  in  no^ church,  but  attends 
the  services  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  con- 
tributes literally  to  its  support  and  to  all  charities 
and  benevolences,  and  recognizes  the  brother- 
hood of  humanity. 

The  following  words  from  the  pen  of  his  pastor 
arc  a  fitting  tribute  to  his  worth  and  a  fitting  close 
for  this  review  of  his  life:  "Mr.  Gere  is  a  man  of 
commanding  influence  in  the  community  and  the 
county,  and  widely  known  and  honored  through- 
out the  State  as  one  who  is  always  on  the  right 
side  of  all  questions  affecting  moral  and  educa- 
tional interests.  He  is  known  as  a  man  of  ster- 
ling integrity,  a  lawyer  who  would  rather  be 
right  than  to  be  on  the  winning  side,  one  who 
has  the  reputation  of  putting  the  truth  before  the 
fee.  He  is  emphatically  a  truth-seeker,  a  man 
with  broad  sympathies,  believing  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  right,  but  ready  for  a  long  con- 
test with  evil.  He  is  bold,  clear  and  forcible  in 
his  denunciation  of  the  wrong,  fearless  in  his 
championship  of  the  right,  and  ever  the  defender 
of  the  weak  and  helpless.  In  the  circle  of  my 
acquaintance  there  is  no  man  who  has  more 
friends  than  Mr.  Gere,  and  they  have  been  won 
and  are  being  retained  by  his  attractive  person- 
ality, his  outspoken  devotion  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  community,  and  his  mental  ability, 
which  is  of  a  high  order." 


504  nronRAniicAL  dictionary  and  for  trait  gallery  of  the 

WILLIAM  GRANT  EDENS, 

GALESBURG. 


WILLIAM  GRANT  EDENS,  son  of  Hcr- 
vey  D.  Washington  and  Elsie  Jane 
(Fought)  Edens,  was  born  on  Friday,  the  27th  of 
November.  1863,  at  Richmond,  Indiana,  being 
the  youngest  of  a  family  of  nine  children.  He  is 
descended  from  the  French  on  his  father's  side, 
and  from  the  Scotch  on  his  mothers  sidt\  His 
father  died  at  Richmond,  in  1865.  A  short  time 
after  his  death  the  family  removed  to  Lebanon, 
Indiana.  In  the  public  scliools  of  the  latter  place 
the  lad  received  all  his  school  education.  As 
tlic  means  of  the  family,  always  small,  had  been 
greatly  reduced  by  the  illness  of  the  father  dur- 
ing the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  their  necessities 
required  that  each  member  should  contribute  to 
its  support  as  much  and  as  early  as  possible.  So, 
at  the  age  of  twelve,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was 
compelled  to  abandon  his  school  and  his  books 
and  seek  employment.  This  he  found  in  the 
office  of  the  railroad  station  agent  at  Lebanon ; 
and  there  be  began  his  active  business  career,  in 
the  capacity  of  office  boy  and  messenger. 

He  first  entered  the  train  sei'vice  in  1878,  as 
passenger  brakeman  on  the  Ohio  Central  Rail- 
road. In  the  following  year  he  went  from  there 
to  take  a  similar  position  on  the  Vandalia  line,  in 
order  to  be  nearer  his  home.  In  1881  he  went  to 
Michigan  and  worked  for  a  time  on  the  fami  of 
Major  H.  Z.  Eaton,  near  Traverse  City;  but  he 
soon  returned  to  Ohio,  and  again  engaged  with 
the  Ohio  Central  Railroad  Company,  this  time 
in  the  freight-train  service,  and  remained  with 
that  company  until  1888.  While  there  he  applied 
himself  diligently,  conscientiously,  and  intelli- 
gently to  the  performance  of  whatever  duties  his 
position  required  him  to  perform.  These  efforts 
were  rewarded  by  promotions.  He  was  advanced 
from  time  to  time,  occupying  during  the  period 
he  was  with  that  road  the  positions  of  freight 
brakeman,  passenger  brakeman,  train  baggage- 
man, express  messenger,  freight  conductor  and 
passenger  conductor.  The  performance  of  his 
duties  in  these  various  capacities  involved  much 
physical  labor;  but,  during  these  busy  years,  his 
mind  was  not  idle.     Although  his  experience  had 


hitherto  been  narrow,  he  had  read  much  and 
thought  deeply,  and  his  naturally  vivid  imagina- 
tion had  been  kindled  with  ideas  of  better  and 
larger  lives  for  himself  and  others  similarly  situ- 
ated ;  and  he  was  not  slow  to  apply  all  the  powers 
of  his  mind  and  body  to  the  making  and  execu- 
tion of  plans  for  his  and  their  benefit.  He  was 
early  identified  with  social  and  political  clubs  and 
societies,  in  which  his  gentle  disposition,  his 
handsome  person  and  commanding  presence, 
and  his  vigor  of  mind,  made  him  a  popular  and 
prominent  member. 

His  early  training  and  inherent  love  of  liberty 
caused  him  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  Republican 
party  upon  attaining  his  majority;  and  to  the 
principles  of  that  party  he  has  conscientiously, 
continuously  and  consistently  adhered. 

He  was  a  member  of  one  of  the  early  lodges  of 
the  Brotherhood  of  Railroad  Brakemen,  at  Bucy- 
rus,  Ohio.  By  his  local  lodge  he  was  sent  as  del- 
egate to  the  national  convention  of  the  brother- 
hood held  at  San  Antonio,  Texas,  in  1886,  and 
again,  the  following  year,  to  the  convention  held 
at  Binghamton,  New  York.  In  1888  he  was 
elected  first  vice  grand  master  of  the  National 
tJrotheihood,  and  held  that  position  for  two  years. 
In  1890  he  left  the  brotherhood  and  accepted  an 
appointment  as  general  agent  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Benefit  Association,  at  Denver,  Colorado.. 
But  he  did  not  long  remain  away  from  the  brother- 
hood; his  sympathies  were  there,  and  his  services 
were  needed ;  and  he  was  induced  to  return  as  as- 
sistant to  the  grand  secretary  and  treasurer,  in 
the  same  year.  The  brotherhood  had  in  the 
meantime  widened  its  scope  and  enlarged  its  ob- 
jects, and  had  become  the  Brotherhood  of  Rail- 
road Trainmen,  its  headquarters  remaining 
iiowever,  at  Galesburg,  Illinois.  Mr.  Edens  re- 
turned to  Galesburg  and  took  up  his  residence 
there  permanently. 

In  the  different  capacities  in  which  he  had 
served  his  duties  required  him  to  travel  ex- 
tensively in  the  United  States,  Canada  and 
Mexico.  He  was  thus  brought  iftto  close 
contact  with  many  classes  of  people  in  many  sec- 


^^  -^.oco?^    Cu^r^ 


HEPRESEyTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  rXITED  STATES:  ILLIXOIS  VOLUME. 


505 


tions,  and  with  many  different  interests.  His 
mental  alertness  was  thereby  quickened,  his 
reasoning  powers  strengthened,  and  his  imagina- 
tion heightened ;  and  he  gained  a  liberal  Ijreadth 
of  mind,  and  the  outward  polish  and  easy  self- 
possession  which  mark  the  man  of  large  ac- 
quaintance and  wide  experience. 

Naturally  a  close  observer,  he  saw  everything, 
and  a  thinker,  he  reasoned  from  what  he  saw. 
Ihus,  naturally,  he  became  deeply  interested  in 
the  leading  political,  economical  and  social  ques- 
tions of  the  time,  and  conceived  decided  opinions 
in  regard  thereto,  to  which  he  has  never  hesi- 
tated to  give  honest  and  forcible  expression.  The 
soundness  of  his  views,  backed  by  his  intellectual 
vigor  and  strong  personal  magnetism,  brought 
him  rapidly  into  prominence  in  the  Republican 
party  in  Illinois.  In  1893  he  was  elected  vice- 
president  for  Illinois  of  the  National  Republi- 
can League,  although  he  was  still  actively  as- 
sociated with  the  Brotherhood  of  Railroad  Train- 
men. Early  in  1895,  however,  finding  his  politi- 
cal engagements  jpncroaching  more  and  more 
upon  his  official  Unties,  and  believing  he  could 
better  sen'e  the  brotherhood  thereby,  he  resigned 
his  position  and  is  now  devoting  all  his  time  and 
energies  to  political  matters. 

Mr.  Exlens  is  connected  with  many  clubs  and 
societies,  in  each  of  which  he  has  been  and  is  a 
more  or  less  prominent  and  active  member.  He 
is  deputy  grand   chancellor  of  the    Knights   of 


Pythias:  secretary  of  the  Sunset  Club,  of  Gales- 
burg;  vice-president  of  the  Young  Men's  Re- 
publican Club,  of  Galesburg.  and  a  member  of 
several  other  Galesburg  clubs. 

Hitherto  his  efforts  have  been  directed  almost 
entirely  to  the  overcoming  of  difificullies  in  the 
wav  of  his  advancement,  and  to  making  up  for 
the  lack  of  educational  advantages  in  his  early 
youth.  His  actual  career  is  now  only  be- 
ginning. It  cannot  but  be  certain  that  the  ex- 
ertion of  the  mental  and  physical  powers  that 
have  placed  him  where  he  is,  will,  if  properly  di- 
rected, advance  him  farther,  and  make  him  more 
and  more  useful  to  his  party,  to  his  country,  and 
to  his  fellow  man. 

The  broad  sympathies,  generous  tolerance,  and 
kindly  consideration  for  the  feelings  and  comfort 
of  others,  ever  in  evidence  in  Mr.  Edens'  daily 
life,  are  largely  due  to  the  loving  care  and  teach- 
ing of  a  good  mother,  by  whom  he  was  early 
taught  the  great  power  of  gentleness.  How  well 
he  learned  that  lesson,  his  life  testifies. 

Frances  Elizabeth  Edens  Hicks,  a  sister  of  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  and  a  woman  of  no  incon- 
siderable literary  ability  (now  deceased),  was  the 
wife  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Lewis  E.  Hicks,  for 
seventeen  years  professor  of  natural  sciences  at 
Dennison  University,  Granville,  Ohio,  later  occu- 
pying the  chair  of  geology  at  the  University  of  Ne- 
braska, at  Lincoln,  and  now  a  professor  at  the 
Rangoon  Baptist  College,  Rangoon,  Burmah. 


ALONZO  S.  WILDERMAN, 

BELLEVILLE. 


ALONZO  S.  WILDERMAX,  judge  of  the 
circuit  court,  and  one  of  the  most  eminent 
jurists  of  southwestern  Illinois,  has  risen  by  his 
own  efforts  to  his  present  high  position.  In  the 
law  more  than  in  any  other  profession  is  one's 
career  open  to  talent.  The  reason  is  evident;  it 
is  a  profession  in  which  eminence  cannot  be  at- 
tained except  by  indomitable  energy,  perseverance 
and  patience,  and  though  its  prizes  are  numerous 
and  splendid  they  cannot  be  won  except  by  ardu- 
ous and  prolonged  effort.  It  is  this  that  has 
brought  success  to  Judge  Wilderman  and  made 


him  known  as  one  of  the  ablest  representatives 
of  the  bar  in  this  section  of  the  State. 

The  Judge  was  born  seven  miles  southeast  .of 
Belleville,  on  the  1st  of  December,  1839,  and  is 
a  son  of  M.  J.  and  Theresa  (Patterson)  Wilder- 
man,  the  father  being  a  farmer.  Their  family 
numbered  seven  children,  three  of  whom  died  in 
infancy.  In  the  days  when  the  Mississippi  val- 
ley was  an  almost  unexplored  region,  the  great- 
grandfather of  the  Judge,  George  Wilderman, 
left  his  old  home  in  Pennsylvania  and  became  a 
resident  of  St.  Clair  county,  Illinois,  taking  up 


500 


BIOOEAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  QALLKRY  OF  THE 


his  residence  here  in  1805.  He  was  numbered 
amonig-  the  heroes  of  the  Revohttion,  having 
joined  the  Colonial  army  in  1776,  and  served 
throughout  the  struggle.  He  had  eight  sons 
who  became  residents  of  this  county,  including 
the  grandfather  of  our  subject.  His  wife  had 
located  here  in  1793.  Their  son,  M.  J.  Wilder- 
man,  was  born  in  October,  1814,  and  is  still  liv- 
ing. He  married  Miss  Theresa  Patterson,  who 
was  born  in  North  Carolina,  in  1818,  and  died 
in   1868. 

In  the  public  schools  near  his  home  Alonzo  S. 
Wilderman  pursued  his  studies  until  the  age  of 
nineteen,  and  through  the  succeeding  five  years 
devoted  his  entire  time  and  energies  to  the  as- 
sistance of  his  father.  He  earlv  became  familiar 
with  the  duties  of  farm  life,  and  from  the  fields 
and  woods  learned  many  valuable  lessons.  When 
twenty-four  years  of  age  he  entered  the  law  of- 
fice of  S.  M.  Case  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  November,  1866.  In  January,  1891,  he  was 
licensed  to  practice  in  the  supreme  court  of  the 
United  States.  He  has  been  connected  with 
some  of  the  most  important  cases  which  have 
come  up  for  trial  in  the  courts  of  southwestern 
Illinois,  where  his  eloquence  amd  logic  have  car- 
ried with  them  conviction  and  won  the  suit  lor 
his  clients.  He  was  retained  as  counsel  for  the 
prosecution  in  the  case  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis 
against  Edward  Rutz,  twice  State  treasurer  of 
Illinois,  to  recover  large  landed  interests  on  the 
Mississippi  river.  The  case  came  up  for  hear- 
ing in  the  Federal  court  at  St.  Louis,  and  again 
Judge  Wilderman  added  to  his  fame  by  the  suc- 
cessful outcome.  For  six  years  he  has  served 
as  counsel  for  the  Terre  Haute  &  Indianapolis 
Railroad.  For  four  years  he  served  as  master 
in  chancery,  and  in  1877  was  elected  to  the  gen- 
eral assembly  as  the  representative  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic party,  the  principles  of  which  he  stanchly 
advocates.  In  June,  1891,  he  was  judge  of  the 
Third  Circuit  court  of  Illinois  for  a  term  of  three 
years,  and  is  now  presiding  on  the  bench,  adding 
new  laurels  as  a  judge  to  those  he  had  already 
gained  at  the  bar. 

He  has  ever  been  a  thorough  student  of  his 


profession  and  few  men  are  more  thoroughly 
informed  in  regard  to  authorities  than  he.  His 
acts  are  strong  and  full  of  breadth,  accuracy  and 
force.  In  sound  judgment,  in  patient  industry, 
in  clear  conception  of  the  spirit  and  scope  of  juris- 
prudence and  intuitive  perception  of  right.  Judge 
Wilderman  ranks  high  in  the  estimate  of  bench, 
bar  and  public.  Since  jurisprudence  is  the  founda- 
tion of  the  commonwealth  and  indispensable  to 
its  growth,  purity  and  advancement,  it  is  well 
that  such  judges  represent  and  interpret  it. 

On  the  5th  of  September,  1871,  the  Judge  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Amanda  J.  Affleck, 
of  Decatur,  Ilhnois,  daughter  of  James  Afileck, 
a  native  of  Scotland,  who  crossed  the  briny  deep 
to  the  New  World  during  his  childhood  and  be- 
came a  prominent  early  settler  of  Illinois,  num- 
bered among  the  pioneers  of  1816.  Five  chil- 
dren were  born  to  them:  Arthur  S.,  who  died 
in  1878;  Hester  T. ;  Augusta;  Eunice  and 
Blanche.  The  eldest  daughter  possesses  consid- 
erable talent  as  a  pianist.  Their  pleasant  home 
is  noted  for  its  hospitality,  and  the  literary  taste 
of  the  inmates  is  indicated  by  the  large  library 
of  miscellaneous  standard  works,  both  of  English 
and  German  composition.  Music  and  art  also 
add  their  charms  to  the  home,  which  is  located 
at  No.  608  Wascoutah  avenue.  The  Judge  also 
has  one  of  the  largest  law  libraries  in  the  city, 
containing  sixteen  hundred  volumes.  The  fam- 
ily attend  and  support  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  Mrs.  Wilderman  takes  a  prominent  part  in 
missionary  work,  and  is  active  in  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union.  In  social  circles 
the  Judge  has  attained  considerable  prominence. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Royal  Arch  Chapter, 
belongs  to  Belleville  Council,  and  is  a  Scottish 
rite  Mason.  In  all  these  orders  he  has  filled 
various  offices.  He  also  belongs  to  the  Modern 
Woodmen  society,  to  the  grand  lodge,  and  to 
Liederkranz  society.  He  aided  in  building  the 
Central  school,  and  has  been  an  important  fac- 
tor in  the  progress  and  upbuilding  of  the  city, 
education,  church  and  social  interests  owing 
their  promotion  in  a  considerable  degree  to  the 
efforts  of  Judge  Wilderman. 


V 


^u^iMi^^  (^/0^  hci 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEX  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


507 


SAMUEL  MCCARTY, 


ON  Saturday,  the  30th  of  March,  1889,  there 
occurred  an  event  which  caused  general 
mourning  in  the  city  of  Aurora, — the  death  of  its 
founder,  Samuel  McCarty,  who,  as  the  clock 
struck  twelve,  departed  this  life,  leaving  as  a  last- 
ing monument  to  his  memorj'  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  progressive  cities  of  Illinois.  Mr. 
McCarty  was  a  remarkable  man  in  many  respects. 
In  him  were  embodied  the  virtues  of  the  early 
pioneers, — steadfast  purpose,  rugged  integrity  and 
religious  zeal, — virtues  to  which  the  splendid  civ- 
ilization of  America  is  indebted  for  its  wonderful 
development  and  its  glorious  progress. 

Morristown,  Morris  county.  New  Jersey,  was 
the  l)irthi)lace  of  Samuel  McCarty.  whose  natal 
day  was  March  9,  1810.  He  was  a  son  of  Charles 
and  Mary  (Scudder)  McCarty,  descendants  of  old 
Protestant  families  that  had  for  generations  re- 
sided in  that  State,  having  located  there  in  early 
Colonial  days.  From  the  Scotch  and  English 
bloods  came  that  strength  of  character  which  is 
so  essential  to  success  in  the  far'West,  where  pri- 
vations and  dangers  are  the  common  lot  of  the 
frontier  people.  In  181 2  the  parents  went  to 
Elmira,  New  York,  where  the  father  purchased 
a  farm,  making  it  his  home  for  many  years. 
There  Samuel,  in"  connection  with  his  brother 
Joseph,  spent  his  childhood  days  upon  the  old 
homestead,  acquired  a  good  common-school  edu- 
cation and  afterward  learned  the  trade  of  a  mill- 
wright. The  many  glowing  accounts  of  the  West 
now  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  young 
men.  They  learned  especially  of  the  points 
around  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  the  fertility  of  the  soil  of  Illinois.  Joseph 
McCarty  was  the  first  to  leave  home  for  the 
Prairie  State,  where  he  intended  laying  a  claim 
to  some  of  the  water  privileges  along  the  Illinois 
river.  On  the  25th  of  November,  1833,  he  bade 
adieu  to  friends  and  family  and  with  a  companion 
proceeded  across  the  country  to  the  headwaters 
of  the  Alleghany  river,  where  a  crude  raft  was 
made  to  convey  them  and  their  tools  toward  their 
destination.  Thus  the  journey  was  made  to  Pitts- 
burg, and  an  exceedingly  arduous  one  it  was  on 


account  of  the  many  rapids  they  encountered. 
They  arrived  there,  however,  without  serious  acci- 
dent, disposed  of  tlieir  boat  and  took  passage  on 
a  steamer  for  Cairo,  Illinois,  where  they  tarried 
on  account  of  the  near  approach  of  cold  weather. 

In  the  spring  the  young  men  proceeded  on  their 
journey  and  in  due  time  reached  their  destination, 
but  they  found  the  water  privileges  not  as  desir- 
able as  represented,  and  journeyed  to  Ottawa, 
where  they  heard  good  reports  of  the  Fox  river 
valley,  and  followed  the  course  of  that  stream 
until  April  i,  1834,  when  they  arrived  at  an  Indian 
village,  the  home  of  Wabonsie,  chief  of  the  Pot- 
towattamie  Indians,  just  north  of  the  present  site 
(if  .\urora,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river.  This 
land  was  a  part  of  a  tract  ten  miles  square  which 
had  been  an  Indian  resen^ation  but  had  just  been 
purchased  by  the  United  States  government  and 
opened  for  settlement.  Included  therein  is  a 
small  island  in  a  river,  obstructing  the  channel 
which  with  the  natural  fall  of  water  secured  the 
advantages  of  water  power  which  Mr.  McCarty 
had  so  long  sought.  He  immediately  staked  out 
a  claim  of  about  three  hundred  acres  of  the  east 
side  and  made  good  his  title  by  erecting  thereon 
a  log  cabin,  10x12  feet.  Later,  in  order  to  secure 
the  unquestioned  right  to  the  water  power,  he 
purchased  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  a 
claim  of  one  hundred  acres,  on  which  stood  a 
shanty.  On  these  claims  Aurora  was  afterward 
built,  and  these  cabins  were  the  first  habitations 
of  white  men  within  the  present  limits  of  the  city. 
A  dam  was  immediately  commenced  and  the  tim- 
bers for  a  sawmill  prepared. 

In  October,  1834,  Joseph  McCarty  erected  a 
more  convenient  log  house,  14x18  feet,  and  it 
was  just  completed  when  his  brother  Samuel  ar- 
rived in  the  settlement.  Some  weeks  previous  he 
had  received  glowing  accounts  of  the  Prairie 
State,  and  had  immediately  closed  up  his  business 
as  a  millwright  in  Chemung  county.  New  York, 
and  taken  the  most  direct  route  to  the  Wabonsie 
reservation,  arriving  November  6,  1834.  three 
u  eeks  after  the  day  of  his  departure.  He  went  by 
canal  to  Bufifalo,  by  Lake  Erie  to  Detroit,  and  bv 


508 


BIOGRAnnCAL  DWTIONARV  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  TILE 


stage  the  remainder  of  the  way.  His  brother 
had  secured  for  him  a  squatter's  claim  of  four 
hundred  acres,  south  of  his  own,  for  sixty  dollars. 
When  he  arrived  the  future  city  of  Aurora  had  a 
population  of  seven,— two  McCartys,  one  Fore- 
acre,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Aldrich,  who  kept  house  for 
them,  and  their  t\\  o  children.  On  his  arrival  Sam- 
uel McCarty  became  by  purchase  half  owner  of  his 
brother's  claim  and  both  being  practical  mill- 
wrights and  mechanics  they  soon  completed  the 
mill  and  dam.  In  the  fall  of  1835  the  original 
plat  of  the  city  was  laid  out  by  them  and  was  sur- 
veyed by  Colonel  Hitt.  The  plat  extended  from 
Flag  street  on  the  north  to  Benton  street  on  the 
south,  running  back  some  six  blocks.  Samuel 
McCarty's  residence  on  Lincoln  avenue  and  Main 
street  stood  very  near  the  center.  Two  acres  were 
set  aside  by  the  proprietors  for  park  purposes 
and  thus  was  established  what  is  now  known  as 
Lincoln  Park.  In  1835  the  brothers  sold  their 
claim  on  the  west  side  to  Zaphna  Lake  for  five 
hundred  dollars.  In  1836  they  built  a  bridge 
across  the  east  channel  of  the  river,  almost  entirely 
at  their  own  expense,  but  it  was  swept  away  by 
flood  the  following  spring  and  in  the  early  part  of 
1838  a  subscription  list  was  started  for  its  recon- 
struction at  a  cost  of  two  thousand  dollars.  The 
brothers  headed  the  list  with  five  hundred  dollars 
and  the  bridge  was  built  by  Samuel  McCarty, 
but  it  was  also  destroyed  by  high  water  and  ice, 
and  it  was  not  until  1843  that  it  was  again  re- 
built,—also  by  Samuel  McCarty,  the  funds  again 
being  provided  by  a  subscription.  These  bridges 
were  all  on  the  same  sites,  with  the  approaches  at 
the  foot  of  Main  street. 

In  1836  the  McCarty  brothers  built  a  grist  mill 
adjoining  the  sawmill,  and  ground  the  first  grist 
February  7,  1837.  In  1834  and  1835,  in  addition 
to  their  own  enterprises,  they  built  a  sawmill  and 
grist  mill  for  other  parties  on  the  Big  Vermillion 
river  south  of  Ottawa,  and  in  1838  built  for  them- 
selves a  sawmill  twelve  miles  west  of  Aurora  in 
Big  Rock  township.  To  the  enterprise  of  the 
McCarty  brothers  more  than  to  anything  else 
Aurora  is  indebted  for  her  fortunate  location  and 
her  rapid  and  substantial  growth.  In  1836  the  old 
State-line  road  from  Chicago  to  Galena  crossed 
the  Fox  river  at  Montgomery,  and  in  consequence 
all  travel,  together  with  the  stages,  passed  that 


way.  Samuel  McCarty  realized  the  importance 
to  Aurora  of  building  a  road  intersecting  the 
State-line  road,  both  east  and  west  of  the  town, 
so  as  to  change  the  mail  and  also  to  turn  the  tide 
of  "prairie  schooners,"  with  their  hundreds  of 
emigrants  seeking  homes,  through  Aurora,  know- 
ing full  well  that  many  of  them  on  viewing  the 
natural  advantages  of  the  place  would  stop  and 
locate.  Accordingly,  with  some  assistance  from 
residents  of  Aurora,  he  opened  a  road,  building 
necessary  bridges  from  Naperville  to  this  city, 
and  on  west  to  Big  Rock.  After  doing  this  he  had 
to  induce  mail  stages  to  pass  through  Aurora, 
instead  of,  as  heretofore,  going  by  way  of  Mont- 
gom(  ry.  He  ofTered  to  board  the  proprietors, 
tlic  drivers  and  four  horses  for  a  month  free  if 
the  change  was  made.  These  terms  were  ac- 
cepted, ajid  in  March,  1837,  the  first  regular 
postoffice  was  established  in  Aurora.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  this  was  the  turning  point  in 
the  early  historj'  of  the  city  and  the  controlling 
influence  in  securing  settlers  and  placing  the  in- 
fant town  on  a  firm  and  growing  basis.  The 
McCartys  were  not  only  the  first  white  men  to 
build  habitations  and  start  the  machinery  of  civ- 
ilization where  are  now  the  homes  and  great  fac- 
tories of  Aurora,  but  they  also,  by  their  keen  fore- 
sight and  liberal  enterprise,  contributed  largely 
to  bring  to  it  those  advantages  that  were  des- 
tined to  make  it  a  prosperous,  rich  and  thriving 
city.  Joseph  ]\IcCarty,  however,  only  lived  to 
see  the  beginning  of  this  development.  In  Au- 
gust, 1838,  he  was  suddenly  prostrated  by  an  at- 
tack of  bleeding  of  the  lungs,  and  being  advised 
to  seek  a  more  genial  climate  he  traveled  South 
in  search  of  health,  but  died  in  Alabama  on  the 
last  day  of  May,  1839.  He  was  there  buried,  but 
in  1875  Samuel  McCarty  had  his  remains  brought 
to  Aurora,  where  they  were  placed  in  Spring 
Lake  cemetery. 

In  1838  Samuel  McCarty  assumed  control  of 
the  McCarty  interests  in  the  young  settlement, 
and  from  liberal  inducements  offered  by  him  to 
actual  settlers — in  most  cases  charging  barely 
enough  for  a  building  lot  to  pay  for  recording 
the  papers — the  town  grew  rapidly.  At  this  time 
he  was  joined  by  a  younger  brother,  Daniel,  who 
had  inherited  part  of  Joseph's  interests,  and  they 
became  partners  in  the  mills  and  other  property 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


509 


in  and  around  Aurora.  A  few  years  afterward 
they  divided  their  interests  and  each  controlled 
his  own  separately.  Daniel  later  removed  to 
lov  a,  where  he  engaged  in  farming,  and  when 
he  retired  from  active  work  became  a  resident 
of  Chicago.  He  died  in  San  Diego,  California, 
July  5,   1893. 

Samuel  jMcCarty  was  always  an  uncompro- 
mising temperance  man  in  theory  and  practice 
and  always  refused  to  sell  on  any  tenns  a  lot 
which  he  knew  would  be  occupied  by  an  estab- 
lishment for  the  sale  of  liquors;  therefore,  for  a 
long  time  there  was  little,  if  any,  of  this  traffic 
in  Aurora.  Until  1842  he  held  only  pre-emption 
titles  to  his  land.  It  then  came  into  the  market 
and  he  perfected  his  title  from  the  United  States 
government  for  sixty-nine  acres,  a  part  of  which 
was  comprised  in  the  first  plat  of  the  village. 
Previously  he  had  sold  all  otlier  claims  he  held. 
He  donated  the  land  on  which  the  First  Method- 
ist Church  and  parsonage  are  built  and  contrib- 
uted largely  toward  the  erection  of  the  original 
and  the  subsequent  edifice.  He  also  donated  the 
land  on  the  northeast  corner  of  his  residence 
lot,  on  which  was  erected  the  Congregational 
Church,  which  became  famous  as  being  the  place 
where  it  is  claimed  the  Republican  party  received 
its  baptismal  name  and  where  the  first  Repub- 
lican State  convention  was  held.  For  many  years 
after  the  establishment  of  Clark  (now  the  Jen- 
nings) Seminary  he  was  president  of  its  board  of 
trustees  and  a  large  contributor  toward  the  erec- 
tion of  its  buildings.  He  was  from  j-oung  man- 
hood a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  an:i 
for  many  years  acted  as  president  of  the  board 
of  trustees  and  as  class  leader  of  the  local  organ- 
ization. 

Mr.  McCarty  continued  in  the  milling  busi- 
ness until  1858,  after  which  he  devoted  most  of 
his  lime  to  handling  real  estate  in  Aurora  and 
Chicago.  His  wife  still  owns  in  Chicago  a  lot 
on  the  southeast  corner  of  Clark  and  Randolph 
streets,  on  which  he  erected  a  forty  thousand 
dollar  building  that  was  destroyed  in  the  great 
fire  of  October  9,  1871.  He  also  erected  the  firgt 
substantial  frame  building  in  Aurora,  located  on 
Broadway,  a  little  north  of  Main  street;  the  first 
store  building,  on  the  corner  of  j\Iain  and  Broad- 
way; also  the  present  homestead  of  the  family, 


which  at  that  time  was  the  finest  and  most  sub- 
stantial brick  house  in  the  county;  the  Tremont 
House,  formerly  the  leading  hotel  in  Aurora; 
and  various  other  buildings  in  the  city.  For 
more  than  half  a  century  Mr.  McCarty  was  the 
most  prominent  figure  in  this  place  and  was 
closely  identified  with  nearly  every  enterprise 
that  was  to  benefit  materially  or  socially  the 
city  that  he  and  his  brother  had  founded.  Dur- 
ing his  entire  life  he  was  without  question  its  most 
honored  and  respectetl  resident,  and  until  his  last 
illness  was  remarkably  active  for  a  man  of  his 
years. 

Mr.  McCarty  was  three  times  married.  On 
the  26th  of  March,  1837,  he  wedded  Miss 
Phoebe  Stolp,  who  died  May  18,  1839.  On  Jan- 
uary 6,  1847,  he  married  Miss  Emily  Wheeler, 
of  Chicago,  by  whom  he  had  two  daughters: 
IVIarion,  who  died  in  infancy,  and  Helen,  who 
died  in  1867,  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  while 
attending  the  female  college  at  Pittsburg.  The 
mother's  death  occurred  September'  14,  1850, 
and  on  the  13th  of  April,  1853,  Air.  AlcCarty  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Mrs.  Emily  A.  Dav's,  «<y 
Swayze,  of  Chicago,  a  most  estimable  lady.  The 
children  are  Eva  Dent,  wife  of  H.  N.  Johnson, 
of  Aurora;  Edgar  J.,  who  died  at  the  age  of  six 
years;  Sidney  George;  Emily  E.,  who  died  in 
1885,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  years;  and  Charles 
S.,  of  Chicago. 

On  the  4th  of  November,  1888,  Mr.  McCarty 
was  prostrated  by  paralysis,  but  though  the  high- 
est medical  skill  and  nursing  were  procured  he 
gradually  grew  weaker  until  his  spirit  finally  took 
its  flight.  The  body  was  laid  by  that  of  his  brother 
in  Spring  Lake  cemetery  and  was  followed  to  the 
grave  by  the  largest  concourse  of  people  that 
ever  gathered  at  a  funeral  in  Aurora.  The  offi- 
cial board  of  the  First  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  adopted  the  following  resolutions  relative 
to  his  death: 

Whereas,  Our  beloved  brother,  Samuel  Mc- 
Carty. after  a  long,  useful  and  devoted  Chris- 
tian life,  has  entered  into  his  heavenly  rest; 
and. 

Whereas,  From  its  earliest  history  Mr.  Mc- 
Carty has  been  identified  with  the  First  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church  of  Aurora  as  its  founder, 
having  given  the  land  on  which  the  church  and 
parsonage  are  situated;  having  for  more  than  half 


510 


luoajtArnrcAL  dicttoxart  axd  ronruAiT  oaliert  of  tiir 


a  century  of  untiring  and  unselfish  devotion  gen- 
erously contributed  of  his  means  and  his  influ- 
ence for  the  promotion  of  everv*  good  work  in 
the  comnuniity  and  in  his  various  official  relations 
as  trustee,  steward  and  class  leader  been  most 
faithful  and  exemplary:  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  members  of  the  ofificial 
board  of  the  First  Methodist  Church,  of  Aurora, 
Illinois,  while  rejoicing  that  our  brother  has  en- 
tered into  his  eternal  inheritance,  do  hereby  ex- 
press our  profound  sense  of  bereavement  as  a 
church,  ill  the  removal  of  one  who  has  so  thor- 
oughly endeared  himself  to  us  as  a  faithful  and 
devoted  servant  of  God  and  the  church. 

Resolved,  That  we  extend  our  sincere  sym- 
pathy to  the  bereaved  family. 

Resolved.  That  we  attend  the  funeral  in  a 
body. 

Resolved.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be 
forwarded  to  the  family  and  also  spread  upon 
our  records. 

Such  was  the  life  of  one  of  Illinois'  most  worthy 
citizens.  Through  his  progressiveness  and  care- 
ful guidance  he  saw  the  village  of  Aurora  become 


one  of  the  most  important  cities  in  the  State  of 
Illinois.  Although  a  business  man  in  every  re- 
spect, he  was  neither  austere  nor  selfish.  He  al- 
ways had  a  lively  interest  in  and  helping  hand  for 
young  men  just  beginning  the  battle  of  life, — 
never  forgetting  his  own  early  struggles.  He  was 
of  a  deeply  religious  nature,  unobtrusive  and  yet 
strong  in  its  personification  of  the  highest  in- 
tegrity and  untarnished  honor.  He  was  genial, 
courteous  and  chivalrous,  and  a  fast  friend  to 
those  who  enjoyed  his  confidence.  In  all  his 
business  enterprises  he  was  eminently  successful, 
and  was  regarded  by  all  who  knew  him  as  ex- 
ceptionally sure  and  conservative. 

His  life  as  a  man  of  affairs  was  to  him  only  a 
means  to  an  end;  he  never  allowed  the  duties 
of  his  calling  to  dwarf  his  finer  sensibilities  or  to 
thwart  his  generous  ambition.  He  reached  the 
allotted  age  of  man  and  after  a  long  and  well 
spent  life  passed  away,  but  his  memory  will  be 
honored  while  Aurora  stands. 


HENRY  GARDT, 


GALESBURG. 


IT  is  the  enterprise  and  character  of  the  citi- 
zen that  enrich  and  ennoble  the  common- 
wealth. From  individual  enterprise  has  sprung 
all  the  splendor  and  importance  of  this  great 
West.  The  greatest  merchants  have  developed 
from  the  humblest  origins.  From  clerkships  have 
emerged  men  who  have  built  great  business  en- 
terprises. America  is  a  self-made  country,  and 
those  who  have  created  it  are  self-made  men.  No 
influence  oJ  birth  or  for^tune  has  favored  the 
architects  of  her  glory.  Among  those  who  have 
achieved  prominence  as  men  of  marked  ability 
and  substantial  worth  in  Galesburg,  the  subject 
of  this  sketch.  Henry  Gardt,  occupies  a  promi- 
nent position. 

He  was  born  in  Zornheim,  in  the  province  of 
Mainz,  Germany,  on  June  i6,  1852,  and  is  the 
son  of  Peter  and  Agnes  (Kunzman)  Gardt.  He 
was  between  two  and  three  years  old  when  his 
father,  a  wagon-maker  in  moderate  circumstances, 


died;  and  his  mother  labored  faithfully  for  her 
three  children,  who,  when  old  enough,  materially 
aided  her  in  her  hard  task,  to  the  best  of  their 
ability.  The  educational  advantages  of  our  sub- 
ject were  such  as  his  birthplace  furnished  in  the 
common  or  public  schools,  which  was  the  only 
st'Urce  of  learning  there. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  years  ^\r.  Gardt  deter- 
mined to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  New  World,  and 
sailed  from  Hamburg  on  the  ist  day  of  June,  1868, 
arriving  at  Galesburg.  Illinois,  on  the  i6th  day  of 
the  same  month,  whither  his  sister  had  preceded 
him  a  few  years.  Being  unable  to  speak  the  En- 
glish language,  he  was  obliged  to  accept  what- 
ever labor  ofYered,  and  he  became  the  porter  in 
a  store  kept  by  Charles  Brechwald,  without  wages 
except  his  board.  He  labored  faithfully,  however, 
meanwhile  endeavoring  to  learn  the  language  and 
customs  of  his  adopted  country.  After  six  months" 
service  he  received  a  salarv  of  ten  dollars  a  month, 


ff  l^^-t^ty  ^^uyi  c/^tr 


REPRESENTATTVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


oil 


which  was  soon  raised  to  twenty  dollars  and 
finally  to  thirty  dollars.  He  also  became  a  clerk 
in  the  establishment,  and  after  five  years  of  labor 
there  he  came  to  be  the  highest-paid  clerk  in 
Galesburg.  After  a  period  of  eight  years  he  be- 
came his  employer's  partner,  which  relation  ter- 
minated at  the  end  of  two  years. 

Bv  this  time  he  had  saved  money  enough  to 
assume  still  greater  responsibilities  in  business, 
and  in  1878  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Solo- 
mon Frohlich,  under  the  name  of  Frohlich  & 
Gardt.  Their  business  was  a  successful  one,  and 
in  1882  they  engaged  also  in  wholesale  trade  in 
Galeslnirg,  and  some  time  later  Louis  Neidinger 
joined  them.  Commencing  with  a  combined 
capital  of  only  twelve  thousand  dollars  they  have 
since  increased  it  to  nearly  a  third  of  a  milion. 

About  that  time  the  Union  Hotel  at  Galesburg 
was  a  very  unsuccessful  institution ;  and  the  firm, 
seeing  the  opportunity  to  purchase  the  property 
at  a  bargain,  did  so.  The  building  then  con- 
tained but  fift}--two  rooms,  but  subsequent  addi- 
tions have  been  made  tmtil  at  the  present  time 
it  contains  one  hundred  and  four.  This  property 
has  been  constantly  enlarged  and  improved,  and 
improvements  are  still  under  way.  On  the  verj^ 
day  of  the  purchase  of  this  hotel  J\Ir.  Gardt  was 
obliged  to  take  personal  charge,  as  the  sheriff, 
hearing  of  the  change  of  ownership,  promptly 
took  possession  on  the  demand  of  the  creditors. 
Since  then  Mr.  Gardt  has  been  in  active  charge, 
and  he  has  developed  a  property  which  is  not  ex- 
celled in  completeness  outside  of  Chicago. 

In  1891  for  various  reasons,  Messrs.  Gardt  & 
Con:psny  decided  that  it  was  desirable  to  have  a 
new  opera  house  in  Galesburg  and  inside  of  ten 
days  they  had  obtained  subscriptions  to  the 
amount  of  sixtj'-five  thousand  dollars,  which  was 
necessary  for  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  and 
the  present  "Auditorium"'  is  the  result.  It  is  a 
beautiful  structure,  an  honor  to  its  promoters  and 
the  pride  of  the  city  of  Galesburg.  Henry  Gardt 
&  Company  are  yet  among  the  heaviest  stock- 
holders, and  Mr.  Gardt  is  also  one  of  the  lessees. 

Previous  to  1893  there  had  been  a  great  desire 
to  have  a  first-class  race  track  at  Galesburg,  but 
no  one  seemed  disposed  to  become  the  prime 
mover.  After  much  thought  and  consultation, 
Solomon  Frohlich  and  Mr.  Gardt  decided  to  see 


wb.at  could  be  done.  Accordingly  they  ap- 
prrached  W.  C.  Williams,  of  Independence,  Iowa, 
who  had  made  that  city  so  famous  in  racing 
circles,  with  a  proposition  to  remove  to  Gales- 
burg. At  first  no  benefit  resulted  from  this  ne- 
gotiation ;  but  soon  a  change  took  place.  A  bonus 
of  thirty-four  thousand  dollars  was  raised  in  a 
very  short  time,  from  the  sale  of  lots  near  the 
race  track,  where  a  large  farm  was  secured — 
about  one  hundred  and  eighty  acres — and  the 
same  >ear.  1864,  races  were  run  which  at 
once  became  renowned  throughout  the  I'nited 
States. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  man  has  assisted  in  the 
development  of  Galesburg  to  greater  advantage 
than  has  Mr.  Gardt,  and  no  man  stands  higher 
in  the  estimation  of  his  fellow  citizens  than  he. 
The  great  secret  of  Mr.  Gardt's  success  is  to  be 
attributed  not  only  to  his  tireless  energy  and  labor 
hut  also  to  his  exxellent  judgment  and  his  strictly 
hc-nest  and  upright  dealings.  None  of  his  large 
fortune  has  been  accumulated  at  the  expense  of 
others,  but  on  the  contrar)-,  many  are  largely  in- 
debted to  him  for  their  present  prosperity,  while 
the  city  in  which  he  has  accumulated  his  wealth, 
as  in  the  past,  will  in  the  future  be  beautified  by 
his  expenditures. 

Mr.  Gardt  was  married  Alay  18,  1877,  to  Miss 
Barbara  Glaser,  of  Galesburg.  She  is  a  most 
charming  woman,  and,  like  her  husband,  receives 
marked  respect  for  her  many  sterling  qualities. 
Of  their  four  children  only  one  is  living.  The 
eldest,  Harr}',  died  at  the  age  of  three  years; 
Charles,  at  the  age  of  one  year;  but  the  greatest 
affliction  that  has  ever  come  to  Mr.  Gardt  was 
when,  on  April  7,  1893,  he  lost  his  only  daughter, 
Florence,  who  was  then  twelve  years  of  age. 
She  was  a  beautiful  child  and  everj-body's  pet. 
For  her  the  father  had  erected  a  magnificent  man- 
sion in  Galesburg.  She  never  lived  to  occupy  it, 
and  it  was  afterward  disposed  of,  as  Mr.  Gardt 
refused  to  enter  it  after  the  death  of  his  beloved 
daughter.  Chauncey  Henry,  the  youngest  child, 
is  nc)w  twelve  years  old. 

In  his  political  principles  Mr.  Gardt  is  stanchly 
Republican,  but  he  desires  no  political  preferment. 
When  the  city  was  considering  the  advisability 
of  erecting  water-works,  Mr.  Gardt,  greatly  de- 
siring the  much  needed  improvement,  accepted  a 


512 


nioanArmcAL  dtcttonaht  and  porthatt  oallery  of  the 


scat  ill  the  city  council,  and  as  a  nicniher  thereof 
he  materially  assisted  in  securing  the  works  for 
the  city. 

In  1872  Mr.  Gardt  joined  the  Masonic  order, 
in  which  he  is  now  a  Knight  Templar;  and  he  is 
a  Noble  of  the  Alystic  Shrine;  and  he  is  also  a 
member  of  the  orders  of  Odd  Fellows,  Knights 
of  Pythias  and  Royal  Arcanum,  in  all  of  which 
he  has  held  important  offices  except  in  the  last 


named.  He  with  his  wife  has  traveled  extensively 
in  the  United  States,  in  which  country  he  has 
achieved  so  great  financial  success.  His  career 
demonstrates  in  the  highest  and  broadest  sense 
that  nationality  or  birth  does  not  determine,  in 
this  country,  either  in  spirit  or  degree,  the  future 
standing  of  any  one,  either  in  finance,  patriotism 
or  society, — the  American  idea  of  the  "common 
brotherhood  of  man." 


FREDERICK  SEHRING, 

JOLIET. 


THE  Sehring  family  is  one  of  prominence 
among  the  German  Americans  of  Illinois. 
Its  founders  were  Weigand  and  Margaretha 
(Keim)  Sehring,  who  settled  in  Frankfort  town- 
ship, Will  county,  Illinois,  in  1847.  Weigand 
Sehring  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1813,  in  Ger- 
many. When  he  came  to  the  United  States  he 
engaged  in  farming,  an  occupation  he  pursued  un- 
til 1854.  In  1854,  the  Sehring  family  moved  to 
Joliet,  where  they  engaged  in  the  hotel  business. 
Frederick  Sehring,  son  of  Weigand  and  Mar- 
garetha (Keim)  Sehring,  was  born  in  Langen, 
dukedom  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  on  December  19, 
1834,  and  was  consequently  thirteen  years  of  age 
when  his  parents  moved  to  America.  He  was  an 
exceptionally  intelligent  boy  and  early  eiitered 
public  schools  in  the  old  country.  When  he  ar- 
rived in  America  he  immediately  devoted  himself 
to  study  and  soon  was  the  possessor  of  a  good 
English  education,  thougih  he  succeeded  in  get- 
ting only  eight  months'  instruction  in  the  schools 
here.  His  first  etitrance  upon  his  business  career 
was  in  i860,  when  he  became  deputy  clerk  in  the 
Recorder's  office  of  the  county,  a  position  which 
he  filled  for  three  years  with  commendable 
ability  and  reliability,  which  resulted  in  his 
nomination  in  1863  for  county  treasurer  for  Will 
county.  He  was  elected  with  a  comfortable  ma- 
jority and  entered  upon  his  work  with  a  deter- 
mination to  do  his  duty  in  every  particular.  So 
well  did  he  administer  the  affairs  of  the  county 
that  in  1865,  w-hen  his  term  expired,  he  was  re- 
elected and  served  his  constituents  with  the  same 
honesty  until  the  end   of  his  second  term.     He 


early  evinced  an  unusual  business  capacity,  and 
as  he  had  accumulated  some  money  when  he  left 
public  service  he  concluded  to  enter  business  by 
buying;  an  interest  in  the  firm  of  Joseph  Braun  & 
Company.  W'ith  a  total  capital  of  six  thousand 
dollars  this  firm  established  what  is  at  the  present 
day  one  of  the  model  plants  in  the  Northwest. 
Their  business  was  conducted  during  the  first  year 
with  the  assistance  of  but  three  men,  but  their  to- 
tal output  was  about  one  thousand  barrels.  Two 
years  later  it  had  increased  to  eighteen  hundred 
barrels.  At  this  time  Mr.  Braun  died,  the  firm 
was  dissolved  and  Mr.  Sehring  secured  the  entire 
business,  which  he  conducted  under  his  own 
name  with  increased  success.  By  the  strictest  at- 
tention to  business,  honorable  treatment,  kind- 
ness and  courtesy,  Mr.  Sehring  attained  pros- 
perity. The  business  grew  constantly,  and  in 
1883  Mr.  Sehring  found  that  a  change  would  be 
necessary  in  order  to  reap  the  full  benefit  of  his 
labors.  In  January'  of  that  year  he  concluded  to 
enlarge  and  incorporate  his  business  under  the 
name  of  The  Fred  Sehring  Bre^ving  Company. 
At  this  reorganization,  the  sons  of  Mr.  Sehring 
were  given  an  interest  in  tlie  business.  Henry 
Sehring  became  the  vice-president;  H.  F.  Piepen- 
brink,  his  son-in-law,  secretary  and  treasurer; 
and  Louis  J.  Sehring  superintendent.  The  new 
corporation  began  with  a  capital  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  and  the  succeeding  month  bought  out  the 
large  brewing  establislmient  of  Henry  Eder.  The 
business  has  continued  to  increase  and  at  the  pres- 
ent time  it  occupies  a  proininent  place  among  the 
successful  establishments  of  Joliet. 


M^.X^. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


513 


Politically,  ]\Ir.  Sehring  was  a  stanch  Demo- 
crat and  served  his  party  faithfully  and  ably.  In 
1874  he  was  elected  to  represent  his  ward  in  the 
common  council,  serving  his  constituents  six 
years,  and  early  connected  himself  with  nearly 
every  civic  movement  which  would  add  to  the 
importance  and  prosperity  of  his  city.  In  the 
fall  of  1874  Air.  Sehring  was  nominated  by  the 
liberal  Democrats  to  the  State  senate,  against 
A.  O.  ^Marshall,  who  was  the  Republican  nominee, 
and  C.  Frazier,  the  Granger  candidate.  The  re- 
turns showed  that  Mr.  Marshall  was  elected  by 
twelve  majority.  This  election  was  vigorously 
contested  bv  Mr.  Sehring,  who  proved  to  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  committee  investigating  the 
election  that  more  than  one  hundred  and  forty 
votes  were  illegally  cast.  When  the  regular  vote 
was  taken  in  the  legislature  the  Republicans  and 
Grangers  combined  against  ]\Ir.  Sehring  and  cast 
twent>'-six  votes  for  Marshall,  against  twenty- 
three  for  jMr.  Sehring. 

During  many  years  of  his  life  Air.  Sehring  was 
prominently  connected  with  the  In<lependent  Or- 
der of  Odd  Fellows,  and  frequently  represented 
his  lodge  in  the  Grand  Lodge.  He  was  likewise 
closely  identified  with  the  Masonic  fraternity. 

Mr.  Sehring's  business  and  private  life  was  one 
of  profound  feeling  of  the  responsibility  of  ex- 
istence. Always  honorable,  he  was  welcomed  in 
all  circles  of  the  community,  and  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  most  prominent  men  of  his  day.  He 
believed  that  he  sought  his  own  interest  when  he 
served  the  best  interest  of  his  customers  and  fel- 
low townsmen.  His  heart  was  genial  and  full 
of  (|uick  ami  wann  response  to  generous  nature. 


He  made  a  great  succeess  of  life  and  when  he 
departed  this  life,  on  the  2nd  day  of  July,  1892, 
he  was  mourned  not  only  by  his  relatives  and 
friends  but  also  almost  the  entire  community  de- 
plored his  passing  away. 

He  left  his  afifairs  in  safe  hands.  The  eldest 
son,  Louis  J.,  is  still  acting  as  the  general  man- 
ager of  the  business.  He  was  bom  in  Joliet  on 
April  12,  1858,  and  there  he  acquired  his  educa- 
tion in  the  city  schools.  At  an  early  age  he 
learned  the  primary  principles  of  the  brewing 
business  in  his  father's  brewery.  He  thereupon 
'  entered  and  served  an  apprenticeship  in  New 
York  and  Chicago,  thoroughly  fitting  himself  for 
the  responsible  position  he  has  now  held  for  more 
than  sixteen  years.  He  took  control  in  1878. 
Like  his  father,  he  has  become  prominent  in  pub- 
lic afifairs.  He  has  not  only  succeeded  to  his 
fathers  place  in  the  business  and  public  life,  but 
also  to  his  father's  characteristics  and  reputation. 
He  has  represented  the  Third  Ward  in  the  city 
council  for  two  years,  1885-6,  and  belongs  to 
nearly  every  movement  entered  upon  for  the  pub- 
lic good.  Under  his  active  management  the 
brewing  plant  has  grown  to  large  proportions. 
With  its  buildings  and  machinery,  which  is  of 
great  value,  it  has  a  capacity  of  over  thirt}'  thou- 
sand barrels  of  beer  annually  and  furnishes  the 
beverage  not  only  to  the  city  of  Joliet  but  also  to 
a  large  portion  of  the  country  surrounding  it. 

Mr.  Sehring  was  married  January  16,  1855,  in 
Joliet,  to  Mrs.  Louise  Bez,  and  to  them  have  been 
born  six  children:  Susan  E. ;  Louis  J.;  Maggie, 
the  wife  of  H.  F.  Piepenbrink;  Henry,  Anna  and 
George. 


514 


BIOGBAPHICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


FRANK  ORREN  LOWD'EN, 


FRANK  ORREN  LOWDEN,  a  prominent 
member  cf  the  Chicago  bar,  came  to  the 
city  in  1886,  when  he  was  twenty-five  years  old. 
His  rise  has  been  rapid  from  the  position  of  the 
liard-worked  lawyer's  clerk  to  the  rank  of  recog- 
nized leaders  of  the  profession. 

The  family  to  which  Mr.  Lowden  belongs  is  of 
Scotch  origin:  his  great-grandfather,  Joshua 
Lowden,  was  born  of  Scotch  parents,  in  Vermont, 
in  1783.  This  ancestor  served  in  the  war  of  1812. 
Orren  Lowden,  the  grandfather  of  Frank  Orren, 
at  the  age  of  twenty  married  Jerusha  Lummis,  of 
North  Adams,  Massachusetts,  whose  father,  Jolm 
Lummis,  born  in  this  country,  of  English  parent- 
age, was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  independence. 
Orren  Lcwden  removed  to  Erie  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  1832,  when  that  region  was  regarded 
as  the  frontier.  His  son, Lorenzo  Orren  Lowden, 
Frank  O.  Lowden's  father,  left  his  Erie  county 
home  at  the  age  of  fourteen  for  New  York  State, 
going  afterward  to  Chisago  county,  Minnesota, 
where  he  settled  in  1853.  Here,  on  the  i6th  of 
March,  3856,  he  married  Nancy  Elizabeth  Breg, 
formerly  of  Steuben  county,  New  York,  who  was 
also  of  Revolutionary  stock  on  her  mother's  side 
of  the  family. 

L.  O.  Lowden  was  a  hardy  pioneer  farmer  and 
lawyer.  In  i86t  he  was  commissioned  by  Gover- 
nor Merrill  as  major  of  the  Eighty-fourth  Regi- 
ment of  Alinnesota  Infantry,  but  was  barred  from 
military  service  through  inability  to  pass  the 
army  medical  examination.  In  the  fall  of  1868 
he  removed  with  his  family  to  a  farm  at  Point 
Pleasant,  Hardin  county,  Iowa. 

Frank  Orren  Lowdien,  was  bom  at  Sunrise 
City,  Minnesota,  January  26,  1861.  He  went 
Viith  his  parents  in  1868  to  their  new  home  in 
Iowa,  as  above  stated,  where  his  youth  was  spent 
working  on  a  farm  in  summer  and  attending  the 
public  school  in  winter.  When  he  was  fifteen 
years  old  be  commenced  teaching  school  in  Har- 
din county.  While  thus  engaged  he  prepared 
himself  for  college,  and  in  September,  1881,  en- 
tered the  freshman  class  in  the  Iowa  State  Uni- 
versity, scheduled  for  the  classical  course.     He 


was  obliged  to  remain  out  of  college  and  teach 
during  the  junior  year  of  his  class,  but  meantime 
kept  up  his  studies  and  returned  to  Iowa  City  for 
the  work  of  the  senior  year.  In  June,  1885,  he 
was  graduated  with  his  class,  of  which  he  was 
valedictorian,  taking  the  highest  rank  ever  at- 
tained in  the  university  up  to  that  time.  Mr. 
Lowden  then  became  a  teacher  in  the  Burlington 
(Iowa)  high  school,  and  while  filling  this  position 
devoted  his  spare  hours  to  the  study  of  the  law, 
v.hich  had  long  been  the  object  of  his  ambition. 

In  July,  1886,  young  Lowden  came  to  Chicago 
and  entered  the  law  office  of  Messrs.  Dexter, 
Herrick  &  Allen,  of  which  firm  Wirt  Dexter, 
then  a  leader  of  the  Chicago  bar,  was  the  head. 
At  tile  same  time  he  became  a  student  in  the 
Union  College  of  Law,  and  having  completed  the 
work  of  the  two-years  course  in  one  year,  gradu- 
ated in  July,  1887.  Here  again  he  was  valedic- 
torian of  his  class  and  received  the  first  prize 
for  his  oration  and  the  first  prize  for  scholarsh.ip. 
In  October  of  the  same  year  he  was  examined  for 
admission  to  the  bar  by  the  committee  of  the 
appellate  court  for  the  first  district  of  Illinois, 
and  outranked  all  who  at  that  time  took  the  ex- 
amination. Mr.  Lowden  remained  in  Messrs. 
Dexter,  Herrick  &  Allen's  office  four  years.  Dur- 
ing this  lime  he  was  engaged  largely  in  assist- 
ing t!ie  head  of  the  firm  and  was  a  close  student 
of  the  methods  of  that  great  advocate. 

In  July,  1890,  Mr.  Lowden  accepted  an  of- 
fer of  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Emery  S.  Walker. 
He  continued  that  relation  for  about  two  years 
and  did  most  of  the  court  work  of  the  firm. 
Upon  severing  his  connection  with  Mr.  Walker, 
he,  in  May,  1892,  formed  a  partnership  with 
Mr.  William  B.  Keep  and  remained  associated 
with  him  until  September  i,  1893,  engaged 
nearly  all  the  time  in  the  actual  trial  of  lawsuits. 
On  the  last  mentioned  date  the  partnership  wirh 
Mr.  Keep  was  dissolved  and  Mr.  Lowden  opened 
a  law  office  cf  his  own  in  the  Temple,  where  he 
carries  on  a  large  and  fast  growing  practice. 

Mr.  Lowden's  success  came  soon,  because  his 
equipment   was    unusually    good.      Along   with 


^l  vS^Win.v; 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


515 


those  qualities,  indispensable  to  the  lawyer, — a 
keen,  rapid,  logical  mind  plus  the  business  sense, 
and  a  ready  capacity  for  hard  work, — he  brought 
to  the  starting  point  of  his  legal  career  rarer 
gifts, — eloquence  of  language  and  a  strong  per- 
sonality. An  excellent  presence,  an  earnest,  dig- 
nified manner,  marked  strength  of  character,  a 
thorough  grasp  of  the  law,  and  the  ability  ac- 
curately to  apply  its  principles  are  factors  in  Mr. 
Lowdcn's  effectiveness  as  an  advocate. 

His  practice  has  not  been  restricted  to  any 
one  branch  of  the  profession.  The  law  of  cor- 
porations, which  has  been  developed  so  rapidly 
in  volume  and  complexity,  now  comprises  the 
largest  subdivision  of  civil  law,  and  composes  the 
larger  part  of  Mr.  Lowden's  practice.  Other  of 
the  subdivisions  of  the  law  in  which  liis 
practice  has  lain  are  partnership  law,  the  law  of 
receiverships  and  of  real  property.  Mr.  Lowden's 
aim,  however,  is  rather  to  continue  in  the  gen- 
eral practice  of  his  profession  than  to  become  a 
strict  specialist;  and  in  deference  to  this  desire 
he  has  declined  not  a  few  advantageous  offers  of 
salaried  attorneyships  at  the  hands  of  wealthy 
companies. 

Mr.  Lowden  actively  interests  himself  in  pub- 
lic affairs  and  participates  earnestly  in  any  effort 
to  propagate  a  spirit  of  patriotism  and  of  loyalty 
to  American  institutions;  and,  whenever  there  is 
a  public-spirited  attempt  to  drive  corruption  or 
other  unworthiness  out  of  public  office,  he  is  to 
be  found  working  with  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment. In  politics  he  has  always  been  a  stanch 
Republican,  but  has  never  held  or  sought  public 
office.  In  his  religious  opinions  Mr.  Lowden  is 
liberal  and  tolerant.  He  was  a  regular  attendant 
at  the  church  and  was  a  close  and  devoted  friend 
of  Professor  David  Swing  during  the  lifetime  of 
that  distinguished  divine. 

Socially,  Mr.  Lowden  occupies  a  prominent 
place.     lie  is  a  member  anil  director  of  the  Calu- 


met Club;  a  member  of  two  college  fraternities, 
the  Beta  Theta  Pi  and  the  Phi  Delta  Phi;  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Chicago  Club;  the  Union  League  Club; 
the  Washington  Park  Club;  the  Hamilton  Club; 
the  Chicago  Literary  Club;  the  Sunset  Club;  the 
Law  Club,  of  which  he  is  also  a  member  of  the 
executive  committee;  and  of  the  Chicago,  Illi- 
nois and  American  Bar  Associations.  Possessing 
a  high  degree  of  good-fellowship,  he  is  an  active 
member  in  most  of  these  organizations.  A  vigor- 
ous physique  and  intellect  enable  him  to  attend 
adequately  to  the  social  side  of  life  without  neg- 
lecting the  cultivation  of  the  mind.  He  is  a  con- 
stant reader  of  the  best  literature  and  is  an  un- 
usually apt  classical  scholar. 

The  same  qualifications  which  have  gained  for 
.Mr.  Lowden  his  reputation  as  an  advocate,  supple- 
mented by  broad  sympathies  and  a  fine  culture, 
have  won  him  recognition  as  a  public  speaker; 
and  his  presence  on  the  platform  or  at  the  speak- 
er's table  is  much  in  demand.  His  gift  as  an 
orator  is  peculiar  in  its  wideness  of  range;  he  has 
been  equally  successful  as  political  campaigner, 
after-dinner  speaker,  and  as  occasional  orator. 
One  may  refer,  for  an  example  of  the  last-men- 
tioned sort,  to  Mr.  Lowden's  address  upon 
"The  Law^-er's  Allegiance  to  the  Law,"  deliv- 
ered before  the  graduating  class  of  the  law 
school  of  the  University  of  Iowa  in  June,  1894, 
which  was  quoted  at  some  length  and  flatter- 
ingly commented  upon  in  England  as  well  as  in 
America. 

His  leadership  in  each  successive  branch  of  his 
educational  pursuits  and  the  variety  of  his  in- 
tellectual and  social  activities  are  some  evidence 
of  Mr.  Lowden's  untiring  industry,  while  his  ex- 
perience of  five  years  in  the  trial  of  difficult  law- 
cases  and  the  brilliant  record  of  results  attained 
leave  room  for  no  question  of  his  ability.  He 
already  deserves  and  is  given  classification  with 
the  leading  lawvcrs  of  Chicago. 


516 


BWORAPinCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


JOSEPH  BURTON, 


UPPER  ALTON. 


JOSEPH  BURTON,  who  is  widely  known 
among  the  older  settlers  of  Madison  county, 
is  a  native  of  the  Green  Mountain  State,  hav- 
ing been  born  in  Norwich,  Windsor  county,  No- 
vember 25,  1814,  a  son  of  John  Benjamin  Clark 
and  Susan  (Loveland)  Burton.  In  the  same  Ver- 
mont homestead  in  which  our  subject  first  saw 
the  light  of  day  were  also  born  and  reared  his 
father  and  grandfather.  His  father  was  a  farmer 
by  occupation,  and  had  six  children,  of  whom  the 
subject  of  this  sketch  was  the  oldest.  The  Burton 
family  came  originally  from  Connecticut,  and  our 
subject's  maternal  great-grandmother  was  a  Mas- 
sachusetts woman  of  English  descent,  while  his 
maternal  grandfather  was  one  of  the  early  set- 
tlers of  Vermont.  The  Lovelands  came  from  Eng- 
land, and  one  of  his  remote  ancestors  in  this  line 
came  from  England  and  located  in  Connecticut, 
being  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  this  country. 
Our  subject's  brother,  J.  P.,  who  resides  in  Al- 
ton, and  one  sister,  Eliza  Ann  Gillett,  who  lives 
in  Port  Huron,  Michigan,  are  all  that  are  left  of 
this  family.  His  parents  are  both  dead,  having 
passed  away  many  years  ago,  when  upward  of 
seventy  years  of  age. 

The  early  years  of  our  subject's  life  were  passed 
under  the  parental  roof,  where  he  remained  un- 
til 1834,  which  dates  hi?  arrival  in  Alton.  In  his 
youth  he  learned  the  carpenter's  trade,  which 
vocation  he  followed  after  locating  in  Alton. 

In  1S37  occurred  his  marriage  to  Elizabeth 
Elwell,  of  Philadelphia,  and  the   same  year  he 


removed  to  Bunker  Hill,  Illinois,  where  he  en- 
gaged in  farming,  and  where  for  nine  years  he 
followed  that  occupation.  He  purchased  a  tract 
of  wild  land,  which  he  at  once  set  about  improv- 
ing and  brought  to  a  state  of  cultivation  by  per- 
sistent toil.  His  wife,  who  died  in  1888,  bore 
her  husband  no  children,  but  they  adopted  and 
reared  three.  In  1890  Mr.  Burton  was  married 
again,  his  second  wife  being  Semantha  S.  Ken- 
dall, of  Alton,  who,  however,  survived  but  a 
short  time,  departing  this  life  in  October,  i8g2. 

From  Bunker  Hill  he  removed  to  St.  Louis, 
Missouri,  in  which  place  he  engaged  in  manu- 
facturing various  articles  for  a  period  of  nine 
years.  In  1858  he  returned  to  Alton  and  bought 
the  place,  in  Upper  Alton,  on  which  he  now  re- 
sides, the  same  comprising  eighty  acres.  He  has 
been  largely  interested  in  growing  small  fruits, 
in  which  line  he  has  been  eminently  successful, 
having  a  ready  market  for  all  his  productions. 
He  laid  ofif  what  is  known  as  Burton's  addition 
lo  Upper  Alton,  in  which  he  has  sold  many  lots, 
while  on  others  he  has  erected  dwellings, — some 
fifteen  in  number, — 'from  which  he  derives  a 
handsome  rental. 

Politically  he  votes  the  Republican  ticket  on 
all  issues,  whether  local  or  State,  but  has  never 
been  a  seeker  for  office  of  any  kind.  He  is  a 
gentleman  of  deep  religious  convictions,  always 
living  up  to  the  requirements  of  his  church,  and 
discharging  every  duty  as  becomes  a  man  who 
has  the  fear  of  God  in  his  heart. 


WILLIAM  SIDNEY  ELLIOTT,  Jr., 


A  BRILLIANT  though  unpretentious  mem- 
ber of  the  Illinois  bar  is  William  S.  Elli- 
ott, Jr.,  who  was  born  at  Niles,  Michigan,  May 
I,  1849.  From  his  ancestor,  John  Eliot,  the  fa- 
mous Indian  missionary,  he  inherited  a  strong 
love  of  justice  and  a  simple  eloquence  which 
carries  conviction  to  the  hearts  of  his  willing 
hearers.     He   was   educated   in   the  public   and 


academical  schools  of  Quincy,  Illinois,  whither 
he  went  with  his  parents  in  1857,  standing  high 
in  all  his  classes.  As  a  lad  he  was  thoughtful 
and  serious  beyond  his  age  and  his  school-fel- 
lows and  teachers  were  little  attracted  to  him 
on  account  of  his  natural  disinclination  for  the 
usual  sports  of  the  schoolboy.  Thus  it  was  that 
he  grew  up  alone,  his  books  being  his  most  es- 


REPHESENTATIVE  MEX  of  the  UXITED  STATES:  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


5r 


teemed  companions.  There  was  one  teacher, 
however,  who  was  drawn  to  this  silent  pupil. 
In  his  kindly  presence  the  reticence  disappeared, 
the  3-oung  nature  unfolded  and  disclosed  a  mind 
eager  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  To  this 
instructor's  kindly  encouragement  Mr.  Elliott 
credits  the  birth  of  a  determination  to  go  for- 
ward, despite  all  discouragements,  to  make  a 
name  for  himself. 

On  leaving  school  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he 
was  offered  and  accepted  the  position  of  a  bank 
clerk  in  Quincy,  in  which  position  he  remained 
for  four  years.  He  then  came  to  Chicago  in 
search  of  larger  opportunities,  arriving  in  March, 
iS6o.  He  immediately  secured  a  position  with 
the  old  State  Insurance  Company,  with  which 
he  remained  for  one  year,  securing  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  the  insurance  busi- 
ness. At  the  end  of  this  year  his  familiarity  with 
and  efficiency  in  the  banking  and  insurance  busi- 
ness led  him  to  open  an  insurance-brokerage  of- 
fice of  his  own,  in  which,  for  a  period  of  ten  years, 
he  conducted  one  of  the  largest  and  most  pros- 
perous enterprises  of  its  kind  in  the  city. 

In  1879,  determining  to  enter  upon  the  study 
of  the  law,  through  the  influence  of  Luther 
Laflin  Mills  Mr.  Elliott  secured  a  position  in 
the  law  office  of  the  late  Emery  A.  Storrs.  His 
quiet,  methodical,  business-like  habits  and  close 
application  to  study  soon  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  iMr.  Storrs,  who,  after  his  admission  to 
tlie  bar,  oflfered  him  a  partnership,  which  was 
accepted.  It  was  a  strange,  almost  incongruous 
union,  for  never  were  two  men  less  similar  in 
disposition  and  habits.  Mr.  Storrs  recognized 
in  Mr.  Elliott  the  business  requirements  referred 
to,  while  Mr.  Elliott  admired  in  Mr.  Storrs  those 
remarkable  attainments  which  secured  him  na- 
tional fame.  During  this  partnership  they  were 
tlie  wannest  of  friends  and  worked  together  in 
perfect  harmony.  After  Mr.  Storrs'  death  Mr. 
Elliott  was  appointed  assistant  State's  attorney 
under  Judge  Longenecker,  and  during  the  five 
)'ears  in  which  he  held  this  office  he  conducted 
nearly  six  thousand  cases,  disposing  of  about 
twelve  hundred  per  year.  This  is  considered  the 
best  record  yet  made  by  any  assistant  State's  at- 
torney. At  the  expiration  of  this  term  of  five 
vears'  constant  service  as  assistant  State's  attor- 


ney he  resigned,  with  the  bar,  bench  and  press 
commending  his  work  in  the  highest  terms. 

Mr.  Elliott  then  resumed  the  private  practice 
of  law.  Clients  with  both  civil  and  criminal 
cases  soon  came  to  him,  and  no  matter  how 
hopeless  they  appeared,  if  he  accepted  them  they 
were  bound  to  win.  Both  as  assistant  State's  at- 
torney and  in  private  practice  he  has  ever  been 
ready  to  assist  helpless  women  and  children. 
His  sense  of  chivalry  is  strong  and  in  such  cases 
he  never  hesitates  because  of  a  lack  of  fees,  the 
gratitude  of  those  he  aids  being  his  most  cher- 
ished compensation.  During  the  three  years 
since  leaving  the  State's  attorney's  office  he  has 
conducted  the  defense  in  thirty-five  murder  cases 
and  gained  the  discharge  of  his  client  in  nearly 
every  case.  His  civil  cases  are  many  and  im- 
portant and  success  rarely  fails  to  crown  his  ef- 
forts in  this  class  of  litigation.  Mr.  Elliott's  man- 
ner of  pleading  a  case  dififers  greatly  from  the 
usual  methods.  He  rarely  prepares  a  brief  or 
qviotes  authorities,  but  depends  largely  upon 
gaining  the  sympathy  of  the  judge  and  jury  by 
the  intrinsic  merit  of  his  cause.  He  makes  the 
case  of  his  client  a  personal  one  with  each  juror 
and  compels  him  to  feel  that  it  is  his  own,  and 
when  he  has  finished  all  are  with  him  to  a  man 
and  his  cause  is  won.  Perhaps  his  magnetic  in- 
fluence lies  not  wholly  in  what  he  says;  added 
to  a  splendid  physique  is  a  countenance  few  could 
resist.  Strong,  cleanly  cut  features  and  clear, 
flashing  gray  eyes  accentuate  the  rhetorical  peri- 
ods which  carry  conviction  to  his  hearers. 

Mr.  Elliott  was  one  of  the  early  promoters  of 
the  Apollo  Music  Club  of  Chicago,  now  famous 
throughout  the  world.  He  is  a  member  and  has 
served  as  an  officer  of  the  Royal  League,  the 
Royal  Arcanum,  the  National  L^nion,  and  An- 
cient Order  of  Foresters.  He  is  also  a  blue 
lodge,  chapter,  council  and  commandery  Mason, 
a  noble  of  the  Mystic  Shrine,  and  belongs  to 
the  Illinois,  Marquette,  Hamilton,  Lincoln,  Met- 
ropolitan and  Alenoken  Clubs.  He  is  an  active 
mcmljtr  of  the  First  Congregational  Church 
of  Chicago;  politically  is  a  Republican,  and 
has  always  taken  a  prominent  part  in  local 
politics,  being  ever  active  on  behalf  of  his 
party,  both  upon  the  stump  and  at  the  council 
fires. 


518 


BIOaRAPIIICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  QALLERT  OF  THE 


On  the  14th  of  October,  1871,  Mr.  Elliott  was 
united  in  marriag-e  with  Miss  Alinda  Caroline 
Harris,  of  Janesville,  Wisconsin.  They  have  six 
children:  Lorenzo  Bull,  a  graduate  of  the  Kent 
College  of  Law,  and  Bachelor  of  Laws  of  the 


Lake  Forest  University;  Daniel  Morse,  now 
studying  law  in  the  Kent  College  of  Law;  Charles 
Sumner;  Emery  Storrs;  Jessie  Florence  and 
Birdie  Leon.  The  two  elder  sons  are  now  in 
their  father's  office. 


GEORGE  E.  WAITE, 


GEORGE  E.  WAITE  is  a  native  of  Stratton, 
Windham  county,  Vermont,  and  the  son 
of  Tyler  and  Lucia  Waite.  The  family  is  of 
English  origin,  and  has  been  prominently  identi- 
fied with  the  history  of  that  country.  One  mem- 
ber of  the  family  was,  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
one  of  the  regicide  judges,  who  tried  and  con- 
demned to  death  King  Charles  First.  It  was  in 
the  early  Puritan  days  that  the  American  branch 
of  the  family  came  to  this  country,  and  since 
that  time  many  of  the  descendants  of  the  first 
ancestors  in  this  country  have  distinguished  them- 
selves in  various  channels  in  public  life  and  pri- 
vate enterprises.  The  paternal  grandsire  of 
Tudge  Waite  was  among  those  of  the  colonists 
who  early  rebelled  against  injustice  and  oppres- 
sion of  the  mother  country,  and  was  one 
of  the  patriots  engaged  in  the  first  battle 
of  the  American  Revolution.  On  his  mother's 
side  his  ancestors  were  of  Flighland  Scotch  de- 
scent. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  and  reared 
on  a  farm  in  the  shadows  of  the  Green  mountains. 
Commencing  his  education  at  the  common 
schools,  later  on  he  prepared  himself  for  college 
and  entered  the  Wesleyan  University  at  JMiddle- 
town,  Connecticut,  at  which  eminent  institution 
he  graduated  with  high  honor  in  1854,  having 
taken  the  four  years'  full  classical  course.  In 
1856  Judge  Waite  left  his  native  State  and  settled 
in  Geneseo,  Illinois,  at  which  place  he  has  made 
his  home  to  this  day.  Shortly  after  reaching 
Illinois  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  law,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  this  State  in  1859. 

In  his  profession  he  is  recognized  as  a  man  ot 
superior  attainments  and  excellent  legal  ability. 
He  was  early  elected  county  judge  of  Henry 
county,  in  which  capacity    he    gave    such    just 


and  eminent  services  that  he  was  renominated  for 
the  third  term,  but  declined  to  accept  of  such 
nomination,  much  preferring,  as  he  said,  the  law 
practice  to  that  of  the  bench. 

In  all  matters  of  public  concern  he  has  been  a 
conspicuous  figure  and  prominent  actor,  and  has 
been  instrumental  in  securing  much  needed  and 
useful  legislation.  As  the  first  mayor  of  the  city 
of  Geneseo  he  sei-ved  for  two  terms.  Prior  to 
that  time  he  had  been  commissioned  colonel  by 
that  renowned  governor,  Richard  Yates.  Dur- 
ing the  war  his  energy  and  patriotism  were  of  in- 
estimable worth  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  in  the 
dark  days  of  that  civil  strife. 

Judge  Waite  was  an  active  and  influential 
member  of  that  eminent  body  which  formed  the 
constitution  of  this  State  in  the  year  1870,  and 
which  is  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Illinois 
to-day;  and  largely  through  his  influence  and 
through  the  report  of  his  committee,  of  which  he 
was  chairman,  special  legislation  was  cut  ofif 
which  had  been  the  bane  of  this  State  from  its 
organization  to  that  day. 

In  politics  the  subject  of  this  sketch  is,  and 
always  has  been,  a  Republican,  and  has  rendered 
distinguished  services  on  county  and  State  com- 
mittees, and  done  unlimited  work  for  friends  seek- 
ing preferment  with  never  a  thought  for  himself. 
A  distinguished  politician  remarked  but  a  few 
da)'s  ago  that  he  had  known  Judge  Waite  for 
aliout  thirty  years  well,  and  that  he  is  the  most 
unselfish  man  he  had  ever  met. 

To  be  brief,  Judge  Waite  is  a  unique  character. 
He  possesses  an  original,  distinctive  personality, 
full  of  nerve  force,  with  rare  physical  courage  and 
will  power  peculiar  to  himself.  Being  possessed 
of  no  self-conceit  and  unpretentious  in  manners, 
still  he  impresses  one  as  being  possessed  of  tern- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


519 


per  and  pluck  and  honesty,  and  the  spirit  of  a 
lion  when  aroused.  His  abilities  are  best  shown 
in  great  emergencies,  and,  when  fully  aroused  on 
such  occasions,  he  possesses  almost  resistless  pow- 
ers. His  oratory  on  ordinary  occasions  may  be 
said  to  be  that  of  an  ordinary  speaker,  but  when 
awakened  by  the  magnitude  of  the  occasion  he 
becomes  an  eloquent  and  powerful  speaker  and 
a  brilliant  orator.  But  the  best  of  all  is  that  no 
man  can  justly  say  aught  against  his  political  or 
business  honor  or  of  the  purity  of  his  private 
life. 

Judge  Waite  is  a  man  of  fine  personal  appear- 
ance, standing  fully  six  feet  in  height,  and  of 
excellent  proportions,  weighing  one  hundred  and 


eighty  pounds;  and  would  everywhere  be  recog- 
nized, even  among  strangers,  as  being  a  good 
deal  more  than  a  common  man.  He  stands 
erect,  his  head  is  clothed  with  a  full  growth  of 
rich  brown  hair,  tinged  with  gray.  When  in 
conversation  Judge  Waite's  voice  is  exceedingly 
mellow,  rich  and  charming. 

May  9,  1859,  he  was  married  to  Hattic  N. 
Wells,  a  native  of  Tolland,  Connecticut,  and  a 
daughter  of  Benjamin  and  Mary  Wells.  The  is- 
sue of  this  union  has  been  three  lovely  and  ac- 
complished daughters;  Laura  N.,  Hattie  M.  and 
Ruth  M.  He  also  has  two  brothers — Henry  A. 
Waite  and  Dexter  Waite,  now  residing  in  Wards- 
boro,  Vermont. 


ADIN  A.  KENDRICK,  D.  D., 


UrPER  ALTOX. 


ADIN  A.  KENDRICK,  D.  D.,  president  of 
Sliurtlefif  College,  Upper  Alton,  Illinois, 
was  born  ;it  Ticonderoga,  New  York,  the  city 
of  Ethan  Allen  fame,  January  7,  1836,  and  is  a 
son  of  Albert  and  Orpha  (Smith)  Kendrick. 
The  ancestry  of  the  faimily  in  this  country  dates 
from  1639,  when  Mr.  John  Kendrick,  who  was 
born  in  England,  in  1609,  came  to  Boston  and 
settled  in  Newton,  near  that  city.  Conspicuous 
in  the  line  of  descendants  since  are  the  Rev. 
Clark  Kendrick,  born  in  Hanover,  New  Hamp- 
shire, in  1775,  and  father  of  Dr.  A.  C.  Kendrick, 
of  Rochester;  Dr.  Nathaniel  Kendrick,  cousin  of 
Clark  Kendrick,  the  first  president  of  wihat  is 
now  Madison  University;  James  Ryland  Ken- 
drick, a  younger  brother,  now  deceased,  of  the 
eminent  scholar,  teacher  and  author  of  Roches- 
ter, whom  we  name  above;  with  others  in  other 
.spheres  of  professional  life,  as  Dr.  Adin  Ken- 
drick, for  so  many  years  the  "beloved  physician," 
in  Poultney,  Vermont,  and  Dr.  Albert  Kendrick, 
father  of  the  ShurtlefT  president,  who  a  few  years 
since  finished  a  like  useful  career  at  Waukesha, 
Wisconsin.  It  is  a  notable  heritage  into  which 
one  enters  who  can  claim  an  ancestry  and  a  kin- 
dred such  as  these. 

The   father  of  the   immediate   subject  of  this 
sketch  was  a  native  of  Poultney,  Vermont,  while 


the  city  of  Ticonderoga  was  the  birthplace  of  his 
worthy  mother.  The  profession  of  medicine  was 
selected  by  the  elder  Kendrick,  and  for  the  prac- 
tice of  this  he  prepared  himself  with  more  than 
ordinary  care,  attending  the  best  colleges  and 
otlierwise  availing  himself  of  the  best  facilities 
afforded  at  that  time  for  obtaining  a  comprehen- 
sive and  practical  knowledge  of  materia  medica. 
He  at  once  entered  on  a  lucrative  practice  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  in  which  he  resided  until 
the  year  1855,  at  which  time,  with  his  family, 
he  removed  to  Waukesha,  Wisconsin,  in  which 
place  lie  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
which  he  followed  uninterruptedly  until  his  ca- 
reer was  closed  by  death. 

Of  the  four  children  constituting  the  family, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  the  oldest.  He 
was  reared  without  the  kindly  influence  of  ma- 
ternal love,  as  his  mother  died  while  our  sub- 
ject was  a  child  in  years.  The  maternal  ancestry 
of  our  subject  is  traceable  to  Scotland  and  Wales, 
and  the  original  representative,  upon  reaching  the 
shores  of  the  New  World,  settled  in  New  Jersey, 
from  which  State  they  afterward  removed  to  New 
York.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Almerin 
Smith,  Esq.,  who  had  been  an  officer  in  the  war 
of  1812,  for  nearly  fifty  years  a  resident  of  Ticon- 
deroga and  often  honored  by  his  fellow  citizens 


520 


BIOGRAPniCAL  DICTIONART  AND  PORTUATT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


with  positions  of  official  trust  in  his  town  and 
county.  The  mother  was  a  woman  endowed 
w  ith  many  personal  attractions,  added  to  which 
wn?  a  refined  and  cultivated  mind.  Although 
dying-  while  her  son  was  yet  very  young,  she  may 
be  believed  to  have  left  impressions  in  his  memon' 
and  character  which  have  had  their  effect  in 
shaping  his  own  career. 

The  preparatory  training  our  subject  received 
in  the  Granville  Academy,  Granville,  New  York, 
which  was  followed  by  a  supplementary  course 
at  Middlebury  College.  In  1857  he  settled  in 
Tanesville,  Wisconsin,  where  he  took  up  the 
study  of  law  under  the  preceptorship  of  Judge 
Noggle,  a  distinguished  jurist  of  that  city.  His 
resourceful  and  versatile  mind  soon  mastered 
the  intricacies  of  the  subject  of  law,  and  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  Locating  at  Monroe,  Wis- 
consin, in  partnership  with  E.  A.  W'est,  Esq.,  he 
entered  on  the  practice  of  his  profession,  which 
he  uninterruptedly  and  not  without  success  fol- 
lowed for  one  year.  He  then  went  to  St.  Louis, 
Alissouri,  and  continued  his  practice  for  a  year. 
At  this  time,  becoming  convinced  that  his  life's 
work  lay  in  the  direction  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  he  abandoned  the  law  and  at  once  en- 
tered the  theological  seminary  at  Rochester, 
Xew  York,  at  which  institution  he  graduated  in 
the  spring  of  1861.  He  immediately  repaired  to 
Chicago,  where  he  became  pastor  of  the  North 
Baptist  Church,  which  position  he  held  for  three 
years  and  a  half.  He  then,  in  1865,  went  to  St. 
Louis,  where  he  became  assistant  pastor  of  the 
Second  Baptist  Church,  Rev.  Galusha  Anderson 
being  pastor.  After  a  year  and  a  half  of  this 
ser^'icc  he  became  pastor  of  a  new  church,  the 
Beaumont  Street,  where  he  was  in  service  until 


1872,  when  he  was  called  to  the  presidency  of 
Shurtlefif  College,  and  also  to  the  chair  of  mental 
and  moral  philosophy  in  that  institution,  the -du- 
ties of  both  of  which  he  has  discharged  with 
ability. 

In  1859  Dr.  Kcndrick  was  married  to  Mrs.  M. 
Little,  who  sun-ived  but  a  short  time  after  mar- 
riage. In  February,  1864,  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Mar>'  Jewett,  of  Racine,  Wisconsin.  Tliey 
have  five  children:  Albert  J.,  who  is  city  editor 
of  the  Chicago  Daily  News;  Edward  A.,  who 
resides  in  BufTalo,  New  York;  Martha,  Chalmers 
N.,  and  Mary. 

During  the  twenty-one  years  of  Dr.  Kendrick's 
association  with  Shurtlefif  College  as  its  presi- 
dent he  has  been  untiring  in  his  efforts  to  place 
the  well-known  institution  of  learning  in  the 
prominence  which  it  so  justly  deserves.  He  is 
fortunate  in  facility  of  self-adaptation  to  exigen- 
cies, such  as  await  all  public  men,  more  or  less, 
in  a  way  to  command  respect  alike  for  himself 
and  for  the  institution  he  represents.  As  a  teacher 
he  is  at  home  in  the  studies  proper  to  his  own 
department,  and  at  the  head  of  a  college  wins 
the  warm  attachment  of  the  students  by  the  dig- 
nity of  his  character,  his  kindness  and  the  genial 
firmness  of  his  administration.  He  is  also  al- 
ways welcome  in  leading  pulpits  of  his  denom- 
ination in  his  State,  and  has  served  repeated  terms 
as  moderator  of  the  Baptist  General  Association 
of  Illinois,  and  is  the  more  valued  and  beloved 
because  found  so  ready  for  service,  whether  in 
city  or  hamlet,  where  there  are  brethren  to  meet 
or  work  to  be  done.  Many  will  congratulate  him 
on  attaining  his  "majority"  as  a  college  presi- 
dent, and  hope  that  many  more  years  of  useful- 
ness and  honor  still  await  him. 


RRPREt^EyTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  VXITED  STATES;  n.LlXOIS  VOLCME. 


521 


ADOLPH  SCHOENINGER, 


A  FACT  of  which  due  recognition  is  not  usu- 
ally accorded  in  connection  with  the  com- 
mercial history  of  the  wonderful  metropolis  of 
the  West  is  that  to  no  foreign  element  is  its  pres- 
ent due  in  so  large  a  measure  as  to  those  who 
have  had  their  nativity  in  or  trace  their  lineage  to 
the  great  empire  of  Germany.  Among  those  who 
left  the  Fatherland  to  identify  themselves  with 
American  life  and  institutions,  who  have  pushed 
their  way  to  the  front  and  who  are  a  credit  alike 
to  the  land  of  their  birth  and  that  of  their  adop- 
tion, is  Adolph  Schoeninger,  the  well-known 
North  Side  manufacturer  of  Chicago. 

The  subject  of  this  review  was  born  in  the  old 
free  city  of  Weil,  in  Schwaben,  Germanv,  on  the 
20th  of  January,  1833,  being  the  son  of  Joseph  A. 
and  Anna  M.  (Ebele)  Schoeninger.  In  his  native 
city  he  secured  a  liberal  education  through  the 
medium  of  the  magnificent  school  svstem  which 
is  the  honor  and  pride  of  Germany.  While  yet  in 
early  manhood  he  became  a  clerk  in  the  exten- 
sive dry-goods  establishment  owned  by  David 
Gale,  at  Rastadt,  Baden,  beginning  as  an  ap- 
prentice and  continuing  to  advance  to  higher  po- 
sitions until  he  became  thoroughly  conversant 
with  this  and  kindred  branches  of  the  mercantile 
business.  He  remained  for  seven  years  at  Ras- 
tadt, and  during  that  period  witnessed  much  mis- 
ery and  inhumanity,  as  incidental  to  the  dictator- 
siiip  of  Brentano.  Partly  for  this  reason,  but 
principally  because  America  opened  a  wider  field 
for  advancement  through  personal  endeavor,  he 
determined  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States. 

Tn  the  year  1854  Mr.  Schoeninger  came  to 
America  in  company  with  a  younger  .brother,  and 
for  a  number  of  years  he  retained  his  residence 
in  Philadelphia,  where  he  rose  to  prominence  in 
a  business  and  social  way.  The  peril  of  the  na- 
tion from  internecine  war  created  in  his  heart 
such  a  loyal  love  for  his  adopted  country  as  had 


been  unknown  to  him  before,  and  so  strong  was 
this  affection  and  patriotic  spirit  that  he  offered 
his  services  to  the  Union  and  faithfully  gave  his 
aid  to  the  cause  of  freedom  by  doing  valiant  ser- 
vice as  Captain  of  a  company  of  the  Fifty-seventh 
Pennsylvania  \'olunteers. 

In  1864  Mr.  Schoeninger  came  to  Chicago  and 
tliis  city  has  since  been  his  home.  For  one  year 
lie  acted  as  a  salesman  in  a  mercantile  establish- 
ment, and  then  started  a  furniture  factory,  at  the 
corner  of  Union  and  Desplaines  streets,  but  in 
1866  the  factory  was  destroyed  by  fire,  entailing 
a  great  financial  loss.  Nothing  daunted  by  this 
misfortune,  Mr.  Schoeninger  soon  built  and  as- 
sumed charge  of  a  small  factory,  which  was  lo- 
cated on  the  site  of  his  present  establishment,  and 
by  shrewd  and  honest  business  methods  he  ex- 
tended his  trade  from  year  to  year,  until  he  has 
become  one  of  the  extensive  and  well-known 
mamifacturers  of  Chicago,  notwithstanding  his 
second  serious  loss  by  the  great  fire  of  187 1.  The 
Western  Wheel  Works,  of  which  he  is  president, 
are  i^articnlarly  noted  for  the  superior  excellence 
of  the  bicycles  manufactured,  and  these,  with 
other  products  of  the  establishment,  command  an 
extensive  sale.  Our  subject  has  other  extensive 
business  interests,  and  is  recognized  as  an  enter- 
prising, progressive  and  honorable  business  man, 
retaining  the  respect  and  esteem  of  all  with 
vv-hom  he  has  dealings  or  comes  into  contact  in 
a  business  or  social  way.  Mr.  Schoeninger  has  a 
reputation  of  which  any  man  might  well  be 
proud,  and  he  stands  forward  distinctively  as  one 
of  Chicago's  most  worthy  citizens  and  business 
men. 

The  marriage  of  our  subject  was  solemnized 
January  20,  1857,  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  was 
united  to  Miss  Augusta  Riemann.  They  are  the 
parents  of  one  son  and  two  daughters,  and  the 
family  home  is  one  in  which  are  ever  in  evidence 
all  the  refined  amenities  of  cultured  social  life. 


522 


nioailAI'IIICAL  DirriONAUT  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


GEORGE  R.  PECK, 


THE  pre-eminence  of  Chicagio  is  due  not  only 
to  the  men  of  li^lit  and  leading  wlio  con- 
trolled her  affairs  in  the  early  days,  but  even 
more  to  those  whom  she  is  constantly  attracting 
from  other  cities.  In  March,  1893,  George  R. 
Peck,  then  general  solicitor  of  the  Atchison  Rail- 
road system,  removed  his  office  and  family  from 
Topeka,  Kansas,  to  Chicago.  This  seemed  to 
many  a  hazardous  change.  Would  the  first  law- 
yer of  Kansas  be  able  to  maintain  his  leadership 
among  the  lawyers  of  the  metropolis?  But  those 
who  knew  him  never  doubted  that  his  past 
achievements  would  be  surpassed  in  the  larger 
field;   and  already  this  has  occurred. 

Born  in  Steuben  county.  New  York,  in  1843, 
he  spent  his  childhood  among  the  hardships  of 
farm  life  in  a  Wisconsin  clearing.  At  sixteen, 
with  only  a  common-school  education,  he  left 
the  work  of  the  farm  to  become  a  district  school- 
teacher that  he  might  add  to  the  scant  income 
of  his  father  and  free  the  farm  from  debt.  At 
nineteen  he  enlisted  in  the  First  Wisconsin  Heavy 
Artillery,  was  promoted  to  captain  of  the  Thirty- 
first  Wisconsin  Infantry,  and  marched  with  Sher- 
man's army  to  the  sea.  After  three  years'  service 
he  was  mustered  out  at  the  age  of  twenty-t^vo,  and 
inmiediately  returned  to  Wisconsin.  He  began  at 
Janesville  his  preparation  for  that  perennial  war, 
the  practice  of  law,  in  which  he  has  won  the 
highest  honors.  Six  years  were  spent  there,  as 
law  student,  circuit  clerk  and  practicing  lawyer. 
Then  he  sought  larger  opportunities  in  the  new 
State  of  Kansas.  From  1871  to  1874  he  pursued 
his  profession  with  signal  success  at  Independ- 
ence. Then  he  was  appointed  by  President  Grant 
United  States  attorney  for  the  District  of  Kansas, 
at  Topeka,  where  for  nineteen  years  he  gained 
evci -increasing  distinction  as  a  lawyer,  an  influen- 
tial citizen  and  a  man  of  letters.  Within  a  month 
after  his  appointment  he  was  directed  by  the  attor- 
ney general  to  bring  a  suit  involving  the  title  to 
960,000  acres  of  land.  The  ability  with  which 
he  brought  this  and  other  cases  to  a  successful 
issue  soon  made  him  the  leading  lawyer  of  his 
State.     In   1879  the  greater  rewards  of  private 


practice  led  him  to  resign  the  office  of  district  at- 
torney. In  1881  the  Atchison  Railroad  Company 
elected  him  its  general  solicitor.  From  then  until 
September,  1895,  with  the  exception  of  two  years, 
that  great  system  of  railroads  was  created  and 
developed  under  his  masterful  counsel  and  di- 
rection. 

Mr.  Peck's  connection  with  Kansas  politics 
during  the  entire  period  of  his  residence  there 
was  of  the  most  influential  and  honorable  char- 
acter. For  more  than  ten  years  his  leadership 
of  the  Republican  party  in  that  State  was  unques- 
tioned; and  he  might  have  had  any  office  its 
people  controlled.  Upon  the  death  of  Senator 
Plumb  in  1892  Governor  Humphrey  offered  the 
vacant  seat  in  the  United  States  senate  to  Mr. 
Peck,  but  the  splendid  honor  was  declined. 
During  the  early  months  of  1893,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Governor  Lewelling's  administration, 
the  capitol  at  Topeka  was  filled  with  legislators 
contending,  not  only  with  parliamentary  weapons, 
but  with  arms,  for  the  control  of  the  legislative 
halls.  The  State  house  and  the  surrounding 
grounds  were  an  armed  camp.  Sentinels  guarded 
the  entrances,  and  members  of  the  opposing 
parties  were  flocking  thither  as  to  a  war.  Then  it 
was  that  George  R.  Peck,  by  the  force  of  his  com- 
manding character  and  influence,  controlled  the 
situation,  and  by  his  wise  counsel  and  indomit- 
able will  averted  the  anarchy  and  bloodshed  that 
were  impending. 

During  his  residence  in  Chicago  his  political 
experience  and  learning  and  his  fine  literary  art 
have  become  familiar  to  the  public  through  his 
occasional  addresses.  The  more  notable  of  these 
Ere  his  response  on  Abraham  Lincoln  at  the 
Marquette  banquet  in  February,  1895,  and  his 
address  on  General  George  H.  Thomas  before 
the  Loyal  Legion  at  Indianapolis.  The  extent 
and  character  of  his  reputation  as  a  statesman  is 
evinced  by  the  fact  that  leading  newspapers  of  half 
a  dozen  States  east  and  west  have  already  pro- 
posed him  as  the  presidential  candidate  of  the 
Republican  party  in  1896;  though  he  would  dis- 
courage anv  such  movement. 


^e/^. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


J23 


As  a  lawyer  he  ranks  with  the  greatest  that 
this  country  has  produced;  and  few  of  these  can 
show  such  a  hst  of  professional  triumphs  in  im- 
portant cases.  When  the  Atchison  Company 
attempted  to  secure  the  control  of  the  St.  Louis 
&  San  Francisco  Railroad  Company,  and  also 
of  the  Atlantic  &  Pacific,  in  i8gi,  by  the  pur- 
chase of  the  former,  Eastman,  a  stockholder  of 
the  'Frisco,  sought  to  enjoin  the  sale  on  the 
ground  that  the  'Frisco  was  a  parallel  and  com- 
peting line  with  the  Atchison.  The  case  was 
bitterly  contested  in  the  circuit  and  supreme 
courts  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Peck's  suc- 
cessful handling  of  this  litigation,  in  which  the 
formation  of  the  Atchison  system  was  involved, 
gave  him  a  place  among  the  first  railroad  law- 
yers of  the  time. 

When,  in  1892,  the  attorney-general  of  the 
United  States  attacked  the  Trans-Missouri 
Freight  Association  as  a  violation  to  the  anti- 
trust act,  the  Western  railroads  composing  this 
association  confidently  committed  to  Mr.  Peck 
the  defense  of  the  association.  His  argument  be- 
fore the  district  court  and  before  the  court  of 
appeals  was  a  masterpiece  of  legal  learning,  con- 
vincing argument  and  noble  eloquence.  At  both 
hearings  he  was  successful. 

In  December,  1893,  the  Atchison  system  went 
into  the  hands  of  receivers,  and  the  problem  of 
its  reorganization  was  pressed  upon  the  holders 
of  its  almost  worthless  securities,  and  the  direc- 
tion of  the  legal  proceedings  was  devolved  upon 
Mr.  Peck.  Within  two  years  the  mortgages 
were  foreclosed,  the  property  sold  and  a  work- 
ing plan  of  reorganization  effected,  and  the  great 
railroad  system  preserved  unbroken.  Such  a 
feat  of  efficient  and  rapid  reorganization  of  so 
large  a  railroad  property  is  unparalleled. 

In  September  last  Mr.  Peck  resigned  the 
general  solicitorship  of  the  Atchison  system 
to  become  the  general  counsel  of  the  Chi- 
cago, Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company. 
United  States  Judge  Caldwell,  of  the  Seventh 
Circuit,  in  accepting  his  resignation,  asked  that 
he  still  give  to  the  Atchison  reorganization  com- 
mittee the  benefit  of  his  counsel  until  the  reor- 
ganization should  be  completed,  and  spoke  of 
his  connection  with  the  receivership  matters  in 
terms  of  highest  praise. 


Since  his  removal  to  Chicago  Mr.  Peck  has 
been  associated  with  John  S.  Miller  and  Merritt 
Starr  in  the  law  firm  of  Peck,  Miller  &  Starr. 
Besides  his  connection  with  the  receivership 
matters  of  the  Atchison  system,  he  was  engaged 
in  the  foreclosure  of  the  mortgage  of  the  Jack- 
sonville &  Southeastern  line,  and  has  recently 
been  retained  in  connection  with  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad. 

Amid  the  labors  of  the  farm,  the  field,  the  bar, 
and  of  public  afifairs,  Mr.  Peck  has  clicrishe<l 
a  love  of  letters  and  has  acquired  a  literary  art 
and  appreciation  which  are  after  all  his  highest 
title  to  distinction.  His  large  library,  which  it  has 
been  the  care  and  pleasure  of  his  life  to  collect, 
is  esteemed  his  greatest  possession;  and  his  in- 
timate famiharity  with  the  best  literature  is  the  or- 
nament of  his  public  utterances  and  the  charm  of 
iiis  conversation.  He  is  a  frequent  orator  at  the 
gatherings  of  the  Loyal  Legion, — of  which  he 
has  been  a  commander, — and  is  much  sought 
after  to  address  literary  societies  and  the  gradu- 
ating classes  of  colleges  and  universities.  From 
one  of  these  universities  he  has  received 
the  degree  of  LL.D.  His  address  before  the 
law  class  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin 
in  1893,  and  his  oration  on  Founders'  Day 
at  Knox  Ci)llege  in  1894,  are  remembered 
by  tliose  who  heard  them  as  the  events  of 
tiic  college  year.  In  June,  1895,  he  deliv- 
ered the  annual  oration,  on  "The  Worth  of  a  Sen- 
timent," before  the  Washington  and  Jefferson 
societies  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  It  was 
undoubtedly  the  greatest  address,  as  it  was  also 
one  of  the  greatest  occasions,  in  the  history  of 
that  ancient  university.  The  address  was  printed 
in  the  newspapers  of  Virginia,  Texas  and  Kan- 
sas, as  well  as  in  the  papers  of  Chicago.  His 
reference  to  the  New  South  and  to  the  union  of 
the  North  and  South  was  mentioned  and  praised 
by  the  leading  papers  throughout  the  country. 

His  tastes  and  his  talents  are  so  generous  that 
there  is  no  subject  of  great  human  interest  with 
which  he  is  unacquainted  or  to  which  he  has  not 
given  sympathetic  aid.  Companionable,  warm- 
liearted  and  open-handed,  admiration  of  his  mas- 
terful abilities  is  forgotten  in  the  warmer  admi- 
ration and  love  of  the  man. 

Edgar  A.  Bancroft. 


524 


niOGRAPiriCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  CAILERY  OF  THE 


DR.  JOHN  STUART  RYBURN, 


DR.  RYBURN  was  bom  at  Plainfield,  Illinois, 
May  5,  1852,  and  was  a  son  of  David  and 
Margaret  Ryburn,  both  natives  of  Ayrshire,  Scot- 
land. He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of 
his  native  city  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  years 
began  the  study  of  medicine  in  the  office  of  Dr. 
A.  J.  I'erkins,  of  Plainfield.  He  twice  went 
abroad,  the  last  time  to  attend  the  International 
i\Iedical  Congress.  Returning  home  he  took  a 
course  of  studies  at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  and 
the  Rush  Medical  College,  and  in  1875  he  came  to 
Ottawa,  where  he  entered  the  r  ffice  of  the  late  Dr. 
R.  ]M.  JMcArthur,  but  continued  the  studies  of 
the  Rush  IMedical  College,  at  which  institution  he 
was  graduated  with  honor  in  1876,  being  val- 
edictorian of  his  class.  He  remained  with  Dr. 
McArthur  for  several  years,  and  then  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  his  profession  alone.  From  the 
beginning  he  met  with  success,  his  skill  and  abil- 
ity winning  him  a  reputation  that  was  acknowl- 
edged by  the  profession  and  the  public.  He  was 
trustworthy,  reliable,  gentle,  yet  firm,  and  his 
genial  manner  made  his  presence  in  the  sick- 
room like  a  ray  of  sunshine.  His  business  so 
rapidly  increased  and  he  devoted  himself  to  his 
work  so  tmtiringly  that  he  was  frequently  forced 
to  leave  home  for  the  benefit  of  his  own  health, 
which  was  failing  through  his  efforts  to  benefit 
others.  There  was  nothing  mercenary  in  his  mo- 
tives. He  as  promptly  answered  a  call  from  one 
whom  he  knew  had  no  means  to  repay  him  as 
a  person  of  wealth  and  social  position.  He  aimed 
to  give  the  pauper  the  same  relief  that  he  would 
accord  to  the  suffering  rich. 

Dr.  Ryburn  was  married  in  the  spring  of  1888, 
to  Miss  Armour  of  La  Salle,  Illinois,  and  shortly 
afterward  they  went  abroad,  spending  several 
months  among  the  most  pleasant  resorts  of  the 
British  isles.  It  was  Dr.  Ryburn's  intention  to 
give  up  the  practice  of  medicine  within  a  few 
months,  for  the  time  at  least,  and  spend  a  year  in 
the  far  South.  His  prominence  in  his  profes- 
sion, however,  was  well  known,  and  he  was  a 
valued  member  of  the  North  Central  State  and 
County  Medical    Socities  and   for  several   years 


was  county  physician,  but  resigned  that  office  in 
1884.  He  was  a  Republican  but  not  a  politician, 
never  seeking  off.ce,  although  he  once  served  as 
coroner  by  appointment.,  Socially  he  was  a 
Knight  Templar  ^lason  and  an  Odd  Fellow,  and 
was  a  man  of  pleasing  address,  of  correct  habits ; 
in  fact,  his  only  fault,  if  such  it  could  be  called, 
was  his  neglect  of  his  own  health  that  others 
might  not  suffer. 

His  life  was  too  busy  to  enjoy  the  social  events 
as  they  came  along,  but  society  was  honored 
when  he  found  time  to  look  in  upon  its  gather- 
ings. As  a  citizen  he  was  the  peer  of  any  and  was 
liberal  in  his  views  on  all  public  affairs.  He  was 
as  generous  and  open-handed  where  money  was 
needed  for  a  worthy  cause  as  he  was  with  his 
time  to  the  needy  and  desen'ing  poor.  He  was 
truly  one  of  nature's  noble  men,  and  his  life  will 
serve  as  a  source  of  inspiration  and  encourage- 
ment as  long  as  those  who  knew  him  remain  on 
this  earth. 

Dr.  Ryburn  died  after  a  vciy  short  illness  of 
only  four  days,  September  21,  1892.  No  death 
in  Ottawa  in  many  years  has  caused  as  deep  and 
widespread  sorrow  as  did  that  of  Dr.  Ryburn. 
It  can  truly  be  said  that  he  gave  up  his  own  life 
to  save  that  of  others  who  put  their  faith  in  his 
skill.  He  was  skillful  and  successful  in  his  treat- 
ment. He  leaves  to  mourn  his  death  hundreds 
of  poor  people  whom  he  attended  and  cured  and 
never  asked  for  money  in  return.  His  widow, 
to  perpetuate  his  menior\'  and  carry  out  his 
wishes,  has  erected  an  emergency  hospital, 
known  as  the  Ryburn  Memorial  Hospital. 

This  building  stands  on  the  large  lot  on  the 
west  side  of  Clinton  street,  between  ^ladison  and 
Jefferson  streets,  the  structure  being  44x78  feet, 
and  the  grounds  160x120  feet.  The  foundation 
is  of  Joliet  stone,  extending  eight  feet  above  the 
ground,  topped  with  a  layer  of  dressed  stone. 
The  main  portion  is  of  pressed  brick,  from  the 
Twin  Bluffs,  moored  to  matched  sheeting,  which 
is  in  turn  fastened  at  every  bearing  to  t^vo  to  six 
pieces  of  studding.  The  building  is  lathed  and 
plastered  on  the  inside,  insuring  absolute  dryness 


REr-RESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOISVOLUME. 


no  matter  how  long  the  wet  spell,  as  no  dampness 
can  penetrate  it, — a  ver\-  essential  matter  in  a  hos- 
pital. The  roof  is  of  slate,  and  a  square  tower 
rises  at  the  southeast  corner  to  a  commanding 
height.  The  windows  are  all  set  on  Joliet  stone 
sills;  above  each  window  is  a  transom,  opening 
into  the  interior  to  prevent  rain  from  entering. 
Above  the  open  porch  at  the  northeast  corner  is 
a  handsomely  designed  terra  cotta  tablet  made  at 
the  Garden  City  Terra  Cotta  Works  of  Ottawa. 
This  open  porch  is  the  main  entrance.  It  is 
sealed  in  and  is  covered  by  a  corner  of  the  build- 
ing. The  stone  work,  rising  eight  feet  on  the  two 
sides,  is  battened,  and  above  the  sides  are  red 
sandstone  pillars.  The  vestibule  entrance  is 
lighted  by  a  glass  door  and  side  windows.  Turn- 
ing to  the  right  and  descending  half  a  dozen  steps 
you  enter  a  wide  way  in  the  basement.  The  floor 
is  three  feet  or  less  below  the  ground  and  the 
ceilings  are  nine  feet  high,  except  in  the  long  hall, 
running  the  entire  length  of  the  building,  which 
is  but  eight  feet,  as  over  it  extends  the  ventilator 
shaft  for  the  entire  building.  In  the  front  are 
two  rooms  for  the  sen'ants,  or  for  a  man  and  wife 
in  charge,  suitable  for  a  bed-room  and  sitting- 
room.  On  the  south  side  of  the  hall  is  a  store 
room,  I2X20,  and  the  laundr\'  next  to  this  is 
20x28  feet.  It  has  five  windows  and  is  to  be 
fitted  up  with  a  patent  drier  and  all  the  latest  im- 
proved machinery  and  appliances.  Across  from 
the  laundry  is  a  dining-room  for  the  physician 
and  nurses,  lighted  by  a  bay  window.  Adjoin- 
ing it  is  the  kitchen,  with  all  arrangements  neces- 
sary, including  a  dumb-waiter  which  will  convey 
food  and  necessan,-  articles  to  the  nurses'  kitchens 
on  the  two  upper  floors.  In  the  southwest  corner 
is  the  boiler  and  coal-room.  The  boiler  is  a  lo- 
comotive pattern,  latest  improved,  furnishing  heat 
for  the  entire  building  and  consuming  most  of  the 
smoke.  The  immense  chimney  is  flue-lined  and 
stone-capped.  In  the  rear  of  the  hall  is  another 
vestibule  door  and  area  way.  In  fact  all  outside 
doors  are  vestibuled  to  avoid  drafts  through  the 
building. 

A  rear  flight  of  stairs,  broad,  with  two  landings, 
leads  to  the  main  floor,  and  beneath  these  steps 
is  a  closet  for  the  sen^ants.  The  front  steps  lea<l 
to  a  broad  landing  and  area  way,  and  through  the 
entire  length  of  the  building  extends  a  six-foot 


liall.  The  front  room  just  oft  the  hall  is  the  re- 
ception room,  into  which  all  visitors  will  be  at 
first  ushered.  The  room  at  the  southeast  corner, 
adjoining  the  reception  room,  is  the  physician's 
room  and  from  this  leads  a  dispensary,  where 
all  the  medicines  and  stimulants  are  kept.  The 
men's  ward  is  a  large  room,  22x44  feet,  ample 
for  the  ten  beds  between  the  windows.  In  this 
room,  as  in  all  others  in  the  building,  ventilators 
are  placed  beneath  each  window  to  give  perfect 
radiation  and  circulation  of  fresh  air.  Across 
the  hall  is  a  large  linen  closet,  while  adjoining 
is  a  large  sitting-room  for  nurses,  althougii  if 
necessary  it  can  be  used  as  a  ward.  It  is  over 
the  dining-room,  and  the  bay  window  extends 
past  this  room  to  the  eaves.  The  nurses'  room, 
just  west  of  this  room,  is  used  for  preparing  warm 
lotions  or  any  litde  dainty  that  may  be  required 
by  the  nurses  and  is  fitted  up  with  a  gas  stove 
and  other  appliances.  The  bath-room  is  the  last 
apartment  on  the  north  side  of  the  hall  and  ad- 
joins the  back  stairway.  It  is  fitted  up  with  the 
best  washbowl,  bath-tub  and  water-closet  arrange- 
ments, all  the  latest  sanitarian  plumbing  being 
guaranteed.  This  is  true  throughout  the  struc- 
ture. The  bath-room  is  wainscoted  high  up  and 
hot  and  cold  water  are  supplied.  Across  the  hall 
is  the  preparation  room,  where  the  patients  are 
made  ready  for  the  operating  room.  The  latter 
is  in  the  southwest  corner.  In  it  the  floor  is  of 
cement,  to  render  cleaning  easy  and  also  for  san- 
itary- eflect.  In  the  rear  of  the  building,  off  of 
this  floor,  the  large  door  leads  to  a  wide  porch, 
which  is  used  for  many  purposes,  chiefly,  how- 
ever, to  make  it  easy  for  the  admission  of  patients 
brought  by  carriage.  All  the  walls  in  this  and 
the  upper  floors  are  sand  finished,  so  that  they 
may  be  painted  if  desired. 

Ascending  to  the  second  floor  is  a  broad  land- 
ing at  the  first  flight,  which  is  the  covering  or 
top  of  the  ground  entrance.  The  staircase  again 
turns  west,  and  at  the  top  is  a  similar  hall  and  area 
way  to  that  below.  The  front  room  on  this  floor 
is  a  private  ward.  What  is  considered  the  first 
room  in  the  building  is  the  children's  ward, — at 
the  southeast  corner,  large,  light  and  containing 
seven  beds.  Mrs.  Ryburn  decided  that  the  chil- 
dren should  have  a  cheerful  spot,  and  this  room 
is  a  magnificent  one.     A  linen  closet,  a  woman's 


526 


niQoiiArniCAL  dtcttonaet  and  ronriiATT  gallery  of  the 


ward,  nurses'  kitchen  and  bath-room,  similar  to 
those  below,  are  on  this  floor.  In  addition  there 
are  several  private  wards.  The  hallway  is  lighted 
by  a  great  glass  window  at  the  rear,  leading  to  the 
balcony,  also  by  a  large  window  over  the  memor- 
ial tablet. 

The  attic  covers  the  entire  building  and  is  high 
and  light.  The  floor  is  matched  and  the  whole 
is  planned  so  that  it  can  be  utilized  by  employees 
if  necessan,'.     It  will  be  used  for  many  purposes 


as  it  is.  The  grand  staircase  in  front  is  of  ash, 
those  in  the  rear  of  cypress  with  oak  treads.  All 
the  rooms  are  furnished  with  radiators  and  in 
every  room  the  ventilation  is  perfect.  The  work 
throughout  is  the  best  that  money  can  procure. 
It  is  an  institution  of  most  worthy  character  and 
is  a  fitting  tribute  from  a  loving  and  devoted  wife 
that  will  perpetuate  the  name  of  Rybum  for  all 
time. 


WILLIAM  DWIGHT  ROWELL, 


FREEPORT. 


MR.  ROWELL,  the  subject  of  this  article, 
was  a  native  of  Oneida  county,  New  York, 
born  September  6,  1826,  and  was  brought  up  in 
agricultural  pursuits,  and  his  father  was  a  farmer 
by  occupation.  Being  ambitious  for  a  wider  field 
of  work  for  life  and  for  a  career  differing  mate- 
rially from  that  of  an  agriculturist,  he  determined 
to  seek  a  home  in  the  growing  West.  He  accord- 
ingly located  in  Ravenna,  Ohio,  where  he  engaged 
in  mercantile  pursuits  and  for  several  years  con- 
ducted a  successful  business.  It  was  while  lo- 
cated here  that  he  met  and  married  his  wife, 
Amelia  M.  Collins,  December  2,  1852,  and  here 
was  bom  their  only  child,  now  the  widow  of 
James  I.  Neff,  of  Freeport,  Illinois. 

In  1857  Mr.  Rowell  removed  to  Watertown, 
Wisconsin,  and  two  years  later  to  Oshkosh,  same 
State,  where  he  again  engaged  in  the  dry-goods 
trade.  This  he  continued  till  1863,  when  he  re- 
moved to  Freeport  and  established  the  lumber 
business  which  afterward  became  so  extensiveand 
successful.  His  first  partner  was  a  man  named 
White,  and  after  this  relation  continued  for  three 
or  four  years  he  was  joined  by  his  brother-in- 
law,  Mr.  O.  B.  Sanford,  and  the  Sanford  &  Row- 
ell Lumber  Company  soon  became  widely  known 
throughout  the  Northwest.  They  established 
lumber  yards  at  Freeport,  Lanark,  Shannon  and 
Orangeville,  and  also  became  the  owners  of  large 
tracts  of  timber  lands  in  the  pineries  of  Wiscon- 
sin and  Michigan. 

Of  all  the  fortunes  that  have  been  built  up  in 
•the  lumber  trade  in  the  Northwest  probably  none 


were  more  honestly  or  honorably  acquired  than 
the  possessions  of  these  two  men.  Their  meth- 
ods were  beyond  criticism;  and  now  that  both 
have  passed  away  they  have  left  behind  them 
not  only  substantial  pecuniary  accumulations,  but 
also  what  is  quite  of  as  much  value,  untarnished 
names  and  a  cloudless  reputation. 

]\Ir.  Rowell  was  not  only  one  of  Frecport's  fore- 
most business  men,  but  he  was  also  one  of  the 
brightest  Masons  in  this  section  of  our  countn*'. 
From  an  obituary  published  at  the  time  of  his 
death  we  quote  as  follows  concerning  his  Ma- 
sonic record : 

"William  Dwight  Rowell,  Thirty-third  Degree, 
was  from  early  manhood  identified  with  the  Ma- 
sonic fraternit}-.  He  was  a  member  of  Evergreen 
Lodge,  A.  F.  and  A.  M.,  of  this  city,  and  of  Free- 
port  Chapter,  Royal  Arch  Masons.  March  24, 
1869,  he  was  created  a  Sir  Knight  in  Freeport 
Commandery,  Knights  Templar,  and  held  the  of- 
fice of  warden  in  that  body  during  the  year  1872. 
He  was  especially  attached  to  Scottish  rite  Ma- 
sonry and  its  exalted  principles,  in  the  mysteries 
and  teachings  of  which  he  was  profoundly  versed. 
He  became  a  Scottish  rite  Mason  May  19,  1869, 
soon  after  the  Ancient  Accepted  Scottish  rite 
bodies  removed  their  sittings  from  De  Kalb  to 
Freeport,  and  was  a  member  of  the  first  class  of 
novitiates  created  Sublime  Princes  in  Freeport 
Consistory. 

"The  numerous  offices  of  honor  and  trust  held 
by  Mr.  Rowell  in  the  various  Masonic  bodies 
until   within   recent  years,   when    failing    health 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


527 


withdrew  him  largely  from  their  labors,  show 
the  high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  his 
fraters.  For  six  years,  from  1871  to  1877,  he 
was  grand  master  of  Freeport  Lodge  of  Per- 
fection, and  those  who  took  their  grades  under 
his  direction  will  never  forget  the  impressive 
solemnity  of  their  teachings  as  he  exemplified 
them.  lie  was  also  senior  grand  warden,  in 
1879,  of  Freeport  Council,  Princes  of  Jerusalem, 
and  senior  warden  for  a  number  of  years  of  Free- 
port  Chapter,  of  Rose  Croix.  In  Freeport  Con- 
sistory, Thirty-second  Degree,  his  brethren  hon- 
ored him  with  official  trust  for  fourteen  years 
continuously.  He  was  grand  hospitaler  from  1869 
to  1873,  grand  chancellor  from  1873  to  1877, 
and  second  lieutenant  commander  from  1877  to 
1883.  Recognizing  his  prominence  as  a  man 
and  a  Mason,  the  Supreme  Council  of  Sovereign 
Grand  Inspectors  General  for  the  Northern  Dis- 
trict of  the  United  States,  in  1879,  conferred  upon 
Mr.  Rowell  the  highest  honor  possible  to  be  ob- 
tained in  Masonry,  thirty-third,  or  last,  grade. 
This  degree  is  conferred  by  the  Supreme  Council 
only,  and  it  is  given  as  an  honorary  or  official 
degree  to  those  who  have  by  long  and  arduous 
service  in  the  Masonic  vineyard  attain'cd  distinc- 
tion. There  arc  but  few  Masons  in  the  State  who 
enjoy  this  distinction." 

Mr.  Rowell  was  a  member  of  the  congrega- 
tion of  Zion  Episcopal  Church,  and  a  vestryman 
from  the  beginning  of  bis  residence  in  Freeport. 
He  was  one  of  those  practical  Christian  men 
whose  deeds  precede  their  professions  rather  than 
follovv'  them,  and  whose  faith  and  works  go  hand 
in  hand.  As  long  as  his  health  permitted  Mr. 
Rowell  was  a  regular  attendant  at  divine  service, 
and  his  purse  was  always  open  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  church,  and  the  beautiful  structure  which 
stands  as  the  house  of  worship  of    his    chosen 


faith  also  stands  as  a  monument  to  his  memory 
in  the  cause  of  Christianity. 

Mr.  Rowell  was  a  broadminded,  generous, 
charitable,  whole-souled  man,  whom  to  know 
was  to  love  and  respect.  To  the  poor  and  un- 
fortunate he  was  more  than  usually  kind  and 
generous.  He  realized  that  all  men  and  women 
are  not  equally  strong  mentally,  morally  or  phys- 
ically, and  he  had  nuich  charity  for  the  failings 
and  weaknesses  of  his  fellow  beings,  and  always 
stood  ready  to  uplift  and  assist  those  of  his  fel- 
lows less  gifted  or  fortunate  than  himself;  and 
that  not  only  by  kind  words,  but  by  the  more 
substantial  method  of  putting  his  hands  in  his 
pocket  and  relieving  their  necessities  and  help- 
ing them  over  the  rough  places  in  the  toilsome 
journey  of  life. 

Probably  no  man  who  ever  lived  in  Freeport 
was  more  highly  respected  while  he  lived  or 
more  sincerely  mourned  when  he  died.  While 
it  is  not  within  our  scope  or  plan  in  the  preparation 
of  this  volume  to  eulogize,  yet  these  traits  in  Mr. 
Rowell's  character  were  so  strongly  marked  as 
to  be  a  part  of  the  individuality  of  the  man.  He 
passed  peacefully  to  rest,  after  a  lingering  illness, 
October  12,  1887.  Mrs.  Rowell  died  June  30, 
1893.  Their  only  child,  Mrs.  Ncff,  resides  in 
Freeport. 

In  politics  Mr.  Rowell  was  a  Democrat,  but 
never  took  active  part  in  campaign  work  or  would 
consent  to  accept  an  office.  His  home  life  was 
exceptionally  pleasant  and  harmonious.  He 
was  an  ardent  lover  of  the  beautiful,  and  he  sur- 
rounded himself  in  his  home  with  many  exam- 
ples of  fine  art,  which  he  picked  up  here  and  there 
during  his  travels  in  Europe  and  our  own  country 
in  a  fruitless  endeavor  to  regain  his  health.  His 
tastes,  his  morals  and  his  deportment  were  of  a 
standard  high  and  pure. 


528  BIOGUAPinCAL  DWTTONAnr  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OP  THE 

JAMES  HENRY  ETHERIDGE,  A.  M.,  M.  D., 


JAMES  HENRY  ETHERIDGE,  a  member 
of  the  faculty  of  the  Rush  Medical  College, 
was  born  in  johnsville,  New  York,  March  20, 
1844.  His  father.  Dr.  Francis  B.  Etheridge,  was 
a  practicing  physician  and  surgeon  for  forty- 
seven  years.  His  mother  was  Fanny  Easton,  of 
Connecticut.  On  the  paternal,  as  also  on  the 
matemaJ,  side,  the  ancestry  of  James  was  Eng- 
lish, on  the  side  of  the  former  five,  and  the  latter 
seven,  generations  removed.  During  the  civil 
war,  the  father  of  our  subject  served  as  surgeon 
in  the  field  with  one  of  the  Minnesota  volunteer 
regiments.  He  died  at  Hastings,  IMinnesota,  in 
1871. 

Dr.  James  H.  Etheridge,  the  subject  of  our 
sketch,  received  his  early  education  in  New  York 
State,  and  has  been  completing  it  ever  since,  for 
he  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  close  student.  On 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  was  prepared  to  enter 
the  junior  class  at  Harvard,  but  the  absence  of 
his  father  in  the  anny  at  the  front  disarranged 
his  plans,  and  he  decided  to  devote  his  attention 
to  medicine.  He  read  four  years  with  his  father, 
attended  one  course  of  lectures  in  the  medical 
departmeiat  of  the  University  of  Alichigan,  and 
two  full  courses  at  Rush  Medical  College,  at  Chi; 
cago,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1869,  receiving 
the  degree  of  M.  D.  After  graduation  at  Rush 
Medical  College,  he  began  practicing  in  Evans- 
ton,  where  he  remained  about  a  year  and  a  half. 
Since  March,  1869,  Dr.  Etheridge  has  been  a- 
lecturer  in  Rush  Medical  College.  In  1869-70 
he  spent  a  year  in  Europe,  walking  the  hospitals 
of  some  of  the  largest  cities. 

On  returning  to  America  Dr.  Etheridge  setded 
in  Chicago,  in  July,  1871,  and  for  two  years  was 
lecturer  on  materia  medica  and  therapeutics  in 


Rush  jMedical  College,  when  he  was  called  to  a 
regular  professorship,  occupying  successively  the 
chairs  of  materia  medica,  therapeutics,  medical 
jurisprudence,  gynecology  and  obstetrics  and 
gynaecology.  He  followed  a  general  practice 
until  1891,  since  which  time  he  has  made  a  spe- 
cialty of  gynaecology.  He  is  one  of  the  g\'nre- 
cologists  of  the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  and  of 
the  Central  Free  Dispensary;  also  of  the  Chicago 
Polyclinic  Hospital.  He  was  one  of  the  stafif  of 
the  Women's  Hospital  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
and  has  also  been  connected  with  St.  Joseph's 
and  St.  Luke's  Hospitals.  He  is  an  occasional 
contributor  to  the  medical  journals,  and  is  a 
mamber  of  the  Chicago  Medical  Society,  the 
Chicago  Medico-Legal  Society,  the  Gynaecolog- 
ical Society  (being  president  in  1890),  Illinois 
State  ]\Iedical  Society,  American  Gynaecological 
Society,  International  Medical  Congress,  of  the 
International  Congress  of  Obstetricians  and 
Gynaecologists,  and  of  the  Pan-American  ]\Ied- 
ical  Congress.  He  was  president  of  the  Chicago 
Medical  Society  in  18S7. 

Dr.  Etheridge  was  married  June  20,  1870,  to 
Harriet  Ehzabeth  Powers,  of  Evanston,  daughter 
of  Herman  G.  Powers,  of  that  place,  long  identi- 
fied with  Chicago's  commercial  and  banking  in- 
terests. They  have  two  daughters.  In  religion 
Dr.  Etheridge  is  a  Presbyterian,  and  in  politics 
a  Republican,  but  on  all  local  issues  votes  for  the 
best  man  regardless  of  party. 

In  personal  appearance  the  Doctor  is  tall  and 
of  conmianding  appearance,  of  more  than  average 
weigiit,  and  socially  is  genial,  courteous  and  re- 
fined, popular  alike  with  his  casual  associates 
and  intimate  friends,  and  stands  high  in  the  re- 
gards of  his  professional  brethren. 


iSLu~^\j^^ 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


529 


RALPH  E.  BROWNELL, 


NU!kIBERED  amontj  tlic  leading  business 
men  of  Chicago  is  this  gentleman,  who  is 
president  of  the  Browncll  Improvement  Com- 
pan)',  controlling  one  of  the  leading  industries 
of  the  city.  For  a  number  of  years  he  has  been 
recognized  as  a  practical  and  expert  civil  en- 
gineer who  has  few  equals  in  his  line  of  busi- 
ness. He  has  made  a  careful  and  systematic 
.study  of  his  work;  and  in  laying  out  property, 
supervising  its  drainage,  sewerage,  paving  and 
macadamizing,  he  has  displayed  a  skill  and  abil- 
ity that  have  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  among 
those  devoted  to  this  line  of  work.  His  connec- 
tion with  suburban  property,  its  improvements, 
development  and  upbuilding,  has  also  added 
largely  to  the  beauty  of  Chicago.  This  requires 
artistic  taste  as  well  as  mechanical  power  and 
an  ability  to  appreciate  the  finer  touches  of  adorn- 
ment as  well  as  the  straight  geometric  lines 
which  form  the  basis  of  all  designs. 

Mr.  Brownell  is  a  representative  Western  man, 
possessed  of  the  enterprising  and  progressive 
spirit  which  dominates  the  Mississippi  valley. 
He  was  bom  in  Fillmore  county,  Minnesota, 
in  1857,  and  is  a  son  of  C.  S.  and  Laura  J.  (Havi- 
land)  Brownell,  who  came  with  their  family  to 
Chicago  in  1863,  where  the  father  has  since  been 
successfully  engaged  in  merchandising.  The 
son  entered  die  public  schools  of  the  city,  pur- 
suing the  prescribed  course  and  graduating  from 
the  higli  school  of  Englewood.  From  this  he 
entered  upon  life's  practical  duties  as  an  employe 
in  the  department  of  public  works  of  the  town  of 
Lake,  where  he  remained  nine  years.  System- 
atic and  painstaking  in  his  work,  he  thoroughly 
mastered  the  business,  and  his  ability  won  him 
promotion  from  the  position  which  was  given 
to  the  second  boy  to  that  of  chief  engineer  and 
superintendent  of  public  works,  in  which  capac- 
ity- he  served  for  three  and  one-half  years.  He 
also  filled  the  office  of  assistant  engineer  on  the 
work  of  improving  Washington  park  and  Mich- 
igan boulevard.     In   1885  he  became  associated 


with  Charles  B.  Eggleston  and  J.  P.  Mallette, 
continuing  his  connections  with  them  until  Jan- 
uar}',  1894,  under  the  firm  name  of  Eggleston, 
Mallette  &  Brownell.  He  had  charge  of  the 
construction  department,  and  gave  his  time  to  the 
development  and  improvement  of  real  estate. 
The  improvement  of  all  the  property  placed  on 
the  market  by  the  firm  has  been  realized  under 
his  careful  supervision. 

In  the  spring  of  1894  the  Brownell  Improve- 
ment Company  was  organized  with  Mr.  Brown- 
ell as  president.  Tliis  company  takes  large  con- 
tracts for  public  improvements  and  manufactures 
crushed  stone.  Their  quarries  and  crushing  plant 
are  located  at  Thornton,  Illinois.  The  company 
owns  its  transportation  equipment,  locomotives, 
railroad  cars,  etc.,  and  is  in  everj'  way  prepared 
to  handle  and  faithfully  execute  the  most  exten- 
sive contracts.  Their  plant  is  the  second  in  size  in 
the  United  States.  This  company  furnished  a 
large  part  of  the  material  for  the  improvement 
and  beautifying  of  the  world-famed  ^Midway 
Plaisance,  and  has  taken  other  large  contracts 
which  have  materially  improved  the  city  in  vari- 
ous ways.  The  career  of  Mr.  Brownell  demon- 
strates what  can  be  accomplished  under  favora- 
ble conditions,  and  with  such  opportunities  as 
Chicago  presents,  by  an  active,  pushing,  ener- 
getic and  honorable  man,  far-seeing,  careful  in 
planning,  prompt  and  miswerving  in  execution. 

The  marriage  of  Mr.  Brownell  was  solem- 
nized in  Chicago  in  1878,  the  lady  of  his  choice 
being  Miss  Lucy  Adams.  Their  family  now 
numbers  four  daughters,  Ora,  Ethel,  Irma  and 
Alma.  He  is  a  man  of  domestic  tastes,  devoted 
to  his  home  and  family.  He  is  unswerving  in 
his  support  of  the  principles  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  is  very  prominent  in  Masonic  circles, 
being  a  Knight  Templar  and  thirty-second-de- 
gree Mason.  He  is  one  of  Chicago's  honorable 
business  men,  who  has  materially  assisted  the  in- 
terests of  the  city,  and  by  all  who  know  him  he 
is  universally  esteemed. 


530 


BlOORAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


MICHAEL  BRAND, 


MICHAEL  BRAND  is  a  self-made  man  who, 
without  an  extraordinary  family  or  pecuni- 
ary advantages  at  the  commencement  of  life,  has 
battled  earnestly  and  energetically,  and  by  in- 
domitable courage  and  integrity  has  achieved  both 
character  and  fortime.  By  sheer  force  of  will 
and  untiring  efifort  he  has  worked  his  way  up- 
ward. 

Bom  on  the  23d  of  March,  1826,  in  Odernheim, 
Rheinhessen,  Germany,  he  is  a  son  of  John  and 
Sibilla  (Bauer)  Brand.  His  father  was  a  farmer 
by  occupation,  owning  land  adjoining  Odernheim. 
Our  subject  attended  the  public  and  private 
schools  of  his  native  town  until  sixteen  years  of 
age,  when  he  entered  upon  an  apprenticeship  in 
the  brewery  of  Mr.  Goldbeck,  in  Worms,  his  serv- 
ice continuing  there  for  two  years. 

Through  several  succeeding  years  Mr.  Brand 
traveled  in  Switzerland  and  France,  perfecting 
his  knowledge  of  brewing  by  entering  the  employ 
of  various  brewing  companies.  In  1848  he  began 
business  on  his  own  account  in  his  native  land; 
independent  by  nature,  resolute,  self-reliant  and 
a  lover  of  liberty,  his  sympathies  instinctively 
were  with  the  oppressed,  and  during  the  exciting 
times  of  tlie  German  revolution  in  1848-9  he  took 
a  decided  stand  on  the  side  of  the  revolutionists. 
After  this  trouble  had  subsided  those  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  revolution  were  subjected  to 
continued  annoyance.  Tiring  of  this  and  seeing 
no  hope  of  his  country  becoming  free,  he  decided 
to  leave  the  Fatherland  and  secure  a  home  in  the 
land  of  liberty. 

Accordingly  he  sailed  for  the  United  States, 
where  he  arrived  in  July,  1852.  He  spent  his 
first  year  in  Detroit,  and  in  1853  came  to  Chi- 
cago. 

Here  Mr.  Brand  embarked  in  the  brewing  busi- 
ness, in  connection  with  Valentine  Busch,  under 
the  firm  name  of  Busch  &  Brand,  which  connec- 
tion was  continued  for  almost  twenty  years,  and 
severed  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Busch  in  1872.  For 
six  years  prior  to  the  closing  out  of  the  business 
they  had  a  large  plajut  located  at  Blue  Island, 
and  another  at  Nos.  29  and  31  Cedar  street,  where 


they  established  their  principal  office  in  1863.  A 
division  was  made  in  the  business,  although  the 
partnership  was  continued,  in  1868,  the  Blue  Is- 
land plant  being  inherited  by  the  family  of  Mr. 
Busch  while  Mr.  Brand  retained  possession  of 
the  business  on  Cedar  street,  which  he  conducted 
imder  the  name  of  the  Michael  Brand  Brewing 
Company.  By  the  big  fire,  which  destroyed  the 
main  part  of  Chicago,  he  lost,  like  so  many,  almost 
all  he  possessed;  but,  like  so  few,  kept  up  his 
courage,  removed  the  debris  while  still  partly  on 
fire,  and  managed  to  rebuild  his  brewery  in  spite 
of  the  severe  cold  winter,  so  that  his  plant  started 
running  just  three  months  after  the  same  had 
been  burned  down.  In  1878  this  was  transformed 
into  a  malting  establishment,  and  at  Elston  ave- 
nue and  Snow  street,  Mr.  Brand  erected  a  new 
brewery,  which  he  conducted  until  1889,  when 
the  property  became  the  main  part  of  the  United 
States  Brewing  Company  and  was  afterward  con- 
solidated with  others,  as  the  Milwaukee  and  Chi- 
cago breweries.  He,  however,  retains  his  prop- 
erty on  Cedar  street.  He  has  amassed  a  hand- 
some fortune  and  is  now  enjoying  the  fruits  of 
his  former  toil,  having  laid  aside  all  business 
cares. 

In  1859  Mr.  Brand  was  united  in  marriage  with 
MissPhillipcnaDarmstJEtter,  daughter  of  Michael 
Darmstsetter,  a  prominent  brewer  of  Detroit, 
Michigan.  She  is  an  educated  lady  of  culture 
and  refinement,  and  her  home  is  noted  for  its 
hospitality.  It  is  a  fine  residence,  tastefully  and 
elegantly  furnished  and  supplied'  with  all  the 
comforts  and  conveniences  which  go  to  make 
life  worth  the  living.  Both  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Brand  are  people  of  social  nature,  and  the 
former  is  a  valued  member  of  the  Germania 
Society. 

In  religious  faith  he  is  a  Protestant  and  he 
accords  to  others  the  rights  he  reserves  to  him- 
self. In  political  faith  he  is  a  Democrat  and  has 
been  honored  with  a  number  of  public  positions. 
He  was  elected  to  the  general  assembly  of  Illinois 
in  1862.  He  has  also  served  as  city  alderman 
from  the  Nineteenth  ward,  and  his  official  con- 


O'^^i^      /  y^r^c 


BEPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


531 


duct  was  that  of  an  upright,  honorable  business 
man  who  retired  from  office  as  he  had  entered — 
with  the  confidence,  respect  and  esteem  of  his 
fellow  citizens.     He  was  one  of  the  stockholders 


of  the  Inter-state  Exposition  Company  of  Chi- 
cago, is  a  director  in  the  International  Bank  of 
this  city,  and  has  been  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  since  1882. 


TITUS  P.  YERKES,  M.  D., 


UITER  ALTON. 


DR.  TITUS  P.  YERKES,  a  prominent  and 
leading  physician  of  Upper  Alton,  was  br)ni 
in  Montgomerj'  county,  Pennsylvania,  December 
24,  1S36,  the  son  of  Robert  A.  and  Regina  K. 
Yerkes.  His  father  was  likewise  a  native  of  the 
Keystone  State  and  descended  from  German  an- 
cestors, who  upon  coming  to  America  located  in 
Pennsylvania.  His  mother's  family  is  of  English 
descent,  and  upon  coming  to  this  country  they 
also  located  in  Pennsylvania.  The  elder  Yerkes, 
while  resitting  in  Pennsylvania,  was  interested  in 
the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods. 

Our  subject  received  his  preparatory  educa- 
tion in  the  common  schools  of  his  native  State, 
in  which  he  resided  until  1856,  at  which  time  he 
came  to  Illinois,  first  locating  in  Metamora,  and 
in  1858  he  entered  Shurtleff  College,  at  which 
institution  he  was  graduated  in  the  class  of  1861, 
taking  the  Latin  course.  Subsequent  to  this  he 
matriculated  at  the  Rush  Medical  College,  Chi- 
cago, where  he  was  graduated  in  1S64.  Imme- 
diately after  graduating  he  was  place<l  in  charge 
of  Post  Hospital  at  Camp  Butler,  Springfield, 
Illinois,  and  served  as  surgeon  in  chief  of  said 
hospital  imtil  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  Re- 
bellion. 

In    1867    he    located    in    Upper  Alton,    and 


at  once  entered  upon  an  active  practice,  mostly 
in  the  city,  and  his  professional  business  grew 
to  very  considerable  proportions  and  was  lu- 
crative besides.  During  the  years  since  his 
advent  upon  the  practice  in  Alton,  he  has 
given  his  best  efYorts  to  the  building  up  of 
a  practice  that  will  contain  the  element  of  per- 
manency. He  is  a  close  student  of  his  profession, 
taking  a  keen  interest  in  the  scientific  develop- 
ment of  everything  that  pertains  to  materia 
mcdica  and  practical  surgery,  and  all  other 
relevant  subjects, — keeping  himself  thoroughly 
posted. 

His  marriage  to  Susetta  B.  Bostwick  was  cel- 
ebrated in  Upper  Alton  in  1863,  and  they  have 
three  children,  one  son  and  two  daughters: 
Lathy  L.,  Hattie  L.  and  Blanche  A.  The  Doctor 
has  an  elegant  home  on  Edwards  street,  which 
he  designed  himself  and  in  which  he  and  his  fam- 
ily reside,  surrounded  by  all  that  makes  life  pleas- 
ant and  agreeable  to  cultivated  people. 

Dr.  Yerkes  has  contributed  largely  to  the  med- 
ical magazines  of  the  country.  As  a  writer  he  is 
clear  and  terse  in  style,  as  well  as  vigorous  in  his 
treatment  of  whatever  subjects  he  takes  up.  He 
holds  memberships  in  the  St.  Louis  and  the 
conntv  medical  societies. 


532 


BWGHAPniCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERT  OF  THE 


PASCAL  PAOLI  ENOS, 


SPRINGFIELD. 


THE  honored  pioneer  of  the  great  State  of 
IlHnois  to  whose  life  history  we  now  direct 
attention,  was  a  son  of  General  Roger  Enos,  the 
Revolutionary  soldier  and  noble  patriot,  to  whom 
individual  reference  is  made  on  another  page  of 
this  volume,  and  in  that  connection  is  adequately 
outlined  the  ancestral  history  of  the  subject  of 
the  present  review.  Pascal  Paoli  Enos  was 
named  for  the  great  Corsican  patriot  and  warrior, 
Pascal  Paoli,  and  was  born  at  Windsor,  Connect- 
icut, in  the  year  1770.  He  graduated  at  Dart- 
mouth College  in  1794,  studied  law,  accompanied 
his  father  to  Vermont,  and  for  some  years  was 
high  sheriff  of  Windsor  county,  in  that  State. 
He  there  married  Salome  Paddock,  a  native  of 
Woodstock,  Windsor  county,  Vermont,  and  the 
daughter  of  Gains  Paddock,  who  enlisted  in  the 
Continental  army  when  a  lad  of  sixteen  years, 
and  ser\'ed  throughout  the  entire  war  of  the  Rev- 
olution. The  marriage  was  solemnized  on  the 
15th  of  September,  181 5,  and  on  the  same  day, 
in  company  with  the  bride's  parents,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Enos,  started  for  the  far  West.  They  lo- 
cated first  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  in  September 
of  the  following  year  (1816)  they  embarked  on 
Hatboats  and  proceeded  down  the  Ohio  river  to 
Shawneetown,  Illinois.  They  then  took  land 
conveyance  across  soutliern  Illinois,  crossed  the 
"father  of  waters"  where  the  city  of  Alton  now 
stands,  and  located  for  a  year  or  two  at  St. 
Charles,  Missouri,  and  then  removed  to  St.  Louis. 
Mr.  Enos  entered  lands  for  a  farm  in  Madison 
county,  Illinois,  and  remained  there  about  two 
years,  when  he  was  appointed  receiver  of  public 
moneys  at  the  land  office  in  Springfield,  Illinois. 
At  that  time  there  was  no  town  laid  out  where 
Springfield  now  stands.  He  received  his  ap- 
pointment from  President  Monroe,  and  he  arrived 
here,  with  his  family,  in  September,  1823.  He 
opened  the  land  office  in  a  double  log  cabin,  lo- 
cated at  what  is  now  the  northwestern  corner  of 
Third  and  Jefferson  streets.  Soon  after  he  be- 
came associated  with  Major  Elijah  lies,  John 
Taylor  and  Thomas  Cox,  and  they  each  entered  a 
quarter  section  of  land,  laid  out  a  town  and  called 
it  Calhoun,  which  was  subsequently  changed  to 
the  present  name,  Springfield. 


To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Enos  were  born  five  children, 
of  whom  we  make  brief  record,  as  follows:  Pascal 
P.,  Jr.,  was  born  at  St.  Charles,  Missouri,  Novem- 
ber 28,  1816,  and  upon  attaining  maturity  he 
married  Eliza  J.  Johnson,  in  Springfield.  He 
serv'ed  one  term  in  the  State  legislature,  was  ap- 
pointed by  Judge  McLean  as  United  States  circuit 
clerk,  and  was  reappointed  by  Judge  Davis,  his 
death  occurring  February  17,  1867,  at  which  time 
he  was  still  the  incumbent  in  the  ofifice  mentioned. 
Zimri  A.,  born  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  September 
29,  1 82 1,  was  married  in  Springfield  on  the  loth 
of  June,  1846,  to  Agnes  D.  Trotter.  He  served 
two  terms  of  two  years  each  as  county  surveyor 
of  Sangamon  county,  and  three  terms  as  alderman 
of  the  city  of  Springfield.  Martha  M.,  born  in 
Springfield,  Illinois,  April  26,  1824,  died  Jan- 
uary 4,  1837.  Susan  P.,  born  in  Springfield,  Oc- 
tober 27,  1829,  resides  on  the  old  homestead. 
Julia  R.,  bom  in  Springfield,  December  20,  1832, 
married  Ozias  J\I.  Hatch,  whose  biography  ap- 
pears elsewhere  in  this  volume,  and  resides  in 
Springfield. 

Mr.  Enos  served  as  receiver  of  the  land  of- 
fice under  the  administration  of  Presidents  Mon- 
roe and  John  Ouincy  Adams,  and  was  removed 
from  office  by  President  Jackson  solely  because 
he  differed  in  politics,  Mr.  Enos  being  a  Whig. 

Mr.  Enos  was  a  man  of  cultivation,  genial, 
bright,  spirited  and  entertaining,  and  one  who 
readily  gained  and  always  retained  the  friendship 
and  esteem  of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  con- 
tact. His  death  was  premature,  and  was  occa- 
sioned by  a  severe  cold,  which  he  contracted  while 
fishing  with  his  boys  one  April  day.  This  cold 
developed  into  pneumonia,  of  which  he  died  in 
April,  1832.  Mrs.  Enos  lived  to  a  ripe  and  well 
preserved  old  age,  her  death  occurring  October 
25,  1876.  She  lived  to  see  the  town  which  her 
husband  founded  and  laid  out  become  the  capital 
of  the  State  and  a  populous  and  prosperous  city, — 
truly  a  wonderful  metamorphosis  from  the  wilder- 
ness as  she  first  remembered  it.  Well  may  and 
should  the  hves  of  those  honored  pioneers  be 
perpetuated  in  every  record  which  touches  the 
detailed  history  of  the  State,  and  particularly  the 
beautiful  city  of  .Springfield. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME 


533 


WILLIAM  FLAGG  TAYLOR, 


i^APTAIN  WILLIAM  F.  TAYLOR  was 
V^  born  in  Chester,  Massachusetts,  October 
21,  1833.  His  parents  were  John  Stanley  and 
Mary  (Cowing)  Taylor.  His  mother  died  when 
he  was  iDut  three  years  of  age,  and  his  father  when 
he  was  fifteen.  From  this  time  until  he  was 
twenty-one  he  resided  with  his  paternal  grand- 
father, John  Taylor,  on  a  farm,  and  received  his 
education  at  the  district  schools,  and  also  at  a 
select  school  in  the  vicinity.  He  was  studious 
and  made  the  most  of  his  limited  opportunities. 

When  he  had  attained  his  majority  he  wemt  to 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  found  employment 
in  a  machine  shop  at  that  place.  Later  on  he  was 
for  a  time  employed  in  railroading.  In  1856  he 
came  to  Illinois,  locating  for  a  short  time  in  Prince- 
ton. He  then  went  to  Apple  River,  Jo  Daviess 
county,  to  visit  an  uncle  who  was  a  Methodist 
minister  at  that  place.  Here  he  engaged  in  school- 
teaching  during  the  winter  months,  and  farm  work 
iti  the  summer,  and  here,  on  March  21,  i860,  he 
married  Elizabetli  L.  Cooper,  a  native  of  New 
York  State.  After  his  marriage  Captain  Taylor 
located  on  a  fami  just  across  the  State  line  in 
Wisconsin. 

In  1862  the  Ninety-sixth  Illinois  Volunteer 
Infantry  was  being  organized  at  Apple  River,  and 
he  enlisted  for  service  in  the  army,  was  made  first 
lieutenant  of  Company  E  upon  the  organization 
of  the  regiment  and  was  promoted  to  the  position 
of  captain  of  the  same  company  April  26,  1863. 
This  regiment  saw  much  active  service  in  the  field, 
and  its  record  is  too  well  known  to  need  repeti- 
tion here.  Captain  Taylor  was  in  command  of 
his  company  at  the  famous  battle  of  Chickamauga 
and  was  wounded  by  a  bullet  passing  through  his 
right  ear;  he  continued,  however,  at  the  head  of 
his  troops  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  and  was 
distinguished  for  his  bravery  on  this  and  every 
other  battle  field  where  he  was  engaged  during 
the  war.  At  the  battle  of  Lookout  Mountain  he 
was  the  only  captain  in  his  regiment  engaged  in 
action.  At  Nickajack,  while  a  prisoner  was  being 
disarmed,  he  was  seriously  wounded  by  the  acci- 
dental   discharge   of   a   pistol,    the   ball    passing 


through  one  leg,  and  lodging  in  the  other  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  render  its  location  and  extraction 
impossible.  This  bullet  he  bore  with  him  to  the 
grave. 

His  wound  disabled  him  for  further  service  in 
the  field,  but  after  he  had  partially  recovered  he 
was  assigned  to  duty  as  military  conductor  on 
trains  rumiing  between  Chattanooga  and  Knox- 
ville,  and  later  between  Chattanooga  and  Atlanta. 
He  had  sufficiently  recovered  to  rejoin  his  regi- 
ment only  a  short  time  before  they  were  mustered 
out. 

When  the  war  closed  he  returned  to  his  home  in 
Apple  River,  and  shortly  thereafter  was  appointed 
assistant  assessor  of  internal  revenue  in  that  dis- 
trict. In  1870  he  went  to  Lena,  Illinois,  and  en- 
gaged in  business,  conducting  a  grocery  store 
and  dealing  in  agricultural  implements,  and  while 
located  here  served  also  as  justice  of  the  peace. 
In  1875  he  received  an  appointment  as  assistant 
grain  inspector  in  Chicago,  under  General  J.  C. 
Smith,  a  warm  personal  friend,  who  had  com- 
manded the  regiment  in  which  Captain  Taylor 
served  during  the  war. 

In  1877  Captain  Taylor  removed  his  family  to 
Chicago,  and  here  continued  to  reside  till  his 
decease. 

He  proved  so  capable  and  efficient  in  the  posi- 
tion to  which  he  had  been  appointed  that  he  was 
continued  in  office  through  all  administrations 
until  1893,  when  the  Democrats  came  into  power, 
and  he,  together  witli  most  other  Republicans, 
was  retired  to  make  room  for  political  supporters 
of  the  party  in  power.  During  this  long  term 
of  eighteen  years  of  service  in  this  responsible  po- 
sition, no  word  of  just  complaint  was  ever  uttered 
against  him.  He  was  the  soul  of  honor  and  hon- 
esty, and  discharged  the  duties  assigned  him  in  a 
fair  and  impartial  manner,  winning  the  confidence 
and  respect  of  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 

Soon  after  retiring  from  this  position  in  Chicago 
he  received  an  appointment  as  chief  grain  inspec- 
tor at  Burlington,  Iowa.  He  accepted  the  place 
and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  prepar- 
ing in  the  meantime  to  remove  his  family  from 


534 


niOORAI'IIlCM.  DICTIONAItY  AND  J'(iirrUA!T  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Chicago  to  Burliii.sfton,  when  he  was  attacked 
with  a  heart  trouble  so  severe  in  its  nature  as  to 
compel  him  to  rclinciuish  his  position  and  retum 
to  Chicago.  He  gave  up  all  active  business,  and 
seeking  in  vain  for  relief  from  the  malady  which 
had  seized  upon  him,  after  much  suffering  he 
passed  away,  April  21,  1895. 

Some  time  during  the  earlier  years  of  his  res- 
idence in  the  Prairie  State  Mr.  Taylor  had  the 
foresight  to  perceive  the  wisdom  of  holding  a 
membership  in  a  fraternal  order  where  brotherly 
kindnesses  would  be  assured,  and  he  accordingly 
connected  himself  with  the  Independent  Order 
of  Odd  Fellows.  The  workings  of  that  order 
proved  so  efficient,  appropriate  and  economical 
as  to  elicit  his  enthusiasm,  and  having  a  capacity 
for  assuming  responsibilities  he  was  made  some- 
what prominent  in  the  order. 

Being  naturally  studious,  he  had  but  little 
leisure  for  the  time-killing  devices  of  common 
social  gatherings,  finding  his  chief  enjoyment 
within  the  circle  of  his  own  family  and  with  his 
books  and  favorite  studies. 

He  was  an  earnest,  honest  and  incorruptible 
man,  with  a  frank,  genial  manner  which  won 
and  retained  friendship,  and  in  consequence 
his  death  was  sincerely  mourned  by  a  lai-ge  num- 
ber of  appreciative  friends  and  acquaintances, 
with  whom  his  long  public  service  had  placed 
him  upon  terms  of  intimacy. 

The  number  of  children  in  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tay- 
lor's family  was  five,  and  of  these  four  are  still 
living,  as  is  also  their  mother.     The  surviving 


children  are  named  as  follows:  Jolin  Staidcy, 
William  Brainard,  George  Cooper  and  Frank 
Flagg.  These  are  all  residents  of  the  city  of 
Chicago,  and  two  of  them  are  married  and  two 
are  single.  William  B.  was  married  to  Miss  Har- 
riet Pearson  and  has  one  daughter,  who  is  named 
I\Iyrtlc;  George  C.  was  vmited  in  matrimony  with 
]\Iiss  Lucy  Johnston,  and  they  also  have  one 
daughter,  who  is  named  Jessie. 

The  regiment  in  which  Captain  Taylor  served 
embraced  among  its  members  many  names  since 
familiar  to  all  Chicagoans,  among  the  more  prom- 
inent being  General  J.  C.  Smith,  the  late  Dr.  C. 
W.  Earle,  Charles  A.  Partridge,  E.  A.  Blodgett 
and  many  others.  Captain  Taylor  was  a  member 
of  G.  A.  Thomas  Post,  No.  5,  G.  A.  R.,  and  took 
much  pleasure  in  meeting  his  old  comrades  and 
talking  over  the  incidents  and  scenes  of  thatlmem- 
orable  time  in  our  history  which  tried  men's 
souls.  One  by  one  the  gallant  defenders  of  our 
flag  are  being  gathered  to  their  fathers,  and  soon, 
like  our  Revolutionary  heroes,  they  will  live  only 
in  their  country's  histor>'  and  in  the  hearts  of  their 
descendants  and  successors.  All  honor  to  their 
memory! 

We  take  pleasure  in  presenting  the  few  facts 
of  the  foregoing  sketch  that  we  were  able  to 
glean,  because  the  subject  fully  deserves  this 
honorable  mention  and  much  more.  Not  only 
"line  upon  line  and  precept  upon  precept"  are 
needed,  but  also  example  upon  example,  prop- 
erly to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  most  people 
the  importance  of  all  the  excellencies  of  character. 


\ 


/^^^  /^^. 


RErnESENTATrVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


535 


HEMAN  A.  BARNARD, 


HEMAN  ALLEN  BARNARD  was  bom  at 
Hyde  Park,  Vermont,  January  13,  1826. 
His  parents  were  Asa  and  Deborah  (Taylor)  Bar- 
nard, the  former  a  farmer  by  occupation,  who  had 
been  a  participant  in  the  battle  of  Plattsburg  dur- 
ing the  war  of  1812,  and  both  members  of  old 
New  England  families. 

Our  subject  passed  his  boyhood  in  his  native 
village  until  he  was  ten  years  of  age,  at  which  time 
he  removed  with  his  parents  to  Burlington,  where 
he  continued  his  studies  and  resided  until  he  at- 
tained his  majority.  For  five  years  he  served  an 
apprenticeship  as  a  millwright  at  Winooski  Falls, 
Vermont,  with  the  firm  of  Edwards  &  White,  and 
at  the  expiration  of  that  time  was  employed  by 
them  in  erecting  mills  in  New  England  and  Can- 
ada. In  this  capacity  he  continued  for  two  years, 
an-d  then,  in  company  with  a  Mr.  Wander,  estab- 
lished a  fumitiu-e  factory,  planing  and  saw  mill 
at  Cowensville,  Canada,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Warner  &  Barnard.  The  business  was  conducted 
prosperously  for  two  years,  and  then  tlie  estab- 
lishment was  destroyed  by  fire,  which  resulted  in 
the  separation  of  the  partners.  Mr.  Barnard 
moved  West,  where  he  intended  taking  up  land 
in  Iowa  and  turning  his  attention  to  agricultural 
pursuits.  Instead  of  doing  this,  however,  he  came 
to  Rock  Island,  reaching  that  city  in  the  fall  of 
1854,  and  removed  the  following  spring  to  Mo- 
line,  where  he  worked  at  his  trade. 

In  1858  he  and  L.  E.  Hemingway  established 
a  chair  factory  at  Moline,  and  in  i860  J.  B. 
Wyckof?  was  added  to  the  firm,  and  in  this  year 
was  founded  what  is  known  as  the  Barnard  & 
Leas  Manufacturing  Company.  In  1871  the 
business  was  incorporated  under  the  present  title, 
and,  adding  mill  building  to  their  business, 
continued  in  what  has  proven  a  most  prosper- 
ous career.  The  capital  stock  of  tlie  company 
is  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  with  a  sur- 
plus of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
and  their  goods,  which  include  everything  neces~ 
sary  to  equip  a  mill,  are  sold  all  over  the  world. 
Mr.  Barnard  has  been  president  of  the  company 


since  its  incorporation;  Mr.  Leas  is  vice-presi- 
dent; Charles  A.  Barnard,  the  son  of  our  subject, 
is  the  secretary;  and  W.  C.  Bennett,  now  mayor 
of  the  city  of  Moline,  is  treasurer. 

Most  of  the  products  of  the  factory  are  ma- 
chines of  Mr.  Barnard's  invention,  and  include 
wheat  separators,  flour-packers,  roller  mills,  bolt- 
ing-machines, purifiers,  dust  collectors  and  the 
like.  On  these  of  course  patents  were  obtained, 
and  their  great  practical  utility  has  resulted  in  an 
enormous  sale,  and  a  corresponding  success  to 
the  company. 

In  addition  to  his  manufacturing  interests  at 
Moline,  Mr.  Barnard  is  a  stockholder  and  the 
vice-president  of  the  Salt  Lake  Mill  and  Elevator 
Company,  located  at  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah.  He  is 
also  a  director  in  the  First  National  Bank  of  Mo- 
line, one  of  the  sound  financial  institutions  of  the 
State. 

While  always  interested  in  public  affairs,  Mr. 
Barnard  is  not  a  politician.  He  is  a  strong  Re- 
publican, and  in  the  past  has  filled  local  elective 
offices,  having  been  a  member  of  the  town  board 
for  several  years,  and  its  president  when  the  city 
was  incorporated.  Later  he  served  as  alderman. 
To  every  project  calculated  to  advance  the  pros- 
perity of  Moline,  Mr.  Barnard  is  a  warm  friend, 
and  has  contributed  largely  toward  the  upbuild- 
ing of  that  city. 

Though  he  attends  closely  to  his  business  he 
has  found  time  to  travel  extensively,  and  has  not 
only  been  all  over  the  United  States  but  has  also 
made  two  trips  abroad, — one  on  business,  the 
other  for  pleasure. 

He  has  been  twice  married.  His  first  wife, 
who  was  Miss  Adelia  Boright,  of  Canada,  to 
whom  he  was  united  in  1849,  died  in  1856,  leav- 
ing one  son,  Charles  A.  In  i860  Mr.  Barnard 
was  married  to  Aliss  Emily  Sober,  of  Ypsilanti, 
Michigan.  Of  this  union  have  been  born  five 
children:  Stella,  now  Mrs.  B.  F.  Towndrow, 
of  Salt  Lake  City;  Frank,  Harry,  Agnes  and 
Ruth.  The  family  attend  the  Congregational 
church. 


536 


ISIOGHAPnWAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  QALLERT  OF  THE 


JOHN  HUY  ADDAMS, 


FREEPORT. 


AS  a  representative  cif  the  class  of  substantial 
buiklers  of  a  great  commonwealth  who 
served  faithfully  and  long  in  the  enterprising 
West,  we  present  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who 
was  a  pioneer  of  the  Prairie  State  and  nobly  did 
his  duty  in  establishing  and  maintaining  the  ma- 
terial interests,  legal  status  and  moral  welfare 
of  his  community,  and  exerted  a  great  influ- 
ence throughout  his  adopted  State  as  a  legislator. 

He  was  a  native  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
born  at  Sinking  Spring,  in  Berks  county,  July  12, 
1822.  His  parents,  Samuel  and  Catharine  (Huy) 
Addams,  were  also  natives  of  the  Keystone  State, 
and  thus  our  subject  was  thoroughly  American 
in  blood  and  training.  In  his  youth  he  was  edu- 
cated at  an  academy  at  Trappe,  and  subsequently 
at  Upper  Dublin,  that  State,  he  learned  the  trade 
of  miller,  which  he  afterward  followed  during  the 
early  part  of  his  active  life. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-two  years,  namely,  in  1844, 
he  married  Miss  Sarah  Weber,  and  with  his  bride 
came  to  the  wild  West,  settling  in  Cedarville,  near 
Freeport,  Illinois,  where  he  purchased  a  tract  of 
land  and  a  grist  and  saw  mill,  run  by  water-power, 
and  he  proceeded  to  establish  and  maintain  a 
comfortable  home  for  himself  and  family  by  at- 
tending both  the  farm  and  the  mills;  and,  being 
a  man  of  energy  and  comprehensive  judgment, 
he  succeeded  well. 

His  upright  methods  of  dealing  and  his  reli- 
able judgment  in  all  matters  of  public  interest  in 
due  time  led  to  his  election  as  a  representative  of 
his  district  in  the  Senate  of  the  Illinois  General 
Assembly  (in  1854),  first  as  a  Whig  and  ever  after- 
ward as  a  Republican;  and  he  was  continuously 
re-elected  until  he  had  served  for  the  unprece- 
dentedly  long  period  of  sixteen  years,   and   he 


would  have  been  re-elected  still  again  had  he  not 
positively  refused  to  serve  longer.  His  record 
as  a  member  of  the  senate  stands  as  an  illustrious 
example  of  a  true  patriot  fully  as  bright  as  that 
of  any  soldier  on  the  battle-field. 

Accumulating  at  length  a  handsome  amount  of 
property  after  his  location  in  Illinois,  he  broad- 
ened his  operations,  and  finally  established  the 
Second  National  Bank  of  Freeport  (in  1865), 
of  which  he  was  the  president  until  his  death, 
conducting  its  affairs  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
his  reputation  as  a  financier  and  as  a  business 
man. 

By  the  marriage  already  referred  to  Mr.  Addams 
had  the  following  children:  Mary  C,  who  mar- 
ried Rev.  J.  M.  Lino,  and  died  in  1894,  leaving 
four  children :  J.  Weber,  now  a  resident  at  Cedar- 
ville; Sarah  Alice,  who  became  the  wife  of  Dr. 
H.  W.  Haldcman  and  is  now  residing  at  Girard, 
Kansas;  and  Jane,  a  resident  of  Chicago,  where 
she  is  superintendent  of  the  Hull  House,  at  335 
South  Halsted  street,  of  which  she  is  the  founder. 
It  is  one  of  the  noblest,  most  well-known  and  effi- 
cient benevolent  institutions  in  that  great  city. 
Mrs.  Addams  died  in  1863,  and  in  1868  Mr.  Ad- 
dams married  Mrs.  Anna  H.  Haldeman,  of  Free- 
port,  who  as  the  sun'iving  widow  is  now  living 
at  Cedarville. 

Mr.  Addams  was  a  regular  attendant  of  the 
Presbyterian  church,  benevolent  in  his  disposi- 
tion and  practice,  looked  upon  the  bright  side  of 
life,  and  by  his  example  produced  only  good  ef- 
fects and  influences  upon  all  with  whoin  he  came 
in  contact.  He  died  August  17,  1881,  loved  and 
respected  by  a  large  community  about  his  home 
and  a  wonderfully  large  circle  of  acquaintances 
throughout  the  great  State  of  Illinois. 


(^■/.(f^^ 


HEPRESEMTATIVB  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS   VOLUME. 


537 


RICHARD  J.  OGLESBY, 


C GENERAL  RrCHARD  JAMES  OGLESBY, 
f  so  distiiiguisht'd  in  Illinois  and  the  whole 
country  as  a  soldier  and  statesman,  was  l)om  in 
Oldham  county,  Kentucky,  on  the  25th  of  July, 
11^24.  He  is  of  Scottish  extraction,  and  bears  in 
many  traits  of  his  character  the  impress  of  the 
sterling  virtues  of  that  race. 

His  parents,  Jacob  Oglesby  and  Isabella  Wat- 
son, were  of  the  sturdy  stock  of  pioneers,  who 
tliough  not  rich  had  the  comforts  of  life,  and  were 
not  the  victims  of  that  want  ofteq  incident  to  a 
new  country.  The  resources  of  his  father's  farm 
enabled  the  family  to  live  in  comparative  ease  and 
comfort  till  1833,  when  by  a  visitation  of  the  chol- 
era father  and  mother,  with  a  brother  and  sister, 
fell  victims  to  that  dreadful  scourge.  At  the  time 
of  the  death  of  his  parents  he  was  nine  years  old, 
and  one  of  a  family  of  six  children,  two  sons  and 
four  daughters,  left  without  a  home,  and  depend- 
ent upon  tlie  kindness  of  relatives  and  friends  for 
protection  and  care.  Richard  was  taken  by  his 
uncle,  Mr.  Willis  Oglesby,  who  in  1836  moved 
to  Decatur,  Illinois,  but  at  the  age  of  fourteen  h'n 
uncle  sent  him  to  live  with  his  two  sisters,  Mrs. 
Prather  and  ^Irs.  Peddicord,  in  Decatur,  Illinois; 
and  in  that  village,  town  and  city,  with  its  growth 
and  development,  he  steadih-  advanced  from  the 
obscurity  of  childhood  to  a  distinction  of  man- 
hood, worthy  of  the  ambition  of  the  greatest  and 
best.  A  man  with  such  marked  characteristics  as 
Governor  Oglesby  must  have  shown  the  cardinal 
traits  of  his  being  in  the  tender  years  of  his  life. 
Great  men  are  an  evolution;  they  do  not  flash 
upon  the  world  as  a  meteor;  but  develop  and 
grow  like  other  substantial  creations.  The  crash  of 
i837lcft  every  business  interest  in  ruin.conmiercial 
disaster  and  bankruptcy  everywhere,  especially  in 
Illinois,  which  was  then  struggling  from  the  bar- 
barism of  wild  woods  and  unbroken  prairies  to 
cultivated  fields  and  work-shops.  Farming  was 
the  only  resource  for  the  needy  and  industrious; 
and  into  that  vocation  he  entered  with  zeal  and 
alacrity.  He  had  the  virtue  of  industry,  and 
nothing  was  too  hard  or  laborious  for  his  hands 
to  do.    Three  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  the 


promiscuous  business  of  farming,  and  at  the  end 
of  that  time  he  concluded  to  return  to  his  "native 
heath"  and  learn  the  trade  of  carpenter.  For  that 
purpose  he  staid  in  Kentucky  more  than  a  year, 
and  returned  for  the  third  time  to  the  home  of 
his  choice.  Before  going  to  Kentucky  for  the  pur- 
pose of  learning  a  trade  he  had  attended  school 
in  Decatur  and  availed  himself  of  the  limited 
means  then  within  reach  of  obtaining  an  educa- 
tion in  a  new  country.  Although  Governor 
Oglesby  was  not  blessed  with  the  facilities  of  ac- 
quiring classical  and  exact  learning,  he  has  edu- 
cated himself  in  the  higher  and  better  functions 
of  mental  equipment.  He  has  disciplined  his 
mind  in  the  power  of  investigation  and  continued 
and  trained  thought;  and,  after  all,  those  are  the 
ends  of  education — mental  discipline.  Knowl- 
edge is  not  necessarily  education.  Some  men  of 
the  widest  range  of  information  are  the  most 
helpless  in  the  struggle  of  thought. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  concluded  that  Illi- 
nois was  the  place  to  farm,  and  not  to  build 
houses;  so  he  in  company  with  Mr.  Lenmel  Allen 
rented  a  farm,  and  among  other  crops  raised  a  lot 
of  hemp,  which  proved  the  everlasting  ruin  of  the 
firm  of  Oglesby  &  Allen.  In  the  preparation  of 
their  hemp  for  market  it  was  necessary  that  they 
should  rot  the  stalk,  and  to  that  end  they  built  a 
dam  across  a  small  branch  that  flowed  through 
the  village,  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  pond. 
The  pond  subserved  the  piu-pose  of  preparing  the 
hemp,  but  the  overflow  killed  several  horses  in 
the  neighborhood,  for  which  the  firm  had  to  pay. 
This  was  the  last  effort  of  the  Governor  at  farm- 
ing until  at  the  end  of  his  long  public  life  he  re- 
tired to  his  farm  near  Elkhart. 

The  campaign  of  1840  was  the  first  political  con- 
test which  seriously  attracted  his  attention,  having 
heard  Lincoln  and  Douglas  in  joint  debate  in  that 
year.  Being  of  a  Whig  family  he  naturally  co- 
incided with  Mr.  Lincoln.  At  the  time  of  their 
first  acquaintance  the  disparity  in  their  years  pre- 
vented a  very  intimate  association;  but  as  Mr. 
Oglesby  matured  to  manhood  the  influence  of  that 
difference  disappeared,  until  he  and  Mr.  Lincoln 


538 


DioanAPnicAL  dwttonart  and  portrait  oallkrt  of  the 


became,  in  public  and  private  life,  as  cordial  and 
confidential  as  possible.  At  the  time  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  death  the  Governor  was  at  the  city  of 
W'ashinfjton,  and  was  among  the  first  who  stood 
at  the  bedside  of  the  distinguished  martyr.  He 
who,  as  boy,  listened  with  rapt  attention  to  his 
arguments  a  quarter  of  a  century  before,  now  held 
his  hand  as  he  unsuccessfully  struggled  with  that 
enemy  whose  inevitable  victory  terminated  the 
mo.st  illustrious  career  of  the  century.  If  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  any  consciousness  after  the  fatal 
shot,  it  is  probable  that  his  family  and  Governor 
Oglesby  were  the  last  who  faded  from  his  vision. 

From  Governor  Oglesby's  boyhood  he  was 
remarkable  in  powers  of  conversation  and  public 
speaking,  and  as  a  result  of  that  faculty  his  atten- 
tion and  taste  were  very  early  directed  to  the  bar 
as  the  vocation  of  his  life.  In  pursuance  of  a  plan 
matured  some  time  previous,  in  1844,  he  com- 
menced the  study  of  law  with  Mr.  Silas  W.  Rob- 
bins,  of  Springfield.  Mr.  Robbins  had  a  fine 
standing  at  the  bar,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of 
the  best  at  the  capital.  Although  Mr.  Oglesby's 
intellect  had  not  been  directed  by  the  discipline 
of  hard  study  in  the  schools,  he  had  a  studious 
and  thoughtful  mind,  which  being  influenced  by 
his  desire  for  success  enabled  him  to  acquire  the 
usual  range  of  information  before  his  admission 
to  practice.  Upon  his  admission  he  located  in 
Moultrie  county,  where  he  practiced  with  success 
until  the  breaking  out  of  the  Mexican  war  in  1846. 

He  was  among  the  first  to  volunteer  in  the  de- 
fense of  his  country.  Governor  Oglesby,  although 
not  educated  as  such,  is  a  soldier  of  rare  quali- 
fications. He  combines  the  ardent  love  of  coun- 
try, which  in  him  is  an  absolute  enthusiasm,  with 
calm,  cool  courage,  and  a  wise  and  discreet  judg- 
ment. Yet  with  all  these,  like  General  Grant, 
he  hates  war.  It  has  no  allurements  for  him, 
beyond  the  successful  maintenance  of  the  honor 
of  his  country.  He  is  brave  but  not  fearless,  and 
in  reply  to  an  officer  of  the  late  war  who  said  to 
him,  "General,  there  is  always  a  supreme  mo- 
ment of  joy  in  a  fight  and  that  is  when  it  is  at  its 
full  height,"  "No,"  answered  Oglesby;  "that  is 
not  the  supreme  moment  of  joy  with  me;  it  is 
when  the  battle  is  over  and  we  have  whipped 
them.  I  was  never  in  a  battle  that  I  was  not  at 
some  time  badly  frightened,  but  I  was  impelled 


by  the  necessity  of  a  victory  and  my  sense  of 
linnor  to  overcome  and  subdue  my  fear."  At  the 
time  he  volunteered  he  was  twenty-one  years  old, 
and  was  elected  first  lieutenant  of  Company  C, 
Fourth  Illinois,  commanded  by  Colonel  E.  D. 
Haker.  Lieutenant  Oglesby  was  a  great  favorite 
of  Colonel  Baker,  as  he  was  of  every  one  who  ap- 
preciated the  highest  and  best  qualities  of  true 
manhood.  The;  regiment  marched  more  than 
seven  hundred  miles  through  the  interior  of 
Mexico,  participating  in  the  battles  of  Vera 
Cruz  and  Cerro  Gordo.  In  the  latter  battle  he 
commanded  the  company,  Captain  Pugh  having 
been  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  left  wing  of 
the  regiment.  Colonel  Baker  was  one  of  the  most 
brilliant,  ambitious  and  brave  men  of  the  Ameri- 
can army,  and  appreciated  the  position  of  dangei" 
as  the  post  of  honor  in  a  great  battle.  In  order 
to  be  just  to  his  feeling  of  friendship  for  Lieu- 
tenant Oglesby,  he  assigned  his  company  to  the 
position  of  danger,  and  was  particular  in  com- 
nnmicating  to  the  object  of  his  affections  the  fact 
that  he  had  been  favored  with  the  position,  where 
the  battle  would  be  the  "hottest"  and  where  he 
would  have  the  opportunity  of  shedding  addi- 
tional glory  on  the  profession  of  arms.  The  brave 
lieutenant  thanked  the  chivalric  colonel,  thinking, 
no  doubt,  a  few  more  such  friends  and  my 
chances  for  being  one  of  the  survivors  of  the  war 
would  be  the  forlorn  hope  of  destiny."  In  this 
battle  General  Shields  was  wounded,  and  was 
guarded  after  the  battle  by  Company  C  as  a  mark 
of  distinction  to  it,  for  the  gallant  services  it  had 
rendered. 

On  his  return  he  settled  at  Decatur,  and  com- 
menced what  he  supposed  would  be  an  uninter- 
rupted career  of  professional  labor;  but  he  was 
again  induced  to  quit  the  practice  by  the  glowing 
accounts  of  gold  mining  in  California.  In  the 
summer  of  1849  a  company  of  nine  was  formed  in 
Macon  county  (of  which  Oglesby  formed  a  part), 
for  the  purpose  of  gold  mining.  They  went  by 
the  overland  route  from  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  to 
Siaicramento  City  in  ninety-five  days.  The  Govern- 
oir  performed  the  important  function  of  driving 
a  six-nuile  team  the  entire  distance,  nineteen  hun- 
dred miles.  During  his  stay  in  California  he 
worked  hard  and  diligently,  and  at  the  end  of 
tu'o  vears  returned  home  with  a  considerable  sum 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


539 


of  money.  He  again  sought  the  peaceful  ways  of 
a  country  lawyer.  On  coming  to  the  bar  he  com- 
menced the  cultivation  of  public  speaking,  of 
which  he  had  the  natural  elements  in  the  highest 
degree.  In  the  campaignis  of  1848  and  1852  he 
excited  the  admiration  of  the  Whig  party  by  his 
ability  as  a  stump  orator,  and  no  young  man  of 
his  age  in  the  State  had  such  a  promise.  The 
spiiirit  of  travel  and  advenitiire  which  led  him  in 
defenise  of  his  ccuntr)'  across  the  sterile  plains  of 
Mexico,  and  later  through  the  gorges  of  the 
Rocky  mountains  in  quest  of  gokl,  had  simply 
slumbered  during  the  years  of  his  practice  from 
1851  to  1856. 

He  had  long  dreamed  and  talked  of  a  trip  to 
Europe,  Asia  and  Africa.  He  was  particularly 
fascinated  with  the  idea  of  foreign  travel  from  a 
c'lnversation  which  he  had  \vith  Senator  Douglas 
in  the  fall  of  1855,  who  had  just  returned  from  an 
extended  trip  through  Europe  and  a  part  of  Asia. 
He  was  thirty-two  years  old,  with  a  reasonable 
competency  for  expenses,  with  an  insatiable  taste 
and  desire  for  new  scenes  and  adventures:  so  in 
April,  1856,  he  left  this  country  for  a  journey  to 
Europe,  Eg}-pt,  Arabia,  Palestine  and  other  points 
in  the  East.  Mr.  Oglesby  went  in  the  spirit  of  a 
true  traveler,  determined  to  study,  examine  and 
explore  all  matters  and  places  of  interest  coming 
within  reach  of  his  route.  He  first  devoted  his 
attention  to  England,  Irelajid  and  Scotland;  and 
being  of  a  political  turn  of  mind  he  paid  particu- 
lar attention  to  the  Parliament  of  England,  mark- 
ing with  acute  observation  the  distinguished  men 
then  members  of  either  house.  He  went  to  Paris, 
Berlin,  St.  Petersburg,  Moscow,  Warsaw,  Dres- 
den, Vienna  and  Trieste.  From  the  last  place  he 
sailed  to  Alexandria  to  indulge  in  the  myster>'  of 
an  ancient  but  wonderful  civilization.  Late  in 
Januar)',  1857,  Mr.  Oglesby  arrived  in  Cairo. 
After  a  short  stay  he,  in  company  with  another, 
chartered  a  boat  to  make  a  trip  up  the  Nile  to 
Thebes.  The  ancient  temples  and  tombs  of  upper 
Egypt,  still,  as  for  centuries,  the  marvel  of  the 
world,  the  great  pyramids  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Nile  near  Cairo,  one  of  the  "seven  wonders  of  the 
world,"  were  all  in  succession  visited,  studied  and 
examined  with  the  greatest  possible  interest.  Two 
weeks  after  their  return  to  Cairo  Mr.  Oglesby 
joined  a  caravan  to  cross  the  desert,  consisting  of 


ten  travelers,  two  dragomen,  eleven  Bedouins  and 
thirty-two  camels.  The  30th  of  March,  1857,  they 
left  Cairo  for  the  Holy  Land.  The  journey  across 
the  Desert  of  Arabia  was  full  of  eventful  and 
startling  adventures, — camel-riding,  tracing  the 
scenes  of  Scriptural  history  on  the  vast  sandy 
plains,  and  along  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea,  the 
halt  at  the  foot  and  the  ascent  of  Mount  Sinai, 
where  during  the  night  Mr.  Oglesby  read  the 
Ten  Commandments,  and  with  a  companion  re- 
peated them  on  the  top  of  the  mountain  as  the 
sun  was  rising  over  the  mountains  of  Arabia 
and  the  wilderness  where  the  children  of  Israel 
wandered  for  forty  years.  His  journal  describes 
the  scene  as  the  light  burst  upon  the  barren  plains 
and  rock-riven  peaks  of  the  terrible  desert  as  one 
of  surpassing  splendor.  During  his  stay  in 
Jerusalem  Mr.  Oglesby  visited  all  places  and  vil- 
lages of  scripttu-al  interest  near  the  city,  and 
studied  with  care  and  re\'erence  the  history  of 
these  holy  places.  He  traveled  through  Palestine 
and  Syria  from  Jerusailem  to  Damascus.  From 
Damascus  they  set  out  for  Beyrout,  halting  on  the 
way  between  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon  to  see 
the  wonderful  temple  of  Baalbek.  Arriving  in 
Beyrout  three  days  later,  Mr.  Oglesbv  set  sail  for 
Constantinople.  After  five  days  spent  in  Con- 
stantinople he  sailed  for  Athens.  Two  weeks 
were  spent  in  this  classic  city  when  he  took  ship 
on  his  last  voj'age  on  the  Mediterranean  for 
Naples;  from  there  he  visited  Rome,  Florence, 
Milan,  Venice  and  other  Italian  cities. 

In  the  prosecution  of  his  travels  as  indicated  by 
the  foregoing  route,  he  was  most  dihgerbt  in  study 
and  observation;  and  when  he  returned  to  this 
country  he  was  one  of  the  best  informed  travelers 
of  the  places  he  saw,  of  all  the  Americans  who 
had  then  visited  the  East.  The  Governor  has 
eminent  qualifications  as  a  traveler,  observation 
of  the  most  thorough  and  exhaustive  kind,  and 
great  ability  to  describe  and  interestingly  portray 
the  scenes  and  incidents  of  a  tour. 

After  his  return  home  in  December,  1857,  at 
the  request  of  local  committees,  he  delivered  sev- 
eral lectures  on  his  obseir\'ation  abroad  which 
were  highly  entertaining  and  instructive.  The 
winter  of  1858  was  the  formative  period  of  the 
elements,  which  marked  with  such  peculiar  sig- 
nificance   the  campaign  of   1858,  in   which   Mr. 


540 


BIOOIiAPUICAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  GALLERY  OF  THE 


Lincoln  and  Senator  Douglas  discussed  with  such 
marked  ability  the  political  issues  centering  in, 
and  dependent  upon,  the  question  of  slavery. 
That  comflict  had  been  intensified  and  embittered 
bevond  the  fears  of  consen-atives  and  the  hopes 
of  the  Radicals,  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, which  public  opinion  had  been  taught 
to  regard  as  one  of  the  safeguards  of  domestic 
I)cace.  Although  Governor  Oglesby  was  anti- 
slavery  in  sentiment  he  was  conservatively  so, 
being  a  "Henry  Clay  Whig."  At  the  time  he 
went  abroad  in  April,  1856,  the  Repubhcan  party 
as  a  distinct  political  party  had  not  been  formally 
organized  in  Illinois.  It  was  the  policy  of  the 
Republican  party  to  strengthen  itself  in  those  lo- 
calities where  in  the  previous  election  it  had  been 
weak.  In  the  Congressional  district  nmning  from 
Logan  and  Macon  counties  on  the  northwest  to 
Clark  on  the  southeast  the  Democracy  was 
largely  in  the  majority,  and  this  district  the  Re- 
publicans sought  to  carry  by  nominating  Gov- 
ernor Oglesby  against  Mr.  James  C.  Robinson, 
who  was  then,  as  he  alwaj's  was,  one  of  the  most 
popular  men  of  the  State.  Tlie  district  was  made 
strongly  Democratic  and  the  infusion  of  a  large 
pro-slavery  element  from  the  Whig  party  in- 
creased the  ascendency  of  Democratic  sentiment. 
The  Governor  was  at  that  time  thirty-four  years 
old,  with  the  culture  of  some  years"  practice  at  the 
bar,  an  active  participation  in  t^^'o  national  can- 
vasses and  the  thought  and  reflection  incident 
to  nearly  two  years  of  study  and  travel  abroad. 
In  his  boyhood  he  had  shown  indications  that  in 
his  latent  and  undeveloped  resources,  there  slum- 
bered the  ability  of  achieving  great  success  in  the 
licklof  popular  oratory.  Hisspeeches  in  campaigns 
in  whicli  he  had  participated  captivated  the  atten- 
tion of  the  crowd  and  excited  their  admiration  for 
the  man  if  not  for  the  principles  which  he  advo- 
cated. Those  elements  combining  made  him 
most  fonnidable  as  a  political  antagonist;  and 
although  he  largely  diminished  the  majority,  he 
was  by  the  result  of  the  election  permitted  to  pur- 
sue the  even  tenor  of  his  way  in  the  practice  of 
the  law.  Mr.  I-incoln  shared  the  same  fate  as 
his  friend  Oglesby,  and  they  both  had  to  wait  un- 
til i860  for  a  personal  triumph.  The  canvass 
which  Governor  Oglesby  made  against  Mr.  Rob- 
inson, both  in  its  results  and  in  the  effective  mode 


in  which  the  Governor  prosecuted  it,  made  him 
one  of  the  most  popular  Republicans  of  the  State, 
so  that  in  i860  he  was  placed  in  nomination  by 
the  Republicans  for  the  State  Senate  in  a  district 
composed  of  eight  counties.  This,  too,  was  a 
Democratic  district,  and  it  was  the  forlorn  hope 
which  the  Republican  candidate  was  expected  to 
carry.  This  campaign  in  its  results  showed  that 
the  Governor  combined  in  an  eminent  degree  the 
elements  of  a  popular  leader,  as,  not  only  was  he 
elected  but  he  received  more  votes  in  the  district 
than  Mr.  Lincoln.  This  was  the  first  political  of- 
fice ever  held  by  him;  and  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war  brought  its  incumbency  to  a  sudden  tennina- 
tion.  The  legislature  to  which  he  was  elected 
convened  on  the  7th  of  January,  and  terminated 
on  the  2ist  of  February.  After  the  bombardment 
of  Fort  Sumter  the  legislature  was  called  in  extra 
session  by  Governor  Yates,  and  met  on  the  21st 
of  April,  1861.  After  a  brief  session  of  a  few 
days  the  legislation  incident  to  the  war  was  com- 
pleted and  the  General  Assembly  adjourned. 

Under  the  call  of  the  President,  made  on  tlie 
15th  of  April,  Illinois  was  required  to  furnish  si.x 
regiments.  The  troops  were  rendezvoused  at 
Springfield  and  were  formed  in  regiments  during 
the  brief  session  of  the  legislature.  On  the  last  day 
of  the  session,  the  Eighth  Regiment  held  an  elec- 
tion and  unanimously  chose  Oglesby  for  colonel. 
The  fact  was  immediately  communicated  to  him 
as  he  sat  in  the  Statehouse.  Without  a  moment's 
hesitation  he  repaired  to  Camp  Yates,  and,  amid 
the  wildest  shouts  of  exultation  and  joy  on  the 
part  of  the  soldiers,  he  rode  in  front  of  that  tliou- 
sand  men,  bowing  his  acknowledgments  of  grat- 
itude for  the  compliment  of  his  election.  His 
emotions  were  not  withr;ut  conflict  and  struggle. 
He  had  no  taste  for  war  beyond  the  requirements 
of  patriotic  duty,  but  to  that  duty  with  all  the 
determination  of  his  soul  he  exchanged  his  seat 
in  the  Senate  for  the  camp  of  tlie  soldier.  In  the 
fall  of  1861,  he  was  placed  in  command  of  Cairo 
and  Bird's  Point,  then  the  most  southern  posi- 
tions occupied  by  the  Federal  army.  Governor 
Oglesby  was  in  command  at  Cairo  when  General 
Grant  was  ordered  to  Cairo  to  take  command  at 
tliat  point  General  Grant  and  Colonel  Oglesby 
had  never  seen  each  other,  and  their  meeting  at 
Cairo,  as  told  by  them  both,  was  laughable  in  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


541 


extreme.  They  soon  became  great  friends,  which 
lasted  with  increased  fondness  until  the  death  of 
the  general.  Governor  Oglesby  served  about  a 
year  as  colonel,  and  led  the  right  of  General 
Grant's  army  in  his  advance  upon  Fort  Donelson, 
upon  the  field  of  battle  for  three  days  in  attacking 
that  Rebel  stronghold,  which  finally  yielded  with 
its  fourteen  thousand  prisoners,  after  a  severe 
struggle,  on  the  14th  of  February,  1862.  This 
w,as  the  first  substantial  Union  victory  up  to  that 
time.  In  1862  Colonel  Oglesby  was  appointed 
Brigadier-General  by  President  Lincoln,  for  gal- 
lantry at  the  battle  of  P'ort  Donelson,  taking  rank 
as  such  from  April  i,  1862.  In  the  autumn  of 
1862,  the  great  battle  of  Corinth  was  fought  on 
the  3d  and  4th  of  October.  General  Oglesby 
commanded  a  brigade  in  that  fight,  and  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  first  day  fell  upon  the  field,  as 
was  then  thought,  mortally  wounded,  the  ball  hav- 
ing passed  under  the  left  arm  through  the  lungs 
and  lodged  near  the  spine.  He  passed  six  months 
of  intense  suffering  and  danger  before  he  was  able 
to  leave  his  home,  and  still  carries  in  his  body  the 
enemy's  ball  which  brought  him  so  near  the  gates 
of  death.  His  recovery  is  one  of  the  mysteries 
of  those  inscrutable  laws  which  govern  the  issues 
of  life  and  death.  At  the  time  he  was  wounded 
every  surgeon  who  saw  him,  except  his  own. 
Dr.  Trowbridge,  said  he  would  die;  that  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  survive  such  a  wound;  so 
it  seemed  for  a  long  time,  and  during  that  time 
there  never  was  such  physical  agony  endured  by 
mortal  man.  His  strong,  stalwart  form  wasted 
to  a  skeleton,  and  for  nearly  six  months  his  days 
and  nights  were  a  ceaseless  siege  of  suffering. 
I'.ut  all  at  once  there  came  a  change  for  the  bet- 
ter; and  those  who  beheld  him,  as  they  supposed, 
for  the  last  time,  saw  him  in  a  comparatively  short 
space  of  time  delivering  at  the  capital  one  of  the 
most  thrilhng  war  speeches  of  the  era.  In  con- 
sideration of  his  meritorious  services,  in  1863  he 
was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major-general  of 
volunteers  by  appointment  of  President  Lincoln, 
to  rank  as  such  from  the  29th  of  November,  1862. 
Though  still  suffering  from  his  wound,  he  re- 
turned to  active  duty  in  April,  but  was  compelled 
because  of  his  physical  condition  to  tender  his 
resignation  in  July,  1863,  which  was  not  ac- 
cepted ;  but  he  was  granted  a  leave  of  absence  and 


returned  home.  After  a  short  time  he  was  de- 
tailed as  president  of  a  general  court-martial, 
which  sat  in  Washington  from  December,  1863, 
to  May,  1864,  trying  some  of  the  most  important 
cases  then  pending  in  the  military  service. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1864,  the  question  who 
should  be  the  Republican  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor became  the  absorbing  topic  of  conversa- 
tion, thought  and  publication.  Some  of  the  pa- 
pers had  made  favorable  mention  of  his  name,  but 
no  decisive  indication  could  be  discerned,  as  there 
were  several  candidates  of  reputation,  standing, 
and  ability.  As  the  time  of  the  convention  ap- 
proached, the  signs  became  much  more  favor- 
able, and  when,  on  the  25th  of  May,  the  conven- 
tion met  he  was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot 
by  an  overwhelming  majorit\-.  The  Democrats 
nominated  his  old  competitor,  Mr.  Robinson, 
and  it  became  the  contest  of  1858  over  again,  so 
far  as  the  men  were  concerned,  but  not  as  to  the 
issues  and  results.  He  made  a  most  vigorous 
and  effective  campaign,  speaking  in  every  county 
in  the  State.  Although  the  State  had  gone  Demo- 
cratic in  1862,  he  was  elected  by  a  majority  of 
more  than  thirty  thousand.  He  succeeded  Gov- 
ernor Yates  in  January,  1865,  to  perform  the  re- 
sponsible duties  of  governor  at  the  most  critical 
period  in  the  history  of  the  State  and  nation. 

Governor  Oglesby  is  spoken  of  by  the  journals 
of  that  time  as  ''a  liberal-hearted  administrator  of 
the  high  and  sacred  trust  imposed  upon  him  as 
the  official  head  of  a  great  commonwealth,  show- 
ing himself  eminently  faithful,  competent  and  able, 
combining  in  an  admirable  degree  the  qualities 
of  a  very  man  among  men."  The  Chicago  Trib- 
une of  January  18,  1865,  says  of  his  inaugural: 
"The  address  is  a  manly,  straightforward  doc- 
mnent,  devoid  of  pretense,  replete  with  com- 
mon sense  and  admirably  written.  It  clearly  pro- 
claims that  the  same  nerve,  the  same  intelligence 
and  patriotism  which  marked  General  Oglesby's 
conduct  at  Fort  Donelson  and  Corinth,  will  dis- 
tinguish his  administration  as  governor." 

Governor  Oglesby  performed  the  duties  of  gov- 
ernor from  January,  1865,  to  January,  1869,  with 
the  most  admirable  skill  and  ability.  He  has 
rare  qualities  of  executive  function,  coolness, 
courage,  and  an  underlying  foundation  of  com- 
mon sense  and  devotion  to  what  he  believes  to  be 


542 


TilOnnAPnJCAL  DWTrONARV  and  POTtTTtATT  GALLKRY  OF  THE 


rig-lit  and  just,  that  never  fails  or  falters  in  its  di- 
recting- power.  At  the  end  of  his  term,  those  who 
elected  him,  with  those  who  voted  against  him, 
imited  in  the  general  ciilogium  that  he  had  given 
the  State  a  wise,  just  and  honest  administration  of 
its  executive  branch  of  the  government.  He  was 
made  president  of  the  National  Lincoln  Monu- 
ment Association,  organized  May  ii,  1865,  which 
labored  assiduously  until  it  obtained  the  means 
to  erect  to  the  martyred  president  an  enduring 
memorial  worthy  to  mark  his  last  resting  place 
and  to  hold  the  ashes  of  the  illustrious  dead.  This 
stately  mounment  was  so  far  completed  that  it 
was  formally  dedicated,  and  the  beautiful  statue  of 
Lincoln  unveiled,  October  15,  1874,  the  governor 
delivering  the  dedicatory  address.  The  Spring- 
field Journal  said :  "There  seems  a  peculiar  pro- 
priety that  Lincoln's  ardent  friend  and  admirer, 
the  eloquent  and  sympathetic  Oglesby,  should 
deliver  the  oration  and  that  the  president  and 
cabinet  should  lend  dignity  by  their  presence  to 
an  occasion  which  will  soon  become  historic." 

At  the  end  of  the  first  term  he  retired  to  pri- 
vate life,  but  the  disturbed  condition  of  poli- 
tics incident  to  the  "Liberal  movement"  re- 
quired that  the  Republican  party  should  put 
at  the  head  of  its  column  a  man  who  would 
not  only  command  the  respect  and  confi- 
dence of  the  people  but  excite  the  enthusi- 
asm of  the  masses;  so  in  1872  he  was  nomi- 
nated for  governor  the  second  time.  He  again 
made  a  thorough  canvass  of  the  State,  and  was 
ag-ain  elected  by  over  forty  thousand  majority. 
At  the  ensuing  meeting  of  the  legislature  he  was 
the  unanimous  choice  of  the  Republican  mem- 
bers, and  was  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  for  a  full  term  of  six  years.  He  served  in 
the  Senate  until  the  4th  of  IVLirch,  1879,  and  in 
that  position,  as  in  all  others  in  which  he  has  been 
called  upon  to  discharge  the  duty  and  perform 
the  trust  of  office,  he  was  faithful  and  earnest. 
He  was  on  several  important  committees  of  the 
Senate,  and  participated  in  the  general  business 
of  Congress,  voting  on  all  and  discussing  such 
measures   as   required    his    immediate    attention. 

His  retirement  to  private  life  was  not  of  long 
duration.  In  1884  an  election  for  governor  was 
to  be  held  in  Illinois,  and  for  the  third  time  the 
public  eye  was  set  in  the  direction  of  Governor 


Ogksby.  To  be  a  candidate  three  times  was 
something  phenomenal  in  the  politics  of  a  State 
where  the  term  lasted  four  years;  and  some  com- 
plaints were  made  ag-ainst  a  "third  term ;"  but  the 
constituency  in  the  nu-al  precincts  which  had 
listened  with  admiration  to  his  matchless  oratory 
on  the  stump  came  to  his  rescue,  and  for  the  third 
time  he  was  unanimously  noniinated  for  govern- 
or. For  the  tliird  time  he  took  the  stump  as  a 
candidate  for  governor,  traveling  again  into  nearly 
every  county  in  the  State,  if  not  all,  discussing 
the  questions  of  the  campaign  in  a  style  that  com- 
manded the  attention  of  every  audience,  whether 
in  the  cosmopolitan  city  of  Chicago  or  among 
the  rural  auditors  of  Southern  Illinois.  He  was 
again  elected  governor  and  entered  upon  his  third 
term  in  January,  1885. 

The  condition  of  things  had  changed  since  his 
former  terms  as  governor.  The  city  of  Chicago 
had  grown  from  a  city  of  three  hundred  thousand 
to  a  city  of  nearly  a  million,  and  as  a  consequence 
of  that  extraordinary  growtli  it  had  gathered  some 
of  the  worst  elements  of  society.  The  civilized 
world  has  sought  it  with  its  variegated  shades 
of  political  thought,  from  the  man  who  sings  with 
the  gusto  of  his  native  land,  "God  save  the 
Queen,"  to  the  man  who  shouts  in  the  wildness 
of  the  mob,  "Down  with  the  police."  This  is  the 
exotic  thought  of  Chicago;  and  between  those 
two  extremes  there  is  e-vt;ry  tendency  of  political 
opinion,  some  of  which  is  not  distinctly  American. 
For  years  under  a  lax  and  reckless  administration 
of  the  city  government,  the  anarchical  tendency  of 
a  portion  of  the  population  had  not  only  not  been 
restrained,  but  it  had  taken  encouragement,  until 
under  the  guise  of  freedom  of  speech  and  the  liberty 
of  the  press,  insubordination  of  the  law  and  the 
constituted  authorities,  were  openly  proclaimed 
and  advocated  in  public  meetings. 

In  May,  1886,  a  collision  between  the  police 
and  one  of  those  disorderly  crowds  occured,  in 
which  several  of  the  police  were  killed,  and  for 
that  killing  eight  of  the  leaders  of  the  mob  were 
indicted.  In  the  summer  of  1886,  after  a  trial 
lasting  months,  they  were  convicted  and  sentenced 
to  be  hanged  in  November^  1886.  During  the  ex- 
citement incident  to  the  killing,  trial  and  execu- 
tion, a  very  dangerous  condition  of  society  ex- 
isted in  Chicago,  which  under  the  executive  super- 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


543 


vision  of  the  governor  was  most  judiciously  man- 
aged by  tlie  municipal  authorities  of  the  city. 
After  the  conviction  tlie  whole  responsibility  de- 
volved upon  the  executive.  The  situation  de- 
manded the  highest  type  of  sagacious  judgment 
to  temper  the  administration  of  justice  with  the 
spirit  of  mercy.  The  Governor  was  beset  with 
innumerable  petitions,  nearly  all  on  the  side  of 
executive  clemency.  The  cases  of  the  defendants, 
although  the  same  in  technical  and  legal  guilt, 
differed  in  some  particulars  in  moral  turpitude. 
The  matter  from  its  inception  had  attracted  tlie 
attention  of  the  civilized  world,  and  after  the  con- 
viction the  interest  had  become  more  intense. 
The  anxiet)'  of  the  public  as  to  what  would  be 
done  by  the  governor  increased  as  the  time  ap- 
proached. The  sentiment  which  regarded  the  con- 
viction as  just,  and  the  execution  as  necessary 
to  a  vindication  of  the  power  and  authority  of  the 
State  to  deal  with  lawlessness,  was  apprehensive 
that  the  sentence  would  be  mitigated  to  imprison- 
ment for  life;  while  those  who  were  actuated  by 
sentiments  of  mercy  were  afraid  it  would  be  exe- 
cuted on  all  the  prisoners.  The  situation  was  one 
of  trial  and  responsibility,  and  never  before  in  the 
history  of  an  American  State  was  there  such  a 
case.  The  Governor  heard  with  great  patience 
both  sides  of  the  question  in  connection  with  a 
full  and  complete  examination  of  all  the  testi- 
mony which  had  been  heard,  extending  through 
many  weeks  of  the  protracted  trial.  After  a  ma- 
ture investigation  and  study  of  the  case,  he  com- 
muted the  sentence  of  two  to  imprisonment  for 
life,  and  permitted  the  law  to  take  its  course  witli 
the  five  others.  This  decision  was  regarded  by 
the  best  element  of  society,  not  only  in  Illinois, 
but  alsri  throughout  the  country,  as  WMse  and  just. 

His  third  term  as  governor  closed  in  January, 
1SS9,  Governor  Fifer  having  been  elected  his  suc- 
cessor. He  now  determined  to  quit  public  life 
forever,  and  to  that  end  moved  to  a  beautiful  farm 
near  Elkhart,  Logan  county. 

In  the  election  of  1888  he  was  again  most 
efficient  on  the  stump,  making  speeches  during 
the  entire  campaign  in  the  principal  cities  and 
towns  of  the  State.  At  the  election  which  was 
held  in  Illinois  in  tlie  fall  of  1890,-  a  legislature 
was  elected  whose  duty  it  was  to  elect  a  United 
States  senator  for  the  term  commencing  on  tlie 


4th  of  Marcli,  i8gi.  Neither  of  the  great  political 
parties  had  a  majority,  and  the  result  was  a  pro- 
tracted struggle  extending  to  near  the  close  of 
the  session.  Governor  Oglesby  received  the  Re- 
publican nomination  and  was  supported  most 
cordially  by  everj'  member  of  the  party  as  long  as 
there  was  any  hope  of  his  election.  It  was  a  dis- 
tinguished compliment  to  a  long  life  of  honest, 
patient  and  efftcient  discharge  of  public  duty. 
Upon  his  retirement  at  the  end  of  his  third'  term 
Governor  Oglesby  had  no  desire  or  purpose  to 
enter  public  life  again,  and  the  fact  that  he  was 
nominated  and  supported  by  the  Republicans  of 
the  legislature  without  his  solicitation  makes  the 
compliment  the  more  gratifying.  Although  he  has 
spent  mucli  of  his  time  in  cfScial  duty,  the  hearth- 
•stone  and  home  of  private  life  is  to  him  the  cher- 
ished spot  of  human  existence. 

He  was  married  in  1859  to  Miss  Anna  E., 
daughter  of  Joseph  White,  of  Decatur.  After  his 
marriage  his  wife  shared  \\itli  enthusiasm  in  all 
the  ambitions  and  purposes  of  his  life;  and  was 
to  him  during  the  affliction  incident  to  his  terrible 
wound  an  inspiration  of  hope  and  life.  On  receiv- 
ing the  news  of  his  condition  in  the  battle  of 
Corinth,  she  started  to  the  scene  of  suffering,  and 
by  the  assistance  of  Doctor  Trowbridge  she  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  him  to  Decatur,  when  every- 
body except  her  and  the  doctor  thought  every 
moment  would  be  his  last.  Mrs.  Oglesby  was  of 
feeble  constitution,  and  in  j\Iay,  1868,  while  the 
Governor  was  serving  his  first  term,  she  died,  leav- 
ing two  children:  Robert  Oglesby,  of  Decatur; 
and  Olive,  now  Mrs.  Snyder,  of  Kansas  City.  In 
1873,  after  his  election  to  the  senate,  he  was 
married  to  Mrs.  Keyes,  eldest  daughter  of  the 
late  Mr.  John  D.  Gillett,  of  Elkhart.  Mr.  Gillett 
had  accumulated  a  large  fortune,  and  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  his  farm  in  magnitude,  fertility  and 
improvement  was  the  finest  and  best  in  the  State. 
The  cattle  in  its  hundred  fields  were  celebrated 
for  their  fine  quality  in  the  markets  of  Chicago, 
New  York  and  London.  Upon  the  death  of  her 
father,  Mrs.  Oglesby  inherited  a  portion  of  this 
estate,  and  in  connection  witli  the  lands  owned 
by  tlie  Governor  they  now  have  "Oglehurst,"' 
which  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  delightful 
possessions  of  caitral  Illinois.  She  is  a  lady  ofrare 
qualifications  and  is  well  worthy  to  be  the  wife  of 


544 


nronnAPUTrAL  DTCTTONAnr  and  pournATT  oallery  of  the 


her  distin.sniislied  Inisbaiul.  They  have  an  in- 
teresting- family  of  chilch-cn,  cnc  daughter,  Miss 
Emma  Louise,  and  three  sons,  Richard,  John  and 
Jasper. 

The  foregoing  sketch  represents  the  leading 
incidents  in  the  career  of  a  man  who  is  better 
kiKwn  to  the  people  of  Illinois  than  perhaps  any 
public  man  who  has  appeared  in  its  history.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  the  citizens  of  Illinois 
as  a  mass  knew  as  much  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  though 
his  fame  is  as  broad  as  the  domain  of  civilization, 
as  of  Governor  Oglcsby.  Commencing  in  1852, 
he  has  been  one  of  the  active  men  in  politics  for 
forty  years.  He  has  been  honored  by  public  and 
ofiicial  confidence  beyond  the  measure  of  any 
public  man  in  the  State.  In  1846  he  was  a  lieu- 
tenant in  the  army;  in  i860  he  was  a  senator  in 
the  legislature;  in  1861  he  was  appointed  colonel; 
in  1862  he  was  made  a  brigadier-general;  in  1863 
he  was  miade  a  major-genefal:  in  1864  he  was 
elected  governor;  in  1872  he  was  again  elected 
governor;  in  1873  he  was  elected  United  States 
senator;  in  1884  he  was  for  the  third  time  elected 
governor;  and  in  1891  received  tlie  unanimous 
nomination  of  his  party  as  its  candidate  for  the 
United  States  senate.  In  all  of  these  positions  he 
lias  been  faithful  and  efficient,  bringing  to  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duty  the  highest  and  best  qualities 
(>f  his  nature.  He  is  now  and  always  has  been  the 
most  popular  among  the  masses  of  citizens;  and, 
like  Mr.  Lincoln,  loves  to  appeal  to  their  broad 
sense  of  justice  and  right.  He  despises  the  in- 
trigues of  party  manipulation.  He  was  the  trusted 
and  faithful  friend  of  Mr.  Lmcoln,  General  Grant 
and  Judge  David  Davis.  They  had  in  him  the 
most  explicit  confidence  for  all  the  obligations  of 
peace  and  war;  and  while  he  is  a  strong  partisan, 
his  political  opponents  give  him  the  credit  of  hav- 


ing in  the  highest  degree  the  two  cardinal  virtues 
of  a  public  servant — honesty  and  capability.  He 
is  among  the  last  of  a  race  of  public  men  who  have 
given  glory  to  the  State  and  grandeur  to  the  na- 
tion. With  him  closes  an  era  in  politics,  which 
for  importance  in  the  history  of  the  nations,  in  the 
development  of  liberty,  in  the  achievements  of 
men,  has  no  parallel  in  the  annals  of  time.  Tlie 
dedication  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  momument  by  Gov- 
ernor Oglesby  was  well  worthy  of  the  living  and 
the  dead.  No  man  had  a  higher  appreciation  of 
the  virtues  of  the  distinguished  dead  than  the  ora- 
tor of  the  occasion.  They  had  been  personal 
and  political  friends  for  more  than  a  third  of  a 
century,  in  peace  and  war.  They  had  shared  the 
mutual  confidence  of  the  highest  inspirations  of 
duty  and  patriotism,  and  it  was  fittingly  reserved 
to  Governor  Oglesby,  as  he  stood  in  the  shadow 
of  a  monument  that  marks  the  grave  of  one  of 
the  foremost  men  of  the  world,  to  say, 

"The  living  assign  him  his  proper  place  in  the 
affections  of  all  men.  Posterity,  profoundly 
moved  by  the  simplicity  of  his  private  life,  ele- 
vated and  enlightened  by  the  purity  and  splendor 
of  his  administration  and  public  services,  cannot 
fail  to  fix  his  place  amongst  those  who  shall  rank 
highest  in  their  veneration.  He  has  gone  to  the 
firmament  of  Washington  and  a  new  light  shines 
down  upon  his  beloved  countrymen  from  the 
American  constellation." 

The  orator  himself  has  built  a  monument  of 
duty  performed  and  of  greatness  achieved.  The 
people  of  Illinois  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  a 
character  of  such  splendor  of  development,  such 
elevation  and  purity  of  purpose,  and  such  devo- 
tion to  the  highest  and  best  interests  of  the  State, 
as  are  exhibited  in  the  private  and  public  life  of 
Richard  James  Oglesby. 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


545 


FRANK  HENRY  BUDDE, 


BELLEVILLE. 


THE  honored  subject  of  this  review,  in  the 
exercise  of  the  high  functions  of  a  holy 
office,  has  accompHshed  much  in  the  uphfting  of 
his  fellowmen,  and  is  a  man  of  ripe  scholarshij) 
and  higli  attainments,  and  one  to  whom  specific 
recognition  should  assuredly  be  made  in  this 
connection. 

He  was  born  in  Dusseldorf,  Rhenish  Prussia, 
on  the  I5tli  of  September,  1855,  being  the  fifth 
in  order  of  birth  of  the  six  children  of  Christ 
r.uiide.  His  preliminary  education  was  secured 
in  the  parochial  schools  of  his  native  place,  and 
he  thereafter  entered  the  high  school,  where  he  • 
graduated  in  1879.  He  had  determined  to  pre- 
]iare  himself  for  the  priesthood,  and  with  this 
end  in  view  he  became  a  student  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Luvene,  where  he  completed  a  thorough 
course  in  theology  and  philosophy.  He  was 
ordained  to  the  priesthood  on  the  19th  of  May, 
1883,  at  Simpelveld,  Holland,  Bishop  Laurent 
officiating. 

Father  Budde  arrived  in  the  United  States  in 
1883,  in  Se])tember  of  which  year  he  located  at 


Ouincy,  Illinois,  where  he  served  as  assistant 
priest  until  September,  1884,  when  he  w-as  in- 
stalled as  rector  of  the  church  at  Olney,  Illinois, 
retaining  this  incumbency  until  May,  1888,  when 
he  came  to  the  cathedral  in  Belleville  as  assist- 
ant. He  was  made  rector  on  the  first  of  Novem- 
ber of  the  same  year,  and  has  since  continued 
in  that  capacity,  utilizing  every  means  for  the 
advancement  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  pros- 
perity of  his  parish  and  retaining  the  respect  and 
afifection  of  those  to  whom  he  ministers,  and  the 
high  regard  of  all  who  appreciate  his  sterling 
character  and  his  earnest  endeavors  in  his  holv 
calling.  October  22,  1895,  he  was  appointed 
rector  of  St.  Mary's  Church  at  Mt.  Carmel,  Wa- 
l)ash  county,  Illinois.  His  executive  ability  is 
exceptional,  and  the  cathedral  parish  has  been 
most  prosperous  during  his  administration.  He 
is  devoted  to  his  work,  in  which  he  brings 
to  bear  his  great  intellectual  and  moral  forces  as 
well  as  the  underlying  sympathy  and  charity 
whicli  are  basic  elements  of  his  character.  Such 
effective  labor  never  fails  of  its  reward. 


540 


niOORAPI/TCAL  DICTIONARY  AND  PORTRAIT  OALLERY  OF  THE 


JOHN  CHAUNCY  TRAINOR, 


JOHN  C.  TRAINOR  was  I)orn  at  Watertowii, 
Jefferson  county,  New  York,  May  i8,  1858, 
his  parents  being  James  and  Catherine 
Trainor,  of  Watertown,  where  his  father  still  re- 
sides, on  the  old  homestead,  his  mother  having 
died  in  1873,  when  he  was  fifteen  years  old.  His 
youth  was  spent  in  his  native  place,  and  tliere  he 
received  his  early  education,  upon  the  comple- 
liiiii  of  which  he  began  the  study  of  law  in  the 
office  of  Haiuiibal  Smith,  who  was  the  principal 
of  the  Watertown  high  school  wdien  young 
Trainor  first  entered  that  institution.  He  taught 
the  village  school  at  East  Rodman,  in  his  native 
county,  during  the  winter  terms  of  1878-9,  after 
which  he  resumed  the  study  of  law  in  the  office 
of  Edmund  B.  Wynn,  general  counsel  for  the 
Rome,  Watertown  &  Ogdensburg  Railroad  Com- 
pany, and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  the  gen- 
eral term  of  the  supreme  court  held  at  Syracuse, 
New  York,  January  6,  A.  D.  1882. 
Mr.  Trainor  came  to  Chicago  August  27,  1883, 


and  located  at  Kensington,  at  that  time  a  suburb 
of_  the  city  adjoining  Pullman,  in  the  town  of 
Hyde  Park ;  and  after  establishing  a  good  practice 
he  moved  into  the  city,  70  La  Salle  street,  his 
])resent  office,  his  residence  still  being  at  Ken- 
sington, in  the  Thirty-fourth  ward. 

October  14,  1880,  he  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  De  Ette  M.  Cavanaugh,  of  Watertown, 
New  York,  grand-daughter  of  Chandler  C.  Chase. 
Miss  Cavanaugh  was  an  educated,  refined  and 
estimable  young  lady.  In  Sej)tember,  1893,  Mr. 
Trainor  lost  his  esteemed  wife,  who  died  of 
pneumonia,  after  a  brief  illness  of  only  a  few 
days. 

Mr.  Trainor  is  a  self-made  man  and  justly  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  prominent  lawyers  of  Chi- 
cago. In  politics  he  is  a  Republican.  In  per- 
sonal appearance  he  is  O'f  medium  height,  of 
pleasant  address,  a  loyal  friend,  and  in  all  places 
a  gentleman.  We  bespeak  for  him  a  bright 
future. 


EPHRAIM  BANNING, 


AMONG  Illinois'  honored  native  sons  and 
Chicago's  representative  citizens  stands  Air. 
Banning,  who  by  the  exercise  of  his  native  abil- 
ities and  those  acquired  through  diligent  effort, 
has  secured  a  foremost  place  at  the  bar.  He 
comes  of  a  family  noted  for  strong  intellectuality 
and  mental  force,  and,  though  deprived  of  many 
of  the  advantages  which  have  aided  in  their  life 
work  some  of  the  most  eminent  jurists  of  our 
country,  he  has  made  the  most  of  his  opportuni- 
ties, overcoming  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  in 
his  path,  steadily  working  his  way  upward  until 
he  has  left  the  ranks  of  the  many  and  gained  a 
place  among  the  honored  and  successful  few. 
His  energies  have  not  been  dissipated  over  a 
wide  field,  but  have  been  concentrated  in  a  par- 
ticular line,  and  thus  has  he  become  known  as 
one  of  the  most  able  patent  lawyers  of  the  nation. 


In  the  courts  of  the  country  have  been  tried 
criminal  cases  which  have  attracted  widespread 
attention,  but  no  more  absorbing  interest  has 
been  elicitetl  tlian  b}'  patent  cases  which  have 
involved  the  claims  to  inventions  of  the  utmost 
importance.  These  claims  involve  immense  finan- 
cial interests,  and  the  trial  of  such  cases  has  come 
to  be  regarded  as  a  special  department  of  law. 
The  successful  patent  lawyer  must  possess  not 
only  a  broad  and  thorough  knowledge  of  author- 
ities, able  power  as  an  advocate  and  a  keen, 
comprehensive  mind  that  t|uickl\-  and  surely 
masters  the  situation,  but  must  also  have  con- 
siderable scientific  knowdedge  and  mechanical 
ingenuity,  for  in  this  field  of  practice  many  com- 
plications are  involved  which  demand  the  exer- 
cise of  peculiar  talents  and  a  knowledge  to  be 
gained  from  peculiar  experience, 


REPRESENTATIVE  MEN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;  ILLINOIS  VOLUME. 


54' 


From  the  farms  of  the  nation  have  come  many 
of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  legal  fra- 
ternity. Ephraim  Banning  is  a  farmer's  son  and 
his  childhood  and  youth  were  largely  passed 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  old  home,  where  he 
early  became  familiar  with  the  work  of  the  fields. 
He  was  born  near  Bushnell,  r^IcDonough  county, 
Illinois,  July  21,  1849.  His  father,  a  native  of 
V^irginia,  received  few  educational  privileges  in 
his  youth,  but  became  an  honorable,  respected 
farmer,  possessed  of  a  good  fund  of  common 
.  sense  and  an  energetic  spirit  full  of  hope  and 
courage.  He  removed  to  Kansas  with  his  fam- 
ily during  the  early  boyhood  of  our  subject.  Al- 
though a  Virginian  by  birth  and  reared  in  that 
slave  State,  he  became  a  stanch  Abolitionist, 
identifying  himself  with  that  party  when  it  was  al- 
most dangerous  to  express  one's  opinions  if  ad- 
verse to  slavery.  Fearless  in  defense  of  what  he 
believed  to  be  right,  it  has  become  a  matter  of  his- 
tory- that  in  his  home  met  the  committee  of  the 
convention  which  made  Kansas  a  free  State. 
The  mother  of  Mr.  Banning  was  a  sister  of  the 
late  Judge  Pinkney  H.  Walker,  of  the  supreme 
court  of  Illinois,  a  lady  of  much  character  and 
of  an  amiahle  disposition  who  displayed  much 
wisdom  in  rearing  her  children.  Among  the 
representatives  of  her  people  were  a  number  of 
prominent  men  who  attained  distinction  in  the 
legal  fraternity.  Her  father,  Gilmer  Walker,  w  as 
an  able  and  honored  lawyer,  and  his  brother, 
Cyrus  \\'alker,  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
legal  practitioners  of  Kentucky,  whence  he  re- 
moved to  Illinois  to  win  further  honors  at  the 
bar  of  this  State. 

When  Ephraim  Banning  was  about  ten  \ears 
of  age  the  family  went  to  Missouri.  He  early 
became  familiar  with  the  labors  of  farm  life,  and 
when,  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  war,  his 
two  older  brothers  enlisted  for  service  in  the 
Union  army,  he  was  left  at  home  to  aid  his  father 
in  the  cultivation  of  the  fields.  He  became  a  self- 
reliant,  energetic  man,  for  those  trying  times  de- 
veloped nature  rapidly.  He  of  course  was  deeply 
interested  in  the  progress  of  the  war,  for  his 
brothers  were  at  the  front  and  one  gave  his  life 
in  defense  of  his  country  at  the  battle  of  Nash- 
ville, while  tlie  other  ser\'ed  until  the  end  of  the 
struggle.    As  their  home  was  in  the  midst  of  a 


frontier  settlement  the  educational  privileges 
which  Ephraim  received  were  not  of  the  best. 
He  attended  the  district  schools  of  the  neigh- 
borhood and  was  an  apt  student,  his  excellent 
scholarship  being  manifest  by  carr>-ing  off  prizes 
on  a  number  of  different  occasions.  He  had  mas- 
tered all  the  branches  taught  in  the  common 
schools  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  and  the  following 
year  he  had  the  opportunity  which  he  eagerly 
seized,  of  further  pursuing  his  studies  in  an  acad- 
emy at  Brookfield.  Missouri,  where  he  studied 
the  languages  and  higher  branches  of  learning 
ur.der  the  preceptorship  of  the  Rev.  |.  W  Fin- 
ley.  D.  D. 

Subsequently  Mr.  Banning  engaged  in  school- 
teaching  for  a  few  months,  and  during  that  time 
also  began  the  study  of  law,  which  he  continued 
in  the  office  of  Hon.  Samuel  P.  Huston,  of  P>rook- 
field.  In  the  spring  of  1871  he  removed  to  Chi- 
cago and  became  a  clerk  and  student  in  the  law 
office  of  Rosenthal  &  Pence,  securing  admission 
to  the  bar  in  June,  1872,  by  the  supreme  court  of 
Illinois. 

In  October,  following,  ]\Ir.  Banning  opened 
an  office,  and  with  characteristic  energy  and 
determination  entered  upon  the  practice  of 
his  chosen  profession.  He  was  practicallv  un- 
known in  the  city  and  could  not  depend 
upon  influential  friends  to  secure  him  a 
patronage.  If  he  would  rise  it  must  be  by  his 
own  merit.  There  were  already  thousands  of 
law\ers  in  Chicago,  with  large  established  prac- 
tices, but  he  possessed  courage  and  a  laudable 
ambition, — qualities  that  are  essential  to  suc- 
cess, and  as  the  months  passed  his  ability  began 
to  he  recognized,  and  he  succeeded  in  winning 
a  liberal  clientage  as  a  general  practitioner.  Dur- 
ing this  time  he  was  retained  as  counsel  in  sev- 
eral cases  where  questions  arose  regarding  pat- 
ent law.  He  was  endowed  by  nature  with  a  com- 
preh.cnsive  mind  and  considerable  mechanical  in- 
genuity, and  the  intricate  and  scientific  points  of 
this  branch  of  jurisprudence  aroused  his  inter- 
est, and  to  patent  law  he  began  giving  close  at- 
tention. In  1877  he  tried  his  first  patent  law- 
case  before  Judge  Blodgett,  and  soon  after  with- 
drew entirely  from  general  practice  to  devote 
himself  exclusively  to  his  specialty.  Had  he  con- 
tinued to  engage  in  general  practice  he  would 


548 


ninORAPinCAL  DTCTIONARY  and  roUTRAIT  OALLERY. 


uii'kiubtctlly  have  won  success;  but  fame,  wlio 
bestows  her  favors  charily,  has  crowned  him 
with  renown  as  a  patent  hiwyer  and  to-day  he 
stands  in  the  front  rank  among  those  who  are 
connected  with  this  department.  In  1877  he 
formed  a  partnership  with  his  brother,  Thomas 
A.  Banning,  and  under  the  firm  name  of  Ban- 
ning &  Banning  they  liave  become  widely  known 
as  successful  patent  attorneys.  George  S.  Pay- 
son  was  admitted  to  a  partnership  in  the  business 
in  1888,  and  six  years  later  was  succeeded  by 
Thomas  F.  Sheridan. 

Making  a  specialty  of  patent  and  trademark 
law,  Ephraim  Banning  has  during  the  last  fifteen 
years,  argued  many  important  cases  in  the  United 
States  supreme  court  and  in  the  Federal  courts 
at  Chicago,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston, 
Pittsburg,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Kaiisas  City, 
St.  Paul,  Des  Moines  and  other  cities.  From 
statistics  gathered  by  a  leading  New  England 
lawyer,  it  appears  that  during  the  last  twelve  or 
fifteen  years  his  firm  has  argued  more  cases  be- 
fore the  United  States  supreme  court  than  any 
other  law  firm,  with  one  exception,  in  the  West; 
and  during  the  three  years  ending  with  1892  it 
was  fourth  in  the  United  States  in  the  number 
of  cases  argued  in  the  lower  Federal  courts. 

Possessed  of  a  mind  strong,  logical  and  com- 
prehensive, and  much  mechanical  skill,  Mr.  Ban- 
ning is  exceptionally  well  ecjuipped  for  this  kind 
of  practice.  Add  to  these  his  ripe  and  varied 
experience,  and  it  will  be  apparent  why  he  stands 
with  but  few  rivals  in  the  West  in  this  branch 
of  practice.  In  1888  he  made  an  extensive  tour 
of  Europe  and  by  observation  and  special  inves- 
tigation greatly  extended  his  already  thorough 
knowledge  in  his  chosen  field  of  study  and  prac- 
tice. 

Mr.  Banning  is  connected  with  several  social 
and  benevolent  clubs  of  Chicago,  including  the 
Union  League,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Ameri- 
can, State  and  Chicago  Bar  Associations, 
and  other  legal  organizations,  taking  an 
active  and  commendable  interest  in  all  matters 
connected  with  the  profession.  He  has  recently 
been  a  member  of  a  committee  appointed  by 
the  Chicago  Bar  Association  to  secure  legislation 
by  Congress  to  give  the  Seventh  Circuit  an  addi- 
tional United  States  Judge;    and  under  the  bill. 


jiasscd  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  com- 
mittee. Judge  John  W.  Showalter  now  presides 
over  the  United  States  circuit  court  at  Chicago. 
Mr.  Banning  also  served  as  chairman  of  the 
conmiittee  on  organization  of  the  patent  and 
trademark  congress  held  in  this  city  in  1893 
under  the  auspices  of  the  World's  Congress 
Auxiliary  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion, which  congress  was  presided  over  by  Judge 
Blodgett  and  participated  in  by  many  able  an<l 
distinguished  men  from  different  parts  of  the 
world.  At  the  closing  session  of  this  congress 
he  was  appointed  on  a  committee  to  present  to 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  various  mat- 
ters connected  with  industrial  property,  particu- 
larly in  its  internal  aspects,  the  other  members 
of  the  committee  being  from  California,  New 
Jersey,  New  York  and  Washington.  His  polit- 
ical support  is  given  the  Republican  party,  but 
the  honors  or  emoluments  of  political  office  have 
never  allured  him  from  the  duties  of  professional 
jnd  private  life. 

In  October,  1878,  Mr.  Banning  led  to  the  mar- 
riage altar  ]\Iiss  Lucretia  T.  Lindslej',  who  died 
in  February,  1887,  leaving  three  sons,  who  are 
yet  living.  In  September,  1889,  was  celebrated 
liis  second  marriage,  the  lady  of  his  choice  be- 
ing Miss  Emily  B.  Jenne,  daughter  of  the  late 
O.  B.  Jenne,  of  Elgin,  Illinois.  For  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century  Mr.  Banning  has  lived  in 
the  vicinity  of  Washington  boulevard  and  Robey 
street,  and  is  thoroughly  and  deeply  interested 
in  all  that  tends  to  the  improvement  and  upbuild- 
ing of  the  West  Side,  but  does  not  limit  his  inter- 
ests to  one  district  of  the  city.  He  is  a  promoter 
of  the  moral  and  material  progress  of  Chicago, 
and  is  pre-eminently  a  public-spirited  man.  He 
holds  membership  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  is 
serving  as  one  of  its  elders,  and  is  devoted  to  all 
that  promotes  morality  and  uprightness  among 
men.  His  best  thought  and  tireless  energy  have 
been  given  to  his  profession.  As  a  lawyer  he  is 
noted  for  his  care,  skill  and  faithfulness  to  his 
clients.  He  devotes  himself  almost  exclusively 
to  his  profession,  and  while  his  comprehensive 
and  well  trained  mind  and  large  experience  and 
knowledge  of  men  fit  him  for  doing  any  work 
needed,  it  is  as  a  patent  lawyer  that  he  is  most 
conspicuous. 


aiOGRAPH,CALO,cr,ONARy^A°N°o'pORrRA,TGA, 


.3  0112  025345fiqrt 


